I lived/worked in Yellowstone in Mammoth.

I'll still talk about running into two black bear cubs with a group of coworkers (friendly after shift hike, well traveled area, etc) and realizing, after the cuteness faded that we didn't know where mama bear was. Thankfully, she made herself known and we went back the way we came.

Then, a second tale, I was taking a tour bus ride around the park (so I could sell the experience from the hotel front desk) and the BUS was attacked by a grizzly. Fucker kept up with us and damaged a tire. Thankfully, when the tire went the noise scared off the grizzly.

Then there is finding a fresh wolf kill, and realize there were enough remains for it to be a problem for us.

Or the time we hiked to a mountain, climbed it up the side (trails were snowed out) and went down the other side, just to hitch hike back (encouraged in the park both by staff and park rangers) with a Nat Geo photographer. Got to see great raw close up shots of bison and red dogs (baby bison).

Memorable, but the living situation didn't work for me. I wouldn't do it again, but I am VERY glad I did it.

To be fair, the vast majority of Russian troops were also cannon fodder.

I mean, what is stopping parade drills at places like children's hospitals?

Do it once a month, give those kids some magic back in their life.

Children's hospitals suck, no matter how hard everyone is trying to be upbeat. You don't get over conversations that include phrases like non-accidental trauma in a NICU. Someone beat the shit out of a baby already in the NICU. Hell holes.

Step one: Buy a few firearms, for different scenarios (which should be easier under Trump sigh)

Step two: Go to work, home, and limit unnecessary errands, order for delivery more.

Step three: Practice marksmanship with various firearms. I have a country, but sane, friend of the family with a shooting range on her land.

Step four: Hunker down in my deep red state, because I hold non-christian belief's and I won't recant them on pain of death. Not because my beliefs "protect" me, but because as an American, I believe in freedom of religion and I'll die a proud American before I die as a Christian, my belief's don't matter compared to that. The protection of those belief's does.

Stories like this remind me of the sadder times working at a children's hospital.

"Non-accidental trauma" is a phrase that haunts me to this day.

I mean, Jesus was a liberal.

Gandhi was problematic in his own right, but he wasn't wrong when he said, paraphrasing, I like your christ, he is so unlike your Christians.

I seem to recall an interaction between Bats, Superman, and WW.

All lassoed with the lasso of truth and stating their real identities.

Two give their real birth names, and Bats just identifies as batman, revealing that Bruce is absolutely his alter ego, billionaire mask he wears in public.

And had enough wisdom to realize he didn't know everything and enlisted the smartest person available for assistance.

I feel like every beverage containing caffeine should have its total content labeled.

Not because I'm sensitive or anything, I just need the biggest dose I can find in the morning.

Then again, I've been addicted to caffeine since child hood. I quit once, it was thought to be disturbing my sleep; NOPE! Just bipolar mania fucking it up.

If anyone is concerned, I'm on meds and doing well - I still might stab someone in the morning over getting in the way of caffeine though.

I guess the Republicans choose to ignore the separation of church and state.

Shame, since they call up the constitution so frequently.

Must be like the bible, they haven't actually read the thing they espouse to take their guidance from.

The sheer pride in ignorance these days astounds me.

It isn't bad to be ignorant, we all have things to learn every day. Its bad to be proud of it and to refuse to elevate oneself above their own shortcoming.

If that isn't the republican party in a nutshell, though.

Its a primitive thing, maybe... Like a genetic memory.

A good stick is a bad ass tool when you only have your hands, its free and plentiful, and its no big loss to start over.

You can use a stick to kill or stun animals, dig a trench for waste, with more sticks and some sort of cover you make a shelter, sticks are also fuel for fire, a stick can get you into a sheltered situation, possibly with a warm meal, and its just a bunch of sticks.

Add a pointed rock to the mix? Fuck, now you have one of the most effective weapons in the history of humanity.

A good stick and a good rock is the most primitive tool set we had, and it was available to everyone.

I really need to get back into field craft.

My biggest problem is some schmuck who I doubt has a medical degree, and has never seen me as a patient, but has absolute power over what a MEDICAL DOCTOR deems necessary.

At that point it really begins to sound like practicing medicine without a license to do so, let alone the knowledge required to get an MD.