No, that definitely did not go well.<\/p>\n
I awoke from a general anesthetic Thursday morning to discover that they hadn’t performed the minor surgery I’d signed on for. Beyond my skills<\/em>, the surgeon told me shortly. I didn’t see a sign of how bad it was until I was poking around in there. Really. So sorry.<\/em><\/p>\n Don’t worry. This isn’t a case of “We’re sewing you shut and sending you home to die.” More like “We’re referring you to some specialist you can’t afford even with insurance and if said specialist slips up you’ll have major quality of life issues until you croak.”<\/p>\n I spent the next 30 hours in bed feeling sorry for myself. Then I wrote down all the bad stuff I was feeling (always helps to do that), picked Ava up from Furrydoc’s Doggie Hotel, took her for a vigorous walk, and got on with life.<\/p>\n Until recently, I’ve managed to avoid doctors for decades at a time. I’m now being reminded of why that was such an excellent policy.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n On other topics: Haverwilde asked in comments why I found parts of Trump’s agenda<\/a> scary. Let me count the ways.<\/p>\n First: That wall. Any wall along the U.S. southern border will be, at most, a minor inconvenience to people wanting to get in. They’ll go through it, under it, around it by sea, or even via Canada. Coyotes will bribe border guards to let their parties through it. But you start building walls around a country and pretty soon somebody will use those handy walls to try to keep citizens in.<\/p>\n First-and-a-half: The promised mass roundups of illegals that go along with the wall building. You don’t round up several million people without affecting millions more and without affecting the rights of all innocent people. What kind of ID verifications must be implemented to separate illegals from legals? How many lying informants can you expect to report on people they don’t like? How easily can you prove your own right to live here — especially if you have dark skin? How much do you value your neighbors?<\/p>\n Second: That big standing army the founders warned us against. If Trump plans to be less warlike than Clinton and all her neocon pals (a good idea), what are all those troops going to do? I give you three guesses.<\/p>\n Third: While this isn’t specifically listed in that linked agenda (which after all covers only Trump’s plans for his first 100 days), the man loves the idea of torture. Whether or not he places a torturer and cover-up artist<\/a> atop the CIA, Trump has no understanding of what the Bill of Rights and human decency allow and he thinks you can do anything to anybody in order to “win.”<\/p>\n Fourth: Also not explicitly in the agenda … He’s already shaping up to conduct DC business as usual<\/a>. That’s not unexpected of course. But it’s always<\/em> scary.<\/p>\n Oh, granted I find some of Trump’s wishlist great, as far as government business goes. The term limits. The ban on going from office to lobbyist. The hiring freeze. The O’care repeal (which he’s already backing off on). The optimistic tax changes. And granted I’d rather have Trump than Hillary when it comes to 2A issues — though at heart he’s an anti-gunner and at heart and soul he’s a weasel who’d change his mind and break his promises tomorrow.<\/p>\n So at this point … better Trump than Hillary. But.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n I also do not think that under Trump or anybody else this sort of thing will change: It appears that, at one point, the FBI may have operated half the known kiddie porn sites<\/a> in the world. <\/p>\n And that, of course, is just another of those tip-of-the-iceberg glimpses of the USA’s uber-government.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Historian (a sometime member of the Living Freedom Commentariat and occasional blogger over at The Zelman Partisans), is hoping to get Trump’s attention regarding the threat<\/a> of manmade EMPs and natural Carrington events. Good luck with that, Historian.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n I mentioned a while back that I’d been to a small-town preparedness expo that turned out to be much better than expected. One of the most interesting displays was by a regional search & rescue group. I liked them of course because they had a cool dog there (Ava should learn to be so laid-back and well-behaved). And I learned some new, though unsurprising, things (for instance, how difficult it can be to search for lost children, who may hide from searchers, either fearing they’re in trouble or fearing strangers).<\/p>\n But one of the best aspects was the array of extremely compact emergency survival gear they had on display. They use these items themselves to be able to render on-the-spot aid and comfort without having to weigh themselves down while searching. They also recommend this gear for hunters and others going into the wilderness for short trips that may unexpectedly turn into longer ones.<\/p>\n I’ve placed some of this gear into a pair of Amazon Native Ads below for your perusal. If you can’t see the ads, sorry. But they contain items like portable tents and hammocks, all-weather pens, paracord bracelets, disposable rain ponchos, multi-purpose bandages, and even an outdoor sewing kit.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n