This is the first time I've been on here in awhile, and I just noticed that my last post was almost exactly six months ago. "The fuck, Mountain Man?" I hear you ask. The fuck, indeed. So here's a shotgun blast from the attention deficit creature that is my brain.
To get the serious shit out of the way, there's something that's been gnawing at me for a few days now. That's more because of my (non)reaction to it than anything, but also because it seems to be a growing trend among our civilian populace. I was having a conversation with a guy I'd just met at a barbecue, sitting down, drinking beers, generally just shooting the shit. As it was partially a pre-deployment celebration for a friend of mine, the topic of my time in the Army and Afghanistan naturally came up. The guy casually asked me if I have PTSD "or anything like that" as a result of my service, a question which I mostly ignored. That's what's been bothering me - had I been thinking straight, my reaction would have been substantially different.
My question is this: when did it become acceptable to ask a combat vet (especially a total stranger) if they have a well-documented and very real mental disorder like Post Traumatic Stress? I don't go around to strangers asking them if they have a history of severe depression, a substance abuse problem, or any other kind of extremely personal mental illness, so why do people think it's okay to casually ask about PTSD?
My best guess is that this is a side effect of the amount of media attention veteran's issues (PTSD in particular) have received lately. We've been at war for well over a decade now, and it's no secret that a lot of veterans have come home fucked up. It's a natural result of war - and to the nation's credit, we're at least beginning to accept and attempt to deal with it (misguided and mismanaged though those attempts may be, that's a rant for another time) rather than sweep it under the rug or villainize our veterans as we have for generations. While I'm grateful for that, there's also a very ugly side to this media frenzy, which is that the public at large is constantly hearing about this or that vet that snapped - usually either via suicide or homicide. Anyway, I don't really have an argument to present here. I'm more or less just venting. Also, if you were wondering: no, it's not an acceptable question to ask someone unless you're close.
.......
On a lighter note, the girlfriend and I are living in the house I mentioned in January. Though it's certainly more of a project than we realized, we're making progress and it's slowly being transformed into a very nice home.
Most of you know that I got a Doberman puppy named Hans about two months ago. He'll be four months old on Saturday, and is already bigger than the girlfriend's year old shepherd mix, Willow. No, I'm not doing his ears, and yes, his tail is bobbed. Dad's around 95 pounds and mom 90, so he'll be a big boy for sure. He's learning very quickly and is pretty exceptionally well-behaved, given his age. I've already taken him to the mountains a few times, and he is decidedly a mountain dog - he stays close (and loves to sit on shore and watch me fish) but is adventurous, if cautious. In short, he's everything I could possibly want in a dog. Though I've already faced a fair amount of ignorance involving Dobermans being "man eaters" and other such bullshit, I remain unfazed, and Hans is a walking advertizement for how friendly and gentle they can really be.
I've been doing a damned lot of fishing this year, and it's been very productive. Our creek has been fishing superbly - dad pulled out a big male Brown that taped over 25" last week - and so has everything else, since the water subsided. (For those of you who don't know, Colorado has been having a banner year for precipitation and snow melt. Suffice it to say that the fish are happy.)
Sadly, I did not draw either the trophy elk tag or the cow moose tag I put in for this year, so I'll have to settle for two first season cow elk rifle tags, which hopefully prove productive. It's a rough life I lead.
There was a bunch of other shit that I was going to write about, but it'll have to wait, as I have errands to run. Have an Airborne day.
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