A Tragic waste

Hello all, meaning every one.  So real life has been an adventure, or more accurately a tragedy. Not my own. But let me explain.  So as I was preparing to leave and getting around to it, on Friday afternoon May 29th, off to Aunties for a looked forward to hello. We got a call from the neighbor telling us the road was closed. So we go wander down the drive and look up the road and their is a Sheriff across it blocking traffic.   This is a Hwy mind you, Mountain loop scenic hwy to be specific. And we live in Robe valley a rural recreation area, and we are about the last all year community on the way to higher elevations in the national forest, only at about a 1000 feet above sea level, but I have snow five months of the year with another month of flooding. We live in the hills and it is small community is my point.  Our biggest crime is a unsolved one from 2 years ago, perpetrator unknown. Horrific and disturbing. A teacher and her daughter slaughtered on the trial half way up a mountain. Please all blood lovers, don't tell me this is cool. It's to REAL to be cool. Fiction horror and fact horror are very different. Although I won't get mad either.  So besides that, nothing much but drugs and traffic issues, every one pretty much knows everyone. We are considered the new people, and we have lived here 2 years. Not even a town, a lot of recreational part time and retirees in the community and probably 40 or 50 family's. We don't have our own post office or school, we have on a volunteer fire department and we wait for county sheriffs.   Although from experience those guys can fly and the are here quick. Never more than 5 min's from my experience and considering our location it's almost hard to believe. I am thinking they must have a couple who live out here, although I don't have an Idea where, which says not likely, we only have the hwy, and basic dirt and blacktopped roads off of it. And as for our Volunteers, they must fly, bus and engine and all, because they have an even better response time and our only limited by how quick the officers show.  Now imagine living in a narrow valley in the shadow of a mountain with one road and no full time response people and every time that 911 is called you have a SIREN go off. Reverberating down the valley sending all the dogs in to yelping furrie's getting every one and every things immediate attention. Yes this is where I live. Because around here if your neighbors don't come, you may die. Just last week , wed. I believe, me and my husband were out responding to my drunk neighbor. She was screaming and yelling in the pitch black, we don't have many street lamps out here. And so at 3 am me and my husband are out there picking her up from the middle of the hwy and took her home.   I have not a clue how or why she got there, all she did was moan and cry. Begging us not to call the cops again. Yes the same neighbors I always write about, called the county code enforcement for mountain of garbage and reported them when there grandson was there to social service's because The dude bashed the chick with a miniature bat over her head and she was bleeding every where. She went to the hospital. Then after being kind enough to get her grandson off the Bus she called and told me she couldn't get back, I didn't mind the kid, but she was lying. She called me from a local number, 20 miles closer than she claimed. Also reported when the dude came back after the cops left, his friend who lives in a motor home in his driveway lied, or tried to. So the sheriff hauled them both off, finally. And with that not only did I have an extra kid, but the second dude's dog for the whole night. Cool dog though, My wonder dog is about him.  So now I have laid the scene for my little heaven that I thought I moved to so I could protect my family from all of the horrible things that humans can be capable of and are an every day occurrence not but 25 miles away. I moved to my vacation to have the peace of the woods and mountains to raise my family in it's sheltering and comforting surroundings. And a few wild animals to spice up life, being tired of wild humans.  But I bring us back to the Sheriff drawn across the road. As we approach I recognize the Sheriff, and am comforted by the familiarity. He even recognizes me and my family offering a smile and remembering our past run in, thanks to my neighbors. He informs me of a crime scene but offers no details. So I accompany my daughter to her friends confident the mystery situation will quickly be resolved. I invite a mother and her child to wait in my yard, considerable cooler than waiting on the road. And I mozy inside, just curious as to what would cause such a drama in my little haven.  About 15 min's later, and about 35 min's after becoming aware of the incident, and about 55 min's after the incident occurred there is a news break in, now we live in a major metropolitan area, Seattle, we just live way out. So it only cuts in for big and in progress stuff.  And low and behold what do they report...........  Officer involved shooting, 3 shoots fired and one person dead. And over the next fifteen minutes we gather the information that it is a homeowner. And later yet we learn he had brought out a gun because there had been weed control people from the county on his property. He threatened to get a gun, they left and called the police and when the Sheriff showed, the home owner continued to brandish the weapon and for some reason escalated in to shooting him dead.  Now this was tragic, some one is dead. A officer was forced to shoot him, I may have even known that officer, possibly the home owner, but not well enough to know until the names are released. It changed hundred of peoples plans, we had a five mile pile up because the weekend campers and residents were arriving after the work week. And we were stuck on the opposite side of the scene and blocked in the valley with no other road out.  We are a loop hwy, but 13 miles of it is dirt road and still closed from the winters approximate, 10 feet of snow. So effectively cut off and stuck. I am not even sure what would have happened if there had been another emergency farther up the hwy. They couldn't have got there. Well maybe if they drove through a few yards.  Because I guess, the whole show down happened right in the road.Any ways. So they close the hwy for 3 and a half hours completely and they had one lane of traffic for another 8 hours.   So that is horrific and my daughter goes to bed crying and scared and all the neighbors seem to be picking sides and I am simply not looking forward to telling any of them that until otherwise informed I will assume the officer did his job.   And so many of them for some reason don't know what I thought was common knowledge and because of NPGA and water shed priority's the county weed people had every reason to be there. I also new why they were there, we have a noxious foreign weed that resembles Bamboo that can grow more than a foot, way more, in week and if you chop it down it just sprouts more roots. So is a danger for the whole river, 30 miles of it before it reach's the Puget sound were it could cause even more damage. It could be very devastating for the whole river, so it is a priority for the county. As it should be.    We can't leave to fulfill our plans and all the news channel blog's are sounding like a haters paradise, lacking all of the numerous facts. Including the news casters. We have 3 helicopters buzzing our house, because of how close we were. Only about 5 property's down.  Then let me point out that this happened at 4:20, 40 min's after the school bus stopped with in a hundred feet full of children.  Ok now I am assuming you will agree with me at how horrific it was, and wouldn't that be enough really. I mean where else could it go wrong. Why is Julie waiting 2 days to write about it and explain the details, surely it is a tragedy but why should we really read this. And my answer is.......  BECAUSE AFTER ALL THE EXISTING STUPIDITY SOME  STUPID LOOKEY LOUS COME UP TO GAWK AND CAUSED A 4 CAR PILE UP IN THE SAME EXACT PLACE 2 DAYS LATER, TODAY!!.  The extent of the injury's are still unknown, I will update if I find out. But as I am sure many of you know I write when I am frustrated. And well I am frustrated..... what a stupid waste, what a stupid out come. Not only is a home owner, who I am guessing was probably drunk, is now dead, his family's lives changed. And some officer life and his family live's are changed. And now if that wasn't enough and to top it all off 4 complete strangers have totaled their vehicles and possibly changed and effected their own lives. Most likely because of one stupid immature gawking idiot. AND THERE IS NOTING LEFT TO EVEN SEE. Except the road damage that today's accident caused. Huge gouge that I am sure will get worse and take the county forever to fix. And the hwy was yet again closed for another hour and a half. And now that I have told you all about it......I feel a little less frustrated. Thanks for reading and be safe all. Julie
D.D.