Quite a lot has transpired today and at almost 11:00 pm, there is more to go. 

The story starts out with a normal afternoon when everyone is home. James had acquired a load of free wood from somewhere and was busy taking the screws and nails out of all of it.  The boys were playing in the front yard.  Taylor was on the porch sitting on the couch.  I was walking out to my vehicle looking for something, what I don't remember. 

I can clearly say all of this because it is all on film. Whatever a person doesn't remember, the camera never lies.  We have 2 cameras out front that record continuously 24 hours a day.  

I remember looking at the 6 year old going over to the next door neighbor who had called him over to give her a hug.  She is a sweet lady, probably around my age, nice people.  The man is a banker and ex-cop, I think he still has his cop credentials and is employed by a nearby county so he can retain his badge.  

I thought nothing of the boy going over to see the lady, they do it all the time. She had one of her dogs on a leash.  A Cane Corso, nice doggy, hasn't ever shown any aggressive behavior towards humans or even other dogs.  Never, that is, until today. These are large dogs, massive chests, lots of muscle, big heads and big jaws and teeth.  

I'm rummaging around in my vehicle when I hear this high pitched screaming.  I look up, James is jumping over vehicles, landed on his face in the dirt in his rush to get over there, Taylor was running as fast as she can (she is heavy with baby right now) and I just automatically started running over there, not really knowing what was going on. 

When I arrive a few seconds later, the lady has her hands in the dog's teeth, trying to get it to release the 6 year old, James is trying to pull the dog's jaws apart, Taylor is fighting with the dog, all to no avail.  I'm well versed in these situations, tho never with a dog grinding it's teeth into a human's flesh, I've pulled lots of dogs apart in vicious fighting situations.  

In this case, the dog was surrounded by those 3 at the front, I knew what to do to get it to release that boy.  I got to the dog's ass and hauled back and kicked that dog as hard as I could.  The dog released the boy, James dragged the boy from the dog and it was over.  Well, that part of it was over anyway.  James took the boy to the truck, James and Taylor jumped in with the boy and took off.  I was left with the 8 year old and this lady who was completely freaked out and having a serious panic attack. Her hand was covered with blood from the puncture wounds her own dog had inflicted on her.

I immediately told the 8 year old to go get a roll of paper towels, I took that damned dog to their house and forced his ass through the front door - I was ready to kill the damn thing anyway - went back, took the roll of towels and began cleaning the blood off of her hands.  

Funny how thoughts of other people's blood on you just goes right out the window in an event such as this.  I had her blood all over my fingers wiping it off of her to find where the wounds were so I could wad up some towels and apply pressure.  There was a very large puncture wound and a smaller one, they were both bleeding.  It didn't take long to get it to stop, but I couldn't console this lady.  She was terrified of what happened to that boy and begging and crying out about how she hopes he will be okay. 

I helped her get up, she was in a bad way.  I escorted her to her house where she said she would go sit down. Are you sure you don't need any more help?  I will stay with you if necessary.  I called her husband: there is a serious situation going on here, you need to come home.  She started yelling at my phone what had happened and how the boy had been bitten. She had no concern for her own health, she was overwhelmed by what had happened to that kid.

I can tell you, it was shocking.  I saw the dog viciously digging his teeth in to that boy's flesh.  The boy was screaming bloody murder, a very high pitched, intense screaming that would make your blood curl.  Even after we got that dog off of him, he was screaming like he was dying. He probably thought he WAS going to die.  She was in her house, they were gone, now to console the 8 year old. He was crying hysterically and I thought to myself, I'm going to have to take him to the hospital to show him that his brother isn't dead.  

No matter, they had left their phones and her slippers had fallen off of her feet when she was running to help save that boy's life.  Literally, I do believe that dog would have kept on going until that boy was dead.  

The hospital is less than a mile away from our house.  I decided to get her a pair of shoes, get her phone and get over to the hospital to see the boy and show the older boy that his brother was indeed, still alive and wasn't dying.  

It was a horrible sight.  His right side rib cage was covered with lacerations and puncture wounds, deep puncture wounds at that.  It was a lot to take in.  The older brother just stood there with his mouth gaped open, but he had the reassurance that his brother was still alive.  I wasn't thinking the boy was dying, but you have to understand what happened and how that would affect an 8 year old's thinking.  He was right there when it happened and even ran over to try and help, but there was nothing he could do. In fact, I wouldn't have wanted him involved, if that damned dog was willing to bite one child, what would stop it from biting another one?  

We stayed a little while, but we left.  The kid is in pain, that is to be expected. Traumatized? Yes, of course he is.  Fearful of dogs now? Yes, that would be a given as well. 

It was maybe an hour later, I had left with the 8 year old, we went to Taco Bell for something to eat and then home.  Taylor had come home for some other stuff.  She was trying to get into her truck.  She could barely move.  She was in extreme pain. I asked her if she needed help?  No, I can manage, while attempting to even get into her truck.  This was serious enough that the hospital checked her out when she got back there.

And then? I get the text that SHE is now going to Longview Regional by ambulance.  I've been in communication with her since I left the hospital. 

James then texted me telling me he's bringing the boy home.  Ok.  He wants to go to McDonald's. I'm fine with that.  He showed me his bandages but some of the wounds were visible above them.  The bandages in his back were already soaked with puss coming out. They didn't put in stitches because of the puncture wounds and apparently better to leave them open.  Well, because of bite wounds, more specifically.

So, James left and I took them to McDonald's. We came home from that and I started getting texts and dm's from all kinds of people. I had posted on Facebook about the boy.  Some of the people areTaylor's close friends, so I told them what was going on.  It was about that time that both Taylor and James texted me again: they are going to induce. Her blood pressure shot way up with this incident where her boy was being viciously attacked by a dog and they couldn't get it to come back down. They decided it was best to induce labor because of it.

They were going to induce anyway on Monday, so 3 days, no big deal, at least not in my mind and Taylor has been wanting that baby out.  

This event occurred shortly after 4:00 pm and it is now 11:12.  It has been non stop activity since this thing began.  I texted the husband of the lady and just said I hope she is ok, no one is holding anything against her, but Taylor has been moved to Longview. He replied it is a horrible situation all around, she is still crying over the boy.  I don't know what else to say.  She didn't do this on purpose, she had no way of knowing that dog was going to attack that boy.  

James just left again. They didn't know when she was taken to Longview via ambulance that they were going to induce, she is lacking any supplies and especially the breast pump stuff that is needed for getting the milk to feed the baby.  So he drove clear back home for a list of things Taylor had given her. I decided to let the boys stay up until he got home so he could tuck them in and give some reassuring words to the injured boy.  

So. The boys are in bed, James should probably be back at the hospital by now and I'm just sitting here taking all of this in.  

You don't wake up in the morning and say to yourself, self? Today, the 6 year old is going to be mauled by a dog and it's going to cause the mom to have to go to the hospital to get induced into labor.  

I've watched that video several times.  What's amazing is how your mind thinks it went on forever and in reality, it was less than a minute, actually I think less than 30 seconds from the time the dog started biting and the time we got the dog off of the boy.  I said this to Taylor and she agreed, it seemed like an eternity but it was actually a very short period of time.

James was a hero to his son.  He was standing there in the driveway, his truck backed in with my trailer filled with this wood he was working on.  He was looking over at his boy with the lady and her dog for a second and then back to what he was doing. The boy starts screaming and he looks up, starts yelling and running at the same time.  Jumps over the hitch on the back of the truck, over the tailgate but trips and falls flat on his face, his legs pumping him right back up, you could tell extreme adrenaline rush.  

He couldn't get that dog's teeth off of that boy. The lady had her fingers IN the dogs mouth with her hand being chewed on. Taylor was doing what she could to try and get the dog distracted. I'm not patting myself on the back for kicking the dog and getting it to release, I just know what to do. The dog has to be distracted and that was accomplished by kicking the s*** out of him.  James immediately had the boy in his arms after the dog let go.  

I'm tired. It's been a long day. I want to try to stay up for the baby's delivery, but why? I can just leave my ringer on and if they contact me when he comes out, I can rejoice with them. The new parents are over there waiting on the boy as well.  Remember, she is a surrogate her, she is "manufacturing" the baby, it's theirs to take home with them.  Yes, there seems to be little reason to stay awake for something I am not present with. I am a very light sleeper, that dinger on my phone going off will wake me up instantly. 

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Got lost in thought. Almost midnight, think I will hang it up for the evening.  It's always this strange feeling when the other adults are gone.  I feel the need to get out a pistol, make sure it's fully loaded and ready to rock and roll. Especially with kids home under my watch. Leave my bedroom door open, the dog is good at one thing: alerting to anything out of the ordinary.  You could not break into this house without him letting me know about it before anything happened.  

 Friday - Mid morning

Woke up in a fog.  Didn't sleep particularly well, tho I guess cumulatively I got enough sleep.  

It dawned on me this morning that I had forgotten to turn in the last run paperwork.  Curious as to why they didn't contact me about it, other drivers indicated that if they sit on them too long, the company will come a calling to get that stuff turned in so they can bill it.  

That done, I am supposed to call the manager in a little while to find out about the truck. Whether I drive up there today is up to me, or it was the last time we spoke.  

I got a new phone last night.  My Iphone 13 had been dropped one too many times and actually had a hole in the back of it.  It's why I do the insurance on these things, it's almost guaranteed I'm going to do something stupid with a phone such as dropping it into a toilet or crashing on to the floor and have to replace it.  The insurance isn't particularly cheap but neither is replacing an entire phone to the tune of 7 or 8 hundred dollars.  

I actually ordered a new phone yesterday and some rep from Assurion brought it to me, same day service.  The process of switching phones is much easier than in the past.  It just accesses your I cloud account and starts migrating everything onto your new phone. I paid an extra $3 yesterday for increased Icloud storage so I wouldn't lose any of my notes.  It's the only way I know of to get your notes from the old phone to the new one.

I owe around $350 on that phone. Love to pay it off and get rid of a monthly payment.  Not in the cards atm and would rather pay off that washer/dryer set at the park and dump $220 per month payment right off the bat.  I still owe 4 payments on that set, maybe when I get down to 2 payments left I'll pay it off and ditch that payment.  Leaving only the the mortgage and the shed payment.  Still a ways to go on that shed, probably another year's worth. 

Another nice thing is that they don't require you to return the damaged phone for 10 days.  That's good because several accounts have been wanting to send a notification to the old phone asking for permission to do whatever to an account on the new phone.  I have to put the passwords in for everything on my phone, a huge downside to this adventure.  

I put 250 pounds of seed down yesterday, took several hours. I no more left the property and it started raining.  Light rain but after a while it transitioned into a moderate rain.  It rained pretty much the rest of the day, stopping here and there and went on into the night.  It may have rained too much, washing some of the seed away.  I will be checking there in a little while, waiting on a call from the manager.  They allegedly fixed the truck but he wants to be sure that everything is done right on it.  

I just realized that if I am only bobtailing up there with no trailer, I can go the Louisiana back highways and save a lot of time. Those highways have weight restrictions on them but nothing that will stop a bobtail. The lowest I saw coming back from El Dorado last time I was bobtailing was 10 ton weight limit.  Bobtail is generally around 18 to 19 thousand pounds.  It literally shaves off like an hour of driving time.  

Well, I'll deal with that when the manager gets back to me.  I am not going to tell him no about going up there and back, it's about 5 hours of driving round trip.  It's also paid driving, that is the plus side and I have the weekend off coming up.  Monday I have no idea what's going on.  

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Hours later....

Manager finally called back, said the truck is ready to go  - but - he doesn't have anything for me to do Monday (because the plant will be shut down), Ennis has a bunch of preloads sitting around but they haven't called for them yet and so, you can come up here Monday if you like.  That was my invitation to take today off.  

I went over to the property to inspect the grass seed. Yes, it had been moved around by the rain but it appeared much/most of it still there. This is what happened last year, I ended up seeding 3 times before I was satisfied it was thick enough to look good.  

I don't want to do that this year.  I will just put seed down the second round without any indication of rain and see what happens. If that seed from last year can come up without rain, then so can fresh seed.  

Went back to the bridge daydreaming about having a house built back there.  Then thought about building a deck for a glamping tent and then thought, well, that's all nice fine and dandy, but I really need to expand the park. 

Having no experience with septic, it finally dawned on me that I could, indeed, put more lots and connect to the existing septic, it would simply mean having it pumped out every 6 months or so.  So, would that be worth it with a $450 price tag for every pump-out?  I dunno. There is space right next to lot 8 on the north end for another trailer.  In fact, I could make it another premium lot and have a large yard with a pine tree on it to boot.  I've already got the pedestal and the wire, I would need to simply connect in to the sewer line and T into the water line.  I would also have to have a truckload of gravel brought out.  

Looking at about $1,500 to build it - cheap compared to the "normal" price but that's simply because the infrastructure is already there and I already have the wire and the pedestal.  In fact, the most expensive thing would be the gravel.