Dear Esteemed Readers,
As you have probably noticed, I'm in one of those phases in which I'm struggling to keep up with acknowledging your very welcome comments here. As always, I want you to know that I read and appreciate them.
The pace these last several days has been relentless, as I try to listen and read widely (well, some things I refuse to listen to or read, as I told you in my last posting). And as a result, I'm not finding time to respond to your comments — but I want you to know how much I value them.
As an aside, I have managed to learn the identity of the woman who threatened me in a park near my house on Wednesday morning. I live in a neighborhood with fairly remarkable communication networks, and I've learned from the local grapevine that, as it turns out, this poor soul has accosted others in very much the way she accosted me.
I've learned of a woman she threatened with the very same words she used in threatening me. And then she spat on her. As in my case, she alleged that this woman's very pacific dog was threatening her and her dogs as she jogged.
I've also learned of two men she has similarly threatened, alleging that they and their dogs take up too much space on "her" jogging path. I'm told there are other names of people who have gotten similar threats from her, if one asks around.
And, yes, I intend to take appropriate action. No one should be allowed to terrorize people in this way. She has pulled these stunts in both of the parks near my house, in which Steve and I and many others frequently walk. People should not have to live in fear of being run out of public parks — and the other folks she has terrorized in the same way she did me this past Wednesday are now concerned for their safety in walking in these parks.
This poor soul owns a shop in our neighborhood whose door she keeps locked (each customer must ring for entrance, and she apparently picks and chooses which ones she'll allow to enter her shop) because, she states, she's concerned about her safety. I'd be concerned about mine, too, if I went around spitting on people, cursing at them, and threatening to beat their f—g a—es because they happened to be infringing on my space in "my" walking paths in public parks.