The part that makes me actually very angry is lack of dog water bowl and lack of sufficient water in general.
How do intelligent people make these decisions?
I lived in San Francisco for 10 years until 2017. I know it well. I was surrounded by, and also a part of, the tech world, the yoga world, the outdoorsy world. During a decade in San Francisco of building a life for myself, I observed that it is a city heavily oriented towards the individual, not the community. Of course there are exceptions - I’m speaking generally. (Berkeley folks, I know, I know.)
The huge, often inflated salaries in SF even for very young people. The cutting edge of technology at mind numbing prices. The slick and ever changing restaurant scene so integral to social life in SF (hardly anyone has a dinner party at home - I can count on the fingers of one hand how many times I was invited to a dinner party in someone’s home). Stunningly beautiful places like Lake Tahoe or Yosemite within easy reach.
All this contributed to a feeling that San Francisco was on top of the world, the best and smartest people from all over the world were there, creating amazing things, living their individual best lives. Why live anywhere else than Northern California, where possibilities never end?
I understand much of the San Francisco mentality, because I lived it. And this is also a major reason that I left San Francisco - this heavy emphasis on the loftiness of the individual and a lack of sense of community.
In SF, you can have it all.
And so, sadly, I can easily see how a high level achievement in life, a sense of living on top of the world, can lead to a sense of immortality and subsequent poor decision making.
In the classic Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus, the father-son team builds beautiful wings to attach to man, feathers stuck together by wax. The miracle of human flight! Daedalus warns his son Icarus not to fly too close to the sun, else the wax and hence wings will melt. “Do not fly close to the sun!” Icarus ignores the warning, delighting in his new power of flight, and of course, perishes.
Many people say they will never understand the “why” in the GC case. Sadly I understand the why all too well. And on behalf of the 2 dependent lives involved without any say in the matter (baby and dog) I’m fairly angry about that “why”.