Moments with the scourges of illness, injury, clouded vision, labored breathing, or physical or emotional pain visit us during the course of a lifetime. If we are fortunate, those visits are brief. But, finally, advanced age takes its toll in the form of weakness and lingering reminders of the decay brought on by a lifetime of warfare against the inevitable end.
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Both Canada and Mexico apparently have agreed to bend to some demands from a criminal enterprise. The lesson we have learned from that is that extortion works to achieve a malevolent objective. Whether extorting friend or foe, making threats can elicit behaviors we want. The recent educational example is what I would call a protection scheme—in which we demand material benefits at the victim’s expense that, if not delivered, will result in the imposition of painful experiences for the victim. This important lesson will become part of our K-12 curricula in the new Criminality Class, which replaces Civics Class. Speaking of education, we still expect Voting 101, which has been discontinued, to be replaced by a class on Submission to Unjust Authority. However, there is some dispute among different factions, with some calling for Permanent Anesthesia 101, instead, to take the place of the class on Voting. Others insist on Early Death by Natural Causes as the replacement, and still others favor Modern Rebellion. Time, the speed of which has slowed dramatically of late, will tell.
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On a whim, the first thing I did this morning was order, online, a belt and two shirts. My most recent acquisition of jean fit me a bit better than the ones I ordered earlier, but they still tend to fall to the floor at inappropriate times, without a belt. A still smaller pair of jeans would not solve the problem because my hips apparently are still narrower than my gut and even smaller jeans would not allow me to button them. A belt, though, can be cinched tight enough to keep them from dropping. If, that is, there are enough holes in the belt. I have run out of holes in the other belts in my closet. The shirts were just more mere whimsy. Why not? They were cheap.
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It seems my oncologist is weaning me off chemotherapy chemicals, but that’s probably not really the case. When I started radiation, she paused one of the two major drugs, which is still paused several weeks after my radiation has been complete. Yesterday, she reduced the dosage of the other major drug. I expect to have my PET-scan “soon,” so I will learn something more. In the interim, I will return for injections (my red blood cell count and platelet count are still too low) and a lab blood draw. Actually, my oncologist explained why she is doing what she is doing, but I do not remember details.
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Owls are making quite the racket outside my window this morning. I wish I could see them, but darkness prevents it. Darkness gets in the way of so many things. Without light, it is hard, if not impossible, to drive safely. Even walking in the darkness is unsafe. So very many other things are intensely unadvisable in darkness: plowing fields, diving off of cliffs, swimming in snake-infested waters (unsafe in daylight, as well), welding, etc.
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This damn blog let me write considerably more, but then froze. The paragraph above was twice as long and I’d written yet another paragraph. I’m too angry at the blog host to try again, so I am giving up for now.
