HOMELESS
BRAIN
TRAUMA
This was the sign greeting me at a major intersection. There is always somebody panhandling there. Sometimes it seems like designated people have somehow claimed the spot. Sometimes somebody different begs there, holding what looks suspiciously like the previous person's sign. They stand on the center median, hoping the long wait for the light to change letting traffic move from street to highway will give drivers enough time to decide to reach into their wallets. About one time in four while I sit there I see somebody do so.
It can be a man or woman panhandler. The signs change periodically. Somebody is homeless. Getting divorced, needs a lawyer. Lost a job. Has kids to support, though that's rare in this retirement community. Today's sign caught my eye, my imagination. Not my pocketbook.
I've always noticed bad signs where missing or poor punctuation allows completely different readings than what was likely intended. My only thought when I read this one was to agree that if it were my brain that was homeless, I'd feel some trauma too. I drove away musing just where a homeless brain would be if not in its usual bony cranium, whether that new location would not be its home now so it couldn't actually call itself homeless, and if it were indeed not there, then who's left alive holding the sign?
Anybody believe in zombies?
* * * *
It's been over a hundred days of Biden. More vaccinations are available than are getting used, mostly for the stupidest of reasons. " They kill people." Seriously? Covid doesn't? Research now shows we likely have over 905,000 deaths here in the good ol' USA to date. A couple people died from blood clots due to the J & J version, although now we know which blood thinners not to use to treat them.
"Bill Gates is injecting microchips in our brains." So, with several doses in the same vial, how does he control how many go in each shot? Have they really made them small enough to go through that tiny needle? Mine was so fine I hardly felt it. Plus our blood-brain barrier manages to keep lots of tiny molecules from getting in to our brains, so with the injection in our arms how would they get in there? And just how are they supposed to control us? Anyway, right now he has a divorce to deal with, so I bet we come in at a very low priority.
"Vaccine is contagious. Don't get so close, you might breathe it over me, or it'll ooze out your pores when you touch me." OMG, how can you not understand something so basic? Don't you think if it were contagious, nobody would need shots after the first few because the immunity is what would be spreading and not the virus?
"I don't need to." Well, maybe you don't, but anybody around you doesn't need to get sick just because you're too scared/lazy/selfish/stupid/what-have-you to get a simple shot. Remember polio? Of course not. Everybody had to get their shots and it went away. Back when I was a kid we all knew about iron lungs and deaths and shriveled legs, knew why that kid in our class wore a metal leg brace or two, and parents were terrified for their kids every time another summer came along. I know somebody today who still mostly needs a wheelchair to get around after childhood polio. Or think of it this way: when you drive and it's starting to get dark, rainy, or foggy, we all turn our lights on. OK, sober, responsible, non-texting drivers do. It's not because you can't see the road well enough to get where you are going. You're not doing it for yourself. You're doing it so that other drivers can see you and not hit your car. Or at least can stay out of your damn way, fool.
We 325+ million Americans are not the rugged individuals of frontier fantasy. It can't work that way. We're too crowded. Only a very few can go off on their own and survive without meeting and needing other humans. We. Are. A. Society. We have to function as a society or it's broken, and if it's broken, we're broken. We have to do many things for the greater good. We treat each other with respect. We obey laws. We allow others to worship as they choose. We even let them say pretty much anything they want, though there are limits to speech like yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater when there is no fire. Or telling certain kinds of lies to make money. Or persuading somebody else to hurt or kill another person. If we start doing those kinds of things, the ones beyond recognized societal limits, we find ourselves in a different kind of society, enclosed behind bars.
GO GET YOUR DAMN SHOTS! That's the real way to freedom. Without that, it's just FREEDUMB.
* * * * *
It used to be that things in stores were cheaper than ones you had to order to be delivered to your house. In many ways that's still true. But I needed newer camera batteries for this trip. The ones I/we had (our cameras are identical) were using batteries bought years ago, giving them fairly short use spans between charges. An even older camera had batteries that never register as fully charged, though I didn't find that out till yesterday. I found new batteries for our matching cameras online, less than $10 each, a couple bucks for shipping and very prompt delivery. I decided I needed one more in case we have a day packed with photos demanding to be taken, so hunted for one locally. I finally found one - yes, they had just one - in a local camera store. $39 !!!! Plus tax. At least we now have three each, chargeable either in the car, or the motel at night. Anyway, I'm bringing the old ones along with as much charge as they still hold as well. I'm an optimist.
With the short time left before leaving to get the other camera's battery replacement, I did double duty. Local suppliers charged $40 to $50 plus tax. The online supplier I'd previously used had two for just over $20. Splitting the difference, needing both speed and cost effectiveness, I bit the bullet and bought one locally - different store and again only 1 in store - and online ordered two to be delivered to our second stop where we'll be staying with family. I even paid extra for speedy shipping and still came out way ahead.
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