Want Democracy? VOTE!

Well, it’s another Labor Day weekend, and wife is watching Paladin.  Interesting.  I remember how I used to think, when they flashed his business card, how “Wire” was an unusual first name.  Kidthink, I think.

 

Well, no matter, somewhere along the line I began to understand just what that business card meant.  Today the card would have said “email Paladin” with an accompanying address.  Or, maybe it would have referenced a web site to go to, to find a contact form (docs do this all the time—guess they don’t trust email.) I guess a hundred years or so would give a person a range of options in the contact department, right?  Maybe in another hundred years we might just voice our message to Paladin and expect an answer whenever.

 

But wait—isn’t that something “Alexa” might be able to handle today?  Goodness. Maybe in another hundred years we will just have to think about contacting Paladin and our friend “Alexa” would take it from there.  Then, again, maybe Alexa will be out of the picture entirely, then, and all of us will automatically be in touch with whomever over an all-overriding thoughtnet. 

 

A good idea?  Not in my book!  Those messages from the WhiteHouse would eliminate all hopes for having the least bit of independence in that thought department—and the substitute for personal thought would be totally obnoxious babble.

 

God help us!  Another 4 years?  God help us if this is to be our fate—in a hundred years, or a hundred +/- days. 

 

Trump?  T-Rump?  Or (4 our of five ain’t bad, they say) just plain Rump.

 

Vote, America!  And, (this time) GET IT RIGHT!

Blog work--what's that?

 I’m working on something I haven’t done in quite a while—that is (just) working.  OK, you say, so why do you say that?  Well I guess the problem here might be time, and how I’ve learned to spend what used to be something I had that I traded to various “employers” for a paycheck…something that no longer is something I must do since now I receive those checks on a regular basis as pay for my earlier performance in and payment to various retirement systems.  And this, to me, is a problem.

A problem, you see, since I still have the ability to generate just a few things that could be considered worthwhile and, therefore, could give me a reason to return to the “workforce” to a certain extent.  The question now becomes “why is this a problem?”

 And the answer is:  “What, precisely, do you want to do!”

 Which, question posed, now requires an answer.  Be a writer?  Well, sounds good, but how do I position myself in such a manner that a monthly check would begin to grace my mailbox to the extent and degree that I would find just a bit satisfactory?  Good question, wouldn’t you say?  Is it even possible to have Blog work be real work…with real pay?

 Well, let’s see what might be found on the internet.

 (Check back in the morning.)

Red Cross and covid-19

Got an invitation I couldn't refuse today, seems I am eligible to donate blood again.  Which is a good thing, especially since a blood donation could help someone who might have difficulties fighting off this virus of note.  You see, there are people who have succeeded in overcoming Covid, and their blood contains essential antibodies that some seem to have difficulties coming up with, and those persons are the ones in dire strates when it comes to succeeding once the virus has begun its attacks.  If, though, one who has won this battle were to donate a pint of blood containing their antibodies, the person in need just may have a fighting chance.  Which is where I come in--you see, you can't expect that successful covid patient to just give blood without having someone like myself provide a bit of healthy blood to replace the covid resistant sample with.  Covid antibody blood saves the antibody poor individual, and good normal blood replaces it in the covid antibody producer's body.  

Should work.  All we need is for our Docs to figure this out and move on it, and for ample blood to be donated to cover the added needs that will be generated.  

If everybody does their part--fewer covid deaths will occur.

A good thing, no? 

And, no, this doesn't work in all cases--does work in some.  For the person dying from the infection, it is well worth a try.

We do what we do--right?

You know how there are things you’d just as soon not be doing? Well, those things are the things we all should be looking for, and concentrating on, especially as we get older.

You see, the older you get, the less time you will find before you (and the more time there has been behind you!) And, as you have less time coming up, why not use it doing some of those things you really don’t like doing? Cleaning out the toilet, planning your next trip to the dentist, working on your obituary, you know, things you would just as soon not do at all? Well, why not? If you don’t think you would enjoy doing something, then the doing is something that would take time that you would rather not be taking, and as a result, the time would go slooow, really, really, sloooow!

Which would give you more time on planet earth, right (or, in any case, that’s how it would seem....)

Well {:-)? (Smile--it may not make things go slower, but it just might make you feel better about how things are going, regardless!)

Heh, heh, heh!

Blog, Blog, everyone loves to Blog, Blog!

A number of months ago, I noticed a bit of a problem, or so I thought, with this blog business.  Wanting to keep my very first blog as something some might want to read, it appeared to me that early insertions would be dropped by the system.  Don't know why I thought what I thought, but, to be sure things were not lost, I started a second blog, "Morningbrain--deux..." and began making my posts there.  Turns out this was not necessary, but I didn't know that at the time.  In any case, for me one blog is more than enough, and, accordingly, I will concentrate my efforts here, on good 'ole "Morningbrain," for the moment.  Some of the writing I did on the new MBrain I will transfer here, and for a while, anyway, the MB deux will be saved for I don't know what purpose.  Could be there are just some things that might be better kept separate, just don't know.  In any case, this original business of "what keeps me up nights" should be all anyone might need to follow (if anyone wants to follow my middle-of-the-night thinking at all) so that is that.  Since I no longer have anything to post in that one-time online "newspaper," Examiner.com, to which I wrote a bit over a hundred articles, I guess anything I find interesting that I suspect you may find interesting, too, will show up here.  And thank you, dear friend, for dropping in.

Steve

Post office time!

Went to my Southside Post Office today to mail one of my autobio’s to a couple of close friends who live just about as far as anyone might live away from us, and still live on our planet. Address ended up with a town called Dunedin. That is, Dunedin, NewZealand.

Was happy to send the book and the how-to pamphlet (Autobiographical Trust) to our old friend (one of the best artists, by the way, on the planet!) While waiting for the clerk to do her part in the process, I noticed a form behind her that was just a bit interesting: “HOW TO OBTAIN A PO BOX” was the title on the form. As is often the case when I see something like this, I queried the clerk, stating, “If I wanted to rent a box, I would want it to be a GOOD box--was there a form for that?” After a moment, she caught on! Good employee, I’d say!

And as for those books, they are on the way, today! And, if I wanted to continue the rhyme, I would undoubtedly quote from Yogi Bear. (If you know what I mean!  He, he!  Close, but no cigar?) (:-) 

Thanks for the read!  SVG

Another short passage from the "book."

I had just a bit on my mind this morning, and, as often is the case, a passage from my one and only for-real book seemed to fit what I was thinking about.  Here 'tis:

"There was an empty field next to the road between my barracks building and the Officer’s barracks building where the little BX, the Library, and some meeting rooms where our U of Maryland had classes. We had built a baseball diamond there. Softball was the game and drinking was optional. I say optional—can’t think of anyone who didn’t put down at least a few beers during one of our games. Don’t really remember doing this more than a couple of times, though.

"And, while I’m on the topic of drinking, I remember one night at the NCO club when my two newbys and I were sitting at one of the tables, listening to a comedian do his thing. One of the newbys decided he could have a few drinks—actually, he challenged me to a contest. Well, that was his mistake. After about an hour of drink after drink, he literally slid under the table. I got some help and escorted him upstairs to our room. He never tried that again. (Neither did I.)

"And again at the NCO club, actually an EM, “enlisted members” club, (we had no separate club for our enlisted underlings,) one night the entertainer began telling his store of the current in-vogue Pollock jokes. Before he started his fourth “joke,” our training NCO, whose name ended in –ski, invited him off the stage and told him in no uncertain terms that the Pollock jokes were not exactly his favorites and, unless he wanted to step outside to discuss the matter in greater detail, maybe he should change his routine. Poor guy tried, but he was not quite the same for the rest of his routine. Lesson: Don’t mess with the –ski’s."

And, lest anyone get the wrong impression here, my thoughts were gravitating towards a personal friend named "Richard."  And, of course, if anyone were to want to try to guess Richard's last name, would you suspect a good start would be to go with a last syllable of "ski?"  If so, you definitely would be on the right track.  

Thanks for your time.  If you would like just a bit more to this reading, check out Amazon.com, and take a look at page 128 of the book.  (You may have to buy the book first, unless you are an Amazon Prime member.  Membership does have it's advantages!) 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R5KW376/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb

Just checked--yep, purchase would be necessary (sorry!)

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow

According to a Brookings Institute post, the Covid-19 outbreak began in WuHan China sometime early in November 2019.  Since then, it has gone "viral," amply demonstrating why we have and use that phrase.   Since then, our lives have all changed remarkably.  At that point in time, I was beginning to retrace steps I had taken in our Hitchcock Woods while I was writing environmental articles for an on-line news site.  My days typically began leisurely, awakening with my wife and our trusted companion, TobiJuan, watching the morning news programs, and deciding how I might spend a little time doing things I liked to do with my two trusted house-mates.  Are things really that different now?

Yes they are.  Now, along with me, each and every home on my street has neighbors waking up every morning wondering what might have changed in our world over night that they need to know about.  Many of us are not going in to work that we used to report to on a daily basis, and now, after watching our fill of the morning news shows, our neighborhood is awash with dogs, children, moms, and dads on all sorts of vehicles (golf carts, bikes and feet, mostly) getting out and around instead of heading to work and going through the routine found in that environment.  Everyone is doing things a bit differently these days, and, hopefully, this will end sooner, rather than later, although it doesn't look like this will be happening.

Wife and I will continue with our daily routines, which for us involves taking care of TobiJuan, fixing lunch, and deciding if a trip to the store might be needed.  That's today.  Hopefully, this time next year we will all be thankful this episode in our lives is behind us.  The only thing I might hope for is that what might be learned from this exercise might result in better preparedness the next time it is needed--which will hopefully recur later rather than sooner.  A turn-around needed?  Hopefully it will get more than just a little attention by the leadership of our world's nations.  Think that will happen?  Better stated might be "who thinks that will happen."  A question--just not a very good one.

Of course, one thing might alter our routine just a bit--that thing is called our Presidential election.  I already know how my vote will go, if not who it will be for.  Looking forward to seeing some major changes, in any case, following that vote.  Hope enough are in agreement with wife and me and we have an opportunity to see things change for the better (much better) in the new year!  Thanks, all.

Ciao.

SVG

Corona virus issue 1

I am titling this "Corona virus issue 1" since it discusses who just might be "hurting" the most.  Good luck to all. This thing is bigger than our politicians' capabilities to even try to respond. The problem I see developing is with politicians closing this and regulating that, the little people are suffering even more than they deserve. They are the ones who have the least ability to react to this dangerous time, and they are the ones who are suffering the most with loss of jobs, loss of the ability to pay their rent, to buy food, to do anything. The lowest rung of our society is the one being hurt the most. They need help to just survive. Who will help!!!! And HOW !!!! PLEASE, EVERYONE, ADDRESS THIS MOST REAL NEED !!!!  

That being said, what can be done?  Help me with this, if you can, by writing your newspapers, your politicians, your churches, your everyone who might be able to help in the least!  Do this, and do this today.  

The poor do not deserve to be turned out into the streets, do they?  They do not deserve an enforced diet of whatever, perhaps dandelion because it is edible and growing well these days, but dandelion what--root, leaves, with what kind of dressing?  Why dandelion?  Because they may be found growing at the side of the road, and the price may be all that our lower rung may be able to pay.  

And what if someone in this bottom rung actually catches a cold?  First thing will be to go to an emergency room for treatment, and hope they do not catch Covid-19 in the process, right?  

We all have problems because of this virus but, unless we are in that lowest rung, our problems are minor--until we, ourselves, catch the virus.  Then what is for us--whatever we have to look forward to at that point in time, what would be our situation if we were on that lowest rung of our county's financial society.  

If the hospitals are full, and we have nowhere to go, what will be our fate?  Sick, hungry, out in the weather?  Is that what anyone deserves?  Am I wrong here?  Who will take them in? 

Beat Covid-19? Why not!

3:56 is what my clock says--guess it’s time for a little Morningbrain session. Actually, that morningbrain has already struck. It is why I am up and in my livingroom and not lying in my bed in comfortable repose. And to what purpose has my dear old brain brought me to wakefulness? Well, would the term “covid” be something anyone else may relate to? How about “covid-19?”

Well, now that I have your attention, let me first point out the obvious and then ask one question.

It is obvious that there are people out there who have recovered from an attack from these little viri. These people now are relatively free to live their lives and go about their days with a bit more confidence in their abilities to win should they be attacked again by these viri, and why not--wouldn’t you feel more confident than the average one of us who has not had these individuals’ opportunities to confront the disease and win? Of course you would.

That being said, let me now propose a little swap--a “tit for tat,” so to speak, or, more specifically, a pint for pint.

If the powers that be, and I mean scientific powers that be, not political ones, if those scientific powers that be can determine if this proposal would have the least bit of merit, I would like to propose a swap of one pint of my blood for a pint of blood from one of our successful covid-19 recovered battlers, that pint to be used for a half-dozen of the organizations deemed most likely to have the expertise to take a sample of that blood from that successful combattant and determine what about that combattant made them succeed in their battle with the little buggers. Surely there will be something, something about their blood that just might be used to provide protection for you and me, and, if my hope is correct, that organization just may be able to produce what is needed to give you and me the protection we might need to have should we be attacked.

A worthwhile thought, you say? Well--what to do now? Guess that is obvious, too.   Find that person, collect that pint, replace it with my donation, and let the scientists begin their examinations, determinations, and eliminations of our problems-to-be.

Two pints of blood should do it--shouldn’t it? You tell me. Better yet, tell your congressman. They are the ones who can take this idea and run with it. And, the sooner they do, the better.

SVG 3/23/2020