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| Bill awaiting his second COVID booster shot |
This is Bill at our local Walgreen's awaiting his second COVID booster shot. I also scheduled a second booster shot for myself but I took this picture. Later, as we were both sitting there in those chairs awaiting the doctor with the Pfizer vaccines, I was tempted to asked one of the strangers standing in the pharmacy line to take our picture but I didn't. Sometimes I fail. Next time I won't be so reticent. I don't know how much longer Bill or I will be on this planet so I should take all the opportunities I can to record the significant events in our lives.
This is our second COVID booster shot. We're bolstered up now. Should be safe from dying from COVID. We'll stay on the track to die from old age thank you.
Last week I had something scary. Just after I got into bed I felt a deep, heavy pain in my penis. Yes, penis. My apologies if I'm grossing anyone out but I'm just telling it like it is. I checked and I found one of those half a peppercorn sized ticks had embedded itself into the loose crown (former foreskin, I'm circumcised) of my penis. How in the hell it got there I'll never know. I do have trees on out almost one acre lot and lots of grass where I read these ticks hang out. Apparently this tick worked its way up my pant leg into my nether regions. Damn!
The tick was already impeded so my next step was to get my tweezers and remove it. That wasn't easy with my one cataract eye and the smallness of the tick. But remove it I did but its poison was already into my skin. For a week I felt the after effects of this tick bit.
As a result of this tick bit I set a new protocol for myself when doing yard work. I change my pants, wash them and shower after a day of yard work. Yesterday I found ANOTHER TICK! This one was also on my penis but the shaft. Again, I apologize in advance for grossing any of my readers out but man oh man. I was able to get this tick off before it injected any of its poison into me so at least I'm not feeling after effects for a week.
We live in a world fraught with danger folks. Not only do I have to scope out the possible exits at the local supermarket lest a crazed mass shooter decide its our turn here in peaceful southern Delaware, five miles from President Biden's weekend retreat at North Shores, to escape the body exploding bullets of an AR-15. Now I have to worry about ticks invading my very private places on my body. What the hell?
Yesterday I listened to Matthew McConnoughey's speech at the White House Press room. I was so moved by his recounting of the nineteen students and two teacher at the Uvalde school shooting that I couldn't hold my tears back. I'm not only saddened but very frustrated that the Congressional Republicans will do nothing about gun safety in this county. There is absolutely no reason for ANYONE to have an automatic rifle unless there are in the military. Yesterday North Dakota Senator John Thune said his constituents needed AR-15's to "shoot prairie dogs." Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy says his constituents needed AR-15's to shoot "feral pigs."
These are not serious people folks. These are cowards who prioritize their hold onto power over the lives of innocent fourth graders, grandmothers shooting at a supermarket, people attending a country music festival, gay men and women partying at a night club, and I there are many other examples but I've made my point. WE ARE NOT SAFE ANYWHERE! This is the culture we're living in folks.
I can handle the ticks on my body. What I have a difficult time handling now is that every time I go out to a public place I have to decide whether or not to go at a time when the store isn't crowded (less likely a target for a potential shooter) or look for the exits should some idiot whip out an automatic rifle and start mowing people down. I'm not afraid of dying, in fact I'm ready to go anytime. What I am concerned about is how painful and messy it would be. And I'm especially concerned that we're losing the one thing I always took for granted most of my life, that the government would protect me. I can no longer take that for granted after seeing the Uvalde police force wait for OVER AN HOUR to go in and save those children because they were afraid of BEING SHOT AT! Hey, doesn't that go with the territory? The Uvalde police had a SWAT team but that was apparently for only harassing low level drug dealers, making school tours to brag abut themselves and collecting extra pay. WHERE WERE THEY DURING THE UVALDE SCHOOL SHOOTING? They were "off" that day. Probably planning there next "play at being cops" SWAT hit on some low level drug dealer. And of course now the coverup has begun.
Sometimes folks, I do despair for our country but I remain confident that there are a lot of good people in our country as in the world. Unfortunately there are NONE in the Republican party. Yes, I said it. They are all cowards to permit this carnage to persist. That and looking the other way when Trump and his traitorous henchmen tried to over throw our country. That tick that had the never to imbed itself into me doesn't know any better. That's what ticks do. They're parasites looking for a host to enable their survival. Those two ticks I washed down the drain. I can't wash down the drain those Republican parasites in Congress who will do NOTHING to prevent or at least minimize future gun violence and pass gun safety laws but I can vote against them. And again this brings up the old Edmund Burke quote:
Do something Republicans! DO SOMETHING!!