Sitting Duck/s
The day she died, I was lying on her bed, in her room with the fireplace. On her blood-soaked pillows. Suddenly, a sound of insistent thumping issued from behind the iron fireplace door. Thrash, knock, scratch. I crept towards the little door, and slowly opened it up. Out flew a good-sized kite - a bird. It flew around the room, once or twice. And then it landed on a wall. It watched me with her cool eagle eyes, allowing me to approach. She completely trusted me, as I placed the shoe box over her - as if she knew what i was doing. I took her outside, and set her free. She flew off into the sky, no more chained to this world.
When I was a boy, I kept specimen samples in jars of alcohol. One of them was the spine of a gardener snake, all curled around in a ring. One long curved bone flanked by countless little spikes.
The other night, I had a dream. I was lying next to her, while she was dying. She was on my right. She forced herself up, doing a push-up, and swung herself over me, landing on her back on my left side. Somehow, from inside the mattress, she wrapped herself around my girth just like that snake skeleton. It was extremely painful. A nightmare. And she cupped my right fist, squeezing it. More pain. Then, she was gone. Speaking to the doctor, I explained this: "It was her love!"
Had she come back to help me, in one way or another? Did she attack the shingles virus latent around my waist since I was a boy? Was that the clue to curing me of CFS? Am I cured? Probably not. I am just grateful that I have yet to experience a hard relapse from the the long day's trek into hell.
I went out with dog yesterday, and so, of course, two neighbour dogs charged at me and mine. Yapping. What did I tell ya?! This caused my dog to anxiously want to go play with them, and so get his 'ankles' bitten up. When he pulled me back from the steps, towards them, they turned tail and skedaddled, and then came back again, yapping. It isn't just little dogs that act like that, here, it is soooo many people. They act like big guys, then like cowards until they see you are civilised, and then they move in even harder, as if they never had any trace of cowardice in them at all.
So, a giant neighbour steps out, and stands there, glaring at me and mine, as if we are to blame. Once again, a pervasive trait. I stared her down - not wanting to make a scene in these trying times - and she corralled the little jerks into her apartment - but only after I went again behind my bush, to the porch.
This almost-scene inspire one of the new neighbours from the house on the other side of me and mine, to quickly jauntered out, up the sidewalk, wanting to see a dog-fight. Like that is major entertainment. It recalls to mind the time a house across the way started smoking, and firetrucks basically sat there, and it was like the whole neighbourhood stood in my yard to stare. Not on the sidewalk. had to be on someone else's yard. Because they were doing that must have been far more important than anyone else could even think to do.
Yes, this post is a continuation of my recent, "Trek," post - the neighbourhood version...
I've told you enough that people are now trafficking through my yard - and so are dogs - unconcerned about the more discrete forms of social-distancing. In addition, the house to my left is now full of people who like being social soooo much! There are groups of people going in and out of there all the time. As soon as the weather gets nice, they insist on showing you that they are there by going to the end of their front path and doing these dancing moves. It is the clearest verification yet of my theory that most dancing is related to territoriality.
So, we've got that going on, and all the people visitting A-hole Guy, et al, who is one house down. And, last night, there was a party across the way, at ~2:am. People shouting and arguing and then all leaving. One guy left by walking, and just stared at me as he walked. It was because of my dog, and he was drunk - but, that's also a common racist thing many blacks do here, that I won't even get into right now.
No masks - did I mention? Not a single mask seen on people leaving homes in groups.
Wisconsin is wondering why Milwaukee is faring so poorly against COVID-19. Detroit is the next epicentre. It doesn't just have to do with lack of education. Part of it has to do with the culture, and also an attitude of macho defiance. But, as I showed in that last post, the ignorance here shows no racial boundaries.
Why is ignorance king, here? This is a backwaters town, about 20,000 people, in a state that never really has its shit together. Unless you are a devoted Chicagoite, or live in the capital, or a few universities, you will find very little social philosophy or moralisation in this state. Instead, there is a cynical attitude, an assumption that might wins the day - like at a football game - and so on. And the older baby boomers generally are not inspiring anything progressive in younger people. In addition, the mayor hasn't done squat in dealing with this epidemic locally, publicly. A few things get done behind the scenes, which doesn't involve the general public, and there was a lofty declaration made. A declaration.
Also, I don't think there are a lot of local news outlets, and even less local news consumers. All of the TV is either cable or out of Ye Olde City. The local newspaper is a joke. Not many local radio stations. Consequently, everyone here is getting scared to death watching Italy on the cable news, (with large doses of dissent by Dems, and confusion by Trump), and saying to themselves, "Thank god that ain't happening here!"
But it is happening here. There have been a few detected cases, meaning a lot more hidden cases. That is all you need to get your clock cleaned, especially if your society is almost completely irresponsible.
So, they live like it isn't here yet - and so that must mean it will never get here. Because it's the flu, right? Nothing especially different about it. It's just a lot of Dems, or GOPpers, pulling another publicity stunt.
So, they live like it isn't here.
Which is exactly how it gets here.
Don't shoot me I'm only the messenger.
When I was a boy, I kept specimen samples in jars of alcohol. One of them was the spine of a gardener snake, all curled around in a ring. One long curved bone flanked by countless little spikes.
The other night, I had a dream. I was lying next to her, while she was dying. She was on my right. She forced herself up, doing a push-up, and swung herself over me, landing on her back on my left side. Somehow, from inside the mattress, she wrapped herself around my girth just like that snake skeleton. It was extremely painful. A nightmare. And she cupped my right fist, squeezing it. More pain. Then, she was gone. Speaking to the doctor, I explained this: "It was her love!"
Had she come back to help me, in one way or another? Did she attack the shingles virus latent around my waist since I was a boy? Was that the clue to curing me of CFS? Am I cured? Probably not. I am just grateful that I have yet to experience a hard relapse from the the long day's trek into hell.
I went out with dog yesterday, and so, of course, two neighbour dogs charged at me and mine. Yapping. What did I tell ya?! This caused my dog to anxiously want to go play with them, and so get his 'ankles' bitten up. When he pulled me back from the steps, towards them, they turned tail and skedaddled, and then came back again, yapping. It isn't just little dogs that act like that, here, it is soooo many people. They act like big guys, then like cowards until they see you are civilised, and then they move in even harder, as if they never had any trace of cowardice in them at all.
So, a giant neighbour steps out, and stands there, glaring at me and mine, as if we are to blame. Once again, a pervasive trait. I stared her down - not wanting to make a scene in these trying times - and she corralled the little jerks into her apartment - but only after I went again behind my bush, to the porch.
This almost-scene inspire one of the new neighbours from the house on the other side of me and mine, to quickly jauntered out, up the sidewalk, wanting to see a dog-fight. Like that is major entertainment. It recalls to mind the time a house across the way started smoking, and firetrucks basically sat there, and it was like the whole neighbourhood stood in my yard to stare. Not on the sidewalk. had to be on someone else's yard. Because they were doing that must have been far more important than anyone else could even think to do.
Yes, this post is a continuation of my recent, "Trek," post - the neighbourhood version...
I've told you enough that people are now trafficking through my yard - and so are dogs - unconcerned about the more discrete forms of social-distancing. In addition, the house to my left is now full of people who like being social soooo much! There are groups of people going in and out of there all the time. As soon as the weather gets nice, they insist on showing you that they are there by going to the end of their front path and doing these dancing moves. It is the clearest verification yet of my theory that most dancing is related to territoriality.
So, we've got that going on, and all the people visitting A-hole Guy, et al, who is one house down. And, last night, there was a party across the way, at ~2:am. People shouting and arguing and then all leaving. One guy left by walking, and just stared at me as he walked. It was because of my dog, and he was drunk - but, that's also a common racist thing many blacks do here, that I won't even get into right now.
No masks - did I mention? Not a single mask seen on people leaving homes in groups.
Wisconsin is wondering why Milwaukee is faring so poorly against COVID-19. Detroit is the next epicentre. It doesn't just have to do with lack of education. Part of it has to do with the culture, and also an attitude of macho defiance. But, as I showed in that last post, the ignorance here shows no racial boundaries.
Why is ignorance king, here? This is a backwaters town, about 20,000 people, in a state that never really has its shit together. Unless you are a devoted Chicagoite, or live in the capital, or a few universities, you will find very little social philosophy or moralisation in this state. Instead, there is a cynical attitude, an assumption that might wins the day - like at a football game - and so on. And the older baby boomers generally are not inspiring anything progressive in younger people. In addition, the mayor hasn't done squat in dealing with this epidemic locally, publicly. A few things get done behind the scenes, which doesn't involve the general public, and there was a lofty declaration made. A declaration.
Also, I don't think there are a lot of local news outlets, and even less local news consumers. All of the TV is either cable or out of Ye Olde City. The local newspaper is a joke. Not many local radio stations. Consequently, everyone here is getting scared to death watching Italy on the cable news, (with large doses of dissent by Dems, and confusion by Trump), and saying to themselves, "Thank god that ain't happening here!"
But it is happening here. There have been a few detected cases, meaning a lot more hidden cases. That is all you need to get your clock cleaned, especially if your society is almost completely irresponsible.
So, they live like it isn't here yet - and so that must mean it will never get here. Because it's the flu, right? Nothing especially different about it. It's just a lot of Dems, or GOPpers, pulling another publicity stunt.
So, they live like it isn't here.
Which is exactly how it gets here.
Don't shoot me I'm only the messenger.