This episode, a hospital visit and back, took six hours and twice that nuber of phone calls. America, you are goin’ downhill fast. All this delay is costing somewhere.Trent called, he reports some recording and we again talked about the taxi listings. I did not mention how electronic I find most of that music because we agree over here music needs to get back to basics. This pendulum swings all through history in each variety of music. It climbs higher until it takes a symphony to play it. Then somebody invents something. We need to re-invent the working class tune. But the new, minimum wage no benefits apartment living working class up to her degrees in student loans.
I would pat myself on the back in I could. I reviewed the new package the hospital hands out on discharge. There is a change in the advice for heart attack patients. It says to report any unexpected weight gains. This is the opposite of what I was told in 2003. Who remembers that? I was informed there was nothing to worry about, that all was a natural process of aging. I gained 60 pounds between August and December, and they said it was nothing. Like maybe I was sleepwalking to Dairy Queen.
Later, Marion called and she is going into the hospital for a month. I could not deal with a month [of that]. It also spells out she was again downplaying the seriousness of her condition to me, the one person she should not do that to. I’d figured out when she said the pain was “3 inches deep” that there is no place on me that 3” isn’t right down to the bone. We also talked about real estate but nothing is going to happen there until we’re back in much better shape. All in favor? Carried.
Trivia. From my old notes of 2009, did you know Archimedes believed animals lived in latitudes? That means he said if land was discovered across the oceans at the same parallels as Africa, elephants would live there. Sounds legit. And I wonder if it is pure coincidence that DNA, a polymer, was discovered around the same time as plastics. And if viruses can disrupt human DNA, why can’t we invent a human DNA that makes the virus do what we want? My newest motorcycle comeback. When asked if that is a sidecar, I now tell them, no. It is my training wheels and I just had it made up to look like that.
ADDENDUM
Dry-dating. The term I used last day. No, I didn’t invent it but now that I’ve been asked, I believe I’ve only ever heard it used by women as a derogatory on men who are slow to put on the squeeze. The presumption always being that the woman is irresistible. There is a related and equally false presumption I’d like to address now.
Whenever the situation arises where they cannot do simple tasks, some women instantly point out they raised kids. Can you imagine how often I get this reaction? Can’t play guitar? Because she raised kids. Never learned to type? Raised kids. You get the idea. And it comes across that I had raised kids, I wouldn’t be able to do much either. Of course, this is nonsense. And when I have kids, you can bet your bejeezus they’ll be able to play and type.
The point is the parallel drawn between child care and life’s other accomplishments. I have never disputed that raising the kids is hard work. But to insinuate it is the majority of the effort because the father is always away at the office is not going to hold water. Feeding a kid does not even compare to what it takes to get that food on the table in the first place. It requires a complete supply chain to provide those diapers that get changed. If you compare tucking the kids in to the cost of keeping that roof over their heads, at least be fair about it.
Another way to think of it. If raising children is such a complex task, why is it those do it generally can’t fix a tricycle, paint the kid’s bedroom, or help the teen with math homework? What? Oh, I see. She means the “other” kind of raising. The kind where the kid turns out a useless bump on the log. Got two brothers like that, don’t need any more examples, thank you.
There is no explanation for why certain women cannot do motherhood and still have other interests. Unless they never had any other interests to begin with. Unless there is more to parenthood, maybe an entire different dimension that isn’t being picked up by these women’s radar, I mean. Do you think that is even possible?
End of daily controversy.
