I got him awake enough to head to the local deli for breakfast. Here’s the gist of the convo, so pay attention to how mercurial the situation is. Upon getting a mechanic’s opinion on his truck, the most serious problem is clogged sensors. That’s the root cause of the misfiring and the overheating problem. These are to be fixed and test driven, probably out to Naples. That’s where I was going to head for if I had not caught him at home. My observation about used trucks three weeks ago proved accurate in a larger scope. There just are not that many good units for sale and they are overpriced by around $4,000. I would not buy a truck with 80,000 miles on it unless it was in nearly perfect shape and was a third or less of sticker price. JP put in another couple days looking and says that he now agrees. We kind of figured to sink $800 into the Mazda and see if it works well enough for a longer trip.
What is goji? It is the fruit of the wolfberry plant, now cultivated in North America. You may have tasted wolfberry wine or tea, but it is so similar to pomegranate that the extra expense isn’t justified, my opinion. However, as a gift, this was for Alaine. On the way home I dropped in at Quizno’s, shown in the background here. If you can spot the white canister on the counter at right, this is the Ceylon tea I found on my trip to Savannah and brought back as gifts. We watched some movie clips on her iPad, she is really learning to navigate that thing. I remain ham-handed and always press too hard on the icons.Others were present and I received some unsolicited advice on clinical studies, such as the one that I’m likely to begin tomorrow. I understand that innovative trials are not a substitute for a proper medical regimen and that all experiments can, as a possibility, turn out dangerous in the long run. But by and large, these trials do considerably more good than harm.
And define long run. For me, that is ten years. Yes, test drugs unset one’s physiological balances, but I would not be participating if my system was not already out of whack in the first place. My “bad” levels are climbing after five years on heart medication of varying dosage and brand, all addressing the individual symptoms of cholesterol, blood thinner, water retention, beta blockers, and high blood pressure.
I don’t overlook that the drug manufacturers want to test only the lily-white specimens likely to show the most improvement. Pssst, that’s me. This clinic is associated with my existing medical team who’ll be watching partially as good friends over a lot of intervening years. Any hint of side effects and I’m out of the program same day.
While visiting, once again I received a reminder that I tend not to be as flexible as others when it comes to theories that human cultural behavior is self-healing. Put another way, I’m not likely to believe somebody has changed over the years (with one exception not discussed here). But by and large, in my books, the mere passage of time does not turn a bad guy into a good guy. The fact my brother has not stolen anything from me in thirty years does not represent an improvement in his character.
Today’s example was so typical, it was like reading Ann Landers. I’ll let you decide via an analogy. If a person was to say to you that fifty years ago, they were stung by a single bumblebee, and to this day they do not like bumblebees, would you be okay with that?
Some people aren’t at all okay. They see a hard case of deep-rooted hostility and a mental block that is preventing forgiveness of the bumblebee. Therapy is in order, the dislike of bumblebees is a harboring resentment that is affecting the life of the victim, who needs to be set free from obsessive constraint. The fact that the bee sting was even mentioned is proof of a compulsive disorder and any disagreement on their part is evidence of a destructive fixation.
No, I’m not making this up.
