Random Thoughts Anew

[EdnaMode]

Ever stand behind somebody in the checkout line and being amazed/puzzled/horrified at what they were buying?

Today, I had to run a variety of errands.  Upon my return home, I realized I had purchased bullets, beer, and antidepressants.

One of my more random sets of purchases included a new case for a shotgun, lipstick, and potting soil. And after I bought the house I currently live in, was doing some basic reno before I moved in and in my cart at the hardware store were a couple dropcloths, zip ties, and bleach-based cleaner. The lady at the checkout gave me a look, and I probably didn't help my case when I said "I swear there isn't a body in the trunk of my car!"

[apl68]

While walking to work I saw an 18-wheeler loaded with pipe coming down the highway.  It was barely moving.  I recognized it as a rig that I'd seen parked in a nearby parking lot during my morning walk a couple of hours earlier.  Rigs rest there overnight fairly often.

Anyway, the rig was barely moving.  A number of cars passed him to get out from behind.  Then I was able to cross the highway.  A moment later the rig overtook me going the same way, barely moving fast enough to overtake me on foot.  It was moving in fits and starts, the cab lurching from side to side, cargo and trailer clanking with every lurch.  For a moment I worried that he might try to pull into our library parking lot to take refuge.  He continued on toward the city limits and out of sight.  I'd never seen anything like it.

A staff member who used to work on a farm and at a truck stop suggested that the rig may have been having fuel filter problems.  It probably happened just as the driver got out on the straightaway.  He may have been hoping to power through until the engine could blow out the fuel filter.  I was concerned because it's all two-lane blacktop down that way, with no very good pullover spots for a big rig for miles.  There is a solar farm construction project on that end of town.  Just maybe he was carrying material for them, and was hoping to limp there.  I just hope he doesn't end up stranded on the road in a curve where others can't safely get around him. 

[mamselle]

Scary.

Do your local police have enough staff that one of them could escort him to safety?

Might be worth a call, if you haven't already done that.

M.

[Langue_doc]

Not sure where to post the link to the article on medical gaslighting, so here it is.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/29/well/mind/medical-gaslighting.html?campaign_id=18&emc=edit_hh_20220804&instance_id=68473&nl=well&regi_id=46382589&segment_id=100498&te=1&user_id=349c6abacc09730a88f6caaeae2eed71

[mamselle]

Don't know where else this can go, but I just found out a brilliant, quixotic, gifted writer I've known for years has had a serious stroke--as in, give up the car, can't fully see out of one eye, can't process certain kinds of info--which may mean her last couple of brilliant,  wonderful projects may not get done.

Carpe diem, folks...none of us knows.

I'm just so sad, for that loss to her of the parts of herself she valued, and did so much with, and for the painstaking work she's done to get herself as far as she has since May, when it happened, and....yeah.

We've said we'll be in touch weekly, going forward, and I treasure her friendship, so am glad for that, but just, still, so sad.

Glad she's alive and making progress and all that, don't mean to minimize those things, but...the losses...in so many different ways, have got to be so hard.

M.

[downer]

The job ad for a course that starts in 2.5 weeks says urgent!
https://philjobs.org/job/show/21010

I bet they find someone to teach it with little trouble.