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I'm writing this today, but it really takes place last Monday evening. (Today being Wednesday.)
In a nearby town about 45 min away is where some of my wife's family lives. Some of them run a small coffee shop that is closing (now closed) because of landlord of the large commercial building doesn't want a coffee shop there. Probably have other use ideas for the floor space more profitable than the lease money they earn now. Nobody knows for sure.
For the last three Sunday's some of us have gone there because it would soon be gone. On the first two Sunday's my wife and I went. Wore masks. Social distance. Etc.
On the first Sunday. One of the relatives, who is my friend, introduced me to his older brother. (we're all old men, fyi) After talking a bit, we fist-bumped instead of shaking hands as we parted.
On the 2nd Sunday. Nothing eventful. Talked with a few people including my friend whose brother I met the week prior. Didn't see the brother I met the week prior.
On the 3rd Sunday we didn't go because covid cases were on the increase in the local area. Sad because that was the final day the shop would be open. But hey we're now used to spending holidays alone in our house. Very sad. But no covid.
Next day, which brings me to last Monday evening. I get word through my wife that the person (the brother of a family member friend) I had met two weeks and a day ago has died from covid-19.
My first reaction was: WOW That was fast! I just met the guy. He seemed careful enough. (of course, I don't know vax status and don't ask unless people are coming into my home)
Second reaction between my wife and I were that if we had been exposed we would probably have symptoms by now. Of course, no symptoms as of the day I'm writing this. We rarely go out of our house. We even have groceries delivered to our door. Do Target pick up orders that get loaded into the vehicle trunk, etc. Amazon deliveries. Etc. (I do go to a deserted office every day because quiet and well lit.)
Some thoughts.
In the past I had posted that 1 in 500 Americans have died of covid-19. I know it is a joke to some people here.
Recently I googled and recalculated it to be 1 in 412 and posted that here.
As the numbers of dead go up and up, we will arrive at 1 in 400. Eventually 1 in 350. Etc.
The numbers don't lie. They are not fake news. They are statistics. And they represent real people who died of covid-19. The reasons don't matter so much.
Eventually everyone will know of someone within some small number of proximate connections who will (or has already) died from covid-19.
Once again, just to keep beating a dead horse: it is not vaccinated people who are filling up hospitals and taking up all the ICU beds. Wearing a mask is to protect other people more than yourself. Social distancing protects you both.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 22 2021, @11:54PM (14 children)
Because an apparent bug in the site's code prevents me from giving your comment the -1 asshole mod it deserves, I'll just reply to tell you that you're an asshole for posting this. Seriously, fuck you.
Yes, I get it, death is inevitable. But it doesn't mean that we should hasten those deaths by refusing to protect against easily preventable conditions. None of us knows for sure what happens when we die, no matter how much we might want to believe that there is life and consciousness after death. Even the most devoutly religious person believes in an afterlife as a matter of faith, not hard evidence. Even if there is an afterlife, an early and unnecessary death cuts short something that need not be cut short, and deprives others of a loved one.
We've established that you're an anti-vaxxer and an anti-masker. You've been vaccinated, but not because you care about preventing the spread of COVID or even protecting yourself from serious illness. No, you did it to silence those around you who correctly told you that you should get vaccinated. You're a selfish and nasty person who doesn't care about those around him. Then again, that seems to be a necessary condition to post a comment like this. Surely even a psychopath like yourself can find it in you to fake compassion for someone who's expressing shock at someone in their life dying so suddenly from COVID.
Fuck you.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Thursday December 23 2021, @02:53AM (10 children)
Would you care to compare notes on selflessness and caring? Feel free to tell us a story in which you relieve and/or prevent the suffering of others, giving freely of yourself. Cash donations to the Salvation Army at Christmas time don't count here. You, personally, stepped into a situation, and took action to save a life, prevent injury, prevent a crime, or some such. Extra points if you put yourself in danger to do so, more extra points if you were never rewarded in any fashion beyond the sense of having done good.
You tell your tale of selflessness and caring first, and I'll repay your story with another story.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 23 2021, @03:10AM (5 children)
Go to hell you sick sack of shit.
I retract all my theories about non-toxic masculinity. Clearly I was mistaken. Any time men become a majority of the population, it's like some switch gets flipped in all their heads. Kind of like Gurren Lagann or Xenogears but now I can see that the trope of menstrual mind control by the moon is merely patriarchal projection. When men become the majority of the population, they runaway into madness.
We need to eliminate the Y chromosome.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday December 23 2021, @06:06AM (3 children)
Men are a little less than half the population, if only because people over 70 skew heavily female. My guess is that's because men don't care for themselves properly since apparently it's unmanly to see a doctor? Or it could be one too many "hold my beer" moments. Or, who knows, maybe men are just plain unstable and the price they pay for higher muscle mass is reduced immunity and longevity.
I don't think getting rid of the Y chromosome is a solution, since if the human race wants to propagate itself, we still need males. Lesbian love is not an option for more than maybe one in 50-100 of us, either. But the problem here is cultural, not something innate to males, I think. So the solution is also cultural, isn't it?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Thursday December 23 2021, @02:52PM
There is nothing unmanly about seeing a doctor. I have a primary care doctor, and she gives me the narcotic pain meds, boner drugs, and other common "old man" maintenance drugs. Then I have an arthritis specialist and he gives me drugs specific to my arthritis condition. I make sure both doctors get all lab results and complete list of drugs I'm on. That has worked out pretty well for many years now.
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday December 24 2021, @03:28AM
The human race needs *a* [fxnetworks.com] male. And a whole bunch of jars [youtu.be], apparently.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 26 2021, @09:28AM
Its not unmanly to see a doctor in the world of toxic masculinity. You cannot show weakness of any kind. You also cannot ask for help with something you should be able to take care of yourself. Going to the doctor is to admit defeat on both of those. That is why men, especially older men, will often concoct stories to explain the "real reason" or will provide some other exit ramp to safe face when they do finally go. Often people will blame ego, but it is deeper than that because men, as social animals, have internalized those mores and it can be hard to break out of that. The real problem is that because the negative traits are so ingrained in the sociocultural fabric that attempts to attack those traits are interpreted as an on the entire fabric itself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 23 2021, @01:56PM
Good luck, lemayo
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 23 2021, @05:54AM (3 children)
No thanks. The point of a kind act is to do a kind act, not to have something to brag about. As Jesus said, when you do kind acts to be seen, you already have your reward.
This journal was about the shock of just meeting someone who seemed to be in good health, then that person suddenly dying from COVID. Your response was effectively that COVID deaths are no big deal because we all die eventually, anyway. It showed a complete lack of compassion and empathy.
Anyway, the purpose of doing good deeds isn't for points. This isn't like a baseball game, where we keep score.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 23 2021, @01:21PM
If in order to move your biological death to a later calendar date, you refuse to live -- you are as good as dead already. A walking corpse with a mask on its face.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 23 2021, @02:54PM
translation:
I got nothing.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday December 23 2021, @02:59PM
Yes, there was something shocking about meeting someone new. Who seemed to be reasonably careful. Talking for an hour. Then they got sick and died incredibly fast. Before I ever saw him a second time.
WOW that was fast.
And thanks for pointing out the "you already have your reward" part. It's not about bragging rights.
And to veer slightly off . . . the next life is not about getting to live forever in my sin. I've had plenty of that and can't seem to escape it. I think it is about not ever wanting to sin, being grateful and thankful, and being able to live forever doing and learning things I cannot even imagine.
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 23 2021, @01:18PM (2 children)
If you spend 20 years of your life to "protect against easily preventable conditions" that would have caused you to die 1 year earlier -- it means you shortened your actual life by 19 years.
The time spent cowering in fear, is wasted.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday December 23 2021, @03:05PM (1 child)
So if you spend 20 years of your life "cowering in fear" taking various drugs that treat common ailments of older people, and extend your life, you've wasted 20 years of your life.
I spent decades of my life "cowering in fear" by not smoking (or drinking alcohol), so I've wasted those years. Yet somehow, I don't feel like I've missed out on anything.
If a minstrel has musical instruments attached to his bicycle, can it be called a minstrel cycle?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 23 2021, @03:36PM
You are one inept liar. For shame.
Time spent doing tests, getting prescriptions, buying the drugs, actually taking them, and suffering through the side effects, counts. Still, for most drugs available now, all of that does not take 100% of your waking hours, if for the one simple reason that you need to earn the money you pay for all that.
In case your money comes from another source (inheritance or suchlike) and you DO spend the entirety of your waking life doing the drugs to "prolong" said life, then YES, you HAVE wasted it.
Is this explanation clear enough for you?