#184

I seem to have a low-grade fever this evening.  The kind that doesn't register on a thermometer, but still makes one feel flushed and stuffed, like something's going on in there.  (It can't still be hot flashes, can it?!)  I haven't had a real cold or flu in probably a year.  Just "tummy-stuff", back stuff, and coming-down-with-something feelings that never develop into anything.  I've been very lucky. 

Dinner with Mensa last evening (Tuesday) at an Indian restaurant.  It was a good group of five, and I enjoyed it.  Lots of good conversation.  I would have liked to sit at the table and talk a little longer, but when Bill schedules it in the newsletter for "7 to 8", he seems to mean it.  As soon as all the plates are cleared and the tab split, he stands up and leaves.  Everybody else gets up too, like trained dogs.  Next time it's a good bunch, when Bill stands up, I'm going to say goodbye to him, and suggest that the rest of us stay and talk a bit longer.  See what happens.

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I've been asked why I hadn't mentioned Terry (Terri?) Schaivo at all.  Well, because I had no knowledge of her condition.  I know what the doctors were saying, and I know what her family was saying, but I couldn't say which I sided with, having no direct or impartial information. 

Well, I have now seen her brain scans.  That's pretty impartial.  Having seen a lot of such scans, and having done a lot of brain function-oriented reading for Jay, I feel I am qualified to form a personal opinion.  I still don't know how much awareness she had, but I am absolutely certain that she wasn't going to get any better.  I don't think her caretakers had that hope, either, because they had allowed the tendons in her feet and ankles to shorten.  At least with Jay, we had worked to prevent that right up to the end. 

Daughter, you have my health care proxy, but in case I wasn't clear enough, when I have no life, and no hope for one, pull the blanking plug!  I am not afraid of death.  Terry was trapped in a shell.  She is now, finally, free.

It always surprises me that those who have the strongest Christian beliefs are the most afraid of death.   I don't understand.

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Which reminds me - many Americans and our government seem to be very opposed to theocracies and religion-based law in other countries.  But those same people are working to turn the US into a theocracy with laws based on religion.  Are any of them going to be arrogant enough to say "That's ok, because our religion is better"?

Gnashing of teeth....................