our turn

it's our turn to suffer. when people around the world have suffered, so very often, due to man-made troubles/tragedies or mother nature's volatile whims, i don't hear those around me expressing concern for more than a week or two (including me). 

the shelves in stores are empty. the richer the store, the emptier the shelves. james says, "poor people don't have time to worry about the end of the world." he went out in the snow to run final errands "before the storm hits" & came back grinning cheerfully. he had seen a friend of his who lives in the riverbed under the bridge & asked how he was doing. "i'm good, man," the friend said. "i never use toilet paper, anyway!"

james has been saying "the grid is going down" since i met him. he saw stuff like that happen in the military. he's doing fine right now, not a fear. he just continues to quote men in black (people are dangerous animals) & tell me "we're gonna be fine, baby. i'm trained for this!"

we went to walmart saturday. all looked normal til we went by the food aisles, the cleaning product aisle, the paper aisles. there was a barricade in front of winco; they were limiting the number of people who could enter. aldi was limiting purchases to two of this, four of that. the rice i bought had a tear in the box, so i went back to get another... but there was no more. at all. 

 the most hard-hit of all was the long beach whole foods that is located in a brand new behemoth of a spankingly expensive westside-style mall that was dropped where one of our favorite decrepit motels had been. this whole foods was empty, empty, empty... well, about 70% so... and full of determined, well-fed, athletic anglo people in expensive casual wear.

yes, those folks in their north face & lululemon gear definitely use toilet paper.

they have time to shop. they may have extra home, fridge, freezer space. they have the income to buy it all. and to hell with everyone else as they grab theirs & everyone else's, too.

i heard about biden's calming speech, but seems to've come too late. americans are freaking out from coast to coast. relatives in texas & kentucky say it's just as nutty out there.

meanwhile, the italians are singing on balconies.

yes, we consumerism-brainwashed americans definitely are sick. :(

anyways, i haven't posted in a while bc i've been physically sick since feb 19. it's not cov-d 19... it's not! it's not!!! i have self-diagnosed flu into acute bronchitis into maybe walking pneumonia into ear infection... but yesterday was nice when james propped me up to go w/him to his "birthday gig," which wouldn't've been possible today bc the governor has ordered the bars closed to stomp out this virus. sat we'd had such a nice dave's bbq lunch with "my side" of the family, then yesterday outback w/"his side." in the emptied middle-class restaurant comfort, hygienically clean, we had so much good eating, so much good sharing. we are so very fortunate. then we drove to his gig at the marina & i graded papers in the car, like last sat not willing to be around a bunch of ppl & hazard worsening my health, then i walked in the eve, feeling so weary as is my usual this past month, & looked at the beachy scene & thought once again, man, this is nice, but definitely not my thing, then i picked him up & we had shake shack & drove home. i laid back & rested & he sang along w/& exhalted the musical excellence of bob wills & the texas playboays as the wind knocked the little red car around the road...

today the snow finally is sticking. it's been too warm all day, so it's been coming down then melting, but now, looks like about 4 inches already in the past half hour. so turns out they were right to call a snow day. schools will be closing for a month come wednesday, so i think they were equivocating a bit, too, anticipating that, closing it today to get a jump on things. looks like so many kids would've been gone today, anyhow, parents keeping them home to be safe. likely very few kids will come to school tomorrow, so maybe they'll call a snow day tomorrow, too, since it's sposed to come down pretty heavily thru then.

i cried on james's shoulder when i learned about our schools closing. i'll miss my students a lot. i'm sad for us all, but it's our turn. hope we teachers do get called to be disaster workers like i read we could so we can take food to families & i can visit my students.

i am worried about the poor up here. but we sure are good, even w/my crappy health, & tomorrow is james's birthday. wash your hands & stay safe.