I’ve been in the hospital with c.diff and cellulitus.  (the spell checker wants to change that word to “celluite”.  That too.)

I’ve lost a lot of fluids, and my right leg is swollen and red.  I was in the hospital for a week, and I’ll be in a hotel for two more weeks

getting IV’s that I guess I will be putting in myself.  On top of this, I was booted out of the place I was staying, (yes, while in the hospital!) so in two weeks, where I go to live is unknown.  I was told I could “reapply” to come back, but no guarantees.  Not that I want to really go back there if I can help it, as I have been nothing but sick since I was there.  I need my own space.

More as things develop.

Ron

Tavor was a straight A student in college, not far from graduating. None of his friends thought he had any special problems.

Tavor was good-looking, popular, talented, athletic and fun to be around. The only thing that seemed a little strange was his secretiveness, the fact that he never talked about his feelings or problems.

His mother Narcy, is my sister. I believe she would have given her own life, if it could have saved his. I believe she loved Tavor as much as any mother could love her son.

Of course I don’t believe this was in any way Narcy’s fault although she is (as her name suggests) a “narcissist.” I really don’t know what a narcissist is, but I guess I know when if I see one.

Narcy brags, a lot, about herself and about her two (now only one) kids. If Narcy ever has a problem with anyone — and that is often — it’s always the other person’s fault, entirely. The other person is mentally ill, and/or evil. Narcy is perfecly sane — those of us who know her are sure of that, because she has told us countless times.

When this happened, needless to say, Narcy was devastated, and could not face life without Tavor. She wondered if she could have helped him somehow, or  if she should have known something was wrong.

A year before he died, Tavor had suddenly become extremely angry at his mother, seemingly for no reason. He cut her, and all relatives, out of his life almost completely.

His death was even more tragic because he left in anger, so he and his mother would never be reconciled on this earth.

Everyone told Narcy she was the best possible mother, and that she should not for one minute take any blame. After giving it a little thought, Narcy agreed. This was not in any way her fault. Her son must have had an undiagnosed mental illness, which he had inherited. Nothing at all could have prevented his suicide — he was genetically programmed for it.

Tavor’s biological father, who died long ago, actually did have a mental illness, which caused him to kill himself slowly with drugs.

Narcy is in no way to blame. That doesn’t make it easy, because Tavor is still gone forever. Narcy was a perfect mother to him, and all the anger he felt towards her was just the raving of a mentally ill young man.

I love Narcy very much, she is my only sister. I am glad she has found a way to place all the blame on the DNA of her poor dead ex.

But on the other hand, I don’t like explanations that are over-simplified. I feel like it has to be more complicated than that.

Not that it matters now, it’s too late for Tavor. But I still can’t help thinking about it and searching for explanations that make sense.

Why didn’t John Wayne ever play Richard Wagner in a movie?  “Listen up, Wotan…”

Part of a new series:  Things Ron Wonders About (TRWA)

I really recommend watching this on 1080p.

I don’t feel like analyzing the whole song right now. But I will just point out a little of the irony.

The lyrics recommend that everyone should give away all their possessions and live in peace. John Lennon thought the whole world could get along — billions of people — and yet the four Beatles weren’t able to get along.

And I very much doubt that any of the Beatles gave all their money away. Even if they gave some to charity, I’m sure they kept enough to make sure they would always have a comfortable life.

I could say a lot more about why I hate that song. It’s stupid, and it’s wrong in every way, and it’s a naive expression of communism, a political/economic system which has failed, sometimes horribly, every time it was tried.

Well John Lennon was never expected to be a political/financial genius. But I know a lot of people who are crazy about that song and see nothing wrong with it.

Nude dude on beach fleeing deputies left ID, cellphone, shorts behind

Deputies arrived in a marked four-wheel-drive patrol vechicle to respond to a report of nudity on a public St. Augustine beach Thursday morning. Once there, they saw a naked man walking along the water’s edge ….

Okay, I’ve actually done that, once, long ago, when I was still young and at least arguably worth seeing nude. Several of us were talking about going skinny dipping, but no one else had the nerve. Actually it was great, as the water temps were very warm and the surf was light. Also? Didn’t get stung by jelly fish!

… in view of several beachgoers, according to an arrest affidavit from the St. John Sheriff’s Office.

Um, but I didn’t do that. It was the middle of the night (like 3 AM or thereabouts) and the only witnesses were the people I was with. Plus, I was auditioning, as it were, for two women I was interested in. I eventually ended up involved with one of them, and probably just mis-timed things with the other. Oh well, the follies of youth!

But back to our intrepid naked man. It turns out that alcohol was probably involved! I know, who would have guessed?

Also, witnesses told police that a SECOND naked man had been walking around the area. They eventually found the shorts, phones and IDs of the people involved. Nothing like getting plastered in the middle of the day and walking around naked at the beach. Other than getting arrested, the second most likely bad outcome would be some NASTY sunburn!

And that takes us to story number two:

Man running from deputies attacked by alligator

You would think the headline says it all, but not quite!

A Florida man fleeing a traffic stop was attacked by an alligator Thursday, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies attempted to pull Bryan Zuniga, 20, over for not driving in a single lane around 2:47 a.m. near the 7100 block of 78th Avenue North. Zuniga stopped the vehicle, jumped out of the passenger side and broke through a fence, deputies said.

He reached a water treatment plant between Westchester Boulevard and 71st Street North, which is where he said the alligator attacked him.

Deputies found Zuniga at a nearby hospital where he was being treated for multiple puncture wounds to his face, arm and armpit area.

He was arrested around 12 p.m., taken to the Pinellas County Jail and charged with breaking or injuring fences, fleeing and eluding a police officer, driving while licenses suspended and resisting an officer without violence, reports show.

He’s being charged with ‘breaking or injuring fences’! This guy isn’t exactly Keyser Söze.

Warning, what follows is disturbing, so I’ll put it ‘below the fold’ for the squeamish.

From the Orlando Sentinel:

Two Kissimmee brothers armed with guns and a machete raped a woman in her Poinciana home during a home-invasion robbery before using bleach on her body to destroy evidence — all as family members were forced to watch, authorities said.

Detectives with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office arrested 33-year-old Richard Delgado Cruz and obtained an arrest warrant for his brother, 29-year-old Danny Delgado Cruz.

Kissimmee police arrested Danny Cruz Thursday evening. Polk County investigators were on their way to interview him late Thursday.

Rape is a heinous crime, but the bleach is a new type of nastiness. Incidentally, the suspects are both multiple time losers.

The younger Cruz’s criminal history includes arrests for battery, burglary and other crimes, mostly in Pinellas County.

His older brother also has criminal past in Pinellas, including serving four years in prison for armed robbery, home invasion and homicide, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Four years for three different types of violent felonies, including homicide! Next time someone talks about how draconian Florida is for its use of the death penalty, remember that we have our own share of violent criminals getting out after serving far less time than they should.

Miss Spider’s Tea Party, a charming children’s book in a series by David Kirk, was written well before the founding of the political group of the same name. In this book, Miss Spider hosts a vegetarian tea party for her insect friends. They are understandably nervous, but Miss Spider has learned to replace Nature with Kindness and literally wouldn’t hurt a fly. In this, she is a thoughtful, politically-correct, modern, liberal sort of arachnid. She plainly would never have anything to do with the political Tea Party, had it existed in her day.

The following video shows Nancy Pelosi, children, and Members of Congress, including the late Ted Kennedy, enrolling the Head Start for School Readiness Act of 2007. This is a normal Congressional procedure turned into an occasion for a very off-key rendition of “Itsy-Bitsy Spider.” You can tell who comes from a large family, or at least was raised properly (not Speaker Pelosi), because they get the words right.

Miss Spider would certainly approve.

The following video, on the other hand, is the stuff of Miss Spider’s nightmares. In it, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey demonstrates for a group of impressionable schoolchildren his forthright and robust solution to the Spider Problem.

You’re a mean man, Gov. Christie.

Miss Spider would never vote for you.

• There’s one fewer planet in our Solar System now.

• There are a lot more planets known now, all outside our system.

• When I was her age, we went to the Moon; these days we have to hitchhike rides to low Earth orbit from the remnant of our one-time mortal enemy.

• Which means that all those planets are just that much farther away now.

• The brontosaurus is no more, replaced by the more taxonomically correct apatosaurus.

• The disposable diaper.

• The mores and morals of the country.

• The socio-economic and demographic structure of the country: we’re a lot more like a Third World country these days in so many ways.

• Extremely powerful computers are so common that they’re hardly remarked upon anymore – except by people roughly my age and older. We remember when computers of any power were much less common than toasters, not more common than radios.

UPDATE: wj makes the following additional, excellent point in the comments:

I’d add ubiquitous cameras. It’s not just that everybody has a cell phone with a camera . . . and seems to use it constantly. It’s that cameras seem to be in every public space, and running most of the time. No doubt this is handy for police trying to track criminals. But it means that you have to get a long way into the country to have any chance of any privacy in your life.