Waiting for Lunch

This is an exercise in testing out the new Blipfoto app for iPhone. I caught Blake waiting by The dog food bin with his leg in the water dish.

It seems to be one if those days where not much happens very slowly. Work (OilMan) and errands (me) and a lot of sitting around.

I went to the pharmacy, last of the privately owned family businesses, where they know their customers by name and look out for their best interests. It is a struggle. One by one they are being swallowed up and driven out of business by corporations. In addition to the duckpond for rubber duckies on the ceiling, there is a sign on the wall that says: YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE CRAZY TO WORK HERE. WE'LL TRAIN YOU

My next stop was CVS, one of the aforementioned pharmaceutical corporations, not for drugs but for eye shadow! I found one I liked there once, but they've never had it again. I don't know why I even bother. Somebody always offers to "help" me but they always look at me like I'm speaking Greek when I enquire about a product they recently carried.

Because of a measles "epidemic" here in California (over 100 cases, most exposures tracing back to Disneyland during the Christmas holidays) it is now becoming the latest thing that everyone has an opinion on, and politicians can make fools of themselves over (thus allowing them to ignore more pressing issues).

It seems that large numbers of parents, ignoring all well documented arguments to the contrary, are convinced that the vaccines will damage their children. In fact, the ones who are damaged are the very young and those with compromised immune systems who cannot take the vaccines. So now we have an epidemic where it was recently thought measles had been eradicated.

It has become a highly emotional issue, and opinions cannot be changed by rational, or even altruistic arguments. Health workers are struggling to find other ways to change the minds of parents who are convinced that it is some sort of conspiracy.

Some days I think it's best to stay home....