World of Pain

Picture of a mama groundhog attacking one of her young 'uns.

Can anyone really doubt this is a world of pain?  Anyone over the age of 30, and of sound mind, should admit this is, in fact, a world of pain.  I'm in pain right now: in more areas than one.  It's just another day for me.  Once I thought of the title and subject of this post, I tried to imagine all the pain that all the people and animals were feeling at that moment.  I was overwhelmed by what I felt.  At any given moment, the people and animals of this world are feeling incredible, incalculable amounts of pain.
I was watching the news the other day.  A lot of doctors don't want to practice medicine in the state of New York, becasue the cost of malpractice insurance is so high in this state.  Apparently, several states have put caps on the amount of money someone can collect for "pain and suffering."  According to what I heard, New York does not put a cap on that, so that's why doctors have to pay so much money for their medical malpractice insurance in NY.  They interviewed a man who proposed NY limit "pain and suffering" damages in this state to $250,000.  I couldn't help thinking that I've endured much more than a quarter-million-dollars' worth of pain.  But, in my case, no one person is responsible for all of my pain.  Most of all, LIFE is responsible for my pain.  Life is pain.  To live is to feel pain.  Right from the beginning, what do doctors do to get babies to breathe?  They cause them to cry from pain by spanking them.  Welcome to the world.  Get used to it.  There's much more where that came from.
Every single day, I see more evidence that I've done the right thing by not bringing any people or animals into this world.  This is a world of violent cruelty.  Even the natural order of things has animals being eaten alive by others.  It makes me wonder if there are truly civilized, peaceful planets out there.  This one certainly isn't either of those things.    

Holy Hell!

Lucinda

Today is the worse of two bad days in a row.  Yesterday, I realized that I lost my cell phone Saturday night.  Then I went for a walk and got bit by a dog.  It was ridiculous.  I was walking past a dog grooming shop.  To my left, I saw two dogs.  One was being walked by a woman, the other by a young girl.  The young girl let go of the leash, the woman yelled, and the dog approached me.  She was a cute small dog, and I love animals, so I was kind of like "hi."  Then the dog sunk her teeth into my right leg.  Holy crap!  I was shocked.  I started running down the street with the dog chasing me.
Unbelievably, the woman yelled to me, "Don't worry; she doesn't bite."
"She already did!" I yelled while running away from the biter.  It, again, was ridiculous.  The woman was trying to get the dog on the loose, Bella, while holding on to the leash of the other dog.  Bella had broken my skin in 4 places, and now I have at least 1 bruise there. 
She kept yelling, "Bella!" but it didn't seem to do any good.
Meanwhile, I became concerned.  This dog was off the leash right next to a busy street.  I was worried that she would get hit by a car.  So I ran into a parking lot: hoping she would follow me.  She did.  I was a little shocked, I was angry, and I decided I'd had enough, so I continued my walk.  Then I started to think about things like rabies.  If an animal, that's infected with rabies, bites you, it can kill you.  So I walked back toward the woman.  She was still yelling Bella's name, and she was still on the loose.  I yelled to her, "Does she have her shots?!"
"Yes" she answered.
So I walked on.  I got to my destination, turned around, and walked toward home again.  I don't have health insurance, but I have been to a free clinic around here.  They will treat you, but they ask for a $10 donation.  I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to die.  I got the idea to go into the groomer's and see if that woman was there.  If she was, I would ask her for money.  Why should I have to pay to make sure I'm not gonna die from rabies?  I went in there, but I did not see her.  By the way, she didn't even apologize to me.  I did think to write down the phone number of the groomer's, which was on a sign in front of the shop.  When I got home, the first order of business was to call the groomer's and ask if they make sure the dogs have their shots before grooming them.  The nice woman on the end of the phone insisted that they do.  She pretty much put my mind at ease.
Today, I went to pick up my cell phone from where I lost it.  On the way back, my car overheated and started belching smoke.  Then it did what it never did before; it failed to get me to my destination.  I didn't have my AAA card on me, so I walked home (from the highway).  It took me 40 minutes to get home.  I was at home, on the phone with AAA, when someone rang my buzzer.  My first instinct was to ignore it.  Then I thought, what if it has something to do with my car?  Sure enough, a NY state trooper was at the door.  He asked if my car broke down.  I said yes, and that I'm trying to deal with it.  Then he let me know it had already been towed.  It turned out to be $150.  It would have cost nothing, or a little more than nothing, if AAA had towed it.  I called a nearby garage and told them what happened.  The mechanic on the phone seemed to think it might be an expensive problem.  I asked the towing company to tow it to this garage.  This has been a pretty difficult 2-day period.