The horror continues unabated. Thursday will be a respite, and I will use that day to try to reestablish my sanity (whatever that might be). We have corroded away the first inch of the First Selectman’s outer scale layer. This will allow the boiling sulfuric acid to percolate through and diffuse into his circulatory system and act as a revivifying tonic. This is an especially dangerous part of the procedure. The effect of the tonic is to pique his appetite. In years past we have lost several members of the de-lousing team at this point in the procedure.
Of course, he’s always very sorry afterward and apologizes profusely to the surviving members of the crew and speaks very appreciatively of the dearly departed and of all their good qualities; their diligence, their team spirit, their crunchiness and full-bodied flavor. He never stints on praise.
Because of this unfortunate tendency during this part of the procedure I find myself unconsciously moving toward the First Selectman’s left side. It’s a little-known fact that he’s blind in that eye and so less likely to reflexively snap his jaws and swallow someone standing near that side of his head.
In the big, beautiful world outside of Dunwich all sorts of unimportant things are going on. The Olympics grinds on with no detectable interest by most of the population. Kamala and her new running mate are making the rounds of the friendly news shows and touting their wonderfulness. But I don’t know. This guy seems to have a bunch of skeletons rattling around in his closet. Did he refuse to serve in Iraq? Did he normalize pedophilia. This guy may be a disaster waiting to happen. Well it couldn’t happen to a nicer gal than Kamala!
The Ukrainians have opened up a new front in their war by invading Russia on the northern front to the west of the Kharkiv area. And some of their new F-16s have been spotted flying in the western Ukrainian skies. There looks to be a major event in Ukraine very soon.
During a particularly slow point in the work, I was talking to a co-worker and he was talking about raising a family in the early 1980s. A lot of what he said rang true for me too. There were major financial problems like the very high mortgage rates but people went ahead with their lives taking risks and betting on their luck. That’s how I remember it too. The first time I got laid off with a mortgage to cover it was pretty scary. But if you looked around, something would turn up even if it was only contract work. The difference between then and now is there is a culture that discourages optimism. Nothing can be done and nothing is anyone’s fault. The default assumption is that it’s society’s fault and it’s not worth trying.
This attitude is a death sentence. The world is the same as it ever was. Effort and extending your reach beyond the minimum are rewarded. Regardless of recessions and inflation, striving for what you want isn’t an extraordinary idea. It’s the normal circumstance for Americans. This has always been the land of opportunity because it’s the land of hard work that rewards the achiever. So let the young ones you talk to know this. Struggle and survive is the order of the day. And they come from ancestors that did just that.
Now back to the vat. By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes. Oh well.