00:52 - 18.04.06
neglect
My youngest got off for work on time, although I think in a bit of a daze. Big dinners the evening before tend to do that to you. Around 8 am the front screen door was opened. I could tell because I could hear the wind chimes ringing. My doorbell broke years ago and I haven't chosen to fix it. I don't like doorbells. However, an early warning system letting me know someone is on the steps is useful and I love the sound the chimes make. There was a tug on the door knob and I wondered if something had gone wrong at my youngest's work. Nope no one there, nor was there any mail. I was rather anxious about that you see. An email from that one bookstore last Wednesday had indicated that my IPod had been put into the mail system. I was worried that someone might try to steal that from my mailbox. I went back to reading my e-news and magazines, then later my cleaning tasks, checking for the mail every half hour or so. Around 1 pm the phone rang. There was no one on the other end, but since I was up anyway I decided to check the mail once more. Lucky only the one neighbour's home faces my doorway. They might have thouught I was a bit squirrely today otherwise. I had the phone still up to my ear when I opened the door. There it was! I looked at the instructions and decided that maybe I'd wait until my youngest returned from work. He likes figuring out those things. I thought my time might be better spent continuing to work on those baby step tasks to get ready for the big clean instead. Good choice I think. When he returned home, my youngest disappeared into the work room with a plate of supper and was hapily occupied for a couple of hours. Apparently one can download/upload itunes, some of which are free. He was telling me that he's been moved into a more technical set of tasks, so he had a very good day altogether. He said he doesn't really need the IPod at work, because he likes the radio station they dial into. Good enough then.
There was a story on the tv news tonight about the level of air pollution and allergens in the local atmosphere. I knew I wasn't crazy. The air outside really is causing me breathing problems. The point of the story was to affirm that allergy season started in early February - it usually doesn't arrive until the end of March - and that it is much more intense than usual. Add in the more concentrated particulate matter being produced by three Alberta companies especially and it makes for a very difficult season for those of us with "canary" lungs. Doctors have been reporting greatly increased patient visits, as well as the increase in the severity of the symptoms. Maybe those polluters should have to pay the direct and indirect health costs until they clean up their acts.
In addition to that story was the one in one of my e-papers that reported that a contact lens solution that I have used causes a severe fungal infection of the eyes. It sounded as though there was even a chance of blindness with it. The funny thing is that I had noticed a correlation between using my contact lenses and the onset of more sickness the past couple of years. At first I put it down to not cleaning my lens containers often enough, so I started boiling them regularly to kill any extra germs, with an occasional bleaching thrown in to catch the other critters that aren't that easily dispelled. That helped, but I still noticed that I would get sick again after restarting the use of the contacts. Addressed that by reducing the amount of time I was wearing them and increasing the amount of time they were in the stronger cleaning solution.
Apparently it might have been one of the solutions I used that was the source of the problem to begin with. What really riled me up was that the manufacturer said it would not pull the solution from store shelves. They would wait until the old stock was sold out before acting on the problem. Where are the federal regulatory bodies on this issue? This company is willfully and knowingly selling a product with serious consequences for people's health. Here again they should be fined and made to pay the cost direct and indirect for the damaged health of those people. How many people, like me, have potentially lost significant amounts of income because of this company's greed and negligence. In our statutes I believe that the directors of publicly traded companies can also be held liable for any damages they know are being caused. In addition, if stockholders vote to direct a company to do something that causes harm, then they too can also be sued for damages. Why aren't they? I'm really tired of seeing panhandlers on the streets fined for begging for spare change, while large corporations willfully get away with unethical and negligent practices at will and almost with the assistance of regulatory bodies. More and more we hear of scientists in our own governments who take the risk of being fired or disciplined because of their speaking up about these problems. One such gentleman was just reinstated, but only after two year of exile from his work and without compensation to the damages that accrued to him both directly and indirectly. Maybe government ministers or department that are found to be in active or passive collusion should also be charged under regulatory laws. Oh well, better go calm myself down for bed. Patience Grasshopper. Good night dear diary.
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