Escapism

The retirement home where my grandmother lives has been hit be a bad flu epidemic. So many old people are sick there, that the county health department has put the entire retirement complex on quarenteen. No outside visitors are alloud into the building, and all residence are confined to their own rooms. No interaction with other residences is alloud. This has been going on for several weeks and it will be at least one more week before the quarenteen is lifted (longer if anyone else gets sick).

Naturally, all the residences are going a bit batty with bordom. What 90 year old wants to be put in solitary confinement just because their neighbor has the sniffles? My grandmother is in remarkably good spirits. When I talked to her yesturday, she explained that she has been reading a lot. She then went on to tell me about all the great books she has read in her recent weeks of retirement home prison.

I don't have the health department dictating my travel or stopping me from engaging in face to face contact with other human beings. But I still understand how boring life can get sometimes. The crappy state of the economy makes travel to exotic lands more difficult. And sometimes the face to face people around me don't have all that much of interest to say. So I appreciate my grandmothers understanding. It doesn't matter if we are locked in by a thretening disease, or empty bank account, or a mundane life, escape is always as easy as opening the pages of a good book.

Right now I'm treating myself to a vacation to Christopher Moore's "Dirty Jobs". It's great to get away and hang out with the merchent of death.

Joke of the Day

If all the smokers in the world were laid end-to-end around the world, three-quarters of them would drown.