Observations 10/8/22

Thoughts with Richard Bleil

Ever since my heart attack, I’ve been suffering from acid reflux.  It’s actually a serious problem, as the stomach acids causing it splash up into the esophagus where it irritates the lining of the throat.  Now, as I eat food, I frequently have trouble swallowing, especially starchy foods like bread, because my esophagus is narrow due to the inflammation.  As such, I periodically take an acid blocker. 

Usually, I buy the box that has three bottles in it.  Of late, I noticed an odd flavor, namely, the pills seem to taste like grape candy.  These are not chewables, but they’re grape flavored.  I happened on them in the store (resupply), and sure enough, they were grape flavored.  I hadn’t noticed this before.  They cost no more than the flavorless, so I thought, well, why not?  And yet, I can’t help but think about what a gluttonous society ours is when pills that are intended to be swallowed whole have to be flavored.  Now I’m looking for cherry-flavored suppositories. 

Today was an odd day.  I went to work for my shift at the drive-in theater, and several people asked me why I was there.  As it turns out, I was scheduled to have the day off.  I just didn’t notice.  Quite some power of observation I have for a scientist, don’t you think?  But, what the heck.  It’s nearly a half hour drive one way to get to the theater, and although I do love driving, I couldn’t imagine driving for a half hour just to turn around and go home, so I decided to stay.  It was fun hanging out and watching a movie at the drive-in.  Unfortunately, it was rather cold today, so I left with about twenty minutes left in the second movie.  I certainly did have fun hanging out with my colleagues and friends at the theater.  There was no point to telling you all this, it was just a fun thing to do.  I did wish I had somebody there, though.  If I were with a woman, we could have snuggled together and kept warm.  And steam up the windows. 

At the theater, I started talking with some of my co-workers about the open sexuality of today’s youth.  It’s funny that every generation seems to feel as if they alone invented sexuality and know far more than those of us who have been having sex before they were even thought of.  The problem, though, is that as I see this open sexuality (and believe it is healthy if proper precautions are being observed), I realize that I’m just old enough that, frankly, I couldn’t participate.  Yes, I find women attractive, but I’ve never been able to separate the physical act of love from the emotion, so casual sex is just something I could never participate in.

I can’t help but wonder, though, how much psychological harm is being done as sexual activity begins in our children at younger ages.  I love sex.  I really do.  But I also had a great childhood.  Maybe I waited too long, but as children are being inundated with sexual imagery and innuendo, it feels as if sex is becoming far too attractive to our youth at ages that should still be enjoyed as innocence and a part of their childhood.  I remember hanging out with my best friend, neither of us who were sexually active, playing pool and games and just enjoying each other’s company.  There was no bragging, no smearing the reputation of our lovers (as we had none), and no desire to be with women instead of enjoying each other’s company.  I wonder if this is still a thing.  No opinion intended here, just pondering.

Did you ever wonder what animals with a larger spectrum of visible light see?  I was thinking about this today (inspired by a very silly meme) which reminded me that some animals do see a wider region of the spectrum than we do.  For example, they might see frequencies lower than infra-red, or higher than ultra-violet.  So, when they see these expanded regions, do they see the same colors that we do (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet) but spread out, or are they seeing colors that we do not know exist?  How would an animal, if they could speak, explain a color that we don’t even know exists? 

These are the kinds of thoughts that rob me of sleep at night.

It’s fun being weird.  I think that, sometimes, I think things that nobody else thinks.  Maybe it’s not true; there are a lot of people in this world, so no doubt somebody else thinks them.  Every Thursday night, the drive-in theater does a charity event where proceeds go towards a local charity of some type.  A week or two ago, I was joking that the charity was “Bury Bleil Prematurely”, as organized by my ex-wife.  I’m not sure people understood the joke.