The Startle Response in Everyday Ramblings

Happy Equinox! It was a beautiful (if hazy) day here. The whole darn weekend was beautiful. I was out in it a lot. Probably not wearing as much sunblock as I should. I forget sometimes to put it on my feet. And I also forget to carry it with me, and then like yesterday, I decide to stay out longer than I had originally intended.

My dermatologist is remarkably laid back about all this. He says, just be prudent. My guess is that they are finding with a repeat melanoma that by the time one starts the hat, neck scarf, UV protective clothing routine that the damage has already been done. So I use basic common sense and try to get out there and enjoy the “extra” days of dry sunny weather because of climate change.

A whole crew of folks from my church decided not only to participate in the climate change marches today, (we had one here and our senior minister participated in the rally part), but to go to New York to do it. I am so proud of them.

Because of my teaching schedule and various other sundry factors I haven’t been to church in months. It was nice to be back. We have a new intern minister, clean cut, serious, mid forties, who has a special interest in recovery issues, alcoholism, drug addiction, that sort of thing. He has an unusual name so I looked him up. He used to be a punk rocker!

Had his own successful record label, then moved into corporate music and his wife into management of bands until the bottom fell out a few years ago. And now he is a dad and a minister. And I am jumping to conclusions (but only slightly) a recovering addict. He knew Kurt Cobain. I believe he will add an interesting note to our diverse and robust church.

H. has been moved from the hospital I work for to the one that she is insured for. A couple of folks have seen her in the last few days and report that she has huge memory gaps and is often confused but is able to speak and associate names with faces. Her recovery will be arduous and no one knows yet how functional she will be able to be.

She collapsed on the sidewalk and a motorist called 911, and stopped and got out and began to administer CPR. The emergency crew was there in three minutes. She is very very lucky.

Circle is meeting tomorrow and we will talk about all this. She has been the backbone of our group since its inception.

I’ve been enjoying returning to my normal level of activity.

Yesterday afternoon I stepped off a curb into a clearly marked crosswalk wiith the light and a woman in an SUV turned right into me. She didn’t see me, and I was crossing the familiar street in an unfamiliar direction and admit that I was not as vigilant for distracted drivers as I usually am. I jumped out of the way, which luckily was not into oncoming traffic and a string of expletives came pouring out of my mouth!

I expect drivers to be distracted these days and try very hard not to get mad, (last week a driver honked and swore at a pedestrian in a crosswalk ahead of me who stepped off the curb with the light because the driver was running the red light and this guy was in the way of that. What else can you do but laugh?)

I was mad, because first off I was scared, I felt the heat and the hood of the car, but mostly I was mad at myself for not seeing it coming. I was listening to Cloud Atlas as I am trying to catch up on my David Mitchell oeuvre.

It is going to be better when that pedestrian sensing technology becomes more commonplace on cars than it is now. And maybe we will change our design rules to the European model, which mandates softer hoods because there are more pedestrians in European cities than in most American ones.

In a magazine blip I saw today on the words women use to describe themselves on dating sites that get the most hits… Sweet…, is the number one word.

Sweet I am.

But apparently I can swear like a sailor if I am startled enough.

Last updated September 21, 2014