July Sweeps - Day 174

Today I left Vegas and spent most of the day in the car (though I did stop a few times along the way). 

Now that I've fallen behind on my blog (though I did jot down notes and counts each day), I don't really want to spend hours typing it and such.  I hope you will understand.

Last night, I hung out (briefly) with my cousin Jacob.  I hadn't seen him in years, and he's recently gone through a bad divorce and/or bad breakup, so he had been pretty depressed.  Still, he seemed cheerful when I talked to him and way more friendly than he had any need to be.  Afterward, my uncle marveled that he had been more bright and social with me than he had in a long time.

My thought is that in seeing someone worse off than he is reminded him that things might not be so dire after all.  But I dunno.

When I was a teenager, and a girl broke my friend Dennis's heart, I would tell him, "Hey, it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."  And he would turn around and say, "Ignorance is bliss."  It was a battle of the platitudes (which was called "G-Force" in some iterations), and there was never a clear winner in the argument . . .

. . . because Dennis was right for him, and I was right for me.  I still believe I was right, right as rain, right as might, right as a right triangle, and Tennyson knew damn well what he was talking about.  Your mileage may vary, of course . . . but I'm still right.

Sit-ups Today: 111
Sit-ups In July: 3795

I drove home, by myself, and at one point, stopped at a Walmart.  As I was walking by the pharmacy, I saw something strange: a robot moving slowly down the aisle, rolling quietly, a garbage can-shaped creature with a long post coming out of it, with cameras on top and a glowing screen in front and in back.

Because I'm middle-aged, and have never seen this sort of thing outside of a Star Wars convention, I stopped and stared at it.  Nobody else gave shit one.

Is this where we are in the world?  Is this a thing?  Was it cleaning the floor?  Was it checking for empty shelves?  Was it plotting the deaths of the inferior organic life it was observing through its optic ports?

I looked around.  People paid the damned thing no mind.  All of us were wearing masks*, but that's no excuse to ignore a robot.  Finally, I got out my camera, to prove to the world that I was looking at this thing.

When I did, a Hispanic man said, "No pude creerlo yo mismo.  !Es un robot!"  Thanks, buddy, my feelings exactly.

Words Today: 388
Words In July: 22,624

*So, everybody in Walmart is expected to wear a mask now, and you only take note now when a) you see a really attractive set of eyes and hair and wonder what the rest of her looks like, or b) you see somebody NOT wearing a mask, and wonder, "The hell's this guy's deal?"