Sunt Lacrimae Rerum

Here I am awake; I’ll try to get some more sleep before I get up for breakfast and the day’s work. I went to the farmers’ market Sunday morning, and in addition to other products, I found Methley plums available at the Twin Springs Fruit Farm stand, as their email newsletter had said. It’s too bad that these plums are delicate, and only available during a short season, because after tasting them, you will be unsatisfied with plums from the supermarket. I ate three small plums as part of lunch, and look forward to more.

I gave blood this morning. Before the donation, my blood pressure was 103 over 63, my heart rate was 75, my temperature was 97.6 degrees, and my hemoglobin was 13.4. When I was done, the phlebotomist asked me if I had a special preference for the color of the adhesive fabric to be wrapped around my arm, and I said “Octarine.”

She said she didn’t have anything exotic, so I could have blue, red, or something else, and I settled for blue. I explained that octarine was the eighth color in the late Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books, beginning with The Color of Magic, so I managed to get in a little book-pushing.

Last year, Reason magazine published an article about the Hernandezes, whose children had been taken away from them on what appeared to be bogus accusations of child abuse, while their real medical problems were being ignored. Now, after being acquitted, Mr. and Mrs. Hernandez have have filed a lawsuit. If what I have read about the case is true, I hope that they are awarded a large sum in restitution, even if it comes from fellow Georgia taxpayers who were not directly culpable for the injustices they suffered. It will be better if the DFCS employees, doctors, and law enforcement officers involved end up having to pay substantial sums out of their own pockets.