Circles

Running in circles in my mind
Silence eats away at patience
Time heals nothing
If scabs never form
Pressure remains constant
Soul crushing pain
Heart wrenching
All consuming
Back to the begining

It was odd that the miracle started with a plague. Nobody was sure what was coming but they knew it wasn’t good. It seemed like only a few years but the future was not looking so bright. On that cold Chicago day, the prison cells were overcrowded and full of criminals. What was amazing that it hadn’t happened before. All those bodies close together, fighting for food, space, and dominance. A plague in the middle of the prison cells.

The CDC stepped in right away to see what could be made of the situation. There were no marks on the bodies. There were no indicators that they had anything more than a common flu. One doctor suggested heart failure, but as a guard laughingly said,“ these brutes don’t have hearts!“.   That was where it started, with the dangerous cases, the criminally insane. At first it was only one or two prisoners, the most threatening sorts. Death row got hit very hard the first two weeks. Then the lesser criminal population started to fall out. Those wanted for crimes of rape, passion, and strangely enough usury.

Then it seemed to migrate into the regular populations. It moved into the ghettos, the slums, the back alleys were no one would go. It seemed targeted but no one could find out how it was moving. It wasn’t transmitted by the air. Then the mob bosses started to fall. It wasn’t transmitted by hand contact, although heaven knows those types of people were in frequent contact with each other.  It went through all major families. It went to the Communists, Islamic extremists and the child raperers. Finally, it seemed like no one was dying anymore, if only because there was no one left to die.

Over all about a third of the world population was dropped. It seemed like everyone noticed for a while and then they all just got on with life.  It wasn’t something they could stop or look into.  The CDC investigated for awhile.  They told us to wash our hands carefully. Yeah, like that would have helped anything. People believed because they wanted to believe they still had control.  It was bad but in a good way.  If someone had to go, it was the undesirables.  The ones no one would miss.  If a few politicians and entertainers had disappeared, well, nobody wanted to ask any questions.

After a few months the whole thing died down.  People stopped being cautious and started being lazy again.  By six months out anyone would have thought the whole thing was a mass hallucination.  Of course there’s always one or two that will spout crazy nonsense about the end of days and alien invasions.  I wonder now that they stopped coming forward.  Was it their choice, or were they eliminated in the plague?

People started letting their guard down.  We went back to our normal lives. My normal life was a little harder to go back to then most.  I was a P. I., Private investigator.  Believe it or not, a lot of my work came from cops looking for tips.  With a large percentage of the criminal population down, I was hurting for money.  I still got occasional work from lovelorn wives and husbands, the more rare “I think someone is trying to cover up my dear departed” murders, and a few missing pets.  I admit it. I was bored shitless.

I started looking in to some odd occurrences that began to pop up.  It wasn’t mentioned on the news because good news never is.  It seemed that overnight the dirtier parts of town began to clean themselves up.  The graffiti was missing, sidewalks straightened themselves, and parks bloomed like a master gardener had planted them. No one was reporting this but no one was complaining either. I decided to do a little digging to see what I could find.

I walked into the station in good spirits with a smile on my face.  It never hurt to sweet talk my contacts at the precinct. “Yo, Johnny, what’s the good word?”

“That you’re go out with me Saturday, sweetness.”  He had no doubt in his voice. “I know the most out the way little Italian restaurant.  We could have vermillcelli and get wasted.”  Johnny was also not eloquent.

“ I don’t think so buddy boy. But what’s the word on the rapturists?  I heard they struck again in china town and the residents weren’t too happy.  In fact, some of the locals set fire bombs to the gardens.  Any way I could get a look a the crime scenes?”

“What crime scenes? As far as the chief is concerned, the residents were redecorating and removing weeds that grew up overnight, but the mayor has recommended a voluntary evacuation of the effected area if anyone wants to leave.”

“Why? I mean it’s not like there is radiation or something, right? It’s just someone improving the curb appeal.” I had a wicked sense of humor.
“You’re kidding me right! You haven’t heard the latest one? Everyone in the projects that had cancer overnight has no traces of it. Poof! Not even a drop.”

“ No, Shit. Really?!” This was looking interesting. “ Are the house prices skyrocketing?”

“No there’re keeping it quiet for now, but what kind of chemical or radiation would do that? I mean I wouldn’t want to find out six months later that you gonna die horribly or something, you know” He did have point.

“ I be careful, I promise but this is too juicy to stay out of now.  What is those nut cases are right and this is only the beginning?” If only I knew how right I was.  {END OF SAMPLE}c2012 Jamie M Zalot

#T-Mobile #Samsung Phone sucks

I am a consumer and I buy things.  When I find a company that makes good products I stick with that company.  I have been getting good products from #Samsung for quite a few years.  However recently, my #SamsungGalaxy phone started having problems.  I know the models is a few years old so I went to #T-Mobile to talk about my options.  Since my contract was not up, I could not get a new phone without paying full price.  I could not get a free replacement phone because I did not have insurance (I take care of my electronics).   My only option without out spending hundreds of dollars on a new phone was to pay twenty bucks for a replacement phone. They couldn‘t possibly send me a replacement that was exactly my phone because it isn‘t made anymore apparently, even though I only bought it 6 moths ago.  The phone that #T-Mobile sent me is the #Samsung #Nexus.  It can’t find a Wi-Fi signal, can’t access my e-mail, have the time it can’t upload what it’s trying to upload and took almost two days to download all the apps I use.  I am surprised the #Samsung made such an inferior product.

N.B. I went back to T-Mobile. They refunded my twenty dollars and they let me keep my #Samsung Galaxy.  Real rich of them.  The guy reset my phone and said don't put so many apps on it. Funny. Real funny.

Be Grateful For The Time And Place We Are Living In

We often complain about thing and don’t often stop to take time to be grateful for the time and place we are living in.  It hit me as I was watching The Tudors and reading The Postmortal by Drew Magary how lucky I am to live when and where I am.
For starters as I woman, in this day and age I am free have the ability to vote and not chattel of my father or husband.  I can hold a job (if I had the ability).  I do not have to get married and have children until I die in childbirth.  I can own property.  I am not property.
We have freedom of speech.  I can write this blog expressing my opinion within fear of losing my head.  I can say things about the people in charge or the laws without fear of prosecution as long as I do not lie about them.(libel)
We have freedom of religion in this country.  We can choose which Church we wish to attend.  People tend to forget this.  In The Tudors, people were forced to give up the religion of their forefathers simply on the will of a King.  If they disagreed with this position they were hung, stabbed or beheaded.  Yes, this still happens in some countries but I thankfully live in America.
We are in a age of electronic splendor.  We can instantly communicate with others all over the world.  We can access information instantly.  We have the world at our fingers.  We can hear the words or see images of someone long dead or worlds away.  These images and sounds are preserved forever.
If you get sick today, it is relativity easy to find out what is wrong.  Very few women die in childbirth compared to the middle ages.  When is the last time you heard of someone dieing from the flu, or having a foot amputated for a splinter?  These things happened even as little as 100 years ago.
Right at this moment we have not overcrowded the planet or run out of natural resources, yet.  At some point in the future, most scientists agree, we will.  There will be fights over food, water, fuel and all the resources will be scarce.
If there is to be a point to be taken from all this, it is that yes bad things are always happening.  But I would rather have the bad things that happen now then the bad things that have happened or that will happen. After every rain comes the rainbow.