Been watching this video. WARNING : Very gross in places.
And what struck me about it is that so many of them involved poop.
Just so many stories of people pooping in all the wrong places. It boggles the mind, and challenges even my very expansive and forgiving understanding of humanity.
Where to poop is LITERALLY the first thing people learn, god dammit. You learn that before you even learn to talk.
That’s why stories of people pooping in the wrong way and/or in the wrong places have always fascinated me. It’s such a profound taboo learned at such an early age that something has to go seriously wrong for someone to violate it.
So as a student of the human mind, erroneous pooping represents an extreme version of abnormal psychology.
When it’s voluntary, that is. Incontinence is a whole other phenomenon.
Leaving feces behind, what I want to know is : is there something about Walmart that attracts extremely marginal people who are more likely to do horrifying things, or is this just the Florida Effect?
I call it the Florida Effect because I know that Florida has this internet reputation as being basically the Walmart of the USA. And I also know that it’s bullshit. It’s just that Florida has laws that make absolutely everything the cops do a matter of open access legal record, and so it’s easier to find stories of grotesque hilarity there than anywhere else in the USA.
Similarly, it’s possible that Walmart has no more incidences of human horror than any other chain of businesses, but because it has this (rather classist) reputation as a working class hellhole, stories confirming that bias spread fast online.
Having covered that, let’s move on to the more fun possibility, that there really is something about Walmart that makes it attract more of these weird events.
If so, then I have so many questions. Like…. is this a phenomenon of the sort of people Walmart attracts? If so, who are these people? What is it about Walmart that attracts them? Is there something about Walmart that makes these people feel safe and accepted when they do not feel that way anywhere else?
If so, bravo Walmart.
Or is it that Walmart makes people act in a way they do not act anywhere else? Like, do the stars of these horror stories do these things everywhere they go, or only at Walmart? If it’s a Walmart only thing, what signals are these people picking up that tells them the rules are different there?
I’m thinking it’s pheromones. But then, I always do.
More seriously, I wonder if it’s actually more like the “one broken window” effect, where it starts with one window that stays broken, which signals people subconsciously that this place isn’t worth taking caring of and that leads to other destructive behaviours which make a place look even worse, and so on and so forth till the place is a total disaster area that’s pure hell for all who live there.
Recontextualizing for Walmart, perhaps it started with something simple – say, a few people shopping in their bedclothes, or even their undies – but that signaled to others that the rules were different here, and then it was one fast ride down a slippery slope to the bizarre carnival of horrors we know and love today.
Note : Canadian Walmarts are nothing like the American ones in that respect. So American culture has to figure into it somehow too.
That’s enough for now. Papa needs a rest now. When I return : Medical Misadventures – The Mummy Returns!
Whoa. Just woke up from a very deep sleep. My naps don’t usually go that deep. Especially not at night.
Maybe I should nap with classical music playing more often.
Anyhow, on to today’s medical misadventure. Had my appointment at the clinic today and there was the usual changing of dressing and whatnot.
But in addition to that, they also tested the circulation in my legs. Finally. It was supposed to happen last Friday, and also the Friday before that, but that whole “understaffed” bullshit put the kibosh to that.
Like I am going to tell some nervous newbie nurse that she is supposed to be testing my circulatioin when she is shaky enough just changing mky dressing. Poor thing.
Anyhoo, so today it finally got done. And it got done in a way that was both interesting and, in a way. stupid obvious.
Because whar it involved was putting four blood pressure cuffs on me, on on each arm and one on each ankle, and then letting the machine squeeze and release till it had finished its little routine and had all the readings it wanted.
Ended up having to do it twice because the first time, one of the cuffs popped loose. And I felt it happen, but I couldn’t get up the nerve to tell the nurse.
The upshot is that I now have two layers of compression stocking covering my legt leg from knee to ankle, and it’s giving me a bit of a squeeze.
The idea is that this will improve circulation in said area. That seems counterintuitive at the moment as that’s not the usual result from being squished like this.
But I trust they know what they are doing.
The bad news is that with this huge amount of cloth on my leg, I can’t shower unless I somehow can cover the whole frigging thing.
So once more, I can’t shower. Motherfucker. I will try to imagine a way around this, but for the time being, I am back to sponge bathing and pit scrubbing.
Other than that,the thing is easy to ignore and actually feels sort of cozy, either from the thermal insulation of the stocking or because it really is improving circulation in my leg and foot and that’s the feeling of proper bloodflow for the first time in decades.
Probably a bit of both. I’m good either way.
So that’s the medical update. Oh, and the wound is looking much better. The apeture is decreasing, and it really does seem like it’s doing its best to close up.
Who knows, in a couple of months, I might even be rid of the damned thing.
I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.