My reaction to Biden's fumbling performance, early on in the debate between him and Trump the end of June, was "wow, he really is old." I remember also Trump's hyperbole, talking about infanticide and Maduro releasing patients and criminals from mental asylums in Venezuela and shipping them to the southern US border.
Less than two weeks later I got sick, after my wife returned from a cruise with friends to Norway and Iceland. I was coughing non-stop. At the walk-in clinic, I was diagnosed having an "unknown viral infection of the lower lungs." I was given pills for my cough and an antibiotic. I took the pills expecting to get better but I got worse. Whatever the virus was, it was winning.
Around this time, some stupid, foolish, stupid kid decided to insert himself into the political discourse by attempting to assassinate the former President. I was already vomiting after forcing myself to eat, and contemplating the abyss, always coughing, weak, unable to sleep or eat.
The shooter should have been apprehended when he launched his drone. An officer or agent should have noticed. There is no way anyone should be allowed to fly a drone before or during a political rally without prior permission. If he had been stopped near his car with his drone they would have found his gun and be would have been arrested. No one who was at that rally would today be dead.
Finally, my wife brought me to see my doctor. After measuring the oxygen levels in my lungs, she ordered an ambulance to take me to a hospital. We canceled the ambulance and my wife drove me to the emergency center of a hospital closer to where we live. At the emergency center, I was brought downstairs to a small room with an uncomfortable bed that had a broken controller. Nothing happened when I pressed the button requesting a nurse or tried to raise or lower the bed. This was a problem when I needed to go to the bathroom.
Occasionally a nurse would come in to check vital signs, give me a bottle of water, or set up an IV drip, and the doctor came in after looking at my bloodwork results. Outside I could hear a male nurse talking with the other nurses. I heard him say something like, "first they tried to put him in jail, then they tried to kill him." Later, he explained that he would be a "Trumper" if Trump would release the list of pedophiles, whom I assume would be celebrities, Democrat politicians, and deep state workers. I don't know if he was serious or not, but the female nurses he was talking with are undoubtably concerned about children.
That evening, after many agonizingly boring hours, I was admitted to the hospital. A nurse took me up in a wheelchair several floors above to my new room. The controller worked and the nurses and doctor were great. I stayed there two more days. When I was discharged, the diagnosis listed was "pneumonia with sepsis." The nurse said I had a urinary tract infection.
On July 21st, Biden dropped out of the race for President.
Today I'm recovering at home. The codeine cough medication is working. But I still can't sleep. I worry too much about the future, where I can go from here. And I worry about things that may not be as relevant to one's well-being, like how I can help build a better world.
