A modern example of delayed gratification
On April first, all jokes aside, I registered online for my first round of vaccinations. Since then, I’ve had two robotic phone calls, as reminders, and I think I might have had an email along the way. Assuming that tomorrow actually comes, my first session should pass “like a hot knife through butter”. After that, there will be a future delay (rumours talk of months; I don’t really know), before the second session. Until then, we continue to require social distancing, masks and a recognition that online shopping is the way of (my) future. Will the vaccine make me invincible? Doubtful. There we have it: a textbook example of delayed gratification. And I no longer care.
We’re under a very vague storm warning. So vague that I can’t find it on the federal forecast site. However, the fisher folk won’t be setting traps for several more days, just in case. Did we suddenly adopt the “school closure” model, as used in the peak of winter, to decide on what might be the most important commercial activity locally? And will those fisher folk also be told to stay ashore when the winds come up, later in the season? Or are we witnessing the heavy hand of public safety for this one moment? Knowing how limited the lobster season already is, and faced with the whale watch, I imagine there are some very unhappy people at home (around the kitchen table), right now.
Today I received a bill, from a local courier firm. The same people that brought me the solar generator AND got stuck in my ditch. Anyhow, the bill was largely to cover taxes (inevitable, and I have no problem with paying my fiar share. However, the courier firm added on their own “carrying charges”. In return for collecting fees for the feds, the firm charges $90 to collect $170. And to add insult to usury, their online payment system has been down, all day. Quite in keeping with their business plan.
