Missive #137

3. Nasruddin’s Donkey Is Missing

Nasruddin’s donkey was lost, but Nasruddin appeared to be happy, not sad. Instead of looking for his donkey, he sat drinking coffee in the coffeehouse.

Everyone was puzzled about this, knowing how much Nasruddin loved his donkey, and his donkey had now been missing for several days.

“I don’t understand why you look so happy,” someone finally said to him. “How can you smile like that when your donkey is lost?”

“I’m smiling because I’m not on the donkey,” explained Nasruddin, taking another sip of his coffee. “Just imagine: if I were on the donkey, I would be lost too!”

This Tale is from “Tiny Tales of Nasruddin” by Laura Gibbs. The book is licensed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. © 2019-2022 Laura Gibbs.

I went back to town again this morning. This time it was for a blood draw at the VA to see what my C-reactive protein level is which is a measure of inflammation. I’ll also get readings on cholesterol and some other stuff but it is the inflammation that I’m most interested in. While there I inquired about getting some help with identity verification at VA.gov. That is going to be a required portal for me to access my VA Health account but I can’t jump through all the flaming hoops that are set up for the verification.

I left there and went for breakfast at Café Olé. They didn’t have the crowd that I remember them having in the past. The breakfast was just as good however. From there it was a few blocks to my bank were I got some quarters and inquired about an email I received 6 weeks ago that my Debit Card was soon to expire and I would be getting a new card. Didn’t get a new card but was assured that it was still coming.

Then back to the UPS Store to pick up a package of supplements that I ordered. I have been taking vitamins D & B12 and zinc for a few years but have added turmeric to this last order. I’ll also get some probiotics from the VA. A lot of supplements but the only medication that I take is ibuprofen when I have a psoriasis flare.

Across the street to Fix My Device again where I donated the dead Fire 10 for recycling and all of the accessories as a gift to be passed on to anyone that needed them. I have ordered a Kobo Libra 2 that should be here next week. I plan on that becoming my primary eReader versus the Fire 8 which is getting long in the tooth and could also fail at any time.

That takes care of all the pressing things that I had on my List for the next couple of weeks then a trip to the VA in Tucson to see my cataract surgeon for what I hope will be the last time.

[T]oday we are going to deal with de-dollarization, and this for us is a really big theme, and we are going to take our time dealing with it. We will probably do at least two shows, maybe even a bit more. But in any case, since it’s such a big thing, let’s just get started. — Since Money is Political by Michael Hudson