blood everywhere

I volunteered at the library's blood drive today

   Well, actually I sat and read.
   Jackie was at the cookie and juice table.  I sort of directed people toward the sign in table.
   The dad of a former student stopped by to say hi.  He was giving blood for the 43rd time!  He said it was his way of giving back to the world.
   I have never given blood.
   I tend to pass out at the sight of blood....mine or anyone else's.
   I used to pass out when they put the needle in me to draw blood, but I seem to be over that.  But to lay there with a needle in my arm as the life source oozes from my body???  I don't think I can do it.
   And it's funny.  When I have surgery or a heart attack, I seem to get hooked up to an IV and it's ok.  So...what's the difference?  Forty minutes hooked up to a needle or a couple of days?
   It's all in the mind.
   While I was there, I checked out a book.  The cover looked familiar so I asked if there was a way to see if I had checked out this book before.  I was told the library no longer kept records of what people have read.
   I think I knew that, but was still happy to hear it.  I really don't want big government snooping around in my reading lists.   It's about the only area of privacy I have left.
   I needed a book because I just can't stand the world these days.  Too much hate and anger and yelling and fear and name calling.
   I dread listening to the news or reading the Trib.  And the rhetoric on Facebook?  It gets quite heated....and ugly.
   That's why I am spending more time in a Guido Brunetti's world, which despite its crime and corruption, is at least a world of fiction.
    That's all I gotta say about that.