Complaining about allergies

One of my sons has a peanut and tree nut allergy. It freaks me out on a regular basis...just the idea that something that most other kids enjoy on a regular basis could potentially kill him, well, it's a bit unsettling. Having said that, though, I don't get too down about it. I mean, it's only a nut allergy. Nut allergies are so common nowadays that it's reasonably easy to avoid. We know plenty of other kids with nut allergies. In the grand scheme, a nut allergy is a pretty minor blip.

But once in a while, it just hits me. Recently an ice cream truck has been coming through our neighborhood. B-man will never be able to get ice cream from an ice cream truck. It's just not worth the risk. Yes, maybe he could get a prepackaged ice pop, but he's never going to be able to run up with a couple dollars and just get something without worrying. Or perhaps I mean without ME worrying.

I know, not a big deal. It just hits me whenever I hear that tinkly music coming down the road.

Random unrelated thought: I finished The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao a few days ago, and really enjoyed it. I'm not sure why...it has footnotes, which I LOATHE with a passion**. It has far more Spanish than I understand. And it out-geeked even me. I wonder how all the totally non-geeky members of my book group are fairing. Unless you have a PhD in Lord of the Rings, you're certainly missing some of the references. I'm really looking forward to discussing it, but I'll refrain for now since I know a large portion of my readership is members of my book group :)

**See, it's annoying, isn't it? Okay, fine, I do it myself in blog posts, and it's acceptable when I'm reading nonfiction, but it just pulls me right out of the story when an author chooses to use them in a novel. I mean, work it into the story, can't ya??

The sorry state of the future

I wouldn't say I'm a pessimist, but sometimes I wonder about the future of the world.

I've always been a fan of dystopian literature. The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake, Brave New World, A Friend of the Earth and heck, most everything by Kurt Vonnegut. Those are some of my favorite books. For my 2007 NaNoWriMo novel, I ended up writing a dystopia.

No, I'm not pessimistic.

So, on this most recent road trip we took to Buffalo, I was reminded of something. Something that I believe irrefutably proves that the future perhaps isn't all rosy: Dippin' Dots. You know, the ice cream of the future (circle R).

I'm not saying Dippin' Dots are bad, but really, is that all the future holds for us? Why can't Ben and Jerry's be the ice cream of the future? Or even Hood's Fenway Fudge. Those are futures I could embrace. But Dippin' Dots?

I hate to say it, but I don't have a lot of faith in a future where Dippin' Dots is our ice cream of choice.

Random unrelated thought: Whenever I get the hiccups, I worry that they'll never go away. Like this guy. Although, technically, his hiccups did eventually stop, after sixty-eight years.