Lazy stereotypes lashing the eye

Making lazy choices

When I finally decided to exit my apartment for some domestic shopping, I had the choice of visiting one of two stores in the same store chain, miles diametrically apart from each other with the possibility, one might not have what I needed. I left it to the chance of which mode of transport came first, it happened to be the bus before I got as far as the tram station.

Meanwhile, one annoying feature of the construction boom in Manchester is the council-supported allowance for builders to cordon off complete side streets or pavements with as much as one lane on the street as a safety buffer in some cases. That was a recent obstruction implemented on my way, just as I seethe about the lane which has been lost from my street for over two years.

I think it is more about giving the companies opportunities to utilise their plots fully without losing any space to the construction process. It is in my view a form of corruption that unnecessarily inconveniences the public without compensation or consequence.

Power to a stereotype

Having boarded the bus, as I got off, I had to help a couple on before the bus rode off without them, and then I crossed the road to my intended shop. Having obtained the goods and foodstuffs I wanted, I walked up the road looking for CR2032 batteries for my weighing scales.

I chanced on a mobile phone services shop where on requesting the batteries, I was asked if I needed them for diabetes. Now, I would not know what battery-operated device diabetics use, much I did not want to take offence as to why the shopkeeper reached that conclusion, out of stereotype or just in the quest to be helpful.

Yet, it is something to consider for diabetes along with hypertension are silent killers in our community. The need to care for our health at most times is abandoned for the expedient. There is much we can do with diet, exercise and moderation to control and mitigate these conditions that we ignore for too long until medical science can do little to ameliorate.

Enduring eyelash torture

I have been fortunate, despite my numerous health challenges, and I can do more in terms of exercise to keep fit. I keep tabs on both my weight and blood pressure at home, my biannual check-ups monitor other indicators that I try to understand the trends of, just in case I need to make radical changes to my lifestyle for corrective purposes.

As I left the shop, the wind blowing in my face must have detached a loose eyelash that got into my eye. In these times of the Coronavirus, you cannot be too careful, I had to tortuously resist the urge to touch my eyes until I had returned home and washed my hands. For all the surfaces and things, I had touched from the bus, the shopping basket, the foodstuffs, the doors and so on, it was hard but necessary. The relief of removing the speck in my eye eventually, could not be celebrated enough.

Care and carefulness have become the instructors of our daily experiences for health, keeping healthy and staying well.