The Day I May Have Eluded Death, Again

"A very difficult day of driving. But after 14 hours of traffic madness, at last, Butch Barbie and I have made it to Arizona. Now, at 6:10 pm, I still have about 4 hours or so left to drive."

October 18th, 2017

That was the text I included when I posted this picture on Facebook. There was a reason I included these details, this time window, but as is often my behavior, I didn't say what was going on.

You should know that I can detect dangerous people from miles away. Really. It's one of my super powers. I have several of those, by the way.

I took this picture while a man that I know for a fact, was stalking me. I think he started following me on the interstate. When I pulled in at this rest stop, he pulled in a few seconds later and parked right next to me. When I got out of the car and headed toward the restroom - and about 3 seconds after I stepped up on the curb - so did he. 

Neither of these things is necessarily odd - it was a rest stop and people get out of their cars and head toward the facilities - but I overtly noticed him when he parked. It felt all wrong and my brain yelled louder and louder at me the farther I got from my car.

So I stopped short, turned around, walking back past him, went to my car and got Butch Barbie. I decided to avoid the restroom. I knew that if this guy had targeted me, that I shouldn't leave sight of my car. It's not uncommon for these men to compromise your vehicle so you are stranded on the side of the road at some point.

I grabbed Butch Barbie, stood up, and looked toward the facilities; I wasn't surprised to see that he also did not go into the rest room but stopped to take a drink from the fountain. When he stood up, he turned around to "survey his surroundings".

I took Butch Barbie and walked to the railing you see in the picture which was about 40 to 50 yards in front of my car and 30 or so feet beyond the picture location. I leaned on it, as many were doing, and looked out at the vista. He then walked from the fountain, staying quite close to the side of the building, up to the railing himself, but about 20 feet away from me. I wondered how to shake this weirdo, so I decided that I would behave somewhat normally for a few minutes and see if he would leave on his own.

Well, he didn't leave the railing the entire time I stood there. So I walked back in the direction of my car, and a couple of seconds later, he too, left the railing. I worked to keep him within my peripheral vision. I stopped at this raised concrete planter thing and decided to have a photo shoot. This enabled me to pose Barbie and take pictures from different directions and angles. He had stopped and leaned against the building behind me. I was definitely his target.

Since there was no question that I had become a target, when I took the photos, I made a big show of doing so, garnering the attention of quite a few travelers that were also there, and having a few friendly back and forth comments. I would be remembered for being here and just maybe one of those people noticed him leaning against the building behind me. I was making it difficult for him without him realizing I was being deliberate about it.

When I finished, I headed back to my car, as did he. I got in and locked all the doors. The rest stop was really busy, people were walking on either side of my car to get to the restrooms, but they were coming and going with their own agenda and were not noticing this guy. But even so, I knew he wouldn't do anything with all of these people around. 

Since he was parked right next to me, I assumed that if I left, he would follow me. I had plates that were from a state that was in my rearview mirror, so it likely seemed pretty obvious to him that I was not headed home.

In the photo, you can see the length of the shadows (you can even see me) - it was late afternoon. Most people don't tend to drive as long of a day as I do, and a logical assumption would be that I would be stopping for the night fairly soon, either at my destination (unlikely because it is a fairly empty stretch for many, many miles) or a hotel - although I wouldn't be. 

I wondered what actions I should take. I didn't want him to know I was on to him (people like this do NOT like to be outed and can become more determined), so I decided to look busy. The first thing I did was to overtly deal with my phone and start talking on speaker in an animated way, smiling and acting like I hadn't noticed him at all. I told my friend what was happening. The guy didn't leave.

I stayed on the phone with my friend and I opened Instagram. I was scrolling but still talking with my friend giving constant updates on the situation; still smiling and being animated. I knew that as long as it remained daylight and the rest stop remained busy, this would work for a while. I never looked his way, or any other way other than straight ahead.

I could see him occasionally covertly glancing in my direction with my peripheral vision, and after about half an hour, he was adjusting his sitting position frequently and looking perturbed. After about 45 minutes, he started his Toyota and left. At that point, I waited about 10 minutes and then posted this picture with the current time and expected time of arrival at my destination.

There was an exit coming up within a mile of where I was, but there were no services and nothing for miles in either direction on that road. I was concerned he may have exited and would be waiting for me to pass under to get behind me. Or even be driving slowly so I would pass him on the interstate. Although I checked every time I went under an overpass to make sure he hadn't just selected one farther down the road and was following me, I never saw him again. 

I drove at a good clip hoping to arrive sooner than expected.

Once I reached Phoenix, I was in thick traffic with an insane number of lanes. I changed lanes quite a bit. By the time I was on the other side of Phoenix, I felt fairly sure he thought I had become too much of a liability. I was out of his preferred "territory" which was clearly defined as vast empty spaces.

Once I returned home, I looked to see if there were women who had gone missing in that area. And yes, there were. It had been going on for about 4 years, at that point. All were traveling in the same direction as I was, and all were last seen somewhere within the last 15 miles before that rest stop.

When I say that I have magical abilities, THIS is one of them. 

Being very aware of your surroundings and, more importantly, the people (mostly men) in them, and trusting your gut will serve you well. Stay alert and get into a safe place, often your car, and lock it. Get to a location with other people, preferably a lot of other people. If you're being followed, don't leave your car unattended. If you're on the move, keep moving until you reach a safe place, like a police station or fire station, stay in your car, call 911 and tell them you are in the parking lot in your car.

If you have a feeling at all, no matter how small or how silly you might think it is, trust it! The worst that could happen if you do, is nothing at all.

Food Safety Is Even More Important Now Than It Has Been

Back in the Dark Ages, when I was becoming a chef, if you wanted a job in food service of any kind, regardless of the establishment, you were legally required to take a course in food safety given by the state. Afterward, you had to take and pass a test that literally included everything in the course to obtain certification. 

Most food service establishments paid for your course, your certificate, and laminated state pictured ID card, which you received after successful completion. To ensure that you always had your ID card and hadn't forgotten it, the cards were continuously kept under the cash drawers of the registers for the entirety of your employment to ensure that they could prove employees were certified when the inspectors came.

Apparently, this is no longer true anywhere in the US anymore. Let me know if this is still a thing where you are.

I mention this because I shop curbside. Having someone else select my food is a necessary evil that I have had to learn to accept; and it hasn't been easy. 

The duties associated with the position of "shopper" varies a little from place to place, but at its' root, this person walks up and down the aisles and fills your order. This position is entry level and people do not tend to stay long, either through promotion (those people hold this position the longest), or because they are no longer employed there. It is a revolving door of personnel and I am thrilled when I see someone more than once.

When you order your food online, in addition to notes you can make for every individual item, there is a "notes" section where one can say something general to the shopper. In that section, order after order, I thank them, wish them a lovely day, and instruct them my to make sure that they pack the raw meat separately from ALL other food. 

I also realize that if they require direction to pack raw meat separately, then they are also likely not turning the plastic bag inside out over their hand to handle the raw meat during the selection process, while subsequently doing the rest of my shopping. Fortunately, most of my food items are in packaging.

This is also why I don't order fresh food that one would typically eat without cooking. You can't wash cross-contamination of this kind away under the faucet.

Even still, a couple of weeks ago, I risked ordering an apple. I haven't had one since lockdown began and Autumn usually makes me want an apple occasionally. And even though my note about packing separately was there, they put my solitary apple in with the raw pork. This meant that I had to cook the apple to eat it, which wasn't at all what I wanted.

In the past couple of decades, food safety oversight at production and processing plants has been greatly reduced, and now, even more so. So while there will be times that we can't avoid illness because of that fact, we can avoid a lot of it by adhering to food safety rules.

So here is a food safety guide that you can open in a new window and slide to your desktop to share with whomever you think needs it.

Have You Ever Wondered Why They Don't Teach Kids To Write In Cursive Anymore?

Cursive was born in Italy and then spread all over the world.

Not by chance the word cursive comes from the Latin "currere" - that which runs, which flows - because thought is winged, runs, and flies.

Writing in cursive means translating thoughts into words; it forces you to NOT take your hand off the paper.

A thought-stimulating effort that allows you to associate ideas, tie them together, and to put them into relation to create a thought in written form.

Of course cursive has no place in today's world, a world that does its' best to slow down the development of thought, to stuff it.

And no, it's not a coincidence that they tend to use it less and less.

Because it was compact, elegant, clear writing. Because it connects neural pathways that are only connected in this way. 

And because AI cannot read it.

That "AI cannot read it" is a happy thing. It was unplanned, and subsequently has been eliminated from schools since AIs' introduction. Writing at all, is being taught less and less and when it is, only to a rather rudimentary level. With pictures, emojis, and emoticons being pressed upon us and easily adopted by the populace, (since most cannot read above a 4th grade level already) reading will also go the way of cursive and print writing.

Not writing in complete words, and also using words in an opposite manner from their real meaning, are all part of the planned systematic "dumbing down" of the masses. Soon, there will be no writing and then, no more reading.

Emoticons, emojis, and pictures (especially photoshopped and AI generated ones), are being substituted and promoted as PROGRESS. They are not progress, they are a huge step back hundreds of years.

Oppressively making sure that most people were not allowed to learn to read and write has been used throughout history to control people by what they are allowed to know. Just as the arts are being taken away (and systematically have been since the 1980's) because they require a person to think creatively and make decisions.

It's frightening. And it isn't an accident, happenstance, or coincidence, that they started targeting the preschool/kindergarten ages in the 80's. They started at the lower ages so that most would never experience it. Those kids, and the ones behind them in age, grew up and matriculated and are the adults up through early middle age now. The privileged few, whose parents could afford the time and money to get their kids "lessons", are indeed a minority. 

And it isn't a coincidence of the rise of privatized soccer in the 90's, a pay to play fad that was pushed hard at the very young and directed what extracurricular funds parents had into that expensive funnel, instead of the arts. It wasn't long before there was a plethora of high cost - high time commitment - privatized team sports activities that were pushed hard upon children. Knowing, of course, that kids want to do what their friends are doing.

Now look where we are. It's already happened. We are in it. The youth, with the natural attitudes they have always had, are being told they are educated, when all they have been taught to do is pass standardized tests of things Mega Corp wants them to regurgitate. They then go on to the "for profit" colleges that do the same because they have made having a college degree a needless requirement for almost all jobs that are not in the customer facing jobs of the service industry, to accrue debt they will likely never pay off. So now, when they are told anything in just the right way, they glom-on, thinking in the way they were taught, and ignorantly lead the oppressive fascists to their goals.

Humans are group oriented tribal creatures and activities that teach independent, creative thinking like the arts, humanities, logic, common problem solving, and philosophy, at their core, facilitate connecting with, and understanding other people. 

Our new world is about isolating and dividing people. 

Look deeply into the motives of people (regardless of their jobs or titled positions) who are against, or are detractors, of activities that teach independent, creative thinking like the arts, humanities, logic, common problem solving, and philosophy - Things they want AI to do FOR you.

Do those people support the regime? Do they benefit from the new world order? Is their work and/or wallet greatly benefitting from AI? Are they incredibly wealthy? 

As always, Follow The Money.