June 10, 2017
8:12 p.m.

Some of the craziest stuff goes through my head on nights (or mornings) when I'm pretending to be asleep in case I might actually fall asleep.

It occurred to me--not for the first time--that had I been born before the days of any technology, I would have been dead long before reaching adulthood.

If I was a cave person, like in "Clan of the Cave Bears", they would have had to leave me doing whatever close work might need getting done. I don't know what, tanning hides, maybe? I couldn't have contributed to hunting, because I can't see well.

I suppose I could have groped my way around looking for edible plants and grubs. I don't know that much gardening went on that early in the game. I probably would have gotten lost.

Any wild animal could have gotten me before I realized it was coming. Even if I actually saw one coming, I wouldn't have a lick of a chance to get away--even as a child I could never run far without gasping and wheezing.

Bear chow. That would have been me.

As clans went, as near as I can figure out, the more powerful contributors to the group would have been given the choicest foods and sleeping areas.

I would have been closest to the cave entrance with minimal covering and the least food.

And that would have been my lot when things were going well. If the pickings were slim, though...

One winter, I would have been the one chosen to be put out of the cave and into the cold to die so that the more important members could eat.

Doomed.

In medieval times I might have fared somewhat better. But with asthma and allergies and poor eyesight, someone would have really had to love me a lot to protect me from the environment. I'd have to have some means of support to be blessed with some sort of vision aide to make my life bearable. I think the first spectacles made their appearance in Italy in the late 1200s to early 1300s and I'm sure that only those with reasonable means could have gotten hold of them.

Yeah, the good old days would have whipped me!

Yes, I took time to google eyeglasses history in the wee hours of the morning instead of sleeping. I wasn't sleeping anyway! Might as well be productive and learn something while I'm considering all the ways I could have met an early demise if I'd been born centuries earlier than I was!

In the meantime, I also decided that I'm pretty grateful to have been born in an era when I had access to allergy shots and eye doctors, not to mention eyeglasses and a good emergency inhaler and epi-pen.

Maybe I'll sleep tonight...

Time will tell.

It's been a couple of days now. Clearly the silliness is settling in.

My thoughts for now.

Ta ta!