Desert Messenger

12 www.DesertMessenger.com October 21, 2020 Read Desert MESSENGER ONLINE @ DesertMessengerOnline.com READER'S OASIS BOOKS 690 E. Main - Quartzsite (one block east of Family Dollar) I need your help...with a word Town wide Clean-up days planned By Jackie Deal There's a word, or a phrase, that I need. I know it exists and it's tucked way back in my mind. I've thought and thought (a hard thing to do with so little practice.) Google it? Of course, no matter what we need; Google it, right? But the problem is: I don't know what the word is that I want to Google. I tried and Google just got into a snit and so did I. I even threatened to fl ush it down the toilet, but it knew better. Dictionaries! AW! I have two huge dictionaries that I haven't used since Google and Yahoo came along. Down on my hand and knees to dig them out of the bottom of the book case. Ugh! They weigh a ton. Blow off the dust. And then real- ize. You can't look up a word if you don't have a word to look up! Re- member when your kids were little: "Mmmaaaa, how do you spell it?" And you said, "Look it up" and they said, "Mmmmaaa, how can I look it up if I can't spell it?" Smart alecks! Aha! Roget's Thesaurus. What a waste of time. Nothing even close. Can't fi nd antonyms and synonyms if you don't have a word to begin with. So what is this word I'm so steamed up about? Okay, let me explain. You know how after some- thing bad goes along for a long, long time and you have to be on high alert and then eventually you be- gin to not really care anymore? It's sorta like burn-out, only that's not really it. It's maybe what happens down in Louisiana or Mississippi (remember learning to spell that in grade school? M-i- curly que-curly que-i curly que-curly que- i-hump- back-humpback i.) Now if you've just moved there, (no matter how it's spelled) and there's an evacu- ation ordered for hurricanes or tornadoes. You leap into the car, Whoops! Grab the kids and the dog and then leap into the car. But as it happens over and over you move slower and fi nally you say, "Aw what the heck, it's just hype." And you don't leave. It happened in London during the bombing by Hitler. At fi rst everyone dashed into the shelters and stayed down low. But night after night when they weren't hit; well, fi nally some of them didn't run so fast or didn't run at all. Unfortunately, then some of them never ran again. It's an actual medical condition. You can tolerate a condition of high adrenalin just so long. Adrenalin is the old "Fight or Flight" hormone. The Siberian tiger is attacking and you need to fi ght or get the blazes out of there. Nowadays, there's no tiger but there's still fearful and stress- ful situations and the adrenalin response kicks in. Continued high adrenalin can lead to high blood pressure, strokes and heart attacks. But what I'm thinking of is more the emotional response. For seven month or so we've been on high alert. Social distancing: had you ever heard of that before the corona virus? Masks. Wash your hands. It's posted on every doorway and in practically every bathroom. Don't shake hands, don't hug (What does a hug feel like?). And slowly we're becoming a little lax. We don't know how much longer this will last. We do know that it's supposed to get worse with the fl u hitting, school starting and indoor gatherings in cold weather. Sounds like we should be more vigilant rather than less. But Oh. Ho hum. And then we read the statistics: more covid positives this week than ever before. More deaths. World- wide. And yes, right in our own counties and communities. Some- how we've got to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and remain vigi- lant. We've got to fi ght against that word that I can't remember. Can you help me out? What is the word that I wanted to use for a title for this piece? It's that time of year to clean up around your home! The Town of Quartzsite is spon- soring bi-monthly Town Wide Clean-up Days November 16-22, 2020. Dumpsters will be available at two locations: Town Lot located at 560 E. Coyote (just down the street from the Police Station, off Plymouth Ave.) and the North-East corner of Moon Mountain and Quail Trail. Free trash and household goods disposal, however NO TIRES, NO HAZARDOUS WASTE and NO HOUSEHOLD TRASH. For ONE DAY ONLY US Fuel Oil, LLC. will be onsite to accept USED MOTOR OIL, OIL FILTERS and VEHICLE BATTERIES (6V, 12V and 24V) Thursday, November 19th, 2020 at the Quail Trail & Moon Mountain Avenue site. If you need help or cannot get to the dumpsters, call Quartzsite Town Hall at 928-927-4333 to arrange a free pick for Tuesday, Wednes- day or Thursday. Limited number of pickups are available on a fi rst come fi rst serve basis.

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