How can it not be about gun violence?

 Jeez, I came across a site that tracks gun violence and it's hard to imagine that this is normal for anyone.  I liked the site because they aren't preaching anything; they are just tracking the story.  We here in Nevada have our flags at half-mast because of the latest Indianapolis FedEx shootings.  Those people, just like George Floyd and Daunte Wright, were killed just because they were there.  Or was it because half of them were members of the local Sikh community?  I honestly do not know and since the killer (in Indianapolis) is dead I'm pretty sure we'll never really KNOW.  Floyd's killer, in my opinion, knew he was being too violent but I'm not sure he intended to kill.  Wright's killer really seems to have made a mistake in my opinion.  It's hard to believe that a cop with 20+ years experience would do that but it is so stupid a killing that I vote for mistake.  That is not to say that both cops shouldn't be punished for it!  I mean if I let my car drift over and I hit a pedestrian; I should be punished.  It was a mistake but that's not a get-out-of-jail-free card.

My brother-in-law dropped his NRA life membership a few years ago when they started supporting people having just any type of firearm. He'd been a hunter for many years but never needed a fully automatic weapon to kill a deer.  I liked him for that.  

I have a gun that was given to me by my parents when I was 11.  That's over 60 years ago.  (OMG!)  But I haven't killed anyone or anything with it.  I've bought a few more over the years but nothing crazy.  On the other hand, if you break into my home and threaten my wife and myself, I doubt seriously if you will leave here alive before the police show up to save your ass.  (An aside:  my wife's first husband joined the police; it did their relationship no good when she repeatedly shot better with his service weapon than he did.)  

All of this is really close to my heart right now.  My wife and I are very fortunate to be comfortably retired; reasonably healthy and happy together.  On the other hand, those other things:  pandemic, the markets, the general state of the United States; those things are bothering me.  The last is bothering me most of all.  There seems to be some sort of stupid thing happening every day!  There are plenty of shootings:  both by citizens and by police.  The former President who STILL maintains that he won re-election; and there are actually people who believe him!  Cryptocurrency is going crazy.  I have to say that chronic stress seems to be kind of the new normal.

I was reading about applying yourself to a hobby as a way to reduce stress.  I'd love to do that but my photographic hobby is being difficult just now.  How about I share a couple photos I took when we lived in the Netherlands something over 20 years ago?

They had balloons even way back then!

And this is what the local community college parking lot looked like.

Have a good one.  Keep washing those hands!