A DARK SIDE OF FACEBOOK

Facebook has many dark sides. This is just one.

By nature, I'm a private person. However my Timeline is public. This is only because I'm an independent author and it's necessary to promote my work.

Getting a page on Facebook is like buying a house on a busy city street. You have a locked iron gate out front and just behind are steps leading up to a wide open front door. Many just pass by. But there's some who pull out binoculars, lean on that gate trying to see as much as they can. And there are others who hurl their feces over the gate and into your living room. It takes awhile to remove the stain and stench.

Recently I was verbally attacked twice with barrages of profanity and insults. The first and worst was on messenger in private by someone clearly mentally unhinged. Regrettably I had accepted his friendship request only minutes earlier. Had this been politically motivated it would not have upset me as much! This attack against me was personal after I tried setting boundaries with him.

When I accept a friendship request I would never dream of rummaging thru someone's photos beyond what is currently displayed on their Timeline & news feed. Yet people think nothing of snooping thru mine! I find this creepy and stalker-like, but usually say nothing. However this one guy immediately rubbed me the wrong way. So I asked him why he found it necessarily to ferret thru my photos as he was doing! 

  

Then I was called every vile name you can imagine combined with a long list of personal insults! His language was so extremely profane and over-the-top it was not that of a stable person! The cherry on top was that after vetting me I was unworthy of him and he was unfriending me!

However to make certain he was gone permanently I BLOCKED him.

This coward didn't give his actual name. It was that of a cartoon character with whom I was unfamiliar. But that didn't detour me from filing a complaint with Facebook.  -- I don't know if they actually did anything. These days too many people can't string a simple sentence together without lacing it full of vulgarity they may just have ignored my complaint.

In the weeks that followed I noticed more comments from recently friended persons going thru both my new & old albums not visible on my Timeline. I posted I did not appreciate it and I wished people would stop doing it!

This time I was attacked with gutter language and insults right on my Timeline! Afterward, I considered deleting all my photos and thus rid myself of snooping strangers. And I still might do that! The next time my Tech guy comes over I intend to make some significant changes.

In the meantime I'm blocking so many that soon I'll have more of those than Facebook's so-called friends!

Another unhinged person whom I blocked was a woman whose friendship I accepted out of pity. She was around my age, in a wheelchair tending a sick mother and seemed desperately lonely. Shortly after I accepted her friendship request she suggested the two of us get a house and move in together. Gadzooks we were both STRANGERS!

I tried distancing myself. But nearly every day she sent long, rambling messages in private about her past, things she experienced and her philosophies, relationship with God, etc. -- I didn't know what to say, so I'd just give a thumb's up and left it at that.

She angrily complained that I was rudely dismissing her!

I told her that I didn't understand how she could be lonely with her mother around for company. She berated me for focusing on that and nothing else. Then added that she could tell I didn't have many friends and I liked it that way! -- She hit the nail on the head there! This is true!

Now I'd had it! I told her that I found her draining and it was past time we went our separate ways. I blocked her immediately afterward!

And I've blocked plenty of men who were clearly romantic scammers. Facebook extends invitations that I never would! I don't understand why they encourage messaging in private from total strangers!

These days I am more selective than ever and quick to block.

THE STALKING SHADOW

Mysteriously she appeared during the Covid-19 shut-down. I noticed her silhouette in my peripheral vision, this shadowy profile of a strange woman but always in my left eye only. It seemed like something out of a horror tale. Something Stephen King would write! Nah, NOT Stephen King -- Clive Barker! But those guys probably aren't dealing with eye issues.

Even after the shut-down ended the vision center was still booking emergencies only. So I waited. My friend Marie urged me to call. On June 1 I did. I told the clinic I didn't consider it an emergency. They disagreed! I was instructed to come in 8:45 AM the following morning.

Now I was worried, but relieved to get an AM appointment since afternoons tended to be stormy. And I have driven in blinding rain where I could see nothing but the taillights of the car in front of me. I didn't want to be in a likewise situation with dilated pupils, dark glasses, & blurry vision.

However the next morning this weather pattern had reversed, rain was coming down in buckets as I drove to the clinic. But thankfully the sky cleared for my drive home.

This was my 3rd emergency visit to the eye clinic since my cataract surgery in 2017.

I actually thought cataract surgery would end all my vision problems; instead it was just the start! The light flashes not only remain, now there's even more. Plus I've got eye floaters galore; big black ones, small brown ones, and jelly ones like small drops of Vaseline that blur my vision in places. The later are the result of posterior vitreous detachment which I have in both eyes now. My vision is similar to peering thru a glass of swamp water during a lightning storm.

After a series of tests, I was informed that this silhouette of a well-defined feminine profile was just another symptom of my posterior vitreous detachment. It could be removed by laser along with many floaters for a mere $7000. UGH!

I have more pressing expenses, many more! Nor do I have a wide enough circle of friends and acquaintances for a Go Fund Me page. Plus I don't have the type of personality most people can relate to. Since this is not serious, only annoying I'm just going to live with it. I'd rather spend that $7000 on a great trip, repairs to my home, or most likely the next big unexpected expense that raises its ugly head!

I'm just grateful this isn't more severe!

Around this time, a close friend's father was handed a death sentence from cancer and she was researching funeral homes. "Everything is so expensive I don't understand how anyone can afford to die," she told me.

From my experience you can't even afford to get sick unless you're rich! If I'm anything like my parents this is only the beginning, far more grievous and expensive maladies are on the horizon.

When MY end comes, I won't have to worry about funeral expenses, they'll be selling my body parts just to make a dent in all the medical debts I'll probably be leaving behind.

In the meantime, I'm doing everything I can to keep healthy and out of hospitals. But it may not be enough.

Since benign and not evil, I'm going to live with the witch in my left eye as I call her. But if I ever hear voices in my head that are not my own I'm going to be splashing that eye with holy water and contacting an exorcist!

FINALLY!!!

At long last the Covid-19 face masks I ordered from Amazon (April 2) have arrived! That slow boat (or plane) from Zhejiang, China has finally reached our shores. Now I can roll up my do-rag and put it back in the drawer.

I'd joked that a cure would probably be discovered first. Sadly, this is not the case. However I'm all set for the second wave. And too many fools seem determined to make that happen!

Also I ordered a big broad-brimmed hat with a huge shield attached that comes down to the chest. (I'm still waiting for that.)You can be sure it will be a regular part of my summer wardrobe every time I set foot in public.

Mostly, I plan on staying home until the virus is under control. Yes, I miss dinning out and going to movies. The theatres here remain closed.

However I'm enjoying a wide variety of films on my DVR in what I call my living room theatre. I enjoy double features on Friday night and all afternoon matinees on Saturdays.

And I do what I refer to as eating-out-at-home. Always I set a pretty table for myself with different color schemes and decorations, but now when seated I make up different names of restaurants such as: Cafe Fandango, The Hidden Garden Bistro, or The Serendipity Diner and pretend I'm eating there.

Should we be slammed by a second wave of the virus in autumn, (I hope NOT!) it will coincide with peak hurricane season. Shudder and horrors, it's forecast to be an unusually active one! A strike would be a worst case scenario!

Several years in a row we've experienced close calls with deadly Cat 4's here on the Treasure Coast. If hit, I hope my house is still standing by Thanksgiving. But even if struck by a Cat 1 my home theatre along with all my imaginary restaurants will be closed for repairs.

However when you're inside a sweltering, boarded-up house with no air-conditioning or electricity of any kind, a can of soup served at room temperature is mighty tasty.

But please, no virus!