February 15, 2013
6-6:20
Water for Elephants
Pages: 173-183

Jacob wakes up in the present again and has been drifting in and out of sleep often. A nurse dropping a tray of food is what woke him up. He tries to walk to the window but a nurse stops him and wheel him there. The nurse is not going to give Jacob his walker but rosemary over hears and tells the nurse to give him his walker. Jacob looks down at the circus and sees how some things have changed and are different from when he worked at the circus but then he sees other things that are the same and realizes that some things never change, rubes are still rubes and you can still tell the performers from the workers. It's time for lunch soon and rosemary takes Jacob to sit with Mr. McGuinty even though Jacob doesn't want to because he's a liar but rosemary says that it's just because he's old and he believes its true. Nevertheless Jacob sits with his friends and behaves himself and rosemary appreciates it and he admits that it's better than sitting alone. Then it goes back to the past and Jacob not seen marlena for 6 days and August no longer comes to the cook house for dinner anymore so Jacob sits alone. Rosie gets transported in the hippo wagon and she starts following August and he stops beating her but he still keeps the stick in her leg. Rosie still takes candy that is fed to her. Jacob is worried about Marlena and hopes to see her. He and Walter are reading when Earl comes and asks Jacob to help Camel because he's not feeling well. Jacob suggests they get a doctor but because they have no money and Camel isn't important enough to have uncle al get a doctor. Earl says that Jacob is close enough to a doctor and they go to see Camel who is in the dark cart. Camel is laying down and he can't walk so well and can't feel various parts of his body. The train starts moving and Jacob says he will ride in the cart with Camel but Earl says no becuase Jacob or the roustabout guys will get in trouble and thrown off the train so they jump out and go back to their assigned quarters but not before promising to see Camel at the next stop. When he comes back Walter asks Jacob what's wrong and Jacob gives him a description. Walter tells Jacob it could be from some alcohol that wasn't made correctly because there was an article about it in the newspaper and other people have similar symptoms and it ends in paralization.

I liked a lot of quotes in this book. "When will people learn that just because you can make something doesn't mean you should?" I liked that one because its so true. People can make so many things that are not useful or serve a purpose yet we still make more and we are left with so much stuff we don't even know what to do with it all. We can do without a lot of things and some of the things we make are leading to our ultimate demise. They make us lazy and we lose our ability to do things. "When you're lying, you're lying." Is another quote I liked because even if someone is confused or senile, a lie is a lie no matter what. Even though it may be excused or not on purpose it's still a lie and should not be called by another other name. Humans tend to do that a lot to make themselves look less bad and to prove they are good and right and not doing something wrong but it would be like calling a dog a cat. Cats and dogs are not the same just like a truth and a lie are not the same. And even if we do call a cat a dog or a lie a truth it won't make it true. Finally it's really wrong how only some people get medical care while other don't.

I read alright today because I got through 10 pages.