Flattened

Awoke rather exhausted after giving blood late yesterday afternoon. Giving blood has been a good addition to the list of things I do over the last few years, though admittedly I have fallen into arrears of late (I don't think I had given for maybe nine months) and the Red Cross phone team does call very aggressively once one is able to give again (two months after one's last donation), which is a total pain in the butt.

But it's one of those few things one can just do and know unequivocally that one has done a good thing and it's also a good way to spend time with people one wouldn't otherwise come into contact with.

At dinner last night we were talking about blood donations and Graham told a story of some point in time when the Soviets were talking about preparing for war with the United States. Some members of their armed forces said that a good indication of whether we were ramping up would be the price of blood: if the price people were being paid to donate blood jumped up, that would be a clear sign the US was getting ready to attack. Soviet intelligence told the military people that actually people in the US were not paid to give blood, they simply did it to provide a service to others. The military initially did not believe that this could be true in a capitalist society.

While there is no payment, there are snacks. I always take some Cheez-Its (now "whole grain"!) and usually some Nutter Butters, even though it's before dinner.