The Panic in Needle Parking Lot

Am feeling vaguely ill at ease. After a lovely week-end with the family, including a great time at my godson’s First Birthday Party, Monday morning finds me with a queasy stomach and aching head. OK, so maybe I am feeling the effects of tapering off the Prednisone. But there is also a pervasive pesimism that I can’t shake.
I was watching Eddie riding bikes with his friends. One little guy is always meticulously dressed and always is wearing his helmet. This is good. But I am overcome with feelings close to despair when considering that his bike is traversing the parking lot of the neighboring apartment complex where an acquaintance (i.e. - she doesn’t hang with the girls, but we know that she is a real person) of Fran and Bridget was arrested for shooting up heroin in her car. She doesn’t live there - it was just a convenient location. And if she was caught, how many people aren’t? I have always been blessed to live in places where heroin addiction was not a concern. (All that I know about heroin I learned from LIFE magazine in fourth grade. And that article was enough to dissuade me from further curiosity.) Now I guess there are no such places.
I know that the presence of heroin addicts does not negate the need for proper cranial protection for young bikers. But......in my doldrums I am thinking, what is the point? In my more optimistic moments I can joke to Rick that we should be sure to tell the boys not to answer the door if they are ever left alone. Even if it is someone they recognize. Especially is they want to borrow a belt, a spoon, a bottle cap....
Best to snap out of it and make sure I get to Mass before work. I need to stay focused. (And to keep my focus away from things like the Linking EffortsAgainstDrugs dinner dance advertising that I saw yesterday. The children were not favorably impressed to see me foaming at the mouth and ranting about suburban do-gooders getting together to raise money to promote ‘awareness’ while young people are hanging out in our parks and parking lots killing themselves.)