Nutso


So I am a little bit nutso over the Swine Flu, the threat of pandemic, and how to protect my family. My friend LaDonna told me in all of the years she has known me she has not seen quite so obsessed over any one thing. This week there were 3 cases in the Elementary School across the street from my house, and currently that school is closed, three times a day, I am getting updates from the school district on the status of swine flu in our school district, and lastly I have been seeing my own neighborhood on the 6 o'clock news. At one point the news crews were filming from my yard. So I am thinking I have earned the right to be a bit nutso. My daughter is healthy, I am healthy and my husband is healthy and there have been no cases in the high school where my daughter goes to school. I also have been on a self-education program, reading all I can about the flu, and it seems that most people survive this flu, even in Mexico were the death rates climbs every day, the majority of individuals are recovering. The best information on what to do can be found on the Centers for Disease Control website, and the World Health Organization, can show you the impacts world wide. The best recommendations for preventing the spread of disease is good common sense hygiene, wash your hands often, use sanitizers ( with at least 60% alcohol), avoid public places, practice social distancing ( meaning limit close in contact, hugging, kissing, etc) and if your sick, stay home and if you have flu-like symptoms go to the doctor immediately, as antiviral drugs are effective in limiting the severity of the disease. So I will likely be a bit nutso--until this is over. I did ask my husband if we could go to the hills the three of us until it passes, however we have no cabin in the hills, no way to earn a living in the interim, and as he pointed the three of us might actually kill each other before the six-month period needed for the vaccine passed. So for now, I am going to continue to be just this side of nutso--with my hand sanitizer, my roll of paper towels to cover public door knobs, shopping baskets, my functioning thermometers, and hunker in at home, with a batch of books, netflix delivered to door and drive my teenager and husband a bit bonkers with my hovering. The plant, a Texas Bottle Bush, one of my favorite, right now the bush is covered with about 20 of these blooms.