About eight years ago I flew back to the States within two weeks of the 9-11 disaster. Last time there was an enormous blizzard that wiped out half the mid west. And this time I arrive only to wake up the next morning to find everyone excited about this Swine Flu. The Pandemic Level has been raised to 4 and my dad says airports are closed at 6. Which means we are either going to have a very looong visit here or a very short one. *sigh*
Just my luck. First ever book signing and plans to meet my agent and they might be quashed due to this fellow.
An aside: I was out shopping and saw this coloring book. Now why didn't they have this when I was in Catholic school? It might have livened up things a little.
[I really want to visit everyone's blogs. Right now there are three of us vying for this computer. One of those people is a thirteen-year old yearning to chat with some girl in his class back home. You can imagine. I won't go into how slow my father's computer is.]
13 comments:
Noooo!
It's really too bad that this swine flu had to occur when it did, but you're in the same boat with my nephew and his fiancee: they're planning to get married and honeymoon in Mexico...
We've got that computer problem here too. It's tough to watch my writing time dribble away as my kids sit there laughing over their fan fiction and Korean soaps...
That's crazy. So you're back in the US now?
Hope you can come by my blog later ;)
I have questions for my writing-blogger friends.
Hope you're enjoying your time in Omaha or wherever it is you're visiting! Just keep reminding everyone to wash their hands...
Mary, oh, I think going to Mexico wins in the timing fiasco though. I do hope that works out for your nephew and his wife. I can't imagine all of Mexico being dangerous.
Ben, will stop by!
Pat, yep, Omaha. AND, I just learned George Clooney is here for a few days filming a movie. Humph, well, my timing isn't so crappy after all.
Swine flu - George Clooney. Swine flu - George Clooney. Somewhere on this scale there has to be a happy balance. I hope it works out for you.. but it's not sounding too good.
We canceled our plans too for Hawaii... nothing there but I am not planning on going anywhere near US soil at the moment.. don't want to chance it.. I am paranoid.
Love to see your media kit darling..
Hilary and Girl Japan, yeah, I believe my in-laws are sending me masks from Japan. Today the news was a little more positive -- not quite the killer they thought it was.
terrie, do what needs doing and don't worry about online stuff til you're on another computer :)
Tell me that is level four out of a hundred!
Good luck with the book!
A little bump of reality against the communications majors that bring you the news. 35,000 -65,000 people each year die of the flu in the US. The lower number is from Harvard. The higher number is from the CDC, but includes people on the edge (sickly infants and elderly, and adults with pre-existing conditions such as HIV, heart and lung diseases, etc). The lower number works out to about 100 per day. Over the last two weeks, there's been ONE death in the US due to swine flu, and that actually was a Mexican infant that wasn't taken to treatment for several days (the parents went shopping in malls in Houston). Mexico revised their count down to 19 over almost a month.
If you want to know about a really scary flu, look up the Spanish flu of the early 20th century. There's a really good book about it, but the title escapes my mind right now. "Dead in a day" was the rule. The catacholamine cascade caused by the body's reaction to the influenza virus made sniffles in the morning turn into fatal pneumonia by night. This reaction was especially pronounced in perfectly healthy adults. That's the one to be scared of, and that's the one that's most likely to come out of Asia, not Mexico, due to China's agricultural regime and population density.
Nothing like this is going on now. Go to Mexico for your honeymoon. Momo and I had an amazingly good vacation in Guadalajara and environs. Bullfighting(aahhh, the beautiful blond Spanish matador Cristina Sanchez - who had to dispatch the bull of a local Mexican favorite who had failed to correctly drive the sword between the shoulderblades of the bull), dope lord "rancher" hosts (great pre-fight food and good advice on buying boots- my ostritch boots came from the store they recommended for poorer people), food, architecture (500 year- old churches, including one that looks like Catholicism on LSD), shopping at the great city mercados, oh, and tequila - not the pisswater you get in the States, but the 100% agave aged 3 years in old port barrels- for $12/ bottle.
A Hawaii vacation is never to be missed. Volcanos, green sand beaches, Grand Canyon of the Pacific, great restaurants, beautiful fish, great pot,..........;)
Sorry, forgot you were in Omaha there for a second. Good steak there, I hear. Triple A baseball and a zoo, too.
Got our grill today. Got to raid the park's cherry trees for chips tomorrow, so I can make some ribs. Very bad idea getting the grill just before finals week. Ribs or writing a final exam. Roasted leg of lamb or grading essays. Negima and yakinasu or deciding pass/fail. Americans have such hard decisions to make.
imomomo
Sorry. "cytokine cascade", not "catacholamine cascade".
imomomo
Hi Terrie,
great blog! We're looking forward to seeing you if you have the time.
James (and Ryne)
Woman in a Window, 4 out of 6 I believe. But the news has totally mellowed since writing that. Although I heard through the grape vine that no matter my son and I will be quarantined to our house for 10 days after we arrive back in Japan. I hope they re-think that. Yesh.
Laughing Wolf, I actually bout a laptop to cope (I was debating picking one up for awhile now). But mooching off my dad's wireless has been funky.
James, I just ran into Ryne at the theater. We were both coming out from having just seen the new X-Men Wolverine movie.
Hey, do you think we can grab a beer at Billy Froggs sometime this week after work?
Imomo, yeah, the Spanish flu was a blast. Me and my dad were giggling over the whole pandemic thing. Well, in that case, every flu is a pandemic. Your vacation sounds fantastic. And speaking of grilling, I've got the meat marinating as I write!
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