Hello, haven't posted an article for awhile -- Embracing Your Big Fat Ass

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Date Posted: 11:01:01 10/25/09 Sun
Author: Anna May
Subject: Hello, haven't posted an article for awhile

was going to write about hyperinflation but had to keep up with the news, so went with the H1N1 and put off the other for a few weeks. I got up at five, wrote and sent this off, now going to shut down computer and save a bit of electricity, will come on later and read posts, IF there are any and check my mail. No AJ today, he went to a funeral, so no internet radio to listen to.

John is digging beets, carrots and Jerusalem chokes, they will keep in the back room next to potatoes for over a month, then I'll have to start putting them up. Hope to get a little rest today, really need it after these last two weeks. Finally done with all the rabbit business and started doing up the meat that Sister Mary brought two days ago. Can't believe more meat, so thankful for this gift.

Well hoping everyone is having a lovely weekend and you have some sun, while they promised sun it's thick with clouds and windy, not a great outside day at all, gosh is it blowing hard.

Hugs, Anna May

My column follows:
A different way to fight H1N1

At a time when people are scurrying off to health care centers, rolling up their sleeves to be injected with the new H1N1 vaccination, and many are worried that their will not be enough vaccination on time for everyone, I settle back for what I call hibernation. To most people anything they don’t fully understand is weird or silly, so over the years I’ve heard many giggles and much criticism over the way I’ve chosen to avoid contact with the seasonal flu.

This isolation usually begins around the first of November and I don’t see stores, people or venture off my property till the following May. Besides this major adjustment, we wear facemasks, rubber gloves and bleach the mail when it arrives, then place it into a box on my front porch till it’s safe to open. What most people do not grasp is that this virus lives on surfaces of inanimate things, like letter mail. In fact the US Postal Dept. has an entire web page explaining why they radiate mail that goes to the Whitehouse, Congress and State officials. While most times the virus is dead after 48 hours, there are times when it’s attached to either nasal or throat mucus and can live up to 72 hours, not only outside your letter mail, but also inside of it.

It’s not that I do not enjoy human contact, need and thrive from it like everyone else, but this self imposed isolation started many years ago when my rather compromised immune system first started attacking my body and went on to open me up to catching anything and everything offered on life’s big serving platter called socialization.

Having learned how to work from home, something most people will never have the opportunity to do. My articles were first typed on an electric typewriter and snail mailed to the Record; then came the computer and everything changed, both articles and pictures got there in minutes instead of days. As for social contacts, while there’s no gathering over the breakfast table, I do have the opportunity to sip a cup of coffee and sit in front of my computer while talking with one, two or even three friends at the same time.

The best part of all of this is that during the many years that I’ve stayed in for the winter months, neither my roommate nor myself have had a flu virus. And since bleaching the mail we don’t even catch common colds.

May not be for everyone
Most people have to physically be at work or school and are not able to take such an extended ‘vacation’, but with the unemployment as high as it is right now, with our large elder population there are a lot of those who really do not need to expose themselves to catching this dangerous virus. There are also many like me who can not take vaccinations, have compromising health situations and need to make sure they do NOT contact H1N1, so I suggest they think about a short period of self imposed isolation.

Right now Health Canada is trying to figure out what to do if the hospitals are flooded with hundreds of cases at the same time, my idea is for all of those amongst us who do not have to go to work or school to stay home while the worse part of this virus passes through Quebec, this would reduce the amount of people that health care institutions and workers would have to worry about and by reducing the numbers of people in public you also reduce the possibility of this spreading and mutating.

The problem is that even though many of us live in the countryside, most of us act like urban dwellers and run to the store for every little thing we need. Now even the government is saying to get prepared by having a week or two of essentials in the house so if you do get ill you don’t have to infect others, but how much better would it be to stretch that advice a bit and get a few weeks of essentials and just keep away from everyone and everything?

Food and essentials
With paper and pen in your hand go from room to room and see what you would need if you could not get out for about a month or more. Yes, toilet paper, tissue and food items will be high on that list, but if you are over 60 and on prescription drugs, talk with your doctor about filling an extra month’s prescriptions so you don’t find yourself at the prescription counter of your pharmacy right in the middle of the H1N1 outbreak, which is one of the best places to run into ill people.

Many Quebec pharmacies will refill prescriptions over the phone and mail them to you. If diabetic, make sure you have all the supplies you will need to carry you through and the right food so that your diet is not compromised. Remember to add things like bottled water to your list, even if you have seldom needed it over the years, if your community suddenly has a boil water alert you just might need it. I’m sure walking from room to room you will find a varied list of items you would not want to do without.

While a large percentage of the population cannot stay home for any length of time, some of us are in a position to eliminate ourselves from the list of those who’d need being cared for, letting both health care and available vaccine spread out further and be available for those who can’t and are at greater risk. Wishing you all a healthy winter.
The End.

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