The crud finally got us. We’ve both been coughing our faces off for several days now. I went to pick up an extra stockpile of Fisherman’s Friend and–disaster!–they were out. I still have one unopened bag plus a half bag.
As a back up we have three tins of what we are calling Tante Hilla cough drops. Those are sorta low rent Ricola that Tante Hilla sent us from her Apotheke in Germany.
We’re remaining calm for now.
Before I went down with this cold, I had planned to write something about flu shots (Since this is the Internet, I will clarify that I know colds and flu are not the same thing but both fall under the general heading of crud and are being combined in this post.) But now that I have the crud, I don’t have the energy for the whole manifesto.
I have become a huge fan of Health News Review which is a website where medical professionals discuss how health news is portrayed in the media. I think it should be required reading. This article from 2015 talks about flu shots and I will just pull this quote:
“…under ideal conditions (when the vaccine matches the main viruses circulating that season) you need to vaccinate 33 healthy adults to avoid one set of influenza symptoms.”
I’m actually in favor of flu shots. What I hate is when you get sick and someone says, “Oh, didn’t you get a flu shot?”
Moving on.
For one calendar year I saved all the mail sent to our work suite that was addressed to the previous tenant, the people who moved out in September of 2008. That cruise company sends stacks of huge catalogs. I tried to notify them that “No one here cares. Your fancy catalog goes directly into recycling.” I guess no one there cares either.
Finally, I was at the bookstore last week and there were a bunch of kids there doing some sort of program. A little girl approached me to give me a card she’d made.
She wanted me to know it was Martin Luther King’s Birthday on Monday. Here’s the quote on the front of the card:
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
She wanted to remind me to remember his message and pass it along. I wasn’t sure if she wanted me to pass the card along but it was so cute I kept it but I’m sharing it with all of you. Peace.
