Date: Saturday, January 8th, 2011
Word of the Day: katzenjammer(KAT\suhn\jam\er); the discomfort and illness experienced as the aftereffects of excessive drinking; hangover
Weight: 206 pounds
Goal: 74 pounds
Waist Size: 41 inches
Days left before we return to Canada: seven (7)
Rowing Duration: sixty-nine (69) minutes, twelve (12)) seconds
Seven is supposed to be a lucky number, but when that is the number of days left that determines your vacation is over, or that one has to face the dreads of the season of
Winter, snow, slush, ice, and the cold, oh, the bitter cold and wind,
well then seven does not feel especially lucky, well, at least not good luck.
Okay, so how come you didn't make a comment on yesterday's post?, not you Marta, I can always count on you, but the rest of you,
I mean, how long would it take for you to say something back to me,
I am interested in your thoughts as well, please consider contributing a commet.
You don't have to do it everyday, but now and then, why not?
Speaking of yesterday, I reported that one person had won the fifty-million dollar lottery,
I was
inaccurate and thanks to
Marta,who corrected me, I can now accurately state that it was a group of people that struck it rich in the fifty-million dollar lottery, and,
I'm sure we will be hearing more about this lottery win, or was it a win? Hmmm.
Well, I ended up not going anywhere last night, no basketball game and no gymnastics competition. I fell asleep shortly after my dinner,
which was delicious, and
woke up in the living room at two o'clock this morning. Naturally, being so late, I went to bed!
Be on your guard everyone in the Toronto vicinity, and surrounding areas, as it has been reported that
flu activity is picking up in some parts of
Canada, please note that the predominant strain in this country is H3N2 instead of the pandemic H1N1 virus that dominated the health-care scene a year ago.
Dr. Irene Armstrong of Toronto Public Health says influenza appears to be hitting hard earlier this season in Toronto, compared to other regular non-pandemic flu years. The number of lab-confirmed cases so far is 515, she said, compared to an average of about 81 cases per year at this point from 2004-05 to 2008-09. Five deaths have been recorded. "We know our hospitals are busy,"
Armstrong said in an interview Tuesday. "We're seeing outbreaks in long-term care homes, and especially over the last couple of weeks."
Outbreaks have been reported at long-term care facilities in Winnipeg and other centres as well, with would-be visitors warned to stay away if they're coughing and experiencing other flu symptoms. Dr. Ken Scott of the Public Health Agency of Canada said flu is fairly widespread in one region of
Manitoba and there's localized activity in other parts of
Manitoba, Alberta, Quebec and
Nova Scotia. "We didn't have some reporting from some of the jurisdictions over the holiday season, but in the week just prior to that there was a fair bit of activity in the Windsor to Montreal corridor," noted Scott, senior medical adviser for Infectious Diseases and Prevention Control.
Statistics compiled by the national agency as of Tuesday show 4,112 samples tested, with 927 showing up positive for flu. These don't necessarily include the most up-to-date numbers from the provinces and territories. Furthermore,
Armstrong explained these would only be the "tip of the iceberg" and most cases are never lab-confirmed.
Scott said the predominant strain in Canada and the United States is H3N2 influenza A, while H1N1 is "not a big player in Canada this year," representing less than 10 per cent of isolates. By comparison,
Great Britain's flu activity is almost all the H1N1 pandemic strain, he said.
Scott surmised it could be because their
H1N1 vaccine uptake last year was about eight per cent, much less than the 45 per cent in
Canada. He said the good news is that the flu shot this year can protect against both. But there are concerns in the health community that fewer people are opting for a flu shot this year.
For example, Armstrong said 230,000 people were vaccinated with pandemic H1N1 vaccine at the city's public clinics last flu season from Oct. 26 to Jan. 31.
This flu season, fewer than 26,000 people have received shots at the Toronto clinics, which is even down about 20 per cent from a regular seasonal flu year, she said. "There's certainly been a lot of speculation about people reflecting on their experience last year with the pandemic H1N1 influenza," she said, referring to widespread public education campaigns and media attention to flu shots a year ago.
"We had a mild pandemic ... So I think it's sort of fallen off people's radar." Scott said H3N2 has a predilection for the young and the old, pregnant women and people who have underlying medical conditions. Flu seasons with
H3N2 tend to cause more illnesses than the seasonal
H1N1 (non-pandemic) virus, he noted,
adding that weather could also be a factor in how the flu season goes. Scott said flu kills between 2,000 and 8,000 Canadians every year, and he recommended that everybody get a flu shot.
Armstrong agreed, and both public health officials said the messages of the pandemic flu campaigns can help now, too. "If you're sick with flu symptoms, you should stay home from work or stay home from school,"
Armstrong advised.
"You don't want to go out and risk infecting friends or co-workers or other people out in the community, so it's best to stay home and rest, really, and treat your symptoms." Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, extrem
I feel that upon my return to our great country of Canada, I'm going to get hit with some aspect of the flu, my rationale is because my immunity is currently low (due to all of the problems I've been having with my asthma,) I'm a target to get sicker, and with my additional weight gain,
I make a pretty big target. Don't worry,
I retain my inner beauty, it's just rather hard to find these days because of the extra blubber caused by the
depomedrol, and
you all are familiar with the effects that happen to me with liquid prednisone, you do remember, don't you?!
With regard to the word of the day, do any of you out there remember the comic strip "The Katzenjammer Kids?" The comic strip was specifically written about two twins, two male hellions who rebelled against authority, especially their parents. The twins lived in a neighbourhood of children who all seemed to be a little devilish and the comic str
ip was not only very funny, but also very popular. I
loved the `strip`and always looked forward to buying the next edition, did you read it?
For sake of reference, I may be a litte wrong in some of reflection of "The Katzenjammer Kids" as I was just a little boy when this comic strip was published, but Ido know that "The Katzenjammer Kids" was made into some kind of television show, or a reasonable facsimile,
it just had a different title, like many other things/vehicles that get turned into television programs.
Yesterday afternoon I had a rather mind-boggling experience, it truly was, and what makes it rather exceptional is that it happened on a rather ordinary day when nothing out of the ordinary should have happened, but then again, isn`t that when exceptional things tend to happen.
Anyway, I begin my anecdote: Around two o`clock pm. yesterday, a cleaning lady came over to the house were renting in
Gainesville, Florida to help tidy up the house, the owner of the house thought that since
I was not feeling well, she would help us out with keeping the house clean by sending this cleaning lady.
The cleaning lady, I'm sure now, was from outer space, she really was out there.
The cleaning lady's name was Karen and upon her arrival, I was in the process of recording a program from the television onto a digital video device (dvd.) Immediately after, hello`s and other little formalities
Zac instructed Karen that all she needed to do was the vacuuming and cleaning the washrooms. Zac, at this time, also instructed Karen not to go anywhere near the televsion set and the panasonic recorder that is directly underneath the television because of the recordings that were presently going on.
Shortly after, I too then met Karen, and just like Zac, I, too, requested Karen not go anywhere near the television, nor the Panasonic recorder directly underneath the set, so
Zac`s request was not all
Karen heard on this subject, she can`t or would not be able to claim ignorance!
But, it didn`t matter, I know now, Karen was being controlled by aliens out there in the universe who want to harm me.
For some reason beyond both Zac and myself, Karen chose to ignore
Zac`s and my request of not going near the television, and the recorder, and subsequently did in fact touch the television and the panasonic recorder, damaging my recording and ruining the entire disc in the process.
This all happened when Karen, in good faith, decided that she could clean around the television and the recorder without causing any harm.
Now, there is not much one can do after damage has been done, except try to learn a lesson for future reference, but upon learning what Karen had done, I expressed my upset, dismay and anger and let Karen know that I was disappointed that what had happened did not need to happen, and I wanted an explanation as to why this happened, when it could have been, and should have been, so easily avoided?
Karen said that she didn`t really know how she did it whilst she was cleaning, except that it did happen. Her casualness towards everything fulled my upset, I mean it really was troubling that Karen didn't seem to care too much of the damage she had done, probably because of ignorance, but, I think that upset me more than anything.
For those of you who know me, know that I do not pick on people without provocation, and even when I am provoked, I always, always try to consider the other person's feelings. When this event happened, my initial reaction was shock and I did yell at Karen, "What have you done?"
A few moments later, after I calmed down, a little, I did apologize to Karen for my yelling, I mean,
I do not think
Karen deliberately chose to ruin my recording and the disc itself,
unless she really was operating because of a direction from a source of outer space.
For your complete information and to understand my perspective, the recording was just not one television program. First, it was the worktime of three days effort to cull programs, and films that are seldom run on television. In addition,
the programs are not available on dvd, or any other format for that matter, and
I have not seen any of the subjects that I had successfully recorded onto this disc, in about ten (10) years, and that is no exaggeration, it probably has been longer since I last viewed those programs.
The second fact is that Karen damaging the disc, (ruining it, is a more accurate statement,) was completely unnecessary as Karen had been told to not to go anywhere near the television, or the recorder, by not only Zac, but I told her at least two times.
I think you will understand my upset, I now don't have copies of films that can't be purchased elsewhere, perhaps I'm just not meant to have them, but if that is so, then why was I able to record them in the first place? Oh goodness,
Efrem, don't start down that track of
"Fatalism" or you will just be asking questions that don't have satisfactory answers; my questions are not new, they have been asked for centuries and
I suspect that nobody has ever really been satisfied with what answers are presented, that's just the way it is, or was, or will be!
Zac and I were really confused as to why Karen did what she did. Do any of these things happen to other people, do they happen to you, or is it just me?????? I do wonder what is it with some people,
I still am rather mixed up about it all. Regardless, yesterday happened, and not much more can be said on that subject,
I just wanted you to know about my troubling and perplexing afternoon that happened on an ordinary day.
In a different vein, a celebrity that gets my curiosity is in trouble: Zsa Zsa Gabor may not survive operation, doctors are now reporting that Zsa Zsa Gabor's has a less than 50 per cent chance of surviving an operation on her leg.
The 93-year-old actress' husband Prince Frederic von Anhalt has been warned by doctors putting her under anaesthetic to have surgery on her limb could be risky, he told gossip website TMZ.
Prince Frederic is expected to make a decision on whether his wife should undergo the operation later Friday but has been told Zsa Zsa could alternatively undergo three months of antibiotics, though the medication could destroy her kidneys.
The 93-year-old actress was first rushed into the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Centre in Los Angeles on Sunday after a lesion in her leg began to show signs of gangrene. Initially it was planned for part of the limb to be amputated, but her representative John Blanchette confirmed that may no longer be necessary.
Speaking on Tuesday he said: "Over the next two days, the doctors are treating Zsa Zsa Gabor with powerful antibiotics in the hope that they will affect the lesion on her lower leg." Zsa Zsa's health has been in decline since she fell out of bed at her home in
Bel Air in
July while watching an episode of her favourite television (TV) show
'Jeopardy'. Zsa Zsa had a hip replacement a few days later but remained in hospital for three weeks. She was then placed back in medical care in
November after complaining of a pain her leg, which a doctor diagnosed as a blood clot.
Let us all include Miss Zsa Zsa in our prayers, she is something of a legend, not in my class, but close to it, hehe.
I hope you all have a wonderful day, I need to get ready to go to a bake sale. Take care, and enjoy yourselves.
Topics coming soon:
Art
Politics
Cartoons
Image via Wikipedia
