Flu Shot Blues

Hey all!

Does anybody remember my bout with the flu last spring? No? Well, you can check it out HERE if you want to. That nasty bugger had the best of me for over two months. I couldn't shake it.

So today, I invested $25 in my health and got a Flu Shot. There are no guarantees the shot will protect me from the flu, but at least now I know I'm not allergic to the vaccine, since it's 25 minutes after the shot was administered and I don't have hives. Hooray!

They gave me a really interesting info sheet when I got the flu shot. Here are the highlights:

Influenza is a very contagious disease. It is caused by the influenza virus which spreads from infected persons to the nose or throat of others. Other illnesses can have the same symptoms and are often mistaken for influenza. Anyone can get influenza. for most people, it lasts only a few days. It can cause fever, cough, sore throat, headache, chills, muscle aches, fatigue.

Some people get much sicker. (Yeah, like me.) Influenza can lead to pneumonia and can be dangerous for people with heart or breathing conditions. It can cause high fever and seizures in children. Influenza kills about 36,000 people a year in the United States, mostly among the elderly.

Don't like gambling with your health or those of your loved ones? I recommend the flu shot. I'll keep you posted as to my personal efficacy throughout the flu season.

Thanks for reading.

I'd Rather Be Rafting

He's alive!

Yes it's true. I know I've been away from blogging for a while, but with the cold weather season nearly upon us, I'm back in action. Work and family and whitewater have been consuming most of my free time in addition to a couple of new projects I've been working on so I haven't had much time to blog. But recent events compel me to return to blogging: Foley, North Korea, Columbine-style shootings, Russian Journalist assassinations.....

I know many of you have spoken on these topics far more articulately than I intend to here; however, I just gotta add my own take.

What is wrong with this world we live in?

Is it television and video games that are spurring this violence? Is it the moral depravity of our elected leaders whom none of us really trust or believe in? Is it the lack of control parents have in raising their offspring? Is it the lack of authority of teachers in the schools? Is it easy access to info and pornography and news of all kinds on the internet that have lead to a proliferation of moral depravity akin to the nuclear proliferation that will soon follow if the international community can not contain North Korea?

I don't have any answers, but I sure have many questions. And opinions. And fortunately, the escape into the wild that is Whitewater Rafting in West Virginia every September and October. Next week I'm on vacation for the first time since January and my trip to Alaska. I'll be spending it with my friends on the river. And just for the hell of it, I'll pick up a copy of Walden by Henry David Theroux. I think there might be some appropriate commentary and advice thare that is applicable to what our country and world faces.

I think it's time we all need a gut check and a reexamination of the values that we hold dear. As for me, I'd rather be rafting. Check out this picture and the smile on my face. Life doesn't get any purer than this.



Thanks for reading.