Wash Yer Hands... A Lot!

If you pay attention to anything, that's probably the best advice and the easiest thing to do during this outbreak of swine/bird/human/other stuff flu. Not to minimize it, but from what I've been reading, the authorities still are not entirely sure what flavor of flu they're dealing with.

Maybe some other things to do, such as, avoiding being within three feet of anyone coughing, not riding in an airplane, not handling things others may have touched - hence the hand washing.

It's mostly common-sense stuff like not putting stock in the rumor-mongers who are preaching anything from that "the end of the world is nigh," "it's a commie plot to take over the free world," "its bio-terrorism/warfare/experimentation/revenge/etc.," and any thing else that seems at first blush to be a little out of kilter. Like a deal that's too good to be true - it probably is. So, if it seems when you read it/hear about it, if it's a little off... it probably is.

This is the sort of thing that it's really good to think things through and approach it with a reasonable and calm approach. Read as much about it as you can from the authorities. Regardless of what you may have read on Joe Crackpot's website (I forget his URL), he probably isn't the world's best authority on the causes and spreading of any particular disease.

Try some of these folks for the real hot skinny:

Probably the first place I'd check out any rumor (many times, even if it seems to be nothing but the truth) is Snopes.com (http://www.snopes.com/). Then for continuing information of a medical situation, these folks are the places to start:

• Belize Agricultural Health Authority (BAHA) (http://www.baha.bz/) Unfortunately, I didn't see anything in their headlines regarding this outbreak.
• Belize Health Department (http://www.health.gov.bz/moh/) I didn't see anything in their headlines regarding this outbreak either.
• Pan American Health Organization, Belize Office (http://new.paho.org/blz/) Ditto on no info.
• Pan American Health Organization (http://new.paho.org/hq/)
• US Centers for Disease Control (http://www.cdc.gov/)
• US Health and Human Services (http://www.hhs.gov/)
• World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/en/)

Ok. Now, if you're done washing your hands, we can relax. Which is what Dianna and I did for, oh, about six hours yesterday. It's hard work, but somebody's got to do it. I'm sure glad we volunteered for this.

Dave Enjoying a Sip

Dianna Enjoying Our New Waterfall

The next phase of this is to finish painting the pool pump house (where the waterfall lives). After that, we'll install the mosaic. Then that whole thing should be done. Whew!

So, if it's a combination of swine and bird flu, does this mean that pigs really can fly?