Hell’s Half Acre

We’re coming off almost a month of family visits and had such a lovely time with everyone.  That said, February was the last time our family was together and we’re now enjoying being a family once again and letting the emotions out from the loss of Jamie’s mom.  I must owe a gazillion to the therapy jar as a few days ago Sissy revealed she had no idea her grandmother had died.  How she didn’t know but the other 3 did know, I have no idea.  She also seems to have completely gotten over her intense need to be connected to Jamie since his absence and happily sleeps in the (previously) boys’ room and no longer needs to know where Jamie is at every moment of the day.  He is both happy that she’s found independence but also worried that she’s masking anger or something for his leaving.  So, more funds to the therapy jar.

Did someone mention something about sickness? We sure do have lots of ways to say “pig” in Mexico.  We’re riding out the storm of flu worries and hoping for the best.

Pandemic Booklet put out by SF folks…

Flu Wiki with links to news articles

Idaho’s Pandemic page

WHO’s swine flu page

Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the ground in DF tweets

Biosurveilance blog

Cold and flu treatment

It was a weird Sunday yesterday.  Normally this is the day that most Mexican families are out grocery shopping but many of the Chedraui shelves were weirdly empty (NO canned salsa to be found anywhere) and I ended up at WalMart for whole wheat flour.  I’ve never been a big believer in the 3-month supply of food adage, as food spoils so incredibly easily down here, but we now have lots of rice, beans, pasta, pet food, canned salsas , rajas, and tomato sauces.  With 2 kids and Jamie down with headaches, sore throats, fever, tiredness and nausea I’m hoping for a weird virus or mild cases of something.  Crossing fingers and hoping QRoo really does have more than 120 doses of Tamiflu.  I’m guessing that the death toll in Mexico is exaggerated only in reference to the number of cases.  Either the deaths are higher due to non-swine flu deaths or the actual number of cases are much much higher (I read somewhere something in the 100K range) and as such, the death toll relatively low.  What we’re preparing for is not a deadly disease but if this flu becomes pandemic, I expect that supplies will be especially low here at the bottom of the country and there will be fewer people well enough to move supplies around.  So we’re stocking up and crossing our fingers along with the rest of the world.