Here Piggy, Piggy. Here Piggy, Piggy

As I spend my day working here at home I frequently either have my iPod playing all the time or I have the TV on tuned to either CNBC or CNN. For whatever reason the last 2 days I have kept the TV tuned to CNN instead of listening to music. My senses have been overwhelmed with every single little piece of information I can take about Swine Flu. Until Arlen Specter moved over to the Democratic Party (yeah Arlen!!!) there was literal NOTHING else on CNN during the day other than wall-to-wall swine flu coverage.

First off – I don’t know how severe this situation could turn out to be, but to me it seems a little bit excessive. This is especially true since there really hasn’t been anything new to report other than the fact that the number of cases is increasing. Personally I think there is a sense of panic that is starting to grip various parts of the nation and I think it is being fueled by wall-to-wall coverage of the problem. I won’t deny that if this strain turns more virulent we could all be in a lot of trouble. But what is the point of the wall-to-wall, minute-by-minute coverage other than to scare the crap out of people.

(By the way when I was trying to find pictures of pigs I found a website called thepigsite.com. Talk about funny!)

I have always kind of had a doomsday mentality in me. Given the way that we have exploited the planet I have always felt that some kind of mass castrophy was going to happen. They have happened so many times in the past. We are less than 100 from the last big one – the flu pandemic of 1918/1919. My dad was actually alive during that one! Granted he was only 3 or 4 years old, but within our memory set we have seen these kinds of mass tragedies occur. Though we are much more technologically advanced are we immune to these kinds of things – nope. I just think it is a matter of time until some kind of really nasty virus gets going and takes it’s best shot at man kind. I guess one positive thing that might come out of all of this is we might be able to get inexpensive airfares for summer vacation. I am seriously thinking about starting to look for airfares for our summer trip to Europe – we are still deciding whether we are going to France or Iceland. Anyway – I think the news coverage on this whole issue has been way overdone! I didn’t post anything last night as I had a very busy day and evening. I was very tired and just didn’t have the mindset to sit down and write. Our last two days have been busy and there has been much accomplished! One Tuesday the workmen from Dean’s Sprinklers showed up and began the installation of the sprinkler system. It was pretty amazing to watch them work as they brought in this large machine to essentially burrow underneath the ground and put the pipe in place. I will say those guys had to work really hard as our yard is pretty rocky and parts are steep. They finished their work around 4:00PM today. When they were done they gave me a run through of the system and now I know where all the zones are and how to re-program the master control so it will run when I want it to and for how long. I am very much looking forward to having a very lush and green lawn this summer. It will look very nice with the other landscaping plans I have for the summer! Zack has been doing OK at school recently. I am really trying to work with him on maturing and doing so much better at things. This is where he has really suffered from Patty’s death – it is like he lost 3 years out of his emotional development and now he needs to try and catch up to all the other 10 year olds. On another note – for those of you who don’t routinely read the Caringbridge site I posted an update there yesterday. My update for that site was about the fact that I will be forming a team to walk in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Light the Night walk in October. I will probably also write an entry about that on this blog also. We hope everyone had a good day! Thanks and peace to all. – J.