…Cause I must get to bed! The bulk of the hurricane passed about 15 miles to the northeast of us, leaving us with high winds for the day and would you believe NO RAIN????

Today, it was 106+ degrees–which is hotter than it has been all summer, I am just about positive. And dry as a bone. There is no doubt that hurricane brought that weather to us, but don’t ask me how. Unbelievable. But, we are all safe and sound, and my ankle wound is healing up like a charm–so far anyway. I am changing the dressing on it twice a day, and taking antibiotics on top of using Bactroban ointment on it. I do NOT want to have to wind up at the doctor for this wound!

Nitey night! Talk more soon…

As I started working on my list of hurricane Rita prep that I made yesterday, I was out in the yard picking things up, and I cut my ankle, and cut that vein that runs right over the ankle bone. I had blood shooting out a foot from my leg from the wound. All of my inlaws came to help me–thank God I had my cell phone with me, because every time I tried to move, blood came shooting from my leg. So, I spent the rest of the day with my foot elevated and resting, as I broke open the wound about 1 1/2 hours after I did it when I went to clean the wound. So I didn’t move again. It could probably use a stitch or two, but 1., I imagine with all of the hurricane frenzy that the ER is overwhelmed with people, 2., my doctors office closed at noon yesterday or I would have gone there, 3., all of my inlaws were too busy hurricane prepping, I did not want them to have to be troubled with me any more than I had already troubled them, and 4., the fear of contracting an infection from the hospital kept me away.

At any rate, I hope this wound is closed up good today. It hurts only a little, and I am taking Bactrim to help keep infection away. I am taking it REAL easy though, as I want it to be good and closed up in the event that I have to move quickly overnight tonight when the hurricane comes through.

Is anyone else already dreading NEXT YEAR’s hurricane season?????

Would you believe that our beautiful 5 day old baby donkey got in with the horses we were keeping for our cousin in Houston, and was trampled to death last night. I am so sad for her and her momma. Boy it has been a deathly week or two for us around here, I hope that this will end now.

We are battening down the hatches here for Hurricane Rita, which is headed right in our direction I guess. Although we are 150 miles from the coast, apparently this is one of the top 3 most intense hurricanes in recorded history, and at the moment anyway, it is headed straight for us. My brother in law, Eric (he is such a dear) brought us the generator from the camphouse (after all, it IS ours..LOL), and chained together an iffy tree in our yard. But if the winds get that bad here, I am pretty sure it will snap that chain like a dry twig! Good news–Marshall is flying home tonight from North Carolina, rather than trying to get here tomorrow night.

I waited in a line to fill up our water jugs yesterday, and got the last drops out of the Glacier machine. That poor woman behind me, I felt terrible. Then I felt like I was going to get jumped dragging those water jugs back to the car! The gas lines were horrendous most places, but I found one with no line at all. And milk. LOL The kids and I cannot live without milk for long, will probably have to restock tomorrow, if we can. LOL

I need to:

• go through the yard and pick up everything under 50 pounds and get it into the garage
• get the catfood cage off of the floor in the garage-I guess bring it into the house, I dont see myself letting my 15 kitties brave the storm out there
• get the dog food in the house
• burn the feed bags, or they will be blown all over creation tomorrow–Juan is here though, maybe I will get him to haul them off–going now to check with him about that–it is awfully dry here, although I think that will change pretty quickly…

Lately, with all of my work at MRSA Resources I have heard several people talking about infections they have received from salons. The MRSA victims I have spoken with have almost exclusively contracted their infections from razors used to shave the back of their necks after haircuts. Nail salons are very capable of transmitting all sorts of bacterial infections, as well as Hepatitis.

This article from Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, WA talks about salon infections. An excerpt:

Texas dermatologist Shelly A. Sekula, M.D., has looked closely at the sanitary practices of the cosmetology and barber industry and found conditions sadly lacking.

“Nail and hair salons may be a source of blood-borne as well as other infectious diseases,” says Dr. Sekula who practices in Houston, Texas, and chairs the Legislation Committee for the Texas Dermatological Society. “There is good evidence that razors, nail files, barber’s scissors, tattoo needles, and body piercing instruments are risk factors for transmitting hepatitis B and C.”

Dr. Sekula’s interest in this area began when she saw one patient with a contagious fungal infection on her toes and feet. When questioned, the patient remarked that she had noticed just “one little cut” after the pedicure. “And the red warning flags went up,” Dr. Sekula says.

Warning! Shameless plug ahead:

Sounds like a good case for learning to do some of these things for yourself, doesn’t it? Click here to learn how.

The new baby, Eeyore, is doing well. I never cease to find it amazing how self sufficient animals are when they are born compared to humans. Little Eeyore, at about 24 hours old, was running across the pasture like a pro. There is nothing cuter than a baby donkey running and jumping around!

The Aggies kicked some smu bootie over the weekend, that was nice! Unfortunately the Vols did not fare as well in the Swamp. But we had a large time with the Sandels and the Colwells, as always. I love the fall–it just feels good to socialize

I decided to quit argueing with my hubby about my book printing format, and just offer it in PDF ebook and be done with it. Now I can move on to the next one! Here is the sales page, if you want to have a look-see!

Our new baby, 30 minutes old

http://www.blog.nailtechsecrets.com/media/babydonkey30minold.mpg

The Circle of Life…lalalalala!

Here is baby Lucy–she is about 6 weeks old now, I guess.

Here are her old pictures.

What have I been doing for nearly 2 weeks?

Working on websites, transferring several over to new hosts. Seems like that is a never ending job!

Here they are:

MRSA Resources
SuperbugWiki
SuperbugWiki Discussion Group

And there are several blogs that have been moved too, but you can find them on my blogroll if you are that interested.

We got the documentary interview over with, that was hellish–I detest speaking in public, as I am not a quick thinker. I much prefer to write, so I can spend time changing my mind before it comes out of my “mouth,” (sometimes I should still change it more before it exits, but oh well–price of getting older, I think–less tolerance!).

We had to put a cat to sleep on Monday that I imagine got hung up jumping over a barbed wire fence. She was eaten up with infection, by the time we found her - I just hate that. On the bright side, I am watching chickens hatch today that I rescued from the loft in the barn. I can just hear Marshall singing “The Circle of Life,” la la la…

I thought I was going to get to go to NYC, as Marshall had a job in Allentown this week, but the job fell through. I was really excited about that possibility. Now he is a small town in N.C. (I think). Not much action there, except maybe the Atlantic Ocean! Maybe we can take our time share to NYC sometime….hmmmmm

PetSmart Halloween Shop

Funny, but CNN’s comment system doesn’t seem to be working today.

CNN,

This is a horrible disaster, and you are making it much, much worse. I am deeply offended by the way that your anchors are egging on the blame of the government. The government did, and are doing, their job — they ordered NOLA to evacuate, and they are trying to help those who cannot help themselves. They warned them that this was the big one, and to get out now. The government is now trying with every resource they have to do the right thing, amongst crazy people shooting at them, raping and pillaging and desperation.

Are we so resistant to authority that we just ignore them when they tell us what to do? This is one important fact that I have learned in my 37 years of life. You cannot help people who won’t help themselves. Those people who were too stubborn to leave are the same ones that have sucked on the government tit their whole lives. I guess they were waiting for the big government to come and tell them individually that they needed to leave, as the government has become their mothers.

The government is slow as we have made them that way, by forcing them to have all of the checks and balances to keep themselves from liability. The government is responsible for those people who can’t help themselves, not those who choose not to help themselves. This means that the government should be helping the hospital patients, and yes, even the people in prison first—those people who were not capable of getting out of NOLA on their own. They must come before the people who were too stubborn to leave. With the exception of those in the hospitals, those in jail and the infirm with no family to help them, all of the people in NOLA could have left. If the planes could not take the tourists, the tourists could have gone north a little bit. They did not have to stay in NOLA. Anyone with a car could have left. Even if you did not have a car, you could bike or walk your way out of NOLA. I have seen MANY people who were more than capable of leaving NOLA—young, strong people–but did not, on their own free will. There should not have been one vehicle left in NOLA. Everyone knew this was going to happen one day, this was not a shock.

What is shocking is the way your news station is taking these unfortunate people, who are in the most desperate situation of their lives, and just milking their stories for the world to see. Yes, the stories are the most dramatic ones and the ones for which you get noticed. You are CNN for God’s sake, people notice you. You do not have to stir up controversy to get noticed and watched. You are taking these desperate people’s words and promoting hatred and rebellion toward our government when I think that it should be your duty to support our government in a disaster like this and help them in any way possible. What kind of interview was that with FEMA this morning? I will tell you, it was sickening. Soledad gives FEMA two options, either they are thrilled with the way things are going or they think they have messed up the whole thing. That is sick. FEMA is doing everything they possibly can to help, and you know it. You are just trying to stir up trouble, and that is sickening to me during this horrendous crisis that our country is going through. I can’t really believe that anyone in the government continues to allow you to interview them, and I surely don’t know why they do.

You yourselves are driving past probably thousands of people who need help to get to the heart of the story that will be the most scandalous and make our country look the worst, and get you the most viewers. I am sure FEMA, and the military, and the rest of the relief workers are stopping at the first people that need help, and slowly working their way in to where YOU are. Are you driving people out with your reporters and camera men? Are you bringing water in to these dying masses? You are a very wealthy company, where are the busses you have hired to help get these refugees out of NOLA? How much money have you donated to the relief efforts? Do you really believe that the government is not doing everything they possibly can to help these people?

Please, for the sake of the welfare of our country, reel in your mad dogs. We want to see stories of what people ARE doing to help, not stories of what the government is NOT doing. This is the most pitiful situation I have ever seen, and I feel deep, deep empathy for those people, even the ones that could have left but didn’t. Believe me, if I did not have small children, I would be there trying to help these people. As it is, I can send money, and house a family when my city runs out of shelter room, and that is about all. I ache to be able to do more to help. Are you aching to help these people? This is a time to come together to help, not a time to drive people apart. Do your part to help, and not be part of the problem. This is your responsibility as citizens of the great United States.

Christina Jones

This is the most horrible thing I have ever seen, it really is. I am sure there have been worse situations in the world, but I am so close to this one–it is horrifying. All of those people.

Why didn’t they leave? Why didn’t they leave when they were told to evacuate before the hurricane hit? We saw it go through Florida. We saw it was big. Surely the people of NOLA were watching as it came to them. Why was there one vehicle left in that city? Are we so disrespective of authority these days that we ignore them when they say it is mandatory to get out? Mandatory Evacuation, the Governor said. That means GO.

If you are a tourist, you go. If the plane can’t take you, you drive north, stop at a rest stop or on the side of the road. You leave. You do not go back. If you have a car, you drive north. If you don’t have any friends north, you go anyway. You get food and water and blankets, and you go to the same rest stop as the tourists. If you don’t have a car, you use your feet or your bike and you go. You have time to get out of NOLA before this thing hits. Anywhere is better than being in NOLA when “the big one” hits it. This is not a surprise that this happened to beautiful NOLA. Everyone knew it was going to happen eventually.

Unfortunately, there is no one to blame but those who are stranded. You cannot in good faith blame the government. They are trying to help the people that were too stubborn to leave. I said it. Too stubborn. If they had wanted to go, they could have gone, with very few exceptions. Those in the hospital, those in jail, the infirm- living alone without anyone thinking about them. I imagine some of them had the attitude that they wanted to go down with the ship. Unfortunately, they made that decision, and go down they have.

The government is working as hard as the poor old government can, with all of their checks and balances it takes them longer to take a potty break than it does anyone else. Those who rely on the government for their basic needs better not have too many basic needs, and woe be it to the ones that do. That is as good a reason as any to rely on yourself and on your community for your basic living. You and they are built much better to take good care of you. The government cannot help that. People have made them this way, and have made them this way over the last 40 years. The government gets bigger every day, with more responsibility for the welfare of its people, and more liability for it as well. Here comes the checks and balances. They are necessary, we have made them so.

Maybe NOLA should have had a better hurricane evacuation plan. Communities running busses through them, picking up anyone who would get on them. Maybe that would have caused some of these people to leave who didn’t leave. This is excrutiatingly painful to watch. I love my country, and I believe that they are doing everything within their power to help. But it is always hard to help those who won’t help themselves. The government is designed to help those who CAN’T help themselves and they are being overrun and downtrodden by those who COULD HAVE helped themselves, but didn’t. Very, very sad.