October 17 Day 78

Yowsers. We are in a dilemma. See, the builder of this house put the thermostat for the entire house in the family room about 10 feet from the gas fireplace. So as the den warms up, the air conditioner comes on because it THINKS it is summer and it is getting hot in here. So the whole rest of the house gets an unnecessary dose of air conditioning because it thinks the rest of the house is warm. Believe me, after that happens it is NOT warm.  Sunday is supposed to go up to 70- a veritable heat wave. The rest of next week is low 60s high 50s and rain.

Poor Alex had to go down to Renton to get his car. It has been in the shop for almost THREE weeks. The exploding light fixture at the airport private parking garage took out every part of the external car- including the windows. Yep. Shards and shards of high velocity glass rained down upon it. Hard enough to fracture the windshield!!! Every piece of the exterior was repaired, repainted or replaced. Big job.  They won't drive the car AT ALL- it is policy not to take it out. So, because no flat bed trucks are available right now, he had the choice of not getting it this weekend or driving the rental down to Renton to get it. He's driving down there in rush traffic and cold and rain because he misses his car. So we are having left overs. Red beans and rice and roast beef. Weird but true.

It is go to the doctor week for check ups and stuff. Does everyone have a yearly check up from about 4 doctors? I do. Sucks. Anyhoo. My doctor today was my incredibly talented and brilliant gyn doc. Because I discovered I had a gene for breast cancer, someone has to lay hands on them every 6 months, and I can get a breast MRI rather than a mammogram if I want.  That's like asking someone if they'd rather have their left hand crushed or get their knee hit with a hammer.  Not much choice there. But we talked about ebola. And she said that she fears this will be the first true, lethal epidemic we have ever faced in the USA. She and I are about the same age- so we remember things like quaratines.  We remember polio. We remember smallpox. We actually GOT measles and mumps and chicken pox. (I didn't get mumps). So we get it. Read the book FLU sometime. It'll scare you. We talked about how rapidly viruses can mutate. And ebola IS a virus. It has all ready mutated from one form. We need to isolate people, contain the outbreak, etc. We need to proactively ban flights. There is no politically correct here. There is no reason to panic UNLESS we do nothing. If thousands of people got ebola, there is nowhere for them to be treated. Hospitals cannot all be converted into isolation wards. It CANNOT happen. Some hospitals shouldn't be used at all because people who don't have ebola need treatment sometimes, too.   Think of the strain and eventual breakdown of medical care delivery. Lots of people might quit. And millions of people could die. That in itself overwhelms the system.  My Doc and I agreed that certainly it would be better for older health care workers to volunteer to help. Not that we deserve to die, but we certainly have had our lives. There is no time for blame- there is minimal time for analysis and action. But alas- the new "czar" is not an organized, experience public health official. Go on, read about him. You won't be happy. It could be a horrible time coming up. No one will talk about global warming anymore- they'll be talking about global dying. Better hope we put up some serious barriers to our nation.

And on THAT cheerful note- have a wonderful weekend.

Last night, I guess India got cold, she came over and woke me up by gently patting my arm. She wanted me to let her curl up in the crook of my arm- she was lonesome. God knows I love my cat. She is so sweet. I love India.