2009 swine flu outbreak

My dear friends I am writing this, hoping we may all be safe from this new flu strain. On the news today they showed the states that are most effected by this. I don't know anyone that is not scared every time a new flu breaks out or any other new illinesses. I never like to hear the word epidemic used to describ how bad a flu is.

The 2009 swine flu outbreak is an epidemic that began in April 2009 with a new strain of influenza virus. The new strain is commonly called swine flu, but some authorities object to the name and it is also called Mexican flu, The outbreak is believed to have started in March 2009. Local outbreaks of an influenza-like illness were first detected in three areas of Mexico, but the virus responsible was not clinically identified as a new strain until April 24, 2009. Following the identification, its presence was soon confirmed in various Mexican states and in Mexico City.

Within days, isolated cases (and suspected cases) were identified elsewhere in Mexico, the U.S., and several other Northern Hemisphere countries. The new strain is an apparent reassortment of four strains of influenza A virus subtype HINI. Analysis at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified the four component strains as one endemic in humans, one endemic in birds, and two endemic in pigs (swine). One swine strain was widespread in the United States, the other in Eurasia.

Recommendations to prevent infection by the virus consist of the standard personal precautions against influenza. This includes frequent washing of hands with soap and water or with alcohol-based hand sanatizers, especially after being out in public. Do not touch the mouth, nose or eyes, as these are primary modes of transmission. When coughing, it is recommended cough into a tissue and disposing of it, then again washing the hands.

This is just a little run down of this terrible strain and some ways to prevent you from catching it. Please my friends take care and be safe. I pray for the whole world in this situation.
From: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dangers of Global Warming

1. Flooding; We have all seen the pictures of disappearing glaciers and the predicitions of rising sea levels. Most people live close to the sea, but many are in denial about the impact of global warming.
2. Shortage of water; Many areas could be hit by droughts, especially once glaciers that previously fed rivers have disappeared. As weather becomes more turblant, we can expect more extreme droughts, many heavy rains would not give much relief.
3. Famine and disease; Higher temperatures will increase risk of tropical diseases, such as malaria, in previously temperate zones. Starvation is one of the biggest unconscious human fears that may well become a reality that is daily displayed on TV.
4. Migration and refugees; Migration will stress the infrastructure of many cities, even if they are not effected by climate change. Shortage of supplies and water will be effected by these migrations and many countries will stop refugees from crossing their borders.

In the country of India 1,500 farmers commited sucide due to no water for their crops; "The Huffington Post."
Scientists say the best places to study global warming are the coldest regions on earth. Glaciers disappear due to global warming, collapsing ice sheets, thawing permafrost, shrinking glaciers and thinning sea ice is the focus of a yearlong, worldwide scientific extravaganza known as "International Polar Year". Warming is felt most sharply in the far north, where temperatures are rising twice as fast as the global average.

I believe in global warming and if people took the time to investigate this situation they will start believing what the scientists are saying. Our TV is always having specials on this condition, our earth is suffering and who will pay for it, us.

Polar bears are drowning, scientists have documented for the first time multiple deaths of polor bears off Alaska. The bears drowned after swimming long distances in the ocean amid the melting of the Artic ice shelf. The bears spend most of their time hunting and raising their young on ice flows. In September 2004, when the polar ice cap had retreated 160 miles north of the northern coast of Alaska, researchers counted 10 polar bears swimming as far as 60 miles off shore. Polar bears can swim long distances but have evolved to mainly swim between sheets of ice. Four days later researchers returned and found four dead polar bears floating in the water. Alarmed by the swift changes, the Alaska Inter-Tribal Council, a consortium of the state's tribes, urged the U.S. government to enact mandatory program to reduce global warming.

I would like to know what my friends think about global warming. Are you conserned about it or do you not think it is happening? I always value your opinions.

Pet's & People

One of the best things we have in life is our love for animals. When we decide to choose out pets, we have made a life time commitment to take care of them through out their life. Some pets live longer than others, especially cat's and dog's. They require love, interaction, exercise, proper nutrition, veterinary care and grooming. They also love our attention and affection, in return our pets provide us with unconditional love and acceptance and are true and loyal friends.

They offer us a safe haven and the opportunity to be who we genuinely and truly are without facade or pretense or affectation. They allow us to lower our guard and display emotions and share feelings we might not feel comfortable sharing with another human being. They lower blood pressure and improve our heart rate, decrease worry, fear. stress, loneliness and depression.

Through our animal companions we learn much about ourselves, of life and death and of mortality and immortality. We observe our pets as they grow from infancy to childhood to adolescence, adulthood, maturity and then old age. Many of them along the way experience illnesses of many kinds and pass on before their time, some require life time medication. We all know the feeling that we get when our pet becomes to ill to go on, we know they will be at Rainbow Bridge, waiting for us, but the decision is so terribly a painful one and heart breaking.

Many people who do not have pets are not aware of the powerful emotional and spiritual connections that those of us who know live with and love them share with our animal companions. Grief is the normal, natural and healthy response to loss of any kind. Above all, we respect and appreciate the beauty, nobility and grace of our animal companions and the gifts they bring us.

The Boys Life Of Mark Twain.

This is a story of a boy, born in the humblest surroundings, reared almost without schooling and amid conditions such as today have no existence, yet who lived to achieve a world-wide fame; to attain honorary degrees from the greatest universities of America and Europe; to be sought by statemen and kings; to be loved and honored by all men in all lands, and mourned by them when he died, It is the story of one of the world's very great men--the story of Mark Twain.

A long time ago in the early years of another century, the year was 1835 and Mark Twain's arrival into the world on the tail of "Halley's Comet", in Florida, Missouri, the fifth surviving child of father John and mother Jane. At this time the children were; Orion, Pamela, Margaret, Henry and Sam (as we know him-Mark Twain), born Samuel Langhorne Clemens.

He made it a habit of running away, usually toward the river. "You gave me more uneasiness than any child I had," his mother once said to him, in her old age. Mark Twain used to say that he had had nine narrow escapes from drowning. His mother started him in school at the age of five. He never liked school he said to be shut up with a Webster spelling book and a cross teacher was more than human nature could bear, he did learn somhow, for he could read, presently, and was a good speller for his age.

His father was a lawyer, a man of education, but a dreamer, full of schemes that usually failed. Now at nine years old "Sam" as his family referred to him, was "grown up" and wise for his years. Not that he was old in spirit or manner-he was never that, even to his death, but learned a great many things, many of them of a kind not taught at school. He had learned a good deal of natural history and botany, his books bear evidence of this early study.

In his home town of Hannibal there was many violent acts of murder, which he witnessed most of them, these early things were evident in his books and formed a large portion of the author's early education. Sam's days were not all disturbed by fierce events, they mostly filled with pleasanter things. He loved to watch the steamers pass by, he reflected once, "to a boy in those day's, shut in as we were, to see those steam boats pass up and down the Mississippi River and never take a trip on them." One day he slipped aboard and crept under one of the boats on deck, he came out to view the river, it started to rain and he slipped back under the boat, but his legs were sticking out, he was caught and set to shore at the next stop.

His adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain says, "most of the adventures recorded in this book really occured," and he tells us that Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, actuall being a composite of three boys whom Mark Twain had known. The three boy's were himself, John Briggs and Will Bowen. Almost all Mark Twain's books are drawn from life, accumulated from his early life on up to his last books.

When Sam decided he woul go out into the world, his mother made him renew his promise to her not to drink and play cards. Sam first worked as a printer and wrote many articles for magazines. His journey would take him back to the river boat, it started when Horace Bixby pilot of the Paul Jones ask him if he would like to lern the river, in those day's pilots were allowed to carry learners. In the early day's, to be a pilot was to be "greater than a king."

War was breaking out among the states and it was not safe to be on the river. He said he was not willing to get up into a glass perch and be shot at by either side, he said, I'll go home and reflect. When he arrived at Hannible he decided , like Lee he would go with his State. Sam was a Lieutenant in the army and he devveloped a very severe boil, he had sprained his ankle and it was swelled badly. He had a high fever and was put to bed, so the army left him there, presently the army disbanded and he did not enlist again.

In 1863 he started writing for a newspaper, at this time he chose Mark Twain, which he took from a Capt. Sellers who had just died and who had signed himself "Mark Twain." This is the name he chose for his articles, it is an old river term, a leadsman's call, signifying two fathoms-twelve feet. The name Mark Twain was first signed to a Carson letter, February 2, 1863, and after that to all of Samuel Clemen's work.

We know of the books he wrote such as; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, The Gilded Age, The Prince and The Pauper, and many others. He met his wife Olivia Langdon at St Nicholas Hotel in New York, they were engaged February 4, 1869 and they were married in 1870. Olivia's father gave them a home, furnished, in Buffalo, New York, her father dies right after their marriage. Their son Langdon born 1871, second child, Susy in 1872 and son Langdon dies of diphteria and a cold. 1874 a daufhter Clara born, in 1880 another daughter Jean. In 1896 his daughter Susy died of meningitis. Feb. 2. 1903 is 33rd wedding anniversary, Olivia very ill, they sailed for Italy and Olivia dies there. His daughter Clara marries Ossip Gabrilowitsch a pianist. His daughter Jean dies, she had epilepsy, she died from a cold.

On Thursday evening April 14, 1910 we carried him up to his room, he lived a week from that day and hour. We did not know it then, but the mysterious messenger of his birth year, Halley's comet, became visible that night in the sky. Mark Twain died April 21, 1910 in Redding Connecticut of angina pectoris. The noble head turned a little to one side, there was a fluttering sigh, and the breath that had been unceasing for seventy four tumultuous years had stopped forever. The worn out body had reached it's journey's end; but his spirit had never grown old, and today still young it continues to cheer and comfort a tired world.
Wrote By: Albert Bigelow Paine

Candy Bar History

Although it wold be impossible to present an exact history, at which the candy industry developed, sixty five percent of American candy bars have been around longer than sixty years. In 1854 the first packaged box of Whit man's chocolate debuts, thus being the advent of boxed chocolates as we know them today. In 1868 Richard Cadbury introduced the first Valentine's Day box of chocolate

In 1847, Joseph Fry discovered a way to mix some melted cacao butter back into defatted or "Dutched" cocoa powder, along with sugar to create a paste that could be pressed into a mold. The resulting bar was such a hit that people soon began to think of eating chocolate as much as drinking it, the inventor of chocolate for eating is unknown.

John Cadbury added a similar product to his range in 1849, and by today's standards these original chocolate bars would not be considered very palatable. The early eating bars of chocolate were made of bittersweet chocolate, Milk chocolate was introduced in 1875 when Henry Nestle, a maker of evaporated milk and Daniel Peter also a chocolate maker, got together and invented milk chocolate. In 1879 Rodolphe Lindt thought to add cocoa butter back to the chocolate, adding the additional cocoa butter helped the chocolate set up into a bar that "snaps" when broken as well as melting on the tongue.

It was at the 1893 Worlds Fair that Milton Hershey, a successful carmel candy businessman, first became fascinated with the art of chocolate making. While at the fair he had purchased some German machinery and began producing chocolate coatings on carmels, aware of the growing demand for chocolate itself, he soon started the Hershey Chocolate Company. In 1900 he sold his carmel company for $1 million and devotes his attention to making chocolate. The same year he introduces the original Hershey's milk chocolate bar. Today we know the variety that the Hershey company produces such as; milk chocolate bars with almonds , dark chocolate bars, big block and king size bars, Hershey's cookies'n'cream bars and in 2004 they introduces Limited Edition bars ans etc.. With the death of Milton Hershey in 1945, the company, town and institutions that bear his name were well positioned to continue to grow.

Other Americans began mixing in other ingredients to make up new candy bars throughout the end of the 1890's and early 1900's. But it was World War I that really brought attention to the candy bar. The U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps commissioned various American chocolate manufactures to provide 20 to 40 pound blocks of chocolate to be shipped to quartermaster bases. The block's were chopped up into smaller pieces and distributed to doughboy's in Europe.

Last Home? #19

As I write down my life for all to read, I have left out many things I wanted to keep in the family. I have a journal that I wrote these things in, they are for my children s eyes only. We all have things that we do not share with others, but God knows all.

We lost our home, due to the high attorneys and court costs, after all Bonnie could obtain a free attorney. We are now starting our eleventh year at this home, and here I will stay. It has been a long journey for us, we weathered many a storm and I suppose still will. I certainly do not want to know what life has to offer in the future but would like to enjoy a little more of it. This home is on a dead end road, you would never know it, we still have a lot of traffic. This is due to the fact that we are the second road named Highland off of the main road, cars are continually coming down our road looking for the other Highland which I might add the other Highland is about three miles north of our road.

Many things has happened over the last eleven years at this house. My granddaughter bought her first Ferret, named Skippy and we got a puppy, named Willow, so this is the first home they ever knew. When Skippy was four he had adrenal cancer and only lived two more years. At this time Sarah had purchased two more Ferrets, names were Storm and Dusty. When Storm was four years old he went to the vets for surgery and complications set in and he died. Dusty was missing him so much, so Sarah went to the pet store and purchased Logan he is now eight months old. Dusty at first did not care for Logan but now they are the best of buddies.

Willow was purchased from a kennel when she was three months old, someone had dumped her along side the road, I don't know why, she was so cute. My granddaughter taught Willow to do tricks by sign language and it worked. Willow liked to toke walks around the neighborhood, when she met each person she would stop and wag her tail and whine. Every night we would walk the neighborhood and every drive way we came to she would stop and whine, if no one was out, she would move on to the next drive way, sometimes it seemed like it took for ever to go for a walk. When Willow was ten years old she began having trouble with her heart and was put on medicine. She became to ill to go on and passed away before her eleventh birthday, she is waiting at Rainbow Bridge for me. So is my sweet Melody, she was going on 16 years old, she was the best cat I ever had and she is at the Bridge also.

In 2004 I went to the hospital because my left arm would not stop aching, they took the normal blood and did a ekg. Imagine how shocked I was when they told me I had a heart attach and sent me to Mercy Hospital to have a stint put in the front of my heart. They released me next day and on the way home in the car I passed out, my husband had pulled over and ask me what was wrong, I told him it was probably because I had not eaten good, I am a diabetic. Next day I passed out while setting in my chair, called the doctor and he said you mean when you stood up, I said no, when I was setting. He said call an ambulance, don't go in a car, your heart is stopping, boy what a scare. I called the ambulance, in the hospital they decided to admit me, good thing, my heart stopped five times. They did an emergency pace maker in my neck, saved my life, I became real scared when the head nurse told me I had actually died those five times and kept coming back on my own, so they did the emergency on me. I am eternally grateful to that doctor, next day they sent me back to Mercy for the permanent pacemaker in my left upper chest, this was five years ago and I am doing fine.

My husband had a replacement in his left knee, and he ended up in a nursing home. He did not do so good, he refused to walk on his new knee and did not cooperate in therapy. He started acting like he was getting Alzheimer and this scared me. The morphine was interacting with his other meds, he was acting like he did not know us. I went once while they were serving lunch, I walked in the dinning room and he was setting at the table, hunched over holding a BBQ, it was dripping all down his pj's, I spoke to him and had no reaction from him. This is when they seriously took a hard look at what meds he was taken and decided to take him off Morphine. In a few days he was acting like himself and I told the nursing home I was taking him home. He still acted like a baby with his new knee, but at least he was getting better care, men can be such babies. That was three years ago and he still walks real slow, but I know he could do better, but at least he is walking.

Remember Bill and Sandy, she passed away in 1985. Bill had cancer on his ear, they removed it and sent it in. This was a strange cancer, it spread so fast, into his lower body ending up in his lungs. Bill was his old self up to the last. He went into a seizure in the ambulance and by the time he got to the hospital he was in a coma, from which he never regained consciousness. He was such a nice person, he was 67 years old and lived 21 years after Sandy's death.

Ron had his share of misfortune, he had a blood clot just below his heart in the aorta, it was removed and that same night he was rushed into emergency surgery for a clot in his left leg. They had to do a by pass to save his leg but afterwords the doctor's watched for signs that the flow of blood in the leg was good. He did not come out of it 100%, from the middle of his foot to his toes there was no feeling. It has been six months and his foot is still numb, the doctor said the nerves should come back in about a year, he is finally walking without his cane.

As I type the last of my story and reflect on what is going on now a day's, I think of my two boy's. Ron is still living with us. The only assistance he gets is food stamps, he was refused any medical help, which I think is unfair, he can not work until he heals. Doug just lost his job, he is getting food stamps and unemployment, he can still maintain his own apartment and pay his bills. I am not happy for their circumstances, I wish they were better off than they are. Today I am setting here writing for the world to see if I have failed somehow, I feel I should of run my life better and perhaps things would of turned out different. Well we are all together, we get along and are still friends, Sarah is doing great, working every day, Drew is well and comes two weekends a month.

I know one more thing I am thankful for is the day my son Doug told me he was giving me his computer. He gave me this wonderful computer desk, monitor, tower, printer and his chair. I would like to put photos on myself but right now I can't afford a camera. Thank all you faithful readers for coming by, I enjoy reading each and everyone of your comments. I also enjoying coming by to see what each of you have to say and what you are up to, so see you around the blog sites, it is April 7th, 2009, and is 6:28 pm.

Looking Forward #18

As life goes on for us we seem to reflect more and more on where life has brought us. My dear mother, when I was young always told us, when we were in a hurry to be older "don't be in a hurry to be older because before you know it will happen sooner than you think", she never wanted us to grow up to fast. She always had a hard life and later what did life do for her, it threw her a curve ball and took the only man she loved at an early age, also leaving her three girls to raise alone. She had never worked outside the home, had no skills, so she went to work in the pottery, mom also got a pension once a month from the Steel mill for us girls, I never ask her how much the checks were, my father was only 32 years old when he died.

I look at my two boys and our grandchildren, also our great grand children, I realize what my mom said is here, it has happened right before my eyes, seems like just a blink of an eye. We spent so much money in court that we only took a couple vacations, I am sorry I did not make memories for my grand kids, like I did for my two boys. Even their parents did not take them anywhere, Bonnie came and took them to the carnival a couple times and a few movies, but Ron never did, he only played with them, when he was around. I am not a person that gets depressed, I get mad, there is no time to wallow in depression, things need to be done and I am a doer, actually I can't remember having time to become depressed.

Life moves on, no matter if you don't want it to do so sometimes. We drift in and out of our lives, we do what ever is call upon us to do and move on. We all have sadness, happiness and tragedy come into that life, it depends upon us to handle it in a way that best suits us. I have read on many blog sites about all three of these, it is amazing how we tend to bounce back and continue back into the stream of life. I am sure each of you have handled these situations and came out on top.

In 1980 we went back to Ohio on vacation, to see my last Aunt and Uncle on my dad's side of the family. The aunt I mentioned in my story about bringing my mom out to Michigan is the one we saw first, her name was Ore, the Uncle was Bud. My Aunt Ore's husband was Uncle Os, they were glad to see us and ask us to stay a few days with them. We had the time of our lives, we re met our cousins and had a BBQ, the guy's bought cowboy hat's, I will definitely post on my pictures showing them with the hats on. We saw my Uncle Bud next, he is in my pictures already, they were so glad to see us. My uncle had not seen me since I was about ten years old, we did not do anything with them but visit. This is because my uncle was in poor health and so was his wife. We did stay at a motel with a pool the last three days, they had a pool which pleased the kids.

I also found another cousin, he was working as a fireman and it seemed nice to see his name tag that said Allmon, my maiden name, everybody while I was growing up tried to tell me we spelled it wrong, it should be Allman or Almond. I also found out from him that my grandfather (my dad's father) was still alive but in his late 90's. I did not know this even when growing up that dad's father was alive then, we had never met him. We were young when dad died and mom never mentioned dad's side of the family, not even when dad was alive. This is so sad, all those years, if I would of known when in my 20's I would of tried tracking them down. You know, so many of our older generation have passed on and you never think to ask questions about them and the relatives, all that valuable information gone. My father's mom had remarried and we did know the step grandfather and his kids, his name was Luther Jackson, a very nice old man and so were his kids, Wilbur and Wilson, they always took me to the show, carrying me on their shoulders.

My cousin Jean Butler, in 1973 did a gynecology on our side of the family, we found out we are descendants of Lord Joseph McKinnon from the "Isle of Skye", in Scotland, he was born in 1794. That was such an interesting read, I get it out often and browse through it. There are many relatives I never knew about, she only sent me the sheets that pertained to me, I wish she would of sent more. I thanked her because it was quite a report and had to of taken her a long time to compile. I have tried to get a hold of her over the years but no luck. It is a shamed we don't think to ask the older generation about our relatives and about themselves until it is too late. I got curious after she sent me the report, but all older relatives were gone, so it would be wise to my blogger friends to start asking questions, not only for yourself but for your children.