Daily Archives: 5/2/2009
Epazooties update
Day three or four of this flu thing. I had to do an irresponsible thing and go get some OTC remedies and some minor groceries, like milk and eggs and such.
I would have asked the girlfriend to do this for me but she’s staying far away because she fears catching it from me and passing it on to her aged and frail mom. since this stuff managed to sidestep the flu shots they gave last autumn, a dose of which I received, I can understand her reluctance, so I dashed out and back as fast as possible.
Assessment: the low-grade fever is mostly gone, the muscle aches aren’t nearly as deep and strong, and I’m left just feeling woozy when I move around to fast or too much. And my head and chest are full of glop, agitating my cough reflex and giving me a sore throat. I’m self-medicating those.
I’ve had worse cases of the flu in my life. this will pass, but a lot of people are taking it very seriously, including my employer, so I’m working from home until I get the results back from that test specimen the doctor sent in last Thursday. We’re a “critical industry” and subject to some extra care in insuring we have people available for keeping the operation going.
Today in History – May 2
1670 – King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson’s Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America. The Hudson’s Bay company de facto OWNED all of Canada except the little bit the French ended up surrendering to Britain a hundred years later.
1776 – France & Spain agreed to give weapons to American rebels. That’s how all those Charleville muskets ended up in the hands of the Revolution. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
1863 – American Civil War: Stonewall Jackson is wounded by friendly fire while returning to camp after reconnoitering for the Battle of Chancellorsville. He succumbs to pneumonia eight days later. We would regret this loss of talent at Gettysburg.
1952 – The world’s first ever jet airliner, the De Havilland Comet 1 makes its maiden scheduled commercial flight, from London to Johannesburg. Two years later they started finding fatigue failures when the planes started dropping out of the sky.
1982 – Falklands War: The British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano, formerly the USS Phoenix. 323 Argentine deaths, folks who’d just as soon dodged the distinction of being on the only ship ever to have been sunk by a nuclear-powered submarine and only the second sunk by any type of submarine since World War II.
1989 – Hungary starts to dismantle the Iron Curtain: it’s the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the fall of the Berlin Wall and of the German Reunification. I was flabbergasted. Our mortal enemies outside the border just caved in. Unfortunately the enemies inside our border were consolidating their positions. I would hope this battle ends as peacefully, but it won’t end with MY surrender.