Sick Sick Sick

I'm neglecting this here blog, but now I have a reason. Friday my day consisted of alternating between the couch and kneeling in front of the toilet. Now it's all a cold/flu thing. YUCK!

I finally did something productive today

No...no job. :-P

The local affiliate for ABC (WICD/WICS--yes, they are ABC now and WAND is NBC) did a story on MRSA in hospitals. That's the staph infection that my dad had. In this story, they interviewed a woman who lived through it, but now has terrible problems with her legs. They also went into a hospital room of a woman who has it. I completely didn't see the point in that because they didn't interview her, and all she could do was lay there.

So, anyway, what got me was that at the end of the story, the reporter announces that there was one case reported in Central Illinois and that it was only reported because a complaint was made to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Illinois does not require that hospitals report incidence of MRSA to IDPH. (Keeping up with the letters?)

This completely floored me and my sister saw the same story on the 10 o'clock news last night (they do a lot of repeating around here). She was floored also. We were told at the hospital while my dad was still living that they had to report the occurrance. Who did they have to report it to? Their superiors at the hospital? The CDC? Bozo the Clown?

I made a couple calls after seeing the report. I got the toll-free number for the IDPH to report a complaint and now they are going to investigate my dad's case. I also left a message for the reporter who is in Springfield. She called back and wants me to let her know what I find out. I don't know what will be done or what sort of penalties there might be, but I will feel a bit of vindication.

I'm going to have to get internet at home one of these days

Since I am still doing the wifi thing, I get to observe life downtown and I think I need to stay home b/c

1. There must be new people on the city police force as they seem to drive by a lot more, and one stopped to see what i was doing again the other day.

2. It's darn cold!

3. The local ABC news affiliate did a story on people connecting to open wifi connections. They were talking about how hackers can do that and get personal info from the network they use. Can the same happen backwards? Can the owners of the network get my passwords or personal info?

Note to anyone checking from any network I have used. I don't have the time or energy to figure out how to hack into your system's info. I just need a free connection for a little while longer to check mail, work on genealogy, and sell on ebay. Oh..and keep up with world news since the local tv news sucks at that.

An update just for Brett

Ok, so I haven't done a whole lot, but wanted Brett to be able to keep tabs on me without having to speak to me.

Still alive

not much going on

The bells at the Presbyterian church just went off--sounded like it went on for forever. All I could think was 'Sanctuary....sanctuary....'

oh...and I almost forgot. We were just on the west side of Indy, on the last stretch (80 miles) from home. I called my sister b/c I'd left the car at her house so it would be out of the way of everyone coming and going where I live--not that I thought anything would happen to it, but just a lot of cars in the drive all of the time. Sooo...she's like "You want the news now or when you get here?"

HMMMMM.....


She'd driven it when her car overheated. She parked it perpendicular behind her car. Then when she went to drive again, she got into her car (after walking between the two vehicles) and proceeded to back into my car. OUCH! She's now the blonde queen of the family. I take it in on Monday for the estimate -- I'll even get a rental car while they are fixing it! woo! Maybe I'll just bike while they have my car.

sooooo technologically challenged this week!

ok...so last month sometime, I was taking pictures of things I am selling on ebay and I dropped my camera on its lens. My nice digital camera is now dead.

I was trying to scan some old slides of my family from the 40s and 50s for a cousin. The light thing that does the scanning is jammed. I think it didn't being hiked up to IL from FL. Although I think I remember getting the extra service plan for it at Best Buy...now where are those papers!?!?

I made it home from WV with everyone surviving (me, mom, and Max - my dog). BUT! I left my phone charger at the last hotel we stayed in. I did figure that out within 15 minutes of being back here, and called and they sent it and (like the run-on sentence?) it arrived today. I finally have a phone again!

What else? Oh yeah...the last thing...and this is really scary...I picked up my laptop last night and one of the covers on the bottom side was missing. My arch enemy in Australia, Brett, took advantage of the panic and tried to tell me there's a hot market for people stealing them. NOT FUNNY! Anyway, I'd dropped it in the library here--I went today and the really annoying reference woman who's worked there for as long as I can remember had it. I didn't even want to go and ask her if they'd found it--she's that annoying. I'll write a story about her one of these days.

Two nights in West Virginia

I am hitting my threshhold for "vacationing" with my mom. Not that I don't like her, but I tend to like my space and my alone time, and I've had neither for the last 8 days. It wouldn't be so bad but the moments that I really most definitely need that space, she seems to stick closer or something.

Need to get home and b-r-e-a-t-h-e. Maybe by this time tomorrow.