Monthly Archives: May 2009

>Pandemic Flu – just a phase?

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Seasonal Influenza vs. Pandemic flu: do you know the difference?
Seasonal Influenza in my neck of the woods (the Northern Hemisphere, Midwestern U.S.) happens in winter. The virus starts spreading in November or December and eventually peaks in late January or early February, affecting (infecting?) 5 – 20% of the population.

Pandemic Flu can come at any time, any season. It might occur 3-4 times in one century, affecting (infecting?) 25-50% of the population. Pandemic flu puts all age groups at risk, not just the elderly, the infirm, and the young.

Watching the news got me thinking (a dangerous pastime, I know). We’re at Phase 5 now. Phase 6 is the actual pandemic period itself. When I started training to be a public health volunteer, we were in Phase 3, avian flu was the big headline-maker, and planning was in place “just in case.”

I’m alert, but not panicky, and if you know my paranoid streak, that’s significant. I’m a worrier. I’ll continue to track the news, stock my pantry, and wash my hands a lot. Then I’ll know that I’ve done all I can for my family and myself. But in the meantime, it feels a lot like the early Homeland Security warning system: Orange? Yellow? What does that mean? It means stock the pantry, but also pick up wine and cheese and stock up on firewood for cozy family get-togethers.

Source: notes and handouts from a Public Health Volunteer training, two years ago. For the most current information, look to the CDC or the Red Cross. Wash your hands often, and stay calm! Our Health Departments, state and federal, are ready for this. They’re taking precautions to prevent any true pandemic from being the killer it was in 1918.

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>Variations on mac & cheese

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>I was in the mood for comfort food, but not junk food like pizza or a drive-thru bag of fries. I made my new standard, baked macaroni and cheese. As usual, I decided to play with the recipe a little. I mixed in a little Italian seasoning, a small container of leftover vegetables and about 1/2 cup of grated zucchini from the freezer. While it baked I cooked a few slices of bacon to crumble on the top. I told Amigo it was like a bacon cheeseburger without the burger. He said, “Huh?” and proceeded to eat a large serving!

Potential add-ins for Mac & Cheese Bake

crumbled bacon
Mexican style: use Mexican cheeses and taco seasoning. Add chorizo for fun!
Italian style: use parmesan & mozzarella cheeses; sprinkle with Italian herbs and spices
Hidden Nutrition: add diced or grated vegetables
Good Wisconsin: Swiss, cheddar, colby — oh, heck, almost any cheese will do!

Please remember the Virtual Great American Bake Sale continues through the end of July. New versions of the eBooks include an introduction by Food Network’s Sandra Lee. Lee has a new magazine; if you’d like to subscribe, she’ll friend you on Facebook. All proceeds from the Great American Bake Sale, virtual or real-life, go to Share Our Strength, a group devoted to eliminating child hunger.

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>Doing more with less leads to — Burnout.

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>It happens to the best of us. Work, work, think, think, inject passion and knowledge and experience into daily tasks and long-range pieces. When the graph diverges with the effort line rising and the results line falling, falling despite the best knowledge, falling despite doing everything possible and more, then the danger grows. The danger of professional burnout.

When the teacher looks at a student and says to herself, “This kid has emotional problems beyond my training. I need to get him some help,” and the help just isn’t there? Burnout.

When the teacher reads research and thinks, “We need to intervene now so this child doesn’t grow up to be a scary statistic,” but there’s no one to talk to? Burnout.

When teachers can point out the bullies in their own school, but their efforts to stop them are rarely supported, what happens? Burnout.

My solutions? I do what I can. I do my best. Maybe my best stinks sometimes, but if that’s the only intervention available, at least it’s something.

I teach social skills to kids on both sides of the issues: the bullies and the victims. I teach the victims how to change their behavior when it draws negative attention to them. I teach the bullies that there is no tolerance for picking on another student. I catch as many misbehaviors as possible and stop them. I write up discipline referrals for those who go above and beyond the average everyday consequences.

Last time school was feeling inhospitable, I sat down at my computer and completed building plans for two kids. Working through the process reminded me that I know my students and know what they need. These plans will help them next year.

And then I go home. And I lay my head on the counter as the coffee reheats, doing my best to leave the day behind. Doing my best to remember that I’ve done my best, really.

And if I’m lucky, I’ll sleep. And I’ll wake up the next weekday to light my candle again, hope it won’t burn on both ends because I’m running out of strategies to put it out before it’s gone.

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>Pest Prevention and Plot Preparation: Mission Accomplished

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It’s a typical spring weekend. We slept in – me until 7, Husband a little later, Amigo up at 8 to listen to his favorite shows on Public Radio. I had the coffee on and newspaper in, but I was still in my pajamas when Husband came downstairs fully dressed and full of philosophy and energy. He focused that energy where it would do the most good, and moved the car to make way for the roto-tiller.
As he put it, he took the long way around the garage. Knowing we live on a small-to-medium city lot, the “long way” can’t be that long, can it? Wrong: it can. He pulled out and kept going all the way to the Moto-Mart for a box of Krispy Kreme donuts.
I followed the special treat with my usual Saturday: sorted laundry, got dressed, got ready to start the first load (jeans and sweats, by my Green Routine). At that moment, Husband came inside. He’d rototilled the entire garden plot, turning the compost into the soil. Laundry could wait while he showered.

The danger of frost is very real in Wisconsin in May, so the best I can do right now is prepare the garden for the seeds. It was a perfect job for a cool and pleasant Saturday morning.

I re-used old fence boards and deck boards to create walkways and block a few square-foot style raised beds. These walkways keep me from over-compacting the soil, prevent weeds from growing in the unplanted areas, and allow me to harvest without changing into my dirt-friendly garden shoes. I “installed” the bean trellis and put up the old rose supports that will help brace the tomato plants this year. They’re taller than the old wire cages, coated so they’re less likely to damage stalks, and I can gently tie up the tomato plants with rags as they grow. I hope this will work well. It has to work better than the wire cages did last season!

Next, I took a few more deck boards, the 4X4 size, and braced them against the chicken wire that keeps the critters out. I love my bunnies, and I don’t mind seeing the wild ones make my yard their habitat, but I don’t want them eating my produce. I buried the big boards slightly and piled up enough dirt to bury the fencing a few inches underground. It’s not perfect, but it’ll keep most of the neighborhood fauna from finding their way into my lettuce and spinach and parsley.
At that point I took a break. Washed up, more laundry, sipped a Diet Coke to rehydrate a bit, and thought about lunch. Instead of making lunch, though, I went back outside to document my progress.
Getting my hands (and shovel) back in the dirt feels so good, so productive.

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>Pandemic Preparedness without panic

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>I can’t prevent swine flu, or any other illness for that matter.
We have travel plans for the summer, Amigo has summer school/camp plans, and La Petite will be hopping on a plane for Italy in mid-May.
We’re not canceling anything.
We can, in the good Girl Scout way, Be Prepared.
If Amigo becomes ill, we’ll bring him home and isolate him. Swine flu hadn’t reached Italy yet last time I checked, and no cases had been confirmed in my area – yet. La Petite’s trip should be relatively uneventful. Our own trip is still in the planning stages: we might be wise to check cancellation policies on everything from Amtrak to hotels to flights.

In the meantime, I just went over the informational newsletter for Public Health volunteers. Most is consistent with the publicity in the newspapers and online. Stock up, take basic precautions to prevent germ spreading, etc.

Store a two-week supply of food. Okay, consider it done.
Select foods that do not require refrigeration, preparation or cooking. No preparation or cooking? Nothing spoil-prone, I get that point. But no cooking? Are we expecting the power to go out, too?
Plan for your pets as well. Done. I usually buy two bags of rabbit pellets and hay whenever I stock up. Their main food is hay, green veggies next, and pellets last. If we run out of fresh foods (and the neighbor’s dandelions are all eaten by the wild ones), our bunnies can eat pellets. They’ll be fine.
Store a two-week supply of water, 1 gallon of water per person per day, in clean plastic containers. Avoid using containers that will decompose or break, such as milk cartons or glass bottles. This makes sense if there’s a hurricane or ice storm on the way, but a pandemic? Will swine flu prevent our water system from working? If worst comes to worst, I could boil what’s in the rain barrel. Oh, wait, that would require cooking and preparation (see above).

After sifting through the advice and visiting the Red Cross disaster preparedness site, here’s my plan:
Keep the pantry stocked. We keep a fair supply of canned and jarred food (and coffee, of course) along with basic baking goods. I can make everything from a chili to bread to a fruit cobbler with the contents of our pantry.
Water? I won’t store any extra. We keep plenty around the house in one form or another.
Keep bunny litter and food handy.
Stock up on firewood in case of….in case…oh, what the heck, just stock up on firewood.
Plant a garden! Fresh food! Little or no preparation! Bunny food, too! Now there’s motivation to start planting!

Can anyone answer my questions above? Would basic utilities be at risk in a pandemic? In 1918, the last killer pandemic flu, did the water supply get interrupted? Electricity? Gas? What do you think, knowledgeable readers?

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