Influenza, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Taiwan and the Pope...

Influenza. A highly contagious disease characterized by nasal catarrh, bronchial inflamation, and prostration... (Webster Handy College Dictionary). It doesn't mention the fever, cramps, trots, vomitting, joint aches and a myriad of other "symptoms" or "characteristics" associated with it. Ask the Pope, he knows.

Crap, I just got over it then I got something else... my mouth filled up with "shingle" like bumps and I was miserable. Either way, it put me down for quite awhile! Sooo much fun! Natures way of keeping me in line I guess. I was getting to cocky in life and had to be brought back down to earth. But Hell, what a ride!

If you haven't had that wonderful opportunity to participate in the influenza weight loss program then count yourself lucky. You lose weight, travel "out of body" repeatedly throughout the fever stages and tone your abs via those commode hugging heaves. Not to mention the natural purging of anything... yes anything you might have in your intestinal system and stomach.

Let's think about this. Folks join gyms to tone up, lose weight and purify their system. They pay beaucoup bucks monthly to participate in programs designed to isolate abdominal muscles, to take that unwanted weight off and to purge the bad food containing carbs, bad proteins and cholesterol laden foods from their systems. Why??? Why pay that money when all you need to do is catch the flu? Influenza is a crash weight loss and purification program. Besides, if you play your cards right and catch a "good", strong strain you can have those fantastic "out of body" experiences brought about by the fevers. I've seen people pay for drugs that affect them in ways comparative to a good fever. But I'd imagine those drugs provide only a fraction of the effects that an influenza induced fever can induce.

Either way, it's over. I'm down ten pound, my abs are a bit more toned, my system is accepting "wholesome" foods again and I have a head start on quitting cigarettes. See, in the end it's all good! Except for those friggin "shingle-like" bumps in my mouth. Those definitely weren't fun and the medicine I had to ingest to rid myself of them wasn't palatable at all... cherry flavored at that!

Have you heard the big secret that's been let out??? Like North Korea, Iran is enriching uranium. Go figure. And they insist it's only going to be used for domestic power. Of course. We have no cause to assume otherwise... they need the electricity. After all, they've certainly established they're honor and are known for their honesty throughout the world. At least North Korea leaves no question as to what they're going to do with their uranium. Hell, they've already announced to the world that they intend on creating warheads with it... claim to have already done so and have produced "delivery systems" for these warheads that are capable of reaching out and touching others far, far away. Give North Korea a "star" for at least being "up front" with the rest of the world regarding their production... though their intentions aren't quite known yet.

Perhaps Iran and North Korea will share their secrets with their Iraqi "associates" and in the end, ensure this world will be less chaotic and safe once again. Let alone less populated. Oh well, out of my hands. There's nothing I can do about it sitting here at my computer in this office in my garage while recovering from my crash weight loss and conditioning program.

I also read where China has passed a "law" allowing it to invade Taiwan if Taiwan pursues their intent to secede from the mainland. Hmmm... I don't know about you but I lived in Taiwan for a bit... Formosa... when I was a kid. I don't recall everything but do recall being there and noting the residents of Taiwan really looked like Chinese people. They talked like them too. China claims they are and, by golly I think they might have a valid argument. Though I'm a layman at this. Imagine if Japan held on to the Aleutians after World War II... you know, in 1949 or there abouts. Wouldn't the good ol' USA take a bit of offense to that? I'd put my money on the belief that we would. And I'd put my money on the United States "taking back" what was "rightfully" ours, regardless of how long it took.

As for the residents of Taiwan, well they've become accustomed to the foreign influence over the years and would most likely resist the "liberation" efforts... at first. I mean, there's a lot of Chinese out there! One helluva lot of them. Bunches and bunches of them. And they're smart too! Not to mention intent on re-unifying their citizens... whether those citizens be in Hong Kong, Peking or Formosa.

Another one I can't handle from this little office in the garage.

Alright, I'm going to get out of my "comfortable" clothes now and into my "yard work" clothes so I can cut the grass, trim the bushes, prune the pear trees and clean up the yard. I was going to do this last month... February... but the flu had different plans for me. With the weather being the way it has been this year our spring growth is at least 6 weeks ahead of schedule and our most recent governor who was "elected" by theft and deception (dead people's votes do count!) has declared a drought, asserting her authority on us in her usual, self serving, ego feeding style. So, there's going to be a lot of restrictions coming down the "pike". But then again, that's another story for another day. The "governor", weather, drought and restrictions.

Relocating to Montana never looked so good!

Take care.