Saturday, July 21, 2012

The teenager in the hospital bed was skinny and limp. She never made a sound; her eyes stayed closed; she never moved. Her boyfriend visited her faithfully, looking forward to the day when she would wake up from the coma. She had plunged into darkness when her four-wheeler crashed and overturned.

Her mother never left her side, and her step-father guiltily showed up on weekends. He was the one who had allowed her to ride without a helmet. Her father constantly said to anyone who would listen: "I never let her ride without a helmet. If I had been there, this never would have happened."

If a doctor or nurse had told them that, chances are, she would never wake up, they didn't remember that. They all fantasized about the moment she opened her eyes, saw them standing there, and spoke her first words.
"Daddy!"
Or maybe she would whisper, "I could hear you, Mom, every day."

After exactly 16 weeks, she did wake up. And her first words were: "My butt hurts."

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Yesterday at Walmart I was ringing up out a customer, and she started telling me about how worried she was about the price of groceries, since paying for them was getting too hard. She had told her grandmother that if things got worse, they would have to start living on squirrel meat. But her grandmother made her worry even more.

"During the Great Depression, we couldn't find any squirrels," said her Grandma. "We couldn't find crows or possums or anything. People just ate them all, and they were gone. All we could find was some some  Poke Sallet Weed."

The customer's eyes widened. She repeated, "There weren't any squirrels. All they found was poke sallet and they would go to that place and get it."

Things can get that bad, even here in the U.S. - they have, before.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Saline Sinus Rinse Allergy Treatment Recipe | AAAAI

I like to make my sinus rinse solution at home. It's not only cheaper, but it's healthier because I control what's in it and there are no additives. I can use a bulb syringe to give my sinuses as much or as little pressure as I want. This simple recipe is the best I've come across, and it's recommended by a reputable source.
All it calls for is: salt, baking soda, and distilled water.

"In a clean container, mix 3 heaping teaspoons of iodide-free salt with 1 rounded teaspoon of baking soda and store in a small airtight container. Add 1 teaspoon of the mixture to 8 ounces (1 cup) of lukewarm distilled or boiled water.

Use less dry ingredients to make a weaker solution if burning or stinging is experienced. For children, use a half-teaspoon with 4 ounces of water."