Here are some pictures of Pythons from The Everglades in Florida

Officials in The Everglades started the 1st ever Python hunt today

Pythons have become part of the ecosystem in The Everglades and are eating everything from small mammals to alligators……..

Special permits were issued to professional snake researchers and today they are in the swamps to find and kill this very large intrusive species……….

I have to share this bullshit with you………

I had to change my cable bill over to my name so I can pay the bill, the sucky thing is they had to give me a new phone number, incidently it was different then the recent order of business cards I ordered…oh well that’s another story……the real bullshit is all the bill collector calls I began getting for some chick that use to have the number…….I just called the company and explained the situation and they are more than happy to give me a new number for a fee of $19.95 but they can’t assure me it won’t happen again and if it does it still aint their fault and I get the chance to shell out another $19.95!! 

I love SPAM………how about you?

What do I like about being a Certified Nursing Assistant?

….I enjoy most the hugs, handshakes or a peck on the cheek……it’s sincere appreciation for being there, easing the pain or just holding a hand……the thing I like most about the job can’t be expressed in words….it’s just a feeling……

You need to be thinking now about the next wave of Swine Flu…….

Officials warn that H1H1 (swine flu) will become much more virulent this this Fall in its second global pass. This is the normal pattern for pandemics. Subsequent waves of pandemics are more potent, more life-threatening that the initial bout. Fall is just 3 months away. You’re getting ample warning to take the right measures now. Proper precautions allow you to sail through this next bump without questionable vaccines or panic. You need to be thinking about stored food and water, how to heat these and how to light the dark and chase away the heat if the power is not there…….. There are no excuses to leave yourself vulnerable.

Be prepared for Murphy’s Law too…….If you rely on one item like a camp stove and it breaks then what will you do? A good thing to remember in having survival items is to plan on one not being available, thus if you have one you have none, if you have two you have one or if you have three you have two……..for example in cooking…..I have my kitchen stove until power goes out….then I have my propane camp stove….next I have a single burner propane cooker and I have a firepit built in my backyard…..I will never lack the ability to cook a meal……………

Our Founding Fathers had it right…….what happened?

Adding to my preps and tweaking skills such as bartering………

I have shifted away from the aggravation of traditional yard sales and embraced the ease and simplicity and most of all the “free’ness” of using Craigslist……….

I have made decent profits on my stuff and to a greta deal on the items I find in my trash picking……..

I have also found that it is a great way to barter, I mention in the ad that in place of a currency transaction I will accept a certain amount of canned goods……some people do it without question while others are dumbfounded…..a good case in point is an email I received tonight that said:

“I am really interetsed in your item but I don’t understand why you are asking to swap it for a can of soup”

My reply to her was:

“Money is tight all over…..we can all use food and food makes a great barter item……

 

Sometimes I ask for cash and other times for food…..face it, with threats ranging from natural disasters to pandemics, it’s not a bad idea to consider canned goods as a currency……..

 

I can’t help but wonder if we find ourselves several weeks to several months into the ravages of a pandemic……how many will die not from the influenza but from their inability to adapt to the situation and aquire what they have failed to have sufficient quantities of before the fact………

Adding to my food supplies by using cigarette smokers….

I don’t smoke, I kicked the habit cold turkey almost 1 1/2 years ago, but I still get cigarette coupons in the mail and until recently I use to just throw them in the trash…….I guess with the recent increase in pack prices the coupons are a good barter item now…..

I posted on Craigslist that I had a coupon for $1.50 off a pack of Marlboros and that I would swap it for an unexpired can of soup……..I received 15 requests!! I just traded it for a can of soup……..

I am going to hit the company websites and get on the mailing list for more coupons and swap them for more canned goods………free canned goods get added to my disaster food supply…….something we’ll all need in a natural disaster or a pandemic……….

Swine Flu vacinations could begin in October, starting with school age children……

Swine flu shots at school: Bracing for fall return

07/09/09 By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard, Ap Medical
Writer –

WASHINGTON – U.S. swine flu vaccinations could begin in October with children among the first in line — at their local schools — the Obama administration said Thursday as the president and his Cabinet urged states to figure out now how they’ll tackle the virus’ all-but-certain resurgence.

“We may end up averting a crisis. That’s our hope,” said President Barack Obama, who took time away from the G-8 summit in Italy to telephone another summit back home — the 500 state and local health officials meeting to prepare for swine flu’s fall threat.

No final decision has been made on whether to vaccinate Americans, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stressed. That depends largely on studies with experimental batches that are set to start the first week of August — to see if they’re safe and seem to work and to learn whether they require one or two doses.

But if all goes well, the federal government will buy vaccine from manufacturers and share it for free among the states, which must then “try and get this in the arms of the targeted population as soon as possible,” Sebelius said.

First in line probably will be school-age children, young adults with risky conditions such as asthma, pregnant women and health workers, she said. Unlike regular winter flu, the swine flu seems more dangerous to these groups than to older people.

“Schools are natural places” to offer those vaccines, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said.

Go home and get schools, mayors and other community leaders to spread that message, Sebelius said.

“The last thing we want is millions of parents to be surprised” the day the get-your-kid-vaccinated-at-school note comes home, she said.

Schools do occasionally team up with local health officials for special flu vaccination clinics, but it’s not common. More than 140 schools around the country scheduled flu vaccination days last fall, some providing free vaccine. Some vaccinated only students bearing parent consent forms; others opened their doors to entire families.

It will be a confusing fall, Sebelius acknowledged. Doctors’ offices, clinics and even grocery stores will be in the midst of dispensing 100 million-plus doses of regular winter flu vaccine — and the swine flu vaccine, which will roll out slowly, will require at least one completely separate inoculation.

“We know a mass vaccination program of even modest scale will involve extraordinary effort on your part,” Sebelius told state health workers.

She also announced $350 million in grants to help states prepare, money to be used partly to brace hospitals for a surge of demand from the truly sick and the well-but-worried.

“We want to make sure we are not promoting panic but we are promoting vigilance and preparation,” Obama told the gathering.

State officials welcomed the funds but had more practical questions for the feds, starting with what they learned from the chaos when swine flu first burst on the scene last spring and schools around the country closed because of sick students.

Since then, the virus has infected an estimated 1 million Americans and still is spreading, remarkable considering influenza usually can’t tolerate summer’s heat and humidity.

“What I need from all of you is an idea of when it is best to close, when it is necessary to close and when it’s not,” said Belinda Pustka, superintendent of Texas’ Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District.

“Closing school is a last resort not a first resort,” Duncan stressed, but he said schools need to plan how they’ll keep students learning if they do have to close for extended periods.

Pustka’s schools posted assignments online. But Sue Todey of Wisconsin’s Department of Public Education said that between rural geography and poverty, many students don’t have the necessary Internet access and she’s exploring using public television or old-fashioned sending home of paper assignments.

An even bigger problem: When schools close and working parents need to stay home — or any worker gets sick — too often, they don’t get paid, said Paul Jarris of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. So they come to work, spreading infection.

“How are we going to assist people who don’t have benefits?” he asked.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she was working with the Labor Department to address that question, and she urged employers to allow telecommuting and make other provisions should swine flu hit their workplaces this fall.

Swine flu outbreaks in the fall are all but certain given its continued spread here — 50 outbreaks in children’s summer camps so far — and abroad, with major problems in parts of the Southern Hemisphere.

What doctors can’t predict is how bad it will be during the U.S. flu season, but Obama’s team of heavy-hitters spent Thursday warning against complacency.

Even if swine flu proves no more deadly than regular winter flu, that kills 36,000 Americans a year — and with swine flu, teenagers and young adults are being disproportionately hit, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And both types could very well spread at the same time this fall.

“If it doesn’t happen, we’ll be fortunate,” Sebelius added.