Only In New Mexico
I made the mistake of watching the local news for a few minutes tonight, and came away properly mind-boggled for my trouble. Schools in New York and California close because of flu outbreaks. Schools in New Mexico close because of outbreaks of the BLACK DEATH. You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. They had a five-minute overview on the symptoms, when you should see a doctor, what animals to avoid, all the normal stuff (YES THIS IS NORMAL). I remain impressed at how blase everyone here is about it though; the swine flu reports were far more panicked. It makes me imagine conversations like this:
Mom: I'm sorry, Billy won't be in class today, he has a touch of the plague. Poor thing must have caught it from David down the street.
Secretary: Oh, no problem, I'll just mark him absent and ask his teacher to set his homework aside for him. Keep an eye on his fever and don't let him back to class until the buboes are gone!
Seriously, it's weird as hell.
Needless to say it made me very nervous to go out to the yard and move adobe bricks. I know for a fact there are things living in there, and it would be just my luck to get bitten by something and get the plague, instead of mutant squirrel powers.
Mom: I'm sorry, Billy won't be in class today, he has a touch of the plague. Poor thing must have caught it from David down the street.
Secretary: Oh, no problem, I'll just mark him absent and ask his teacher to set his homework aside for him. Keep an eye on his fever and don't let him back to class until the buboes are gone!
Seriously, it's weird as hell.
Needless to say it made me very nervous to go out to the yard and move adobe bricks. I know for a fact there are things living in there, and it would be just my luck to get bitten by something and get the plague, instead of mutant squirrel powers.