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Saturday, September 28, 2002

Eat hamburger, Get sick~~~Good Gawdamighty, will people never learn? The local news channels have been hysterically bleating about the 40 cases of e-Coli poisoning in Wisconsin and Michigan because of tainted ground beef. 400,000 pounds of packaged hamburgers came from a processing plant in Milwaukee, and of course will be recalled. "It is not known how much tainted hamburger is still in peoples' freezers, but here's the number of the "inspection" tag on the package" *Yawn*

Not that getting a flu-like illness from ingesting tainted ground-up cow flesh is a good thing. It's not. But we go thru this so often. When will idiot human beings learn three simple rules............1) cook the stuff all the way thru, no pink showing; 2) wash your damn hands, with soap and water, after handling the stuff, then wash any surfaces the meat has touched; and 3) try to use a few functioning brain cells and actually do Nos. 1 and 2. The most radical preventive tool? Just don't eat hamburger meat. Hey, what a concept. Unfortunately, too many of us like our li'l old hamburgers, even though nasty bacteria gets into the meat because of unsanitary boo-boos in the slaughtering process. As you know, these rascally little bugs live in the cow's intestines, then inevitably wind up in the cow's feces and ta-da, if just a smidgen gets into the meat when the carcass goes down the line, smack dab in the meat we eat. Lovely, ain't it?

I tried using ground turkey once for my chili. Icky ka-ka. It's just gotta be the cow meat. But the hamburger I used a few days ago in my chili was cooked thru and thru, and I didn't get sick.......but of course, it could have been the copious use of cumin and chili powder that killed any bugs, though. Tasty and safe to eat. Great combination.

posted by Lorraine 9:23 AM 
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Thursday, September 26, 2002

Ah, that feels good~~~to sweep the page (almost) clean and start sort of fresh. Came across this neat-o sign, just had to show it to you. Pretty damn cute if I do say so myself. Which I just did.

Went to the doctor last week. Just wanted to ask a couple questions, like, you know, let's get real here Lady, and up my dosage of Vicodin. It wasn't easy, but she finally conceded I wasn't going to become an addict with three a day instead of two. Somehow she snuck in an order to the lab and I found myself peeing in a cup and having my body drained of 3 vials of blood. All because my blood pressure was slightly elevated. How thoughtful of her.

She also thought that my using a cane could be helpful to alleviate some of the pain of walking. So I hauled myself over to Walgreens and bought me one. I really don't have that cadence or rhythm down real good yet, it feels dumb and awkward. But I dutifully took it to "work" Tuesday 'cause there's a lotta walking involved with my "job".

OK then. Started out fine. After I finished my paperwork in the Volunteer Office, I cuddled my clipboard and sallied forth. Ooops, forgot the cane. Back to the office for retrieval. Good. Lurched down the hall with absolutely no idea of how it worked, so I just hung it on my arm and decided to visit my two buddies in the storeroom where all the gift shop merchandise is, and where they were unpacking and marking Christmas stuff.

So we schmoozed for a while, confirmed our lunch date (it never changes, cafeteria at 11:15) and off I went. Oooops, forgot the cane. Back to the storeroom for retrieval. Finally got myself up to the 5th floor, saw a familiar face who turned out to be the flo ho (my kid), couldn't talk long, she had to do some stuff to a patient. The patient I was going to see was a couple doors away, but he was on a vent and unconscious so there wasn't much point in staying. Decided to take a break before heading for the 4th floor. Went to a small waiting room and re-arranged my paperwork, then on my way again. Oooops, forgot the cane.

Conclusion---Subconsciously I am determined to lose the cane, but consciously remembered, three times, where I left it and retrieved it, so it's obvious I have a psychological conflict here. The solution is laughably simple. I'll just leave the damn thing at home.

posted by Lorraine 7:40 AM 
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