adj. Affecting a large number of animals at the same time within a particular region or geographic area. Used of a disease.
n. An epizootic disease.
For much of my life, I was sure that epizootic was a word that my father made up. Any time I was afflicted by a vague feeling of dis-ease, rendering me unable to attend school, Dad chalked it up to “the epizootics.” That must be what I had this week-end. A little FUO, achiness and irresistible urge to sleep. So almost nothing was accomplished. I was even dragging a little bit at the end of the week, though I had enough energy to sit at my desk and wonder if funny little spot on my finger was the beginning of Osler’s nodules (which I’ve had before and is a sign of being really sick...) and then GOOGLE Osler’s nodules (lots of info and I learned some cool things about Dr. Osler and his influence on medicine and its language. But the big lesson? If you’re well enough to be at work and GOOGLE your symptoms, you are probably not that ill.
And I did pull myself together to return after dinner to see Cardinal George address our parish. Quite excellent...and worth showing up an hour early to get a good seat. (Rick was supposed to go with me, but he came home all dragged out from another day of moving stuff around to help the hurricane evacuees. So another date night falls through due to good deed doing. Back where I come from there are men who do nothing all day but good deeds. They are called phila... er, phila... er, yes, er, Good Deed Doers. So the boys were getting a behind in their schoolwork and the house isn’t looking too good. I suppose being married to a phil...Good Deed Doer beats being married to a philanderer. And this is a tangible experience that the boys can’t find in a textbook. Plus they were able to ride up to Wisconsin in a ‘fancy’ Greyhound-like bus. That was interesting...) Anyway....Rick missed a great talk and the added thrill of the last question/remark taken from the congregation being an obnoxious and off-target comment from a parishioner. I really must write about that... when I’m feeling more rational.
Yesterday was my godson’s second birthday. I was amused at the fact that I was much fussier and discerning when gift shopping than I remember being with my own children’s playthings. A playfood set (the cool kind with Velcro, so that a kid can pretend to slice and dice) caught my eye when Eddie and I were at Target last week. But I had my reading glasses on during Saturday’s expedition and noticed that the toy was recommended for children 5 and up. If this were for my own children I would have purchased it and winnowed out any tiny choking hazards. But for someone else’s child I feel compelled to follow the manufacturers advisory. So I settled on more Little People (that’s what we gave him last year, but there are always new People...)
The nap I took after returning from Target lasted all afternoon. After a lovely dinner (served in bed, at Rick’s suggestion. Maybe I was being pampered. Or perhaps my being sprawled on the couch was just bringing everyone else down.) I made at least three attempts at finishing an article about the black woman who is the latest president of Brown University. At some point, I believe, the article attempts to reconcile her presidency with the Brown family’s history as slave traders. But I never got that far. President Simmons has a CV so impressive that reading it made me tired. I finally gave up when one of the dogs stepped on my glasses during a rest break.
Even though I slept most of Saturday, I went back to bed after early Mass yesterday and by the time we were scheduled to leave for the little guy’s birthday party (to be followed by a stop at surprise party for an
But, afterall, tomorrow was another day. Or shall I say, today was another day. The epizootics seem to have passed. Which was a darned good thing - just a crazy work day that would have been one of the worst possible days to call in sick. (Not that I get ‘sick’ days...so I want to have one foot in the grave before I consider calling in sick. Which brings me to the question that I would have asked the Cardinal: “Can non-benefits-eligible Archdiocesan employees accrue untaken bathroom breaks towards a paid vacation?”)
Oh, well. So it’s back to normal.
While I was sleeping...
...the toad died. This was not a total surprise. He had been having trouble catching crickets in a small closed environment. The body was a tad too desiccated to be used for a dissection project. Necropsy was certain to show he died of old age. We’ve had him so long I don’t remember not having him.
...Bridget made an incredibly realistic - or so I’ve heard - cast of her nose as a gift for her boyfriend. Why? He likes to pinch her nose. In a nice way. Not a Three Stooges sort of way. It is a cute nose. Out of all my children, Bridget does have the cutest nose. Sorry to the rest of you kids. Your noses are nice. But Bridget’s is cute.
...the girl with the cute nose found out that the brother of her high school boyfriend has been released from prison. This guy was a bad egg but I don’t think he’s spent the last four years plotting (a la Sideshow Bob) revenge on our Princess. Revenge for what, you may ask? She came between him and his brother. But he was in prison for holding up a liquor store. Twice. In the same night.
...Fran took the big dog swimming in the lake. And at work today she saw three dogs that have contracted blastomycosis . All three had been to the beach/lake. Of course, Fran can GOOGLE with the best of us, so she is worried about the dog. Not that it would be a hopeless...but the drug regimen is dreadfully expensive. She assured us we aren’t in any danger. Unless Cody would die. Then the spores would be released into the air.
Blastomycosis is not generally considered a zoonotic disease, meaning one that is potentially contagious to people. I guess that would make it an epizootic. But I won’t read any more about it. The symptoms are starting to sound familiar...depression, fever that doesn't respond to antibiotics, coughing, shortness of breath, exercise intolerance, enlarged lymph nodes...
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