What is more topical these days than swine flu?  It seems that I can’t pick up a newspaper without some distressing news.  Today’s Globe and Mail had most of the front page devoted to the pandemic; two stories focusing on how outrageous it is that (a) Hockey players (for The Flames – an Alberta hockey team) were given special early access to the vaccine, and (b) more than half of the vaccine doses in Canada are sitting in storage while people line up for 5 and 6 hours for their shots.  The National Post told me that the health authority employee who’d authorized the hockey team shots had been fired.  The Toronto Star (Canada’s 3rd national newspaper) indicated that Parliament was going to debate, once again, the mismanagement of this “crisis”.  Indeed, lately I’ve been hearing it all referred to as Harper’s Katrina (Harper being our Prime Minister, the Katrina reference I’m sure you can connect to bungling).

Then I checked out some US papers online (you see, being retired I have time to do this).   The New York Times told me that H1N1 is still spreading globally.  The Washington Post had a story about the flu outrunning the vaccine.  The LA Times gave me a link to a Swine Flu Quiz.

This frenzy isn’t just showing up in North American newspapers.  In the London Times I read that the Medical Chief in the UK was warning about extremists interfering with vaccination clinics.  The Jerusalem Post indicated that Israel has now received a shipment of vaccine and is planning its distribution.

I got an email from the Red Cross late last week asking for volunteers to work with our Public Health folks at the vaccination clinics, so that’s where I was at 9 a.m. last Monday.  Last week the vaccine was still being given only to high risk populations (that hasn’t changed here yet by the way) and since I’ll be spending 3 days/week at a clinic that includes me as a front-line worker. This was the first day for the clinic and so it took us a while to get to working at real efficiency but before long we were doing 100 – 150 people/hour.  We were also handing out time cards so that folks didn’t have to just stand in line for hours; they could return when it would be their turn.  So once I’d worked for several hours to get the clinic ready to roll (distributing materials, putting up signs, charging and distributing cell phones, putting piles of suckers on each station for the kids) I was “shot”.  Okay, I admit, this photo is an exaggeration, but it seems quite in line with everything else these days.

The thing about being retired is I do have more time to listen to newscasts and read newspapers.  That means that I guess I’m a little more vulnerable to media manipulation and have to keep reminding myself that although over 5000 people worldwide have died of H1N1 in 2009, the average number of deaths in the US from the regular seasonal flu is 30,000.  I can’t help but wonder what it is that we’re being distracted from by all of this flu coverage.  What should I be paying attention to while I’m being distracted by swine flu?

Meanwhile, Tuesday found me huddled in my bed, running a fever and wondering (truly) if I was going to make it through the day.  Every time the phone would ring I’d groan as I moved my arm and tried to stretch out and reach it.  I was sooooo tired.   I dragged myself to my class (thank goodness that David was able to come home a little early and drive me down … and wait to take me back home to bed) and before long my students had sent me home (how wonderful they are) and carried on with their presentations.  All evening I got emails from them saying how amazed they were that I cared enough to even drag myself into the class and wishing me well; how lovely is that!  By Thursday I was feeling much better … almost ready to get back to the clinic.  Looks like I’ll likely volunteer three days/week for a while; 4 hour shifts each time.

You know, throughout my life I have always had impeccably bad timing, tending to jump into doing something just as the winds were shifting.  That didn’t change for sure with retirement.  First, starting just before I got my last paycheck, the economy collapsed.  Now a pandemic has hit.  We had more extreme weather – and even that one tornado – in the last year than we’ve ever experienced before.

It also seems that I’ve spent more time getting things fixed in the past month than doing almost anything else; my car (water pump and timing belt), one of the TV receivers (took three “house calls” before they’d fixed it, my alarm clock (it’s got some kind of poltergeist and keeps jumping back an hour while I’m sleeping), my printer (wouldn’t turn on).  My idea of a lovely day in retirement is definitely not sitting at home waiting for repairmen who don’t repair anything.

Even with all of that I am happy.  Really.  I’m finding myself spending more time doing things that touch my soul and fill my spirit than I’ve ever done before.  My days are a little too full, but they’re filled with things that mean a lot to me and give me a great deal of satisfaction.   I’ve finding some time to spend with old friends and I’m also making some new friends.   So I’ll keep on volunteering at the clinic and in spite of H1N1 I’m going to keep enjoying each and every day, remembering what a gift this all is.

I do wonder how others are reacting to this H1N1 “thing”?  Is everybody nervous?  Are others just ignoring it?

Well, retirement certainly is boring!