Am I feeding the virus?

Thursday:

I’m sick with a nasty head cold. I’d been dragging myself into work because there was no one else, but yesterday I stayed home and they couldn’t open my little library. I’ll be glad when Linh is back next week so there is someone else with a key and used to that library. I haven’t heard how she is but she’s on the roster for next week so must be better. I’m going in today. It’s really hard getting through the work day when you feel awful. And I have to work until 6. Urg.

I’ve been eating really badly. Comfort food. I was thinking last night about how there is a parasite that lives part of its lifecycle in rats, and part in cats. When a rat is infected, it becomes fearless and I think is also attracted to the smell of cat urine, so its behaviour changes to make it more likely to get eaten by a cat. The parasite gets to move into the cat body for the next stage of its life. The parasite controls the rat! Even though that kills the host! And that made me wonder about how I always eat lots of carbs when I’m sick, even though it makes me feel worse. Am I feeding Natalie, or am I feeding the virus? I’m going to start asking myself that question whenever I want to turn to stodgy food.

Another challenge is working late so often, four nights a week at the moment. Most quick foods I cook, or things my daughter knows how to cook, don’t have the leftovers I need for healthy meals for everyone the next day. But I’ve just rediscovered the slow cooker and since I start late I have time to put something together in that. I need to try some more recipes. I’ve only ever used it for casseroles.

Time to get ready for work. Aloe Vera tissues and hand sanitizer!

Weekend

Sunday:

It has been absolutely bucketing down all weekend, really heavy rain and windy too. So it's definitely been an indoor couple of days. It's so dark it feels like evening even in the middle of the day. This is not a well- lit house at all, we have plans to change the lights and also add a window looking out into the backyard. What seemed quite cosy and welcoming in summer might be rather gloomy in winter. We want to get solar panels fitted on the roof and I have no idea if I need to do that before or after changing all the light fittings. Something to investigate, when I have the energy.

Yesterday and today a lot of time was spent (by Tim and the kids) working on Jasmine's science experiment. She set up a long (can't think of the word) thing in her room where she put a book in a basket which made the basket sink and the other end string pulled something up that knocked over a chain of books that made a pair of scissors cut a string that made a marble roll into a chain of dominos which knocked a spoonful of ice cream into a glass of fizzy drink, creating what we call a "spider" in Australia. They filmed take after take while things didn't go quite perfectly, but eventually it worked.

Yesterday evening we watched the first "The Hobbit" movie which we decided the kids were old enough to see. Five more to go in the franchise! They both loved it.

I continue to get terrible sleep for all the reasons previously stated. I am getting to the end of my ability to cope with this, which means tears and snapping at people. Not sure what I can do about it. I am turning to food for energy and I don't see that changing any time soon and I'm not apologising for it. Whatever gets me through the day, at the moment. If I can at least get this pelvic pain sorted, that will help with the second half of every night. But that appointment is still weeks away. I am reconsidering that decision to stick with the closer gyno, I might at least ring around on Monday to see when I could get appointments elsewhere.

New Science

Tuesday:

I was reading the latest New Scientist while drinking my post-lunch cup of tea, as you do, and I thought I share a couple of things that interested me.

In Sweden, they are trying to wipe out racoon dogs, which are not native. They got most of them with various strategies including sniffer dogs, but the way they are finding the last few struck me. They get a sterilised male (which they name Judas), tag him and let him loose. He looks for a mate, one of the few left hiding away. When he finds one, Wildlife Management shoot her. So Judas sets out again to find another. Who gets shot.

I know the humans have their reasons for eliminating this introduced pest, but still. What a horrible sad lonely life for Judas. Always looking for love, bringing death with him. That made me sad.

Another thing, which I don't know if I'll explain very well. A research team thinks we have the wrong strategy in aggressively killing off as many cancer cells as we can. This leaves a lot of space for the really nasty cancer cells that are resistant to chemo, and after a short remission period they often take over and kill people quickly. In studies with mice, the mice lived a lot longer if the original cancer was controlled but not wiped out. The "weak" cancer took up all the space so the "strong" cancer couldn't multiply so fast. It would be different if we were able to kill all the cancer, but often we can't, so in many cases it would be better to live with a milder form. I'm sure there will be a lot more research on that.

And finally, there was a study where people were led to a room by a guidance robot (like a garbage bin with wheels and glowing arms to point the way) and then had to fill out a questionnaire about it. Then there was a fake fire alarm. People had the choice of running out the way they had come or following the instructions of the guidance robot who pointed a different way. The researchers thought people would have trouble trusting the robot after such a short acquaintance. But 26 out of 30 followed the robot's instructions. I guess we trust robots already.

Insignificant humans

There are more organisms in a teaspoon of dirt than the number of humans on the planet.

The End

Freaky atoms

There are more atoms in a teaspoon of water than there are teaspoons of water in the Atlantic Ocean.

The End.