Going Hunting

Yippee Kiyii Aaaaa!! I am on five days leave! And you know what that means....the cottage is in my future. In fact, I'd be there tonight except it snowed here today and it's kinda cold and blustery tonight, just didn't seem like a very inviting night to leave the comforts of home, cable TV, internet and so on.....

But it is whitetail deer season and ruffed grouse season and for that matter, duck season....so all the seasons are open and I feel obliged to take part in at least some of it. If nothing else, a few days R&R at the camp and a walk in the woods will be nice. I missed last hunting season, but I don't intend to let this one go by without at least one or two days "afield" as we sports like to call it. I am just hoping the weather breaks a bit and we have a few nice days, I guess I have become somewhat of a fair weather hunter in my old age. The days of me getting excited over a 'tracking snow' seem to have dissapated like the snow that fell today.

On another note, what do you think of the news report from CBC where Dr. Richard Schabas, a chief medical officer of health in part of Ontario, Canada has said that the H1N1 influenza outbreak needs to be put into perspective. Although I have been guilty of talking about the virus outbreak in my media, blogging, I have to agree with the doctor. This is getting somewhat overblown. According to the report, Dr. Schabas said, "a healthy child in Canada is about 20 times more likely to be killed by a car than by the H1N1 virus"

However, that's not the way it's been portrayed in the media and from health officials. Our own health doctor here in Nova Scotia is on television and radio daily, talking about the vaccination program, and the problems with supplies of vaccine every night. People are talking and worrying about the virus as if it is a death sentence, which of course we know it isn't, no more than other influenzas. The difference with H1N1 might be the quick spreading of it, and it's apparent impacts on younger, otherwise healthy people.

Looking back, it's been an interesting few weeks. Health officials saying we all need to get vaccinated. Then telling us we don't have enough vaccine to go around...which of course gets the media's attention, and so it goes. We all know about the lineups and the problems with the vaccine delivery. Family doctors seemingly left out of the process, lineups lasting hours, only to be told they are out of the vaccine. Pressure still to get the vaccine, but not knowing where or how to get it, and ultimately finding out if you are not in a high risk group...well...you have to wait...and wait...as others around you call in sick from school and work....kind of scary. I can't help think that when I was a kid I would have risked catching it for a few days off school...but that was just me.

Ah well...that is life in the big time I guess. Tomorrow, if God spares me, I hope to be gearing up for a hunting trip, and not really worrying about the vaccine, the H1N1 virus or any other virus, and as long as I can't catch it from a tree or a deer track, I am probably safe for a few days anyway.