The "what's On Your Mind?" Thread -2018

[Alicia88]

I completely agree.
My mother in law was wanting to take a family trip to Florida this summer, but we had to tell her we can't because I don't feel comfortable taking Aedan to Disneyworld or the Harry Potter theme park before he's had his MMR vaccine - which he can't get til he's 1. Before the anti vax nonsense, we coukd have relied on herd immunity. Now, we can't. A recent measles outbreak was traced back too Disneyland in California. These people either don't realize or don't care that they're not only endangering their own kids but other kids as well. Sometimes the vaccines don't work or some kids have legitimate health issues preventing vaccination or just aren't old enough to be vaccinated and they're being endangered from people who choose not to vaccinate.

 

[Willowy]

if I were to travel to say New Zealand-I am required to get a chest X ray before entering their country to check for TB.

Only if you're staying longer than 6 months.

Immigrants to the US need to have a bunch of vaccines:

• Mumps
• Measles
• Rubella
• Polio
• Tetanus and diphtheria
• Pertussis
• Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib)
• Hepatitis A
• Hepatitis B
• Rotavirus
• Meningococcal disease
• Varicella
• Pneumococcal disease
• Seasonal influenza

But there's no requirements for visitors :/.

 

[Margret]

The county I live in has a Green Space law, requiring builders to leave a certain amount of land vacant. When the law was first passed a lot of the builders complained loudly about how much money it was going to cost them, but my dad, who was also a builder, said that they just hadn't figured out how much more they were going to be able to sell their houses for. So just across the street from us, behind and next to our neighbors' houses, is a green space with a little creek flowing through it, which comes from the dam that created the pretty little lake in the neighborhood park. And last night when I came home from running errands I saw that there was a brand new chain link fence blocking access to the green space. I was worried; who could possibly believe that they had the right to block our access?! And what did they think they were going to do to our green space. Yes, the law is on our side; they're not supposed to be able to destroy it or build on it, but the county has violated the law before; they gave a variance, over vociferous objections from the neighbors, to a church that wanted to build in the neighborhood without a large enough parking lot, and the zoning laws were on our side then, too.

So today I called our neighbor across the street, who generally knows what's going on, and asked him. It seems that there have been some worries about the integrity of the dam for some time, and the state has been after the county to repair it, and this year the county got together with the Parks and Recreation district to do exactly that. They've already begun draining the lake, and hope to have repairs completed by May, after which the green space will again become accessible (though I'd bet there will be a good deal of damage to it in the process). In the meantime they just want to keep people from getting in the way and possibly having accidents. Whew! I was getting worried there! It's all too easy to imagine the county deciding that the land is better used for a condo or something, especially with the city of Denver putting so much effort into trying to lure Amazon to build their second hub here. (And talk about a mess if that venture succeeds! The entire area from Boulder south to Castle Rock will suffer.)

Margret

 

[Margret]

Thanks for the update. I'm glad she is doing better and I hope her kittens made it through the cold weather.

Oh, they did. Remember, she was so incredibly worried and then they showed up the next day asking for food? Little Bit knows all the best places to go when the weather is bad. And Tid Bit has been adopted, so now it's just Little Bit and Sprite. Sprite has been a bit skittish since Tid Bit "disappeared," but she's starting to warm up to @Mamanyt1953 again.

I'm going to go on a Prohibition-related tangent-prior to Prohibition, it was frowned on for men and women to drink together in public. Saloons were generally men-only, with only a few having separate areas for women. Men and women really first drank together in speakeasies. After Prohibition ended, they kept drinking together because they were now used to it.

Prohibition did more to spread both drinking and organized crime than any other event in our history.

Last night Jon and I watched that biggest engineering show on I think discovery show-it was about how they built the big submarine in Virginia. I got to see some pretty impressive cranes and welding to build the ship. I don't know why I find how to shows fascinating...then I want to run out and try it!

Just don't go out and start welding your very own ark. I'm pretty sure somebody would get upset with you.

Margret

 

[arouetta]

I love the pictures in this article. Just don't read the actual article, it's like the author just made up some nonsense to go along with the pictures.

10 Pics Showing That, No Matter What, Cats Will Always Be Cats

 

[arouetta]

At what point does a feral stop being a feral? I was talking with a customer today, and she said she takes care of 12 ferals. But then she said that two stay inside her house all the time and a third goes in and out as it pleases. Once they are voluntarily going into your house and staying there, how can they possibly still be classified as feral?

 

[kashmir64]

I made sure my son got all the available vaccines he could. I tried, really hard, to get him a smallpox vaccine, but the doctors kept telling me they don't make it anymore. It's been eradicated. Because we're all vaccinated!! Or were. I'm expecting it to make a comeback soon.

 

[Alicia88]

I think it might still exist in some third works countries but it's completeky gone in the US. I hope it stays gone.
Aedan will be getting all his shots. I had to get a rubella booster in the hospital after he was born because my pregnancy blood work showed that it had worn off.

 

[kashmir64]

I am typing this with almost tears in my eyes. There is a cat at the Humane Society. I initially noticed her after Sable went to her new home. This cat was owner surrendered in Sept. 2016. She is still there. If I could figure out a way to adopt her, I would do it tomorrow. But, I am just making some headway with Samai. Do I dare bring in a third cat? I've been talking to friends in the area trying to get her into a home. I just don't get it, she's gorgeous.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking any of you to adopt her. You all live a bit far. I'm just trying to figure out what I can do.
Here's her picture, isn't she beautiful?

Edit: Ok, I'm calling them tomorrow to see if she's actually still there. If she is I may go visit her. Then I may adopt her next week. Can't actually do it tomorrow, but Tues. when they re-open, I just might. If she gets along with other cats.
Does anyone else think she look a little Siberian? In the face?

 

[Willowy]

I made sure my son got all the available vaccines he could. I tried, really hard, to get him a smallpox vaccine, but the doctors kept telling me they don't make it anymore. It's been eradicated. Because we're all vaccinated!! Or were. I'm expecting it to make a comeback soon.

Smallpox is entirely eradicated. The last natural case was in 1979. The only place it exists now is in 2 labs. The only way it could make a comeback is if those samples somehow got out of the labs. There is talk of destroying the remaining samples, almost all countries have agreed to do it but for some reason the US and Russia do not want to destroy them.

But it can't make a natural comeback. It's a major vaccine success story.

 

[muffy]

The mere thought of drinking raw milk makes me sick

The mere thought of drinking any kind of cows milk makes me sick. LOL.

 

[segelkatt]

I completely agree.
My mother in law was wanting to take a family trip to Florida this summer, but we had to tell her we can't because I don't feel comfortable taking Aedan to Disneyworld or the Harry Potter theme park before he's had his MMR vaccine - which he can't get til he's 1. Before the anti vax nonsense, we coukd have relied on herd immunity. Now, we can't. A recent measles outbreak was traced back too Disneyland in California. These people either don't realize or don't care that they're not only endangering their own kids but other kids as well. Sometimes the vaccines don't work or some kids have legitimate health issues preventing vaccination or just aren't old enough to be vaccinated and they're being endangered from people who choose not to vaccinate.

And why would you want to take a child that small to an amusement park anyway? Children have to be old enough to really enjoy it before they are taken there. A 3-year old will be cranky within 2 hours, any younger will be just a burden to the adults and NOBODY will enjoy themselves. Ignore the advertisements, wait to take your child there until he can walk around a whole day without needing a nap, a rest every once in a while sitting down should be enough. If not, then your child is too young, get a babysitter if this is the only chance you get to be there.

 

[Margret]

The U.S. and Russia want to keep smallpox samples in case of emergency. There's really no guarantee that all other samples were destroyed, and good reason to believe that some may not have been. Also, the complete smallpox genome has been published and we now have the tools available to actually create it from scratch; if the wrong people were to decide to weaponize smallpox they could, at any time. If the samples are available for research, we save a step catching up to the bad guys, which could translate to a lot of lives. See: Smallpox virus retention controversy - Wikipedia

Margret

 

[Katie M]

Have you ever heard of linguistic purism? There's a very small movement that believes English-speakers should only use words of Anglo-Saxon origin.

I prefer English the way it is. I love that there are so many words to choose from. It's so much more interesting this way.

That said, I do like the Anglo-Saxon word for caterpillar, leafwyrm.

The history of English is fascinating.

 

[foxxycat]

I am typing this with almost tears in my eyes. There is a cat at the Humane Society. I initially noticed her after Sable went to her new home. This cat was owner surrendered in Sept. 2016. She is still there. If I could figure out a way to adopt her, I would do it tomorrow. But, I am just making some headway with Samai. Do I dare bring in a third cat? I've been talking to friends in the area trying to get her into a home. I just don't get it, she's gorgeous.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking any of you to adopt her. You all live a bit far. I'm just trying to figure out what I can do.
Here's her picture, isn't she beautiful?
View attachment 216244

Edit: Ok, I'm calling them tomorrow to see if she's actually still there. If she is I may go visit her. Then I may adopt her next week. Can't actually do it tomorrow, but Tues. when they re-open, I just might. If she gets along with other cats.
Does anyone else think she look a little Siberian? In the face?

It will be fine. I always had 3 cats-this is the first time it's only 2. And with one being old-I know it won't be long before we get another one-Honeybee needs a young cat to harass...I just haven't been home enough to network for a young cat plus mr Jon says no to more cats and I said..hahahaha. you tell me no makes me want to do it anyways!

Just adopt her if you feel connected. She is beautiful-that's a chocolate tortie. My choc torti was a real sweetheart-she never bit or hissed. She was just really high strung-meaning she didn't walk-she ran-all the time-Flash was her name-she would run and jump over Floey before Flo knew what the heck went over her head..it was hilarious to watch...I love seeing cats getting adopted into cat friendly homes.

And I decided to slowly chop off my long hair...2 weeks ago I cut off 6". I am ready for another 3 to 4 inches off..It was so long it was giving me a headache up in a bun. Plus it's been colored a few colors so I want to see what my natural color is. It's been about 2 years and still have quite a bit of dyed hair left...

 

[arouetta]

I also made sure my daughter got all the normal childhood vaccines.

The chickenpox vaccine was brand new on the market (it got FDA approval when my daughter was 1 year old) and there was still the school of thought that chickenpox was completely harmless and people still had chickenpox parties, but I insisted on that as well. But the only reason I was so insistent is because a friend said her husband had ended up in the hospital needing oxygen just to breathe as a child because of a bad case of chickenpox. I don't think I would have been so insistent so early on if I hadn't heard that.

My daughter was also in the target age group when the HPV vaccine was released so I had her in for that one immediately as well. Screw all that moral "it'll encourage sex!" Maybe she'll have sex when young and dumb, it won't make it more likely and she'll be safe, maybe she'll wait until marriage and her future husband is already infected. As an aside, I think the same about birth control. If she's young she'll be safe, if she waits until marriage the knowledge of how to prevent a wedding night baby will not magically pop into her head as she's walking down the aisle.

 

[Graceful-Lily]

I don't know if I said this already but I had a neighbor that is a hardcore Christian (she moved to another country years ago). She was against vaccines and was very passionate about that. I'm talking like... extreme. It made visiting her house super CRINGY. Her first daughter had some vaccines but all the children that followed didn't get anything at all and they were sick all the time. I'm talking at least 10 times or more a year. And it wasn't your regular cold and flu, they would vomit, have headaches, diarrhea, etc. My mom and I would always talk at home about how crazy she and her husband was because they seemed like they came from another era in time... Or a completely different dimensional plain all together. She didn't send them to school, they weren't allowed to watch tv or play with other children. They couldn't read books unless the parents approved. Everything about their lifestyle was odd. Not just the vaccine part. Has anyone ever known a family like this?

I have recieved every single vaccine required for a female in Ontario and I'm perfectly fine. I do get sick from time to time but nothing serious and I'm usually over it within 24 - 72 hours.

Not sure what I was getting at... I had a point coming but I lost it.

 

[arouetta]

I don't know what to say about that family. That actually kinda sounds like the Yates family.

I've also had all vaccines required for someone in the 1990s and I'm fine. In fact I've had so many vaccines there isn't a chance of getting a childhood illness. I had the typical little kids ones in the 70s and 80s. Around 1990 there were a lot of cases of the measles vaccine no longer being effective after a couple of decades so my college required a measles booster. Then after dropping out and joining the military I had most of the childhood ones again (with the exception of mumps for some reason) plus a few interesting ones. For the curious, yellow fever (though that only lasts 10 years), meningitis, adenovirus, bubonic plague and typhoid fever. (I would love to know how the bubonic plague vaccine works, since that's bacterial not viral.)

 

[kashmir64]

Everything about their lifestyle was odd. Not just the vaccine part. Has anyone ever known a family like this?

Yes I have. She did allow some of the kids to attend public school, but only a few. She's the one who called me a Demon.

 

[kashmir64]

Then after dropping out and joining the military

I didn't know you were military.
THANK YOU!!!