It had started snowing lightly when the dog and I left for the morning inspection of the neighbourhood. By the time we were about a third of the way along the route, it was snowing quite heavily. We ran into one of his doggy friends, Kobie (an Australian Cattle dog aka as a blue-heeler), and his mommy, Linda. Kobie and Sunny are fairweather friends; they're so happy to see each other that they run across the park (me dangling behind Sunny on the other end of his leash) to say "hi". However, the excitement usually lasts for about a minute and then they both want to carry on with their obsessions...Sunny wants to check out the rest of the neighbourhood, and Kobie wants his mommy to throw the damn ball.

This morning, Linda (Kobie's mommy) was a little upset. The snow was falling harder, and she said that when she had first got to the park, she could still see the houses on the hill in the distance. She had been thinking about a family that she knows who lives over there who had just lost their 8-year old daughter this past Sunday. She had gotten ill on Sunday...had quickly developed a fever, a rash all over her body, and her lips had turned blue. They rushed her to Children's Hospital where she died half an hour later.

In addition to the sadness of the death of the young girl, Linda was upset because she and her own children had been in contact with the girl on Sunday. Linda has a daycare in her home, and she was worried about the health of her children, and the children and babies in her care. She phoned the right people (I don't know who), and got in touch with the community nurse assigned to the school (Chimney Hill Elementary), and was told, after she explained her situation, that what happened to that girl was "of no concern to the public". Really? I would think that given the situation and the mystery of the cause of the little girl's death, that it would be of great concern to the general public, especially the general publich which had been in contact with her. But the snippy nurse basically told Linda to piss off. Linda didn't see it that way. She was relieved that there was no concern. Perhaps I'm being alarmist, but I don't interpret it that way. Then, this same nurse called her back 10 minutes later to apologize because she had no grounds to tell Linda that there was nothing to be concerned about. To clarify, she said that there's nothing at this time to be concerned about yet. So, in other words, she was just covering her ass. Nice.

Now tonight, my aunt who is an SEA (special education assistant) was talking to my mom. She had talked to another SEA at Chimney Hill Elementary and had heard from her that the girl had died from inflammation of the heart and brain, but they (the doctors) still don't know what caused it. Linda had told me that an autopsy had already been done, but nothing was concluded from it. She said that "they" were going to look at the littler girl's brain. Now is anyone concerned?

I guess that I'm telling this story because I saw something on the morning news last week that really pissed me off. One of the broadcasters was asking a doctor/expert about when sick kids should stay home from school. The doctor was giving all kinds of good advice which amounted to "if the kid has a fever, better keep them home. If they're coughing, sneezing, oozing...make them go to school." I thought, "great, that's just what all these people need to hear...permission to force their sick kids on everyone else." I've heard all the arguments: "I don't have any germs." "I'm not contagious." "It's just allergies." That's all bullshit, and by the way, keep your oozing, coughing, sneezing face away from me, cover your face when you cough/sneeze, and WASH YOUR DAMN HANDS!

Thank you for listening.

Enjoy the snow.