Sick and Voting

I know that listening to me go on and on about being sick is probably boring you to pieces right about now. I know that you're probably tired of hearing it, but that's all that's really going on in my life right now. I am stuck yet another day in the house on the couch, sick. My fever finally broke this morning, but the doctor (and all the other people who recommend stuff) says not to go back to school until 24 hours after the fever is gone. It doesnt really matter because I'm not feeling well enough to be back yet anyway. I do admit that I am feeling better this morning, but just not THAT much better.

I still pretty much have a box of tissues permanently attached to my nose. See that pile on the floor next to my spot on the couch? That is only from a couple of hours. I think Avery and I have ran through about 3 boxes of tissues since this whole fiasco began a week ago. Did you know that they make antiviral tissues now? They do! They are tissues with a middle layer that has blue spots. The blue spots have some chemical ingredients in them that claim to kill 99.9% of rhinoviruses type 1A and 2 (that's the common cold), influenza A and B (that's the seasonal flu), and RSV (that's a respiratory infection that small kids get). Nothing on there about killing H1N1. Oh, well.

Here's another weird thing I've noticed...Avery and I have both had the hiccups several times in the last couple of days. Normally, I dont get the hiccups that often and neither does Avery, so for us to have the hiccups at the same time (which we did yesterday, which was kind of funny), is very unusual. Maybe there's a link to the H1N1 virus and the hiccups? That's the only common denominator that I can see here. Of course we eat the same food, but that is always true. And it couldnt have been just one food item that we ate recently because the hiccups have been happening over the course of the last few days. I dont know...weird. So, I put up a new poll over to the right...how often to do get the hiccups?

I'm really bored of staying home. There's only so much sleeping a person can do. Which is alot when you are sick, but still. I've been spending alot of time reading my new Bible and reading some of the science magazines that I had neglected the last couple months. I also pretty much have all the papers graded that I can grade at this time. I've done everything a person can do sitting on one spot on the couch feeling miserable. I did some research on the stuff to do while we're in Texas for Christmas Break. I have a huge list of stuff to choose from now. I've made a couple of phone calls that I would normally not be able to make when I'm at school all day. Yesterday I actually left the house for about an hour to go vote(have to take the chance to exercise my American right, even if I did feel like crap doing it) and get some cold medicine and a new thermometer.

We had a pretty important ballot measure to vote on. It was whether or not to get rid of local option. Local option is a choice that the residents of Bethel made back in 1977 to become a damp community. This is when they choose that no alcohol should be sold in Bethel. Being damp means that we can still have alcohol here, but you cannot buy or sell it locally. So, you can have it shipped in from Anchorage or bring it back with you when you come in from somewhere else...but there are limits. Ridiculously HIGH limits... 10.5 liters of hard liquor, 32 bottles of wine, and 12 gallons of beer each month. That's plenty of alcohol for one person for one month! The state of Alaska is who decides these limits and last year when the state discussed cutting the limits in half to reduce the prevalence of alcoholism in rural Alaska, people freaked out! Part of it is that the people dont want to be under the thumb of the state, part of it is that one of the city council members likes to have a keg shipped in every now and then to keep in his kegorator at home and that doesnt fit under the 12 gallon beer limit, part of it is that the city says that if we sold alcohol then we could raise tax revenue from it. Alcoholism among Alaska Natives is a HUGE issue. Even though there are many valid reasons to consider becoming a "wet" community, I think that it would be devastating to the town and the surrounding villages by allowing unlimited access to alcohol. Read this article in the Anchorage Daily news to get both sides of the argument. I personally thought that the ballot measure was written in a very confusing way, where a yes vote really meant no and a no vote really meant yes. It asked to vote on whether or not we should 'do away with' the local option. So if you voted yes, you were saying that you want to get rid of local option, if you voted no, you were saying that you wanted to keep local option. I really think that the wording on the ballot could have been more clear, esp in a community where English is predominantly a second language among the people whom this vote will impact the hardest. I am anxious to see how the vote turned out. You can click on either of Bethels newpapers in the links section to the right to get the scoop...the Delta Discovery or the Tundra Drums. There is also a link there to the city council website. Click here to see the unofficial election results. I'm not sure if the 'local option' vote is proposition 1 or 2, either way, it looks as though we are going to become a 'wet' community, which means we will be eligible for 2 bars, 2 liquor stores and 2 restaurants that serve alcoholic beverages with food. This could really be disastrous for our community.

Another thing to vote on...Lego robotics is one of the finalists in Google's Project 10 to the 100. The winner will receive a lot of money from Google to complete their project. Seeing as how I coach a lego robotics team each here, it would be nice if they could benefit from Google's money. Click here to vote for enhancing science and engineering education partly through the use of lego robotics programs in schools. The deadline is tomorrow. Vote now!