Getting the flu ...

It seems like everyone either has the flu, or flu-like symptoms, almost, except me.

Every time I make a statement such as that, I knock on wood -- and knock on wood (kow) yet once again. I'm really not interested in jinxing myself at this point in my life, O.K? (See my post entitled, "Anonymity personified ... [part one]... ", published January 30th this year, for my opinion on superstition.)

My daughter is ill, my granddaughter has been ill, there are reports on television about large numbers of the population who are ill ... do you have the vaguest idea of what I'm doing? Why, I'm cloistering myself in my house is what I'm doing!!

My daughter told me, maybe a month ago, that she had gotten a flu shot for this year's anticipated viral season. I remember thinking, "Good! I hope it works."

Have any of you ever had a flu shot? It seems that they 'project' what-all viruses that they anticipate might be present in the coming year, and then throw all of them together into this one -- hopefully, all-encompassing -- dose of whatever it is that's in the shot.

Well, this year they fell FAR short of the mark (needless to say!) ... 40% is the figure I last heard. I've been straining my brain to try and remember exactly how it was they phrased it ... something like, "40% of ---- is better than 0% of ----". Anyway, it was just that sort of absolute nonsense that was on the news the past day or so.

When I was teaching -- in particular, first grade, when I wanted to just hold each child very tight -- I found myself falling ill towards the end of September (the start of each new school year). While I didn't have the 'flu', per se, I was subject to colds and -- it seemed -- whatever other germs the students had to present.

It was the same way in college. It's really kind of weird. When I was an undergraduate at Northern Michigan College of Education from 1955-1959 -- perhaps in my third year --, there was what was then called an 'Asian flu' epidemic. In fact, so many of the students were ill that the bottom floor of the dorm where I was living was converted to a kind of makeshift hospital. It was then, I think, that I discovered my disinclination to contract the flu (kow).

Anyhoo, to this day I have not gotten a flu shot (kow yet one more time!).