La Influenza

I have to admit, the fact that we are on the verge of a flu pandemic fascinates me.  I have done some reading on other pandemics, most recently the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918.  I don't think it is entirely fair to blame the Spaniards for all those deaths.  Had they known the benefits of regular hand washing, far less people would have died.  Today at my office, a note was posted in the bathroom instructing us how to wash our hands properly.  For the last 30 years, I have been doing this incorrectly.  If I've inadvertently gotten you sick over this time because of my stupidity, well, I'm sorry.  In addition to a step-by-step guide informing me how to sterilize my hands, our bathroom also has a big bottle of Purell between the two sinks.  It looks like this:

Not to be confused with Prell, which is only effective on the germs that hide out in the scalp.

I am not very worried about catching the flu.  While I don't consider myself to be a terrible clean individual, I have not had flu-like symptoms since June of 1998 and that was only for about 36 hours.  I was traveling in Europe on a train from Barcelona, Spain to Interlaken, Switzerland.  I was with two friends and our train had stopped in Geneva.  It was 8am and I felt really bad.  By noon, when we arrived in Interlaken, I knew that bad shit was about to go down.  As I slept on the front lawn of the grocery store, while they went in to shop for laks and Toblerones, I decided that I was going to bungee jump that afternoon even if it killed me.  By 4pm, when we were picked up by the outfit that ran the bungee jumping, I was hoping that in fact it would kill me.  That's how sick I was.  On the van ride out to the the mountain, I puked all over myself and that is why in this picture, I am wearing a vest, with no undershirt.  If you were able to check my underpants, I think you would find them a mess as well.

My two friends gave me crap for being a "downer" that afternoon.  That night they caught what I had though, and for that I will always remain grateful.  It was the sickest I've ever felt.