That said, I may be wrong but I sense that this will be a serious epidemic. I hope it isn't but the viral mix of swine and avian (bird) flu is "weird". It's almost like it is engineered. The Mexico City release might be very difficult to contain and it apparently has already spread to the US. I spent something like $1.20 to register MexicanFlu.info at http://godaddy.com for a year. I will link it to this blog. The domain name is what was available and this did originate in Mexico. No offense is meant against Hispanics.
I hope this threat fizzles and this blog is a dud but I have a bad feeling. I know a lot about epidemiology. Beyond this knowledge I have several advantages. I retired in December 2007 so if necessary I can "hunker down" if necessary though, with spring I would like to get out and bicycle. I consider "bargain hunting" a sport, I especially like Aldi Food's markdowns. I am something of a "packrat" and have a lot canned foods. Also, Aldi tends to deeply discount meat and other frozen foods that don't sell. I have two freezers full of them. In the event of a power failure I have tow generators, one a 1KW and from Aldi a $200 2.6 KW generator that I have tested with an outside tank but never used. Also, both freezers are in 45 degree basement, and I am developing strategies here.
For starters, if you have freezers the basement is best because of the lower temperature difference. If you have freezer room fill empty containers like one gallon milk jugs with salt water and let them freeze in the freezer. Any salt will do, mark the jug "salt water, do not drink" and add a skull and crossbones. Salt lowers the freezing point of water so the frozen salt water will "cool" by melting at a temperature far below freezing. This will help keep the freezer cold during a power outage. During a power outage don't open the freezers and blankets over the top will help keep the contents cold.
On the positive side some medicines like tama-flu seem to work so key utility workers should be first in line and this is not "personal contact" work. Hopefully basic utilities will continue to work.
Tomorrow, I will go to Aldi and get three or four three pound bags of long grain white rice. This will be my panic benchmark. I'm also down to six rolls of toilet paper so I will probably "stock up". This will be another indicator. I will watch the Aldi inventory on these items and report.
Like I said, I hope this "epidemic" is a dud but I have a bad feeling about it. I feel it will be hard to contain. I hope that I am wrong. For dynamics, I have adequate money in savings but I like to live by "cash flow". Beer doesn't spoil and I would like to stockpile a large quantity of my favorite Mountain Crest http://www.damngoodbeer.ca/ which is $8.69 per case of 24 cans. I'd like to get something like 25 cases and store in basement where it will keep well a very long time. Should I risk waiting until Friday, the first of the month? The cheap price is out in the suburbs so I usually get six cases and joke about "stocking up for bird flu". If I get 25 cases they might actually believe it!
This blog will tell the details.
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