Wordless Wednesday - Spring is my favorite season!

Wordless Wednesday - Groundhog

Groundhog: Gee, those Lilacs at the Rochester Lilac Festival are pretty enough to eat!

Random Ramblings #4

From My Computer - My foolish owner Awake could not pay the bill so I am sitting here bored, and untouched. *Sigh* However, she really wants to keep in touch with all of you, so she sneaks out to visit another computer now and then. She can't visit your blogs as often as she wants, but she is trying. I can't wait until I'm activated again! Then we can visit you more often, and talk with you more on Twitter!!! :)

Vroom Vroom! - My car is back on the road again! I had to skip a few payments on other things, but have my car on the road again. It was worth it. The Rochester bus system sucks. Boy did I miss my car!

Thank You, Kind People - I want to thank those of you that have given me moral support by continue to visit my blog although it's difficult for me to visit yours. Your visits and prayers mean a great deal to me. I want to also thank several people in particular who has helped by donating money, food, and/or services to me to help me get through this time of $ problems. You have been a God sent!

Lilac Festival - I wanted to visit it on Thursday, but it rained all day so I didn't go. I heard that they had a good number of people show up for the week.

H1N1 or Swine Flu - Very shortly I will be writing an important post about the H1N1. I hope that you all read it and take it to heart.

Please pray for Jeffrey

Jeffrey is "58; and battling more than one potentially terminal disease". Please pray and/or send positive thoughts for "divine health & healing". For the full prayer request click here.

Thank you!

Wordless Wednesday - Have you seen Brittanee Drexel?

Brittanee Drexel (17) is a Rochester NY, resident who went on vacation to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and is now missing. Her parents were on the Dr. Phil show yesterday. If you have any infomation about her please contact your local authorities.

Read more...
Democrat & Chronicle (Rochester, NY local newspaper)

Rochester NY Bus System (RGRTA) SUCKS!

Why I think our Rochester, NY bus system (RGRTA formerly RTS) SUCKS big time!-

Since I've had car problems I've had to take the bus. It has been a horrible experience! You really need a car to get around Rochester.

Exposed To The Elements. - I know that we have some bus shelters in Rochester, but have rarely seen any. You can be exposed to the rain, snow, wind etc, just waiting for the bus. If your fond of colds the bus is for you!

I Have To Walk In The Street. - Rochester doesn't have sidewalks in some areas. Also if it's winter the snow plows just pile up the snow on the sidewalks. Therefore, you have to walk in the street with ice, and snow, or wet with rain which can be slippery and dangerous. One time I fell on the ice and injured myself. Thank God a kind woman saw me, and gave me a ride home.

The Buses Don't Always Run Where, or When You Need Them - The buses only runs about once every hour, it can be hours apart on weekends. Some places they stop running before 11:00PM at night and resume at 6:00AM. If you work evenings and take the bus, then your out of luck. Many evening shift jobs end at 11:00PM. Therefore, if you can't get out early you will miss your ride.

Also if your destination is only a few miles away, you might not have bus service to it. It doesn't sound bad until you have to walk in the rain, or snow in the slippery street for three miles (one way) sometimes wearing snow boots. I've had blisters on my blisters. Now try carrying groceries all that way!

It's Expensive - They reduced the price to $1 per bus ride, but have more transfers, so it's more expensive in the long run. You can give them $3 to ride all day. But if you ride every day it's $21 for the week. I can do the same traveling spending $5-$7 a week on gas for my car. So riding the bus is much more costly.

I sometimes got the wrong information. - I carefully mapped out my destination on-line, then I called RGRTA who confirmed it. I wrote it all down carefully on paper. When I went to my bus stop I found out from another driver that bus #such&such no longer stopped there. The route is an old one that had been discontinued. The information is sometimes unreliable.

On another day I talked to a ditsy man. I told him where I was, but not my destination. He proceeded to tell me then a bus was coming. He didn't care where I was going, just wanted to inform me of the next bus to my apartment complex. Hello? Anyone home? I finally got him to understand that I had a destination in mind and got some directions. Of course I called back to get a confirmed by another non-ditsy person. Gosh!

It's extremely time consuming. I traveled about 4 miles one way and back the other day. It took the bus one hour to get there. We zigzagged all around, stopping at every mall in the aria, and sometimes waited several minutes for people to show up. The short trip took two hours to and from, and that was a simple one bus trip. It would have taken me about 15 minutes in my car.

It's sometimes crowded like sardines. - Not all the buses seemed crowded, but some buses are smaller then others. When some bus is full, I felt like a sardine in a can. The isles were narrow, and I was crunched in next to the heavy person seated next to me. We were shoulder to shoulder, and I had trouble moving.

It's difficult to see out the windows. - Some buses have advertisements one the windows so it's hard to see out the side windows. They are coated with ads. It makes it difficult to see your location and get off at the correct street.

If you live in Rochester it's best to invest in a car and skip the bus!

Rochester NY Lilac Festival is STILL ON!

In spite of having it's first confirmed case and 17 suspected cases of the H1N1 Swine Flu in Monroe County, Rochester is still going ahead with the Festival. Personally I'm looking forward to it!

According to the report "The woman and her roommate were treated and officials say they're confident her case hasn’t spread in the community." Hm, well it takes about a week to get the results back and as far as I'm concerned there could be more cases currently.

Things haven't changed here. Stores are still just as full. I haven't seen anyone wearing surgical masks. No schools have closed.

If your coming, just use common sense and take precautions...

"Take these everyday steps to protect your health: (CDC)

• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
• Stay home if you are sick for 7 days after your symptoms begin or until you have been symptom-free for 24 hours, whichever is longer. This is to keep from infecting others and spreading the virus further."

You can read more about the festival here. And last years fun time here. The official website is here.

Personally I plan on going and intend to have fun! But we all have to research, and make up our on mind about how we deal with this flu. I figure that I will have a greater chance being exposed to the flu working as a CNA so a festival doesn't bother me. At lest not at this point.

Well, do we have Swine Flu (H1N1) or not?

I've been waiting for the last 3 days to find out if we have a positive case of H1N1 in my area. It's hard to keep up with the numbers. Monroe county (where Rochester is) started with 5 suspected cases, and is now at 13 suspected cases and 1 probable. Some other neighboring counties also has suspected cases - Genesee - 1, Wyoming - 1, and Ontario - 3. I'm sure that someone will test positive in the area. It's to many cases not to. I wonder when I'll find out the results? Maybe when pigs fly! ;)

Some of the pharmacies are running out of surgical masks. Actually surgical masks won't help you with the Swine Flu. They're to porous. You need a N95 mask or European standard FFP3. But the CDC doesn't have a clear cut answers concerning masks. They just say to wash your hands. Well, that's nice, but as a Nursing Assistant I have to get close to patients to feed them, change adult diapers, and so on. Can I get hazard pay now? Gee, if I had known a pandemic was coming this quickly I would have gotten health insurance.... and invested in surgical mask stock.