So far, Alaska has had only one case of the dreaded virus and he was a man who came off a cargo plane. I saw a film clip of a person fighting the virus by using a hair dryer blowing up the nose, while keeping the face cooled off with an air sprayer. I recall how when I was young we used to fight colds by boiling a sauce pan of water, leaning over it and staying a good 5 inches over the boiling water. You should also place a towel over your head to form a tent to keep the heat focused on your nose. Do this about 5 times a day or use the hair dryer routine. The heated air of the boiling water or hair dryer being breathed in is supposed to work on flu and colds and should show positive results. But it won't really do anything unless you are already sick. Enjoy.
Our low population and cold weather helps us, but in May tourist season begins and so far nothing has been said about Alaska closing it borders or stopping tourist boats from coming in. Sadly, if the occurs it will be a bad summer for the tourist industry. I know we do not plan to go to Anchorage this summer, but we will visit Soldotna, Seward and Kenai to purchase our supplies. Our store in Seward has been hit a bit, especially toilet paper where it is being rationed and some food items. But so far, we are not seeing what is happening in Lower 48 states. Have not heard of anything hitting Hawaii , but I notice Canada is strangely quiet and their capital zone is quite close to New York which has a couple major hot zones.
I'm working on my new story which I have changed the name to "Conspiracy". This is because the U,S, Senator who comes to Alaska to investigate unlawful business practices by one of the big oil companies has her small plane shot down some 200 miles northwest of of Fairbanks and she and her protector are being pursued by a 5-man mercenary team who are to ensure the Senator is dead. But they haven't counted on having to deal with a retired Marine Captain who had served 3 tours in the Sandbox Wars as Force Recon/Special Forces who has lived by himself out in the wilderness of Alaska for numerous years. Again I wish to give credit to my friend Gary Wells, who created the basic idea for this story, But he passed away before he could write it.
Oh, It is snowing again...But only a month away from the expected Spring.
Here's some Virus Headlines for you to read through: Between 11th thru 17 March. "Italy Threatens Fines, Jail Time For Those People Not Obeying Virus Lock Down as Death Rate Exceeds 1,000 People"... "W.H.O. Declares Virus is Now a Pandemic, Which Means a Worldwide Spread"...."Restaurants, Movie Houses and Sporting Events Now turning into Ghost Towns in Washington State Due to Virus".... "Disney Closes All Its Parks Around the World, After Disney World in Florida was to Close on Sunday, March 3/15/20".... "March 11th Report Showed 118,000 People Worldwide Have The Virus in 106 Countries, With Death Toll Rose to 4,290. Numerous Countries not reporting on the Virus, Which at This Time Included Canada and Over 58 other Countries as United Nations Reported They Represented 168 Countries in Their Membership"...."US Navy Refuses to Use Their Hospital Ships to Treat Virus Victims on Cruise Ships"...."Israel Limits Gatherings of Over 100-People Due to Virus"
.... "Report That the SARS Virus is Also Spreading in Orient".... "Seattle Bans All its Big Events Due to Virus".... ""Chicago Cancels its Famous St. Patrick's Day Celebration and Parade"...."Trump Expected to Announce a Ban Against all Travel From Europe to the United States for Next 30-Days".... " Ireland Closes all its Schools and Universities Due to Virus".... "90 Universities in U.S. are Closing, But Will do Online Classes"...."National Basketball Association Putting its Season on Hold Due to Virus"...."White House, Pentagon, Supreme Court and U.S. Capitol has Suspended all Tours".... "Multiple Members of Congress Closing Their DC Offices Because of Virus"...."Iran Reportedly Digging Massive Trenches to Bury its Virus Dead"....""Trump Announces He May Restrict Some Domestic Travel".... ""New York Bans Gatherings of 500 or More".... "Italy Now Reporting More Than 15,000 Virus Cases, While South Korea Reports More Than 7,800 Cases." .... "Iran Now Reporting More Than 10,000 Plus Cases"...." Israel Tops 100 Virus Cases".... "Catholic Churches in Rome Closing 900 Churches Due to Virus".... "Trump Cancels His Political Rallies Due to Virus".... "New York City's Broadway Close All of Their Theaters Due to Virus".... "WHO Reports 60,000 People Have Recovered From Virus""Europe Leaders Upset With Trump's Banning of Air Travel into US"...." Report of 14,000 New Virus Cases in First Half of March".... "Europe Reports its Death Rate at 4% of Those Infected, But Italy Reports their Death Rate at 5.8%".... " "Israel's Chief Rabbi Asks People to Avoid Jerusalem's Praying Wall Due to Virus"...."Number of Virus Cases Doubling Every 72-Hours"...." A Recent Study in China Shows That People Who Smoke Have a 14-Times Greater Chance of Catching the Virus".... "Trumps 'Urges' No Gatherings of More Than 10-People to fight Virus.
So far we've been pretty lucky or blessed in our low numbers of deceased patients. We are still pretty far from the 1 million mark and as I mentioned in my last Journal the Spanish Flu that followed World War One took 25 million lives and the medical people didn't have the medicines we have now and communications are far better then back then. Still, I've noticed a lot of "fake news" out there that is frightening people into rioting, stealing supplies from stores and just plain panicking. Maybe that's why I'm glad to be up here in Alaska. But as I mentioned Next month could change all that as the tourists arrive. It will be interesting to see what our state government has planned for its citizens. But over all, Alaskans are not a panicking group. We have weathered massive tsunamis, typhoons, earthquakes and volcano eruptions and even a Japanese Invasion in World War II. We have shown we're a pretty low key bunch as we deal with sub zero cold, piles of snow and the occasional bear or moose walking across our property. Just get out of their way or use a shotgun to scare them off. I've been up here 42 years and cannot think of living anywhere else. I am reminded as Christians we should be up there on the front lines, helping those in need.
In closing I just have to say something about these raids on the toilet paper supplies, this is just silly. In Vietnam we used newspaper strips, book pages and even newspaper, they all work. In both Nam and Thailand we occasionally we were even forced to use our hands and then rinsed them off in a stream or a water bucket. I have to mention this, when I first arrived in Vietnam our latrine on the main base was an outside facility, no doors on the shower and taking one of my first showers I felt something hitting my foot. Worried about snakes, nasty ones over there, I looked down to discover a momma-son washing a load of clothes in my soapy water. Ended up being a normal practice for when these ladies took care of our uniforms. This came as a major surprise and being only 18 I turned a shade of red and she looked up at me and started laughing. Yes, I had arrived in Vietnam. That place was always a surprise until the enemy started sending their rockets our way. Memories!
I wish you all well and pray you be safe.
TO LESLIE: Happy Birthday!
God Bless, BILL