Swine Flu in Seattle

Well, the word is out that a child in Madrona contracted swine flu somehow, and his school is closed for 7 days, with precautions to families not to meet outside of school. A pediatrician in Everett is also suspected to have the disease, and through no fault of his/her own saw 22 patients the day she got sick (felt good in the day, sick in the evening). No known cases in West Seattle, but I'm concerned.

Dang.

(Really, thinking something stronger than "dang" right now.)

I am at the public library downtown, waiting for the Seattle room to open, and browsing the web. Reading this, I have to suppress a strong desire to run back to West Seattle, swoop up Tessa, and bring her home for a week. House arrest doesn't sound very fun, but the idea of my little girl getting this......it makes me shudder.

Instead, I'm going to grab what I need to keep working (last time I was here I couldn't get everything before I needed to leave to pick up Tessa) and then I'm going to run ot the grocery store to pick up essentials and I'll pick up Tessa at the regular time. I plan to treat this like a forecast for snow: check the pantry, make sure that we're stocked up, make sure that the car is filled with gas, and plan to ride it out. I think I'll check out some extra library books, make sure that we have enough glue sticks, and plan on being prepared for some time doing art, reading, watching movies, popping popcorn, and playing on the swingset.

I am trying to be zen about this but I'm feeling frazzled. "Level 5 pandemic" is not vocabulary that I'm comfortable with. But my goal is to not be some crazy panic-stricken fool, either.

Isn't it always something?!