There would be hundreds of crossings along that route. We're talking about a 6 hour train ride.

It sounds like the fatality and the serious injury were people in the dump truck. It may have been stuck on the tracks when the train crashed into it.

The weird thing about Berenstein/Berenstain is I had a friend when Ani was around 5 (2005ish) who actually pronounced it Bairn-steen Bears. And while I knew she was wrong, I never corrected her because I was absolutely sure it was spelled Berenstein so I totally got why she'd pronounce it that way. Side note about Berenstain Bears: The theme song on one DVD we have drives me nuts because it says they are just like people only more so. How can you be more like a person than a person?!?!

I would've been very curious because medical stuff interests me. I'd want to know what it was for, what the study does, how long they are following your kids, how they determine immune response, etc. As for letting my kids participate in trials, for medications, if it had the potential to benefit them I would (I applied for an ADD med trial, but they were full for boys my son's age, for example). For vaccines, I'd want it to already be in use in other countries or be known to be relatively safe so far. FTR, we selectively vaccinate (though some of my kids are fully vaccinated and those that aren't are nearly fully vaccinated so it's more like just skipping a couple vaccines for various reasons).

It's good enough that even though we have excellent insurance my parents actually looked into becoming my daughter's legal guardians because she has several chronic illnesses and is on some expensive medications (expensive *with* our insurance).

This. It rhymes with the fourth line of the chorus (Like I've been there before). I didn't watch Friends, but I liked the song (it was on the radio all the time... it's by The Rembrandts).

My nephew had some scary side effects from Tamiflu. He was pretty little and it seems little kids get worse side effects. My husband took Tamiflu once. Positive flu test. Started it within 24 hours of symptoms. He was all better about 48 hours later.

Those cards are amazing. With a daughter with chronic illnesses, a dad starting chemo again for The Return of the Pancreatic Cancer, and a sister who battled infertility and didn't even get pregnant via IVF, several of those cards truly spoke to me. Genius idea.

I think it is perfectly okay to stay home during flu season. We have a little boy at church with Down Syndrome and they're keeping him out of classes with other kids until the spring. You've gotta do what you gotta do to protect health. We requested that the boys who pass the sacrament around use hand sanitizer. I work in the nursery (18mo to 3yo) and before anyone came in today I had them use hand sanitizer and then we used it again before they ate their snack and then again before they left. Another ward in our building has had several nursery kids get the flu so we're not taking chances.

Because a flu death in an otherwise healthy person has hit too close to home (father of one of my son's taekwondo students) AND my father is starting chemo again tomorrow, we started looking at ways to reduce our chances of getting the flu. Of the 8 of us, 7 got the flu shot (my daughter cannot get it for medical reasons). We realized that the boys who pass the Sacrament at church do not wash their hands or anything before or after. In our church, we pass trays down the rows and take the bread and then the water. The boys move the trays from row to row. Which means a LOT of germs on those handles. So we talked to our Bishop and the boys will now use hand sanitizer before passing the Sacrament and then after as well (because them holding the trays means they are being exposed to basically everyone in the church). It's just something we've never thought of before, but with this flu season and my dad's chemo (so major immune suppression), it seems like a good idea.

My daughter has some chronic illnesses. She'll never get well. Sometimes she is better than others. Right now she's bad enough to need a wheelchair sometimes. We just kind of laugh when someone says get well soon to her. It's automatic and really means they are sad she's sick and hope she starts feeling better. It doesn't even dawn on them that she won't ever get well. She especially likes the people who tell her it sucks that she's sick. Because it does.

Check those links. They all go to the first book.

That's weird. My 16yo got his just fine at the pharmacy (we had to sign of course) and my little two got theirs when they had their annual well exams in October. The ped they go to has walk-in times to get flu shots. They are covered 100% by insurance same as when you walk into a pharmacy. Those 70 who get it even after being vaccinated tend to get it less severe and suffer fewer side effects. So it's not just 30 fewer people get it, but that those 70 who do get the flu get it more mildly. And then, of course, nearly every person who gets the flu infects other people (whether because they were contagious before they knew they were sick or because they continue to go to work or school while sick). So fewer people getting sick in the first place means fewer people being infected. Say each person infects one other, if all 100 people are not vaccinated, then 100 more people will get the flu and then 100 more and so on. If everyone was vaccinated, then it passes on to 70 people and so the spread is slowed. If it's a strain not in the vaccine, you can get the flu like normal. The severity is not reduced. When someone says the severity is reduced it is for the strains *in the vaccine.* Also, the 30% effectiveness is specifically for H3N2, the aggressive strain that is predominant right now. The vaccine includes other strains and is more effective for those.

30% effective means if 100 people were going to get the flu, but they all got the flu shot, only 70 of them would get the flu. If 100 people were going to get the flu and none of them got the flu shot, all 100 of them would get the flu. 30% (plus it decreases severity and side effects if you do get the flu) is totally worth getting the flu shot. Not to mention herd immunity for people like my chronically ill daughter who can't get the flu shot and my father who is starting chemo again on Monday (for a chemo patient the flu is MUCH more likely to be deadly).

You can still get the shot! It's not too late. Even though for the bad strain it is only 10-32% effective to prevent it, it is lessening the severity and lowering the chance of side effects in people who do get it who have had the shot.

Yes, multiple times confirmed. I've gotten it 3 or 4 times in years I didn't get a flu shot. I've gotten flu shots 1997, 98, 99 and then 2015, 16, 17. I got the flu in September 2015 and got the shot in October (the doctor's office didn't get them in until October) so obviously I hadn't had the shot yet when I got sick (ironically from someone coughing like crazy in the doctor's office waiting room while I was waiting to be called back for a well woman exam). I got the flu again in June 2017. I had gotten the shot in October 2016 and they said by June it had worn off and a lot of people who had had the shot around here got the flu in May and June. It was a strangely late flu for where we live.

I've never been lol Everyone says it's amazing and we must go there, though. You are literally the first person I've ever heard say they didn't like it.

The Japanese Tea Garden

One flu strain going around does start with gastro symptoms. My husband had a stomach bug and while he was really sick for a couple days, it clearly was not flu since it was just tummy stuff and a low fever. They are encouraging people to go in quickly if they suspect flu so they can be tested for it in the first 24 or so hours because Tamiflu for people who can use it works well. This flu season is definitely scary.

Watch her super closely. The father of a student my son teaches died of the flu recently. It's a scary one.

Is it possible the rash is not related to gluten?

Cost vs. benefit. If the cost is extremely high (wall) and the benefit is extremely low (stop a tiny percentage of drugs or people crossing illegally), it is not worth it. (Conversations often meander from what the OP says in the beginning, especially after several pages.)

Border security =/= a wall. Look into the virtual stuff they are doing at the border. It works very, very well. You are wrong, however about the way drugs enter. The majority of drugs are smuggled in through vehicles going through checkpoints, via boats, and human carriers on commercial aircraft. In all those cases the means of transport (vehicle, boat, human) are admitted legally. Illegal means of transport include drones (which could be flown over a wall) and tunnels (which already exist and will continue to go right under where a wall would be). Quite a bit of human trafficking comes across in some way that allows legal entry of the mode of transportation. I am a bit puzzled at why we would have a bigger interested in reducing the ground illegal border crossings when the majority of people illegally in the US didn't actually come that way.

But they are stylish! The description says so!

Just an FYI... I just watched part of a bipartisan press conference and they are indeed compromising on both sides regarding DACA (and border security) right now.