<% appTitle="Ridecamp Archives" %> Ridecamp: [RC] West Nile, Again
Ridecamp@Endurance.Net

[Archives Index]   [Date Index]   [Thread Index]   [Author Index]   [Subject Index]
Current to Wed Jul 23 17:31:50 GMT 2003
  • Next by Date: Re: [RC] Speed Freak
  • - Sundaez
  • Prev by Date: No! RE: [RC] More on ROC
  • - Steph Teeter

    [RC] West Nile, Again - Howard Bramhall


    OK, let's not panic here.  Howard's not lost it entirely (even though many would say he's awfully close) and I don't want to appear to be Chicken Little here and tell ya'll the friggen sky is falling, but.........
     
    I went out to get some beer (GEE, how many times a day does this happen?) and at the local 7/11 I noticed my vet, standing in line.  It was 8:30 PM.  The woman is easy for me to recognize because she has a strong resemblance to that woman from North Georgia, but we won't go there.  No, no, don't go there Howard, you dastardly offensive, beastly man, you! 
     
    Anyway, as I got in line behind her, plopped my 20 pack of Budweiser bottles on the counter behind her Slurpee and snack food that was probably her dinner, I asked, "You out saving God's creatures again, as usual?"  She looked at me, smiled (I don't get that smile from North Georgia) and told me, "I was at the Brass Head barn down the road from your place.  There's two cases of West Nile out there."
     
    "Satan Damn," I said.  Man, that place is less than a half mile from mine.  So, I asked her the question.  "Were any of them vaccinated?"
     
    "Yes," she says, "one as recently as 4 months ago."
     
    We talked a bit more (the cashier was a new person and extremely slow) and my vet told me the horses look better than the others she's worked on lately and she thinks they'll be OK, eventually.  I wanted to ask her more, but she was off, like most vets who aren't done working at 9 PM on a Friday night.
     
    So, tomorrow I'm calling Mosquito Control (yea, I happen to now they are open on Saturdays).  My county seems to be number one in the entire state for West Nile in Florida.  I think only Louisiana tops us with more cases (equine, not human).  I'm calling Mosquito Control from different phone numbers, using different names and voices (I do impressions of George W.) and I'm gonna get their asses out here one way or the other.  And, if that doesn't work, I'm doing it myself. 
     
    This is getting scary down here, very scary; I'm about ready to pack up the horses and head for those really big mountains in western NC.  Grandfather Mountain is over 6,000 feet high and the tallest point in North Carolina.  And, get this, it's privately owned.  Can you believe a mountain is privately owned?  Only in God Bless America (oh, crap, here he goes with that religion stuff again:  STEPHHHHHH!!!!!!!) can you have one family own an entire friggen mountain.  If I had the money I'd buy Cold Mountain, but, that's another story (and soon to be a movie).
     
    Don't mean to scare ya'll; just thought you might want to know.
     
    cya,
    Howard (who is considering tenting his entire property)