The plague and other stories....

It's not every day that in reply to the question 'how are you' you get to say 'I may have the plague!' ... Yosemite has had two camps closed due to the plague, caused by fleas on the squirrels and chipmunks. One little girl contracted the disease last month, and since the 1970's there have been 42 human cases of the plague of which nine were fatal. Today it is thankfully easily treatable by antibiotics.

The reason for my over dramatic reply is that within an hour of arriving in Yosemite two weeks ago I was bitten by fleas. I was enjoying a cup of tea outside and there were many squirrels scampering at our feet as we sat there. By the time I went inside I noticed bites on my upper thigh and stomach, areas of the body that were obviously not exposed to a possible flying insect but very possible for fleas to reach as I was wearing a shortish skirt. The bites on my stomach, after itching like crazy since then, have turned into nasty looking sores. But they are healing and I am absolutely fine, other than being a bit of a drama queen!

Just outside of Yosemite, a man was attacked by a bear on his front porch yesterday morning. The drought is causing bears to scavenge for food outside of their natural habitats. The man fought off the bear and managed to drive himself to hospital with cuts to his arms and legs.

So it seems Yosemite was a potentially very dangerous place to go on holiday!! But still worth it...

A busy morning involving a dentist appointment for Thomas to get his sports mouth guard fitting, groceries (again), and I got my computer back with three times the storage I had before and it works like a dream! I also bought myself some sunflowers....