Coming to a neighborhood near you: The Plague!

On my way into work today, I was listening to the news on the radio. I do that. Morning drive-time radio on my favorite music stations is beyond annoying. I get enough crazy antics, people swearing, and telling of bad jokes at work; I don't need it on my drive in.

Anywho, KCBS reported this little story about an air-monitoring station in San Jose detecting tularemia. "Tularemia"... it sounded familiar. And then I remembered:

Oh yeah! Tularemia is like The Plague!

After I closed my jaw, I thought, "If there's enough airborn bacteria to set off a detector, we're in for a spot of trouble." ...no matter how non-alarmed they say we should be.

Tularemia isn't passed from person to person. Each person has to catch it. But beasties carry it around with them. From rabbits, to rats, to mice, to ticks, to deerflies, on down to fleas... if one of these guys are infected and they bite you, you've got it. If it's in the air and you breathe it, you've got it. If it's on a piece of food you eat or in the water you drink... you get the idea.

Symptoms are very flu-like and it's tough for some doctors to tell the difference.

Now, I'm not saying to freak out and board up your house, but I am saying to keep your house and yard clean. Maybe get one of those air filter systems for your house. (Which are good idea anyway, especially with the cold weather season bearing down on us.)

In short: be careful out there.