Death warmed over

If you have been wondering why I have been somewhat lax in my posting lately, I do have an excuse for at least the last couple days. I seem to have contracted some sort of desert ebola bronchitis disease, which has prevented me from leaving my cell... I mean room for the past two days straight, other than for the purposes of acquiring fruit salad, toast and jell-o from the kitchen. I won't go into details other than to say that my nose ejected some disturbingly large and solid things in the past 48 hours. Jean, the office lady, was about to ring up the flying doctors today but I seem to have taken a turn for the better, up and walking and everything, so it looks like I am going to survive after all.

The Royal Flying Doctors Service, for those of you who don't know, is a medical team that will fly to various regions in the outback, for which standard medical service is too far away to be practical. They apparently can give prescriptions over the phone to the nearest chemist(pharmacist) after hearing your symptoms and in emergencies will come take a look at you and fly you out if necessary. The outback is full of stuff like this- practical ways of dealing with all the goddam space between everything. My favorite is the School of the Air, which allows station(ranch) kids to communicate with teachers via CB radio. I am guessing that this is gradually being replaced by online communication, but satellite connections are still damn expensive out here so the old radios will still be kicking around for a few more years. It is all so romantically historic and old-fashioned, but in a good way.

-A.