Swine Flu Fever Dreams

I have had a vision.

No, maybe it was more of a dream. I mean, I was asleep, so does that make it a dream or does the content of the episode make it a vision?

Anyway, the message was to pack up the car and head west to Nebraska; to a little town known as Hemingford Home. The purveyor of this message, an elderly black woman named Mother Annabelle..No wait, Annabelle isn't quite right. Abigail? Yeah, that's who it was. Mother Abigail said, "Child, you got to prepare for the hard times. You've got to get yourself here before the sickness falls upon everyone."

Then a night later I had this nightmare that woke me up in a cold sweat. A long, lean fella was traveling the highways on foot, a walkin' dude, if you will, kicking up dirt and gravel on the shoulder with leather work boots. Their worn down heels bore witness to how many miles he'd covered on foot. His voice was icy and tho' he was miles distant I could hear him clear as day. "Son," he said, "perhaps you should sit this whole thing out. Just stay there in Ohio until this whole sickness thing blows over. Or, if you think you can hang, come on out to Vegas and we'll see if we can put you to work. Your choice, of course, but I'd stear clear of Nebraska and Denver if I were you."

And then I realized that maybe I'd become just a little too conditioned to seeing folks walking around wearing surgical masks as if they were the latest fashion accessory. Perhaps, in fact, I had seen too many interviews with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and other experts giving their opinion of the flu and it's potential effects. All this press coverage combined with a lifetime of reading post-apocalyptic fiction could really make a guy squirrely in a 24 hour news cycle.

I've decided to lay down with the TV off and finish a very nice Teddy Roosevelt biography I've been trying to get through for the past month. There's no swine flu in there, only TR busting trusts and hunting animals on safari. Hopefully tonight's dreams are no more exciting than riding up San Juan Hill or ranching in the Dakotas.