Dress Rehearsal at the Purell Theater

Thankfully I've never had the need for Prozac, but I have heard people describe its effects as little 'electrical zaps' bouncing around your brain. That's how I have felt lately -- maybe it's the long winter and the Spring that just won't quite spring (cold and rainy then warm and windy then back again). My body doesn't seem to know where to set the thermostat. I seem to wake up at night with my mind racing with worry, but of course in the morning everything seems fine. I had a couple of days off when the whole swine flu thing broke and didn't know quite what I would walk into at work.

So I went in, splashed alcohol on every available public surface and scraped up one bottle of Purell hand sanitizer to buy for myself. (My nearest Walgreens had not one on the shelf.) I pulled the first e-prescription off the printer:

Tobradex ophthalmic ointment, 5-10 applications three times daily as needed.

Well, thank God for normalcy.

Surprisingly, I had only one man ask about buying Tamiflu. The news outlets reporting that there's a 'run' on it seem to convey the impression you just walk into the pharmacy and buy it. My community newspaper reported that the 'deadly' virus had been found in our state. Huh? --- I'm not sure we can call it 'deadly' just yet, at least no more than the regular flu virus which does result in deaths every year and always has.

Hopefully this thing won't turn out to be as serious as we feared, but I guess this has been a good dress rehearsal for what is bound to be a repeat performance. It's kind of sobering to see how those well-stocked store shelves we all take for granted can become bare at the first sign of an emergency, or a perceived one. Once this thing passes I hope people will think about their emergency preparedness and put aside a box of masks, disinfectants and other items that they would need should normal 'public' life be interrupted for awhile. I hope it never happens, but it does make sense.

OK, now back to the Tobradex guy.......