Obon Festival

I upgraded to Lion OS and I can't say I'm completely enamored. The scrolling is exactly the opposite of what I was used to with the magic mouse, and I often use Preview and the F3 button to look at all my pics at once to get the feel for the blog post storyline and now that doesn't work. I haven't figured a way around it yet. If you know, please share. I'm sorry if none of this makes sense too.

Anyways - I went to the Obon Festival in San Luis. By the way (PSA), San Luis is pronounced like San Loo-es, not San Loo-ee. And we had a real good time. They were doing a martial arts demonstration inside the building which made me laugh (shame on me) because essentially they were wearing helmets and face masks but they were whacking the dickens out of each other. Right over the head. Whack, whack, whack. Very rhythmical. I thought it was hilarious.

The vendors indoors were very rummage sale too. Except the book seller. All sorts of books on Japanese culture, history, food, novels. I went crazy!

Outside there was the food and fun. This bonsai demonstration was really interesting. The son explained what the father was doing. A typical juniper bush was being pruned in a very specific way, both plant and roots, to be a bonsai.    

I'm going to try this, you know I am. I've always wanted a bonsai.

This is the before picture. The plant was a standard shrub in a pot like something you would buy from a nursery.

This is the after shot. 

The father was putting 

the finishing touches 

on the tree.

The chicken dinner was really delicious
too.

Whooping Cough

I received my whooping cough vaccine today. I knew pertussis, the technical name for whooping cough, was a problem in this county although there has been scant reporting in the newspaper and news media in general.

It is a highly contagious disease that can be deadly to infants, and I'm just around too many children for it to be okay for me to be a carrier.

That said, I had whooping cough in 2007, but I didn't have a clue. That's the problem. It's a cough. Big deal. So the word must get out, and adults and children must get vaccinated.

My case was in early 2007. I actually thought I was having a reaction to my new car's interior. I coughed without being able to catch my breath. These jags would go on for five minutes. The whooping is your natural response to suck in air to your lungs. And at the end of these coughing jags, I would throw up. Classic whooping cough.

Having a few episodes at home, I knew to pull over if I was driving. Well, seriously you can't drive anyway. Also if the coughing happens in the middle of the night, you feel like you're drowning and you can't get air and there is nothing you can do to help yourself. It is very scary. For adults, pertussis is rarely deadly but the coughing can break your ribs. For children, it's a different story.

Babies can die. Babies do die from this disease.

The vaccine, TDaP, as it is called for adults, covers tetanus, aka locked jaw, diptheria, and pertussis, aka whooping cough. It's available at your public health department.

Like most vaccines, it may produce a reaction. But when I weigh the risks of these reactions with risks of these diseases, I think having the vaccine is worth it.