A little math
I wanted to figure out how to dilute 35% food grade hydrogen peroxide to about 12-14%, for a surface disinfectant with low toxicity. I drew some pictures of pies to figure it out: 6-7 droppers of water, and 4 droppers of the 35% solution.
I had spent the previous evening going over the CDC mortality data for California for the past 12 months. I didn’t see too large of a spike, but it was a bit unsettling the way the numbers kept creeping up as time went on. Then I understood something. California has been steadily increasing in population for as long as I’ve been here. More people would mean more deaths. I added some population data to the spreadsheet, I had built from the CDC death data, and found that, if my data and calculations are correct, for the past 12 months, 13 to 16 people, per group of 100,000 Californians, has died every week during the past year.
That seems normal. After all this is Earth, not Heaven. People do die here. Death happens. This is a mortal realm. We know we are not going to be here forever. News people may wax dramatic and emotional about deaths, like they are trying to move us to tears, or trying to scare us, but death is nothing new, although it is tragic when it touches you personally.
Contagious disease
It is good that awareness of the spread of contagious disease is developing, along with ways to limit that. I was raised in a health conscious family. When we were sick, we were isolated. We were taught to wash our hands, and not to pick our noses in public. The one of us that had gone the longest without catching a cold, was rewarded by having first pick of the little goat steaks that were broiled for dinner. I was raised with an awareness of the spread of contagious disease. I learned ways to avoid picking up a bug, and ways to avoid spreading it if I did get one.
You might say I was well indoctrinated with the germ theory. I had the opportunity to grow beyond the limits of that theory, when I was grown. Contagion is only one of the things that predispose a person to becoming ill. Lifestyle choices also play a role.
The last time I got sick was February 2020. I had been using a protein preparation, externally, to try to heal lesions in my skin. It didn’t work. After I caught a cold, I realized that I had been using a slaughterhouse product. So, after a few days of sniffles, I threw out the keratin salve, and have been healthy since.
Dietary toxins
My immune system functions to keep me healthy, if I avoid certain toxic substances. Different toxins seem to predispose me to different health issues, some considered communicable, and some not. For me, I find that dietary toxins are more likely to cause an infection than mere exposure to a virus. I have been noting the cause and effect relationship between sugar and sickness for a long time. Sugar, that has been refined, seems to lower immunity. I noticed that association when my children were small. They rarely got refined sweets, so it was observable that when they did, they would get sick afterwards.
Wheat products cause constipation in me, which causes other problems if left to fester. I can tolerate wheat if it is whole grain, but not every day. However, even a little refined wheat will cause me such problems that now, anything that might contain wheat does not even look like food to me. It’s not willpower when I decline main dishes, breads and desserts, it’s just that I know what will happen to me if I eat it. Abdominal pain? Constipation? Hemorrhoids? No thank you!
Anything from an animal will bring on a cold or a flu for me. I have noticed this enough times, now, that anything, with meat, cheese, eggs or dairy in it, does not even look like food. It was tricky when I first started to figure this out, because sometimes, I would not get sick right away. I seemed to be getting away with eating meat and cheese for a while. I could eat it for a while and still feel healthy, as long as I avoided wheat and sugar. But then, suddenly I would get sick and pass a lot of snot. The amount of snot, I blew out or coughed up, would be comparable to the amount of meat, cheese and eggs I had eaten since the last time I had gotten sick. So without the virus, that eventually came along, I seemed to be getting away with dining on animals and their products. But eventually it caught up with me.
Food adventure
The other night my husband and I were in town. He wanted a food adventure. I acquiesced. We entered a little Mexican bakery and restaurant that neither one of us had been to previously. He ordered in Spanish. The couple, that ran the little diner, may have had some working English, but he likes to use his Spanish every chance he gets. The tables were not to be used because of the, now eight months of, quarantine. I held the bag of hot food in my hands, savoring the aroma, while he drove home. He had purchased 3 tacos with hand-made corn tortillas and cactus. They were delicious! Fortunately my husband has the same avoid list that I do. Also, his Spanish comes in handy when he needs to explain what he wants and does not want in a taco.
Albino Lizard 