The
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have issued several warnings to the public
about the danger of Salmonella. The “Don’t Kiss or Cuddle Hedgehogs” warning
was issued in January 2019, and today the CDC warned about the dangers of
backyard poultry.
“Don’t
let backyard poultry inside the house, especially in areas where food or
drink is prepared, served, or stored. Poultry should not be kept in day cares,
preschools, hospitals, or nursing homes. Don’t kiss backyard
poultry, or snuggle them and then touch your face or mouth.”
The
CDC didn’t need to warn me about hedgehogs and backyard chickens. I have never and will never kiss hedgehogs and backyard chickens, let them into
my house, or snuggle with them.
I’m
also not in the habit of kissing or snuggling up to my computer, but it still has
infected me with a virus and a bad case of computer-itis. I’m late writing my
blog for May because my email has been most uncooperative—in fact, it quit
working in Outlook all together.
Enter
my two late bloomer husband’s attempt to fix it. His well-meaning efforts fell
short when he allowed an unknown computer tech company access to my computer. They
immediately started fixing things that didn’t need fixing and selling him an
expensive plan to beef up my anti-virus and malware protection.
And
my email still did not work. In fact, my
email inbox showed that I now had 43,000+
unread messages. My computer is only six
years old and every email and spam message since 2013 suddenly showed up in my
inbox. Yikes! I thought that stuff was
long gone. I even beat Hillary in the number of deleted emails. How come they couldn’t find hers?
My
inbox was over stuffed and no new messages could arrive. In the past few days,
I’ve deleted over 12,000
messages —50 at a time—anymore and the email locks up. I found over 1000 Costco messages and an
equal number from Amazon and other stores, along with hundreds more from every
online site I’ve visited. Do these
companies have nothing more to do than to bombard my inbox with their ads?
In
addition, my Facebook messenger site was hacked by someone sending out messages
in my name. Some of my friends let me
know of the suspicious activity. Now I
need to change my Facebook password.
I’m actively deleting my consumer and shopping history, so that I can get back to
business. How much of my life has been
controlled by my online usage? It’s a reality
check. Computers help us in wonderful
ways, but create their own set of problems.
At some point I also need to delete hundreds of emails from my cell
phone before it shuts down. I spend too
much of my time on line to the exclusion of other important efforts and spiritual
pursuits. I think God has gotten my
attention and I’d better listen.
