Charity. They say it begins at home, but I think I never quite fully understood what that meant. How would I do "charity" at home? As I understand "home", it would be the primary place of residence for me and mine; thereby negating any equivalence of "charity", or "doing something selfless for someone else without any means of profiting in any way from your effort and contribution, financial or otherwise". That was my definition / description, so don't fall over yourself poking holes in it and sending me links to the Webopaedia or something of the sort.

I'm crabby this Friday, ain't I? Must be the waning moon affecting my Cancerian side.

Earlier this week, I spent a day helping out at a charity that builds homes for the underprivileged. No, it wasn't some tech-related hands-off kinda "help", but the kind that had me leaving at the end of the day with paint all over every bit of my clothes and uncovered skin; and a very good feeling about having done an honest day's work.

I think helping build homes for the underprivileged is among the best forms of charity that one could help out at. Donating money for "stuff" is good, too - but one always tends to wonder if your $20 for the Red Cross are actually going to go towards buying food for one of those kids on TV, or to pay the salary of some MBA higher up in their corporate ecosystem. And I imagine thoughts towards the latter are usually what hold people back from parting with their green.

On the other hand, caulking trim along baseboards and painting rooms and sinking nails for an actual house that will be sold at a price reasonable in respect to a low-income family; and watching members from that same family actually (have to) work right next to you while doing so - is a lot more fulfilling. Actually, I felt kinda bad that a high school kid from one of those underprivileged families was having to spend his entire summer vacation towards his 500-hour requirement "on the job"; but on the other hand, it rang fair.

So, in addition to all the "goodness" one feels after putting three coats of paint on a room that one will never live in, is there anything else to this? Interestingly enough, yes. The way I see it, the average home owner spends a gazillion over his / her lifetime in paying the local handyman to do jobs that "seem" to need some level of handyman expertise. That's partly 'cause the average homeowner has never done those kind of tasks, and partly because the average homeowner doesn't want rookie mistakes to get real expensive real fast.

However, when one's participating in a charity like this, one essentially gets free practice on someone else's home at the very fledling phase - meaning you learn without worry and even if you do mess up, its not too late in the game to rectify them.

There you have it. Three parts selfless and one part selfish reasons to go help out at your local chapter of the Habitat for Humanity.

Well, t'was an eventful weekend. Landed on my rear after going out of control on a slope at the trail, and then went to the doctor with an eyeful of Spring allergens.

But like they say, its always the terrible trio. Ergo, the last one took first place. It involved a jerky halt at the side of the freeway with a very empty gas tank. Both the emergency and the non-emergency numbers yielded a wait time announcement, and the side of the freeway is usually not the best place to test one's patience while on hold.

The nearest exit was about three-quarters of a mile away, and I decided to hoof it. Ten minutes into it, a car stopped in front of me and the window rolled down with a friendly face that was hitherto unknown to me, but was offering me a ride to the nearest exit / gas station. Andy. Someone who lived fairly close by, but someone I'd never met before. Someone who said that he'd been in a similar situation the week before and could imagine my plight. Someone who not only drove me to the nearest gas station but also helped me with the shoddy little 1-gallon gas tank to help get my engine turning again.

Thank you, Andy. I owe you. May your tribe increase.

Heard the radio squawk about a rise in bird flu cases around the county today, and decided to spend some of my lunch hour doing some research on the mighty flighty avian flu. Turns out that the most lethal strain was identified right here, in our county! The "California A" strain was found in Santa Clara, and it has some distinctly un-funny effects. The link below has some more information, off WebMD.

http://webcenter.health.webmd.netscape.com/content/Article/101/106019.htm?printing=true

Alright, so its a risk. The first question is; how can I possibly get it? The only birds I've seen recently are the ones on the screen during Need For Speed Underground. They don't seem to wander into buildings, and I don't seem to wander outside. I checked the CDC website about transmission of the virus between birds and humans, and it said:

"Avian influenza viruses may be transmitted to humans in two main ways:

• Directly from birds or from avian virus-contaminated environments to people.
• Through an intermediate host, such as a pig"

Lets dissect that:

• "Directly from birds" - unlikely..
• "Avian virus-contaminated environments" - like what? Bird-cages? Haven't seen one in ages. The zoo? Ditto. A wildlife preserve? Ditto. A forest? Ditto. Hm - we don't get out much, do we?
• An "intermediate host, such as a pig" - Poor pigs. They have to contend with being sold as meals, with being equated with the dirtiest in the animal kingdom (ironic, huh?) and with being the only example as 'intermediate hosts' for avian flu in this article! Anyway, its been ages since I've last seen a live, four-legged pig. Ditto for any other animal that makes for a comfortable perch for the average bird, i.e. horses / cows / giraffes (I wonder why we never see birds perched on a giraffe's head - it sounds like the most logical thing for a bird to do, doesn't it?), etc.

And that's that. Not invulnerable, but pretty safe.