Gosh, I haven't left the house all day! There are a couple of reasons. First, I have been glued to my computer, mostly doing research for the history book. I am writing a chapter on deaths and noticed a definite trend of people dying quite young, in their thirties and forties, around the turn of the century, 1900. When I investigated causes, many of the young men had tuberculosis, and most of them worked in the stone sheds. Of course, there were other causes of early death, but that stood out. I learned that workers who came from Italy in the 1800s to work in the Barre granite business were the first to complain about working conditions in the shops. In Italy they mostly worked outdoors where the wind swept away the harmful dust associated with cutting the stone. When they came here, they worked in enclosed spaces because of the cold weather and there were times they could not see to identify the man working next to them because the dust was so thick. Of course, there was no thought of wearing masks or exhausting the dust out of the work area, but after complaining and pointing out the obvious results of breathing that dust, some progress was made, but it wasn't until the 1930s or so that conditions began to really improve. 
    I found that while doctors were diagnosing tuberculosis, they were unaware that the primary condition was silicosis, and left untreated, that left the men susceptible for TB. Early doctors were telling families that unsanitary conditions in the home caused the infections. They finally realized the connections, fortunately, but in the meantime, a lot of young men died before their time.
    I want to let you know that there is a new training session set up for early June on cyanobacteria - the blue-green algae we see from time to time. Some of it is toxic, while other species are ok. To learn more about this, check out the link. There is also more about it on home page of the website.
    I owe a lot of you apologies. When you post a comment here on the blog, it is supposed to alert me that there is a comment and then I can either approve it for posting or delete it - depending on the content. (I get spam on here just like you get it in your email or on the phone!) However, here's the thing - I haven't had any messages to alert me a comment is waiting for approval. I'm not sure why that is. The only way I realized I'd missed some neat comments was when I was checking my settings tonight because suddenly the default font for the blog was different and I couldn't seem to change it. I finally figured out that out of half a dozen fonts offered, only about half actually work. Again, I have no idea why!  I will now periodically check for messages by going to my settings - and hopefully will get this wrinkle smoothed out. In the meantime, I'm sorry your comments were not shared. It wasn't personal - it was just that I didn't realize there were any waiting. I'll be more watchful in the future.
    Honestly, I don't see how some people, especially older folks like myself, manage to keep their computers operational. I'm forever finding something is goofed up and have to have Fred rescue me, and I'm fairly savvy about computer stuff. Some of my contemporaries are pretty clueless about their computers - they know how to turn the things on and send an email, but that's about it. I can get into trouble just going from one page to another, and most of the time I'm pretty sure I didn't touch anything I shouldn't, but just the same, things change. One day last week one of my shortcuts disappeared from the screen. It took me a while to figure out how to get it back - and then I found it in with some files in the document file. That has happened with other files - they disappear from where they've been forever and later I find them (usually when I use "search") tucked in with some other unrelated stuff. It's probably that my fingers are doing the walking on the wrong keys, but then, it could be gremlins in the hard drive . . .
    The second reason I've stayed inside and felt sort of like a prisoner much of this afternoon is because I kept thinking about how thick the black flies were yesterday and I began it itch all over again - so I just didn't go out. Yesterday I thought I hadn't been bitten, but soon after supper I realized I had a couple bites behind my ears - a favorite spot for the little pests to dine, apparently. I am digging out my Crocodile Insect Repellent - it will probably work better than the Off! they seemed to relish yesterday.  I am so bothered by their bites, I looked them up to find out what causes the intense itching and found when they bite they inject an anticoagulant to make the blood flow more freely and that's what causes the itch. What I read didn't mention this, but for me, the itch triggers hives and they spread rapidly and itch intensely. So the scalp on the back of my head has itched like crazy most of the day. Very distracting. The only relief is cold compresses. Or I could soak my head in cold water. Either way, I'm not going outside again until black fly season is over! That could be a while this year. They like babbling brooks and with all the rain we've had, there is plenty of babbling going on everywhere. So unless the weather changes, we could be victims of these pesky little gnats well into July - or maybe they'll be here all summer. I itch all over just thinking about them. I'm going to go and get a cold compress for my itching head now. If anyone has better solutions, let me know. Comments are welcome - I'll watch for them!