Why does anyone live in the midwest anyway? Given the number of tornadoes they have each year and the number of deaths and injuries from such storms, it is much safer to live somewhere else, even here in California with our occasional temblors. As the "Happy Cow" says, ah, foot massage. ha ha ha

Seriously, the most wretched hour I even spent was one time in southern Georgia when we were on a tornado watch. Fortunately we weren't hit but my stomach was all tied up in knots until they cancelled the alert. At least earthquakes hit without warning and then it is all over.

Life is dangerous all over these days so I guess one is just as apt to get mugged or worse in an American city as being blown away by high winds or devastated by an earthquake. Then the people in Iraq have to watch their neighbor who might be on a suicide mission. As someone once said, the only two things we can count on in life are death and taxes.

One thing I would like to count on is regular sleep patterns. Since returning from Thailand I was hit by a flu like bug on Saturday which knocked me out for twelve hours Saturday night. As a result I did not wake up until 12:30 PM Sunday. Then Monday morning I woke up at 4:30 AM and could not get back to sleep. Today I woke up at 5:30 AM and could not get back to sleep. What is going on? I don't normally suffer from jet lag and have never had a problem readjusting to local time so this is really beginning to bug me. What should I do?