Showing posts with label #chernobyl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #chernobyl. Show all posts

Friday, January 17, 2020

Two down and Three to go!

That is two weeks of radiation down and three weeks to go. Side Effects?  It's hard to tell if I am fatigued in January.  I find January itself fatiguing.  Too much cold and dark for my tastes.  Now to be fair to this particular January, we have had mild for Chicago temperatures with most days at or above freezing during the day.  Nevertheless, cold is fatiguing even when it is not cold enough to snow.  

Today for fun I was trying to convert how much radiation I get daily in the about 10 minutes of laser-blasting compared to a vacation in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.  What?  You didn't know Chernobyl is a popular tourist destination? It is, in fact, popular, especially now that HBO has aired an award-winning drama about the nuclear disaster.  



Since the area has had little human exposure for several decades, nature has flourished and it is quite beautiful.  Can you eat fruit and vegetables grown there?  I mean, you could.  There is a fantastic documentary called The Babushkas of Chernobyl about these little old ladies who were forced to leave their homes in the wake of the disaster and how they snuck back to their villages and were allowed to live out there days in the exclusion zone. Their ties to the land are so strong they would rather die than leave the land. 

I was bummed to learn there are several different scales used to measure radiation so what I thought would be quick Google search was not quick and I don't have my answer.  Lucky for me, I will see my Radiation Oncologist on Monday and will be sure to ask her. 

Happy Friday!  Snow is piling up outside but it is supposed to rain tomorrow and I am very glad I don't have to go to work in the morning.