Five Days

"I guess I'll take my chances." I hear this a lot from patients when I fail to convince them about proper management and prevention of H1N1 flu. Why would someone in this day and age think like that? Why, when we have a rapid test to diagnose the flu; when we have two novel antiviral medications; when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are providing more timely information than one can read? Part of the problem is access to treatment. Most Americans don't have equal access to our arsenal against influenza, and much of that arsenal is imperfect.

Illnesses robbed Marie Kopp of memories of the first 30 years of her life. But the past 25 years have had an unforgettable consistency -- community service virtually every day.For the past quarter-century, the 89-year-old Southwest Baltimore woman has shown up to volunteer five days a week at Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake -- maintaining a list of 60,000 donors and sending out bulk mailings to keep the organization humming.Kopp was one of 21 volunteers recognized for their service in the 16th annual Maryland J. C. Penney Golden Rule Volunteer Awards this week.

Trotter Road over the Middle Patuxent River will be closed for five days, starting Dec. 27, to allow construction of a concrete culvert channeling water under the roadway.James M. Irvin, Howard County public works director, apologized for any inconvenience to motorists, but he said the work was scheduled for the week when schools are closed between Christmas and New Year's.The road will be open, at least partially, by the end of Dec. 31, the fifth day, Irvin said.A detour will reroute traffic at Route 108 to Great Star Drive to Summer Sunrise Drive.

Calling the water shortage in South Carroll "critical," the county commissioners enacted an immediate ban on outdoor water use yesterday for the Freedom District, the county's most populous region.The ban extends only to the 6,500 households that use the Freedom water system. The district, which encompasses Sykesville and unincorporated Eldersburg, is home to more than 28,000 people.Residents must discontinue "lawn watering, car washing and outside water usage until further notice," according to a news release issued late yesterday.

Mike Bordick's return to the Orioles' lineup yesterday was cut short when he suffered a sprained left foot that's expected to keep him out of the lineup for at least three days and could lead to Cal Ripken's return to shortstop.Bordick fouled a ball off the inside of his left foot during Sunday's loss to Texas, and the resulting bruise forced him to sit out the following night. Saying "it's fine now" after taking batting practice yesterday, he sprained the same foot while tagging out Seattle's Rich Amaral on a delayed steal to end the fourth inning and was replaced by Jeff Reboulet.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Every five days, the Seattle Mariners send to the mound pitcher Randy Johnson, the American League's All-Star starter and 1995 Cy Young Award winner.Every five days, the Mariners also send out Bob Wolcott, a pitcher with a 5-4 record and 5.02 ERA. They send him to the mound that is, unless they are sending him to the bullpen or back to the minors. In those cases, they're out desperately searching for another candidate for their fifth starter spot.They're not alone. The Atlanta Braves have a starting rotation of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Denny Neagle, but haven't settled on a fifth starter.

Real. The word pops up whenever people talk about "Homicide: Life on the Street."Ordinary Baltimoreans praise the edgy TV police drama for showing their city from all sides. The cast and crew say this town is delightfully un-Hollywood, but even at that prefer to keep the filming of episodes a private affair. However, during the creation of this Friday night's episode, The Sun was permitted to go on the set and chronicle what happens behind the scenes.The production days start before dawn, and sometimes end 12 to 14 hours later.

CLEVELAND -- School reopened for Mike Johnson yesterday. The lessons were again difficult and the questions not covered in study hall.Having jumped from the equivalent of baseball's middle school to graduate school in a matter of months, the 21-year-old Johnson faced the American League's most powerful lineup while handicapped by a 10-day layoff. He avoided the decision in a 7-6 loss because the Cleveland Indians offered him slack. They reached Johnson for three runs on six hits and three walks in three innings but left five runners.

It took 10 games for B. J. Surhoff to get his first RBI, and a pulled hamstring since then to slow him down. And even that didn't last long.The Orioles' left fielder had begun to emerge from his early-season hitting funk when he left an April 22 win over Chicago with a leg injury sustained while running out a fly ball. He missed the next five games, but not a single beat upon his return.Surhoff has gone 15-for-32 with eight RBIs, including his first home run, since rejoining the lineup last Tuesday.

Baltimore County schools will close for the summer at the end of the day June 6, a week earlier than planned, because the district didn't use all of its scheduled snow days. The school board approved the change last night.After last year's snowy winter forced the district to schedule extra days -- ruining family plans for Presidents Day and Memorial Day holidays -- the board built eight snow days into this year's calendar, allowing for a reduction of up to five days if snow didn't fall.Only one day was needed, Jan. 9, though schools opened late Feb. 14. The Hereford zone opened late Jan. 16.High school students will be released early June 3-6; elementary and middle schools will close early June 5-6. Teachers at all levels will work full days.

"I guess I'll take my chances." I hear this a lot from patients when I fail to convince them about proper management and prevention of H1N1 flu. Why would someone in this day and age think like that? Why, when we have a rapid test to diagnose the flu; when we have two novel antiviral medications; when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are providing more timely information than one can read? Part of the problem is access to treatment. Most Americans don't have equal access to our arsenal against influenza, and much of that arsenal is imperfect.

About 70,000 state employees would see their salaries reduced under a furlough proposal from Gov. Martin O'Malley to save $75 million in the middle of the latest budget crisis. The plan includes a shutdown of routine state government operations for five days around holidays, including the Friday before the coming Labor Day weekend. The highest paid employees - those earning more than $100,000 a year - would lose two weeks' pay. Lowest-paid workers would be docked for three days. Salaries would return to current levels next year.

Under their own power. That didn't seem possible when the five teenage girls stepped aboard Unicorn in Atlantic City, N.J., just five days earlier or when they stood their first nighttime watch or when they wrapped their hands around the smooth, wooden wheel of the 118-foot schooner. It certainly seemed beyond the horizon when they took their first tentative climbs into the rigging more than nine stories above the deck. But there they were Friday - alongside veteran officers and deckhands, raising and trimming the sails, responding to commands from the helm and bringing the tall ship into the Inner Harbor - under their own power.

Is Congress fiddling while America burns? That question might be worth posing to members of Congress, but very few were on hand in Washington at the end of the week to provide answers. Maybe it was superstition, but Congress took Friday the 13th off. The House was not in session. Neither was the Senate. No votes were taken. No action occurred. The seemingly relaxed pace of work is nothing new. A Monday-night-through-Thursday week in Washington frees up time for more politicking back home or fact-finding trips abroad.

The Court of Appeals decided yesterday to reduce vacation days for judges and allow them to buy back leave time, a cost-saving plan that some judges grudgingly backed amid concerns that it would burden those in busier trial courts. The appellate court unanimously approved the measure, saying the judiciary wants to do its part to help fix Maryland's budget crisis. Under the plan, the state's 285 judges will get 22 days of vacation next year instead of 27, and would then decide individually whether to make an after-tax contribution of up to five days' pay. For each day's pay, they would get another day of leave.

Jessie, my college-aged daughter, once declared herself to be "unemployable." "I can't possibly work five days a week. I can't possibly get up this early every day. And I can't possibly do all this commuting," she said in a huff. She was about to start an internship that required her to get up early and commute five days a week, and she was miserable. "Yep," I said. "That would make you unemployable." Reality fast approaches. She will graduate from Penn State in May and although so many Penn State students are so happy in Happy Valley that they dread leaving the blue-and-white womb, I think she is ready.

With just five days available for campaigning between Thursday night's Iowa caucuses and this Tuesday's New Hampshire primaries, the leading candidates have raced to the Granite State to begin a frenzy of campaigning. On the road, again, they offered a bizarrely entertaining array of photo-ops.

Last month ended as the fifth-warmest October on record for Baltimore, averaging 63.4 degrees, 8 degrees above the 30-year average. We saved money on heating but lost some on cooling. Temperatures topped 80 on 11 days. It was also one of our driest Octobers, until last week. Then clouds moved in with five days of showers and downpours. BWI saw 5.44 inches of rain, putting October almost 2.8 inches above the norm, the first surplus since April. It broke D.C. records - but none here.

Today, Devil Rays 7:05 p.m., MASN Tomorrow, @Red Sox 7:05 p.m., MASN Saturday, @Red Sox 1:05 p.m., MASN, Ch. 13 Sunday, @Red Sox 2:05 p.m., MASN2, Ch. 13 Monday, @Blue Jays 7:07 p.m., MASN2 [Radio: All games on 105.7 FM]

Leanora Eubanks Field instructor Baltimore Chesapeake Bay Outward Bound Salary --$18,000 Age --25 Years on the job --Two How she got started --While majoring in urban studies at Eastern University located outside Philadelphia, Eubanks took an Outward Bound program in Costa Rica. The three-month college course consisted of backpacking, white-water rafting, kayaking, hiking and scuba diving. Eubanks said it was a "really powerful" experience. Before she graduated, Eubanks applied for a job with Outward Bound in Baltimore, where she grew up. She began working there two days after graduation.