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After my previous post about Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, my friend Matt directed me to the trailer for the upcoming film adaptation:
Holy Simultaneously Grim and Necro, Batman.
That aside, a certain shot caught my eye:
That’s actual Katrina footage, dirtied up a bit to fit the über-post-apocalyptic setting of The Road. You can see the New Orleans skyline in the background, and that clump of boats behind the two larger ones are boats my company insures. I’m not exactly sure just where in Plaquemines Parish that picture was taken, but it’s definitely here. I’m inclined to think it’s the south side of the Gen DeGaulle bridge, but I’m not sure.
These boats, the Sea Wolf and the Sea Falcon, are part of the Menhaden fleet and I found a number of pictures of them on the NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) Collection Catalog of Images. Here’s a shot of them, from a slightly different angle:
Small world.
Originally published at Prosthetically Hip. Please leave any comments there. Tags: cormac mccarthy, english lit., hurricane katrina, new orleans, nola, the road
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 For my birthday, Bea’s Mom got me a copy of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.
It had been recommended to me, but with the caveat that it was quite dark, and could very well leave one depressed. Knowing my tastes and penchant for post-apocalyptic fiction (can we go ahead and just call it speculative fiction? ;) ), they felt that it was nonetheless a solid suggestion. I have to say, they were partially right.
The basic gist of the story is that a man and his son are survivors of what we can assume is something akin to a nuclear winter. It is indeed dark and dreary, and I will freely admit that I enjoyed going outside and enjoying the warmth of the sun on my face. Later, I talked to Jeremy and gave him my thoughts on the unfortunately short (~250 pg) book. I see where he might have been depressed, but I think I extracted a wholly different sentiment. For me, while the scenario and ordeals were horrible, it was the absolute and unending dedication of the man to his son’s well-being that affected me the most. It is the man’s sheer unwillingness to accept defeat in order to protect another and “keep the light” that I find uplifting.
This book is at times sad, harsh, and utterly bleak, and it is in these situations that the absolute best and worst of man is brought to light. The resounding message for me is that there are those that when faced with it, will keep putting one foot in front of the other because it’s just what has to be done.
Originally published at Prosthetically Hip. Please leave any comments there. Tags: cormac mccarthy, english lit., literature, post-apocalyptic, the road
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Well, I lied. Tennis is decidedly not metal, but that didn’t stop me yesterday.
My friend Alice (aka Diamondgrrl – rollerderby, aka Comissioner Gordon – kickball) and Anne (aka All the Way May – kickball) took me out to City Park, and we tennied. Tennised. Tenniserated. Yeah, tenniserated. I like that – it’s got a certain ring to it. It’s like regular tennis, but with a heat index of 103°.
Anyways, outside of the Wii Sports package or a table-top, I’ve never really played tennis. Much like baseball, something was off with that brand of hand-eye coordination when I was a kid – I just didn’t play because I couldn’t. Besides, I had soccer.
I have to say, it was pretty fun, and I didn’t even wear silly clothes, despite the musings of the twitterati. And when I say twitterati, I mean just Neal.
We showed up early, and hung out for a bit before our court time of 7:30. Alice gave me fore- and back-hand grip basics, and we just kinda launched into it. One of the ladies was always on my side of the court and they rotated – giving the person across from me a good workout. Being on the smaller side of 2 vs. 1 isn’t all that fair. With the heat, I did work up a bit of a sweat – mostly due to the quick back and forth movements one makes on their feet. And nicely enough, my arm and back are pain-free.
All in all, I only hit 3 or 4 balls over the fence in the 1 1/4 hours we played, which I consider to be an achievement – I thought we’d have to throw the towel in early due to a lack of fuzzy yellow projectiles. Alice thought I did pretty well for someone who’s never played. Part of that hand-eye coordination problem crept back, but really only on the slow speed balls. It just messed with my head – too much time to think about where to stand, when to swing, what angle to hit it at, the exact timing, etc. To remedy, I just decided to move quickly towards the ball. This reduced the amount of time I had to over-think the situation, like Ramius turning into Tupolev’s torpedo. (I’m guessing only Pistolette got that one)
All in all, it was fun and worked out a different, rusty, part of my athletic side. Hooray for leveling up. :)
And who knows, maybe next time I’ll have to either sport one of my kilts, or even emulate this guy:
If I only still had my long hair. If I do end up picking up a cheap racket, I think I’d have to name it the Anvil of Crom™. Just for the metalness of it.
*EDIT* Thanks to Todd for the awesome Kids in the Hall Clip – ERADICATOR! (skip to 1:50):
Perhaps I should transfer my bicycle polo nom de guerre of The Laser Viking™ to tennis as well.
Originally published at Prosthetically Hip. Please leave any comments there. Tags: amusing, black metal, tennis
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I recently did some laptop repair for an employee of Bicycle Michael’s, and in return, he worked on track bike. Working on my bikes is something I rarely feel like doing these days, and those wheels were in need of a truing.
Well, Jon did some great work - even went so far as to install a new chain and replace my handlebar tape.
Unfortunately, a resident prankster (let’s call him Centurian™ to protect the less-than-innocent) was caught while in the process of, uh, “accessorizing” Molly (the bike).
This bike has two “Guardian Angels” let’s call them. The most prominent is a green monkey that came with my most-awesome green tuxedo jacket (it has green velvet lapels!) named Julius. Julius has been affixed to this bike for a few years now, and it’s a wonder he has yet to be defaced or kidnapped.
Until now, that is.
Apparently Centurian™ (say that as Michael Palin in Life of Brian as you can) has a tendency to bring out people’s inner gimp:
He came back gagged, covered in electrical tape, and a 9v battery hooked up to his nipples.
Sadness. Perhaps I shall stwike the centuwian. Stwike him vewy woughwy. And fwow him to the gwound.
Originally published at Prosthetically Hip. Please leave any comments there. Tags: amusing, bicycle, bondage, crucifixion, cycling, green monkey, monkey, photos, spicer cycles
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If you follow me on Twitter ( @dubtea ), you would have seen that yesterday that Bea had completed her first bike commute from our house in the Marigny to her office in Harahan. As you may or may not remember, she had quite a bit of trouble the last time she made the attempt last August. Considering the wreck and the confidence it seemed to destroy, I’m super proud of this big step.
The trip by car rolls in at about 21 miles, and is slightly longer by bike ( about 24 miles ) and bicycles are not allowed on the interstate. She basically rides through the Marigny/Quarter/CBD down Royal St./St. Charles Avenue, and cuts to Magazine at Lee Circle, taking that all the way down to Audubon Park and the Mississippi River levee path, which is free of cars.
She’s still using a Scattante Zonal road bike on load from a co-worker, but has her eyes on, nay, lusts for a 2008 Bianchi Dama Bianca Elena. Behold:
It’s not super-girly, it’s purple (heellllooooooo, she loves that purp), is a pretty decent bike, and perhaps most important of all, would be hers.
The problem is the budgets here at La Iglesia are a little tighter, and shelling out ~$1,500 for a new bike isn’t super fiscally responsible. Now I’ve been told by my friends at Bicycle Michael’s that if I were to provide them with the bike size, they’d hold one for her, which is great.
I’ve decided that as an incentive, I’d make some sort of log to help visualize her goal, and her status on earning the $1500 in blood (hopefully not), sweat (summer is upon us), and tears (again, hopefully not). I built a little system I’ve named “Gas Money Records“.
Sometimes I’m too clever for my own good.
Anyways, every day she rides to / from work, she enters the data and it calculates how much she’s saved. The part that I found most interesting was the breakdown of gas vs. maintenance. You end up sending about 10¢/mile on gas, and over 30¢/mile on oil, tires, maintenance, etc. I used commute solutions as a reference, and left out much of the expenses associated with driving: insurance, tax, parking, tolls, travel time, accidents, finance charges, etc. We don’t have tolls (except for the lousy West Bank), and if your car was parked at home you’d still have to pay taxes, insurance, etc.
Surprisingly, it costs her about $9 per day commute! This adds up to over $2,300 per work year! At that $9/day rate, Bea could pay for the bike in about 8 months (if she commuted by bike every day).
If you check it out, you can do your own calculations - leaving out the savings goal will show you what you’d spend in a work year commuting, or you can set a savings goal and see how long it would take you. It’s truly surprising how much can save by even commuting by bike once or twice a week. I don’t think I even need to touch on the health benefits of bicycle commuting.
Originally published at Prosthetically Hip. Please leave any comments there. Tags: bianchi, bicycle, bike commute, calculator, cycling, gas money records, geekery, nola
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Well, I think the trail I laid was pretty good, and got a lot of good feedback from it. If you want to read my write-up, you can at VooDooHash.com. The first hash I hared was a while ago with a friend of mine, and was a sheer and utter disaster for various reasons and as punishment, we each had our own bag of ice to sit on, bare-assed.
I think I’ve learned my lesson.
I have learned recently that I “suffer” from Runner’s Knee. Since I’ve started hashing, I’ve noticed that sometimes part-way through the run, often the day after, my right knee and hip have given me grief. It usually amounts to stiffness/soreness and a sharp pinching-like sensation in my knee and hip. It’s hard to describe, but it only happens on the right side.
I decided to ask Herr Google™ about these symptoms, and based on its description and recommended therapy/stretching, I have come to believe that it is indeed Runner’s Knee.
Before last week’s hash, I did the recommended stretch once or twice during the day, and also right before I took off to lay trail. I’m glad to say that neither during the run, or the day after, did I have any problems in either my hip or my knee.
And there was much rejoicing. Yaaaaaaay.
Well, I plan on attending this Thursday’s hash in Metry Brah, and the day after is the 2009 Tchoupitoulas Bar-A-Thon. 6 bars, 6 beers, 6 miles.
I guess I better start stretching.
Originally published at Prosthetically Hip. Please leave any comments there. Tags: drunkery, hashing, nola, ouch, runner's knee, tchoupitoulas bar-a-thon, vdh3
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Ok chickens, I’m haring tonight’s VooDoo Hash. It’s in the Marigny - at Elysian Fields and Decatur.
What? Hashers? What’s the deal? I hear you say. Familiar with the Red Dress Run? That’s us on a weekly basis (sans red dresses). We’re a drinking club with a running problem, and if you ‘re interested in working up a thirst by hunting down a guy in a kilt running around leaving a trail of flower, and quenching said thirst with beer, then this is for you.
What to bring: (required)
- Sense of humor
- $1
- 6-pack of your beer of choice
What to bring: (recommended)
We meet at 6:30, and I take off at 7:00. Come catch me!
Originally published at Prosthetically Hip. Please leave any comments there. Tags: beer, drunkery, hash, hashing, marigny, vdh3, voodoo hash
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If you were to take the polar opposite of how I feel about, say, The Silence of the Lambs, and apply it to the animal kingdom, you’d still wouldn’t have enough ill-will towards spiders.
Oh, how do they revile me? Let the count the ways…
Anyways, when it comes to these nasty little hellions, I on par don’t do so well. I have improved much since that fateful night in ‘96 when I watched Arachnophobia and then didn’t sleep for three days. It’s something I’ve been actively working on, as much as one can.
Well, just a bit ago, I was in this little room behind the entertainment center. The entrance is so narrow that one has to squeeze through it sideways, as the water heater blocks most of the entrance.
Well, I was in there, in that dark, hot, confined space, screwing a small bit of hardie board to more or less seal off a sizable hole in the wall. I take a step back and rotate to the left. At this point, I had wall directly on my right, a water heater right behind me, and had brushed up against some sort of spiderweb with me left arm. Up until that point with that contact with the web, I had totally sucked it up and manned it out.
Everything changed the moment I saw the beast. Needless to say, I got the hell out of there, and somehow without created a Will-shaped hole in the water heater and/or wall.
I tried and have partial success in soothing my nerves with whiskey, but let’s face it - I’m as jangled as a little girl. I’m still at the point where even the slight changes in air movement by the ceiling fan against my leg hairs are freaking me out. I wonder, can one get oneself hermetically sealed? Assuming there aren’t any in there?
Okay, I just freaked myself out more. I’ve dutifully applied whiskey to the mental injuries to help clean them.
I’ve sent an email in to Whats That Bug for a positive ID, and hope to have a name and information (and therefore power over) for this hellion.
Until then, here’s some photos I managed to snap, after the requisite swig or few of whiskey. For my own sake, I’m just going to link them instead of embed them, as I don’t even like looking at pictures of spiders.
I posted these up at a pretty high res, so enjoy/punish yourself:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/willcore/3503102998/
http://www.flickr.com/phtos/willcore/3503101272/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/willcore/3503099684/
Originally published at Prosthetically Hip. Please leave any comments there. Tags: arachnophobia, bowel control, domesticamation, nola, photos, scared shitless, spiders
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A bit ago, I received word that Todd’s awesome and affordable Hong Kong Tailor™ would be making his way on his U.S. Tour, and would be adding New Orleans to his list of destinations.
I figured why not, and dropped him a visit when he came though - a scant 28 days ago! After all, my black suit jacket didn’t quite match the pants, my blue dress shirt has a hole, and my white dress shirt has a weird thing happening with the collar. I was also very interested in obtaining an overcoat, as I had just been in Chicago in February for a funeral, and ’bout damn near froze my ass off.
Getting shirts, and especially jackets that fit me is a bit of a pain in the ass. I invariably have to get my jackets adjusted because shoulders are proportionally much wider than my waist.
Well, I just tried everything on (the overcoat has not yet arrived), and the fit is just great. I’m a happy customer.
Bea’s female co-worker Christy says I need a haircut, and her male co-worker Evan says I need to grow it out. I like Evan, but Christy’s probably right.
Click to embiggen:
Originally published at Prosthetically Hip. Please leave any comments there. Tags: domesticamation, hong kong tailor, photos, random, suit
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This past Friday, Bea and I laced up our skates and headed over to Airline Skate Center, for her Dad’s birthday party.
I haven’t laced up my skates since the last roller derby bout I reffed since I retired (they were in a bind, so I helped on one bout), which was in late May or early June last year. My legs felt good (both while skating and I had zero soreness the next day), and I only fell once, due to just not skating in a long time.
To digress a bit further, Bea practically grew up in a skating rink. Her folks skated a whole lot (I think that’s how they met), and while her mom no longer skates, her dad certainly does. His daughter from his second marriage, now 4, is a natural. I guess it’s in the blood. Now let’s see if her little half-sister will grow up to be a rollergirl, just like sister.
So, the birthday party was at the skating ring, and it was fun. I’m not even going to touch on the odd cross-section of people who hang out at a skating rink on a Friday night, but will instead address the title of this post. Bea baked her dad a cake, and it was light, fluffy, and delicious. And gay. Very, very gay. Behold:
I feel that unicorn candles or something would have been a perfect touch. And while unicorns are pretty cool, I think we can all agree that polycorns are far, far superior.
So there you go. That’s the gayest thing I’ve ever consumed, and it was scrumptious.
Originally published at Prosthetically Hip. Please leave any comments there. Tags: amusing, bea, cake, gay, party, photos, rainbow, rollergirls, skate
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A while ago, I was introduced to the Cult of Done. For me, it is quite simple, quite obvious, and I identify with it on a number of levels.
In the spirit of the manifesto set forth and in combination with a generally needed re-ordering of my day-to-day schedule and goals, I’ve figured out a calendar, or should I say guideline, to help me get the things done I want to get done.
This mostly means setting aside time for working on the house, and light yoga/exercise - something I wanted to more of this year, but have since lapsed.
I run (er, hash) ~5-6 miles every Thursday night, and bike pretty much everywhere, but need to do just a little more. And the housework I want done can be attacked in hour or sub-hour increments, and will probably be done faster in this manner than I had be doing before.
To help kick my ass, here is my rough daytime schedule for the work week (click to embiggen):
I start on Monday. Let’s see how things go.
Originally published at Prosthetically Hip. Please leave any comments there. Tags: calendar, cult of done, domesticamation, exercise, housework, routine, schedule, wii, work
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For those of you who live in areas that are not densely populated with Oak Trees, aloow me to introduce to you an insect so vile, so heinous, so abhorred, that it is universally referred to as the Scourge of the South*. In more common terms, it is the Buck Moth Caterpillar.
These caterpillars arrive in the spring, in hordes. They amass in Oak trees, and like locusts, proceed to eat as much of the trees leaves as possible. Ecological damage aside, they hurt like hell and keep everyone on their toes.
I’m lucky now - there are really very few Oak trees in the Marigny and French Quarter - quite the opposite of the neighborhood I grew up in - the Garden District. Oak trees line uptown - in certain points, if one were so determined they could traverse an entire city block solely on Oaks.
I remember as a child, walking to school with an umbrella with nary a clod in the sky - it was getting wet that I feared - it was falling caterpillars. Usually, you’ll see one drop here and there. But once in a while, you’ll see a large cluster fall to the ground and disperse. When I was ten, I was playing in the back yard without shoes - an unthinkably stupid act for this time of year - and I stepped on one of the monsters, crushing it with the arch of my foot.
I have never felt such intense, long-lasting pain.
These days, the Buck Moth caterpillar population is still uncomfortable large, but much much smaller than it was even 15 - 20 years ago, and I consider myself lucky to not live in a neighborhood infested with them. There is, however, an Oak that hangs over in to my backyard - just enough to bring the caterpillars in. My neighbor is in her eighties or nineties, and her back yard where the Oak is rooted lies in a constant state of neglect.
I called a company, Payne Exterminating, and set up an appointment to have them spray the tree Tuesday morning, for a mere $75. I can’t wait. While there is still much work to be done in the backyard, I don’t have to worry about the dog sniffing/playing/rolling with these spiked harbingers of pain. Plus, the tree will be much healthier for it.
*In this case, “universally” means “just me”.
Originally published at Prosthetically Hip. Please leave any comments there. Tags: buck moth, buckmoth, caterpillar, domesticamation, exterminator, nola, oak
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Today is the Molly’s at the Market Annual St. Patty’s Day Parade.
In preparation, a big ole group of us will be riding around the city in limos, wearing tuxes and dresses, to go bar-hopping with a police escort. As for me, I’m donning a pair of green Chucks, a black kilt, tuxedo shirt, green bow-tie, and my green tuxedo jacket with green velvet lapels. Hott, with two Ts.
In prep, I’ve had a big glass of water, and some cereal. I’m about to have another big glass and a sandwich, then I’ll be over at Molly’s for 8 for my first drink of the day.
*deep breath*
And I plan on obnoxiously “liveblogging” (aka twittering) the bars we have arrived at, and the drinks we have consumed, so you can witness the progression from “Hello, good sir.” to “WHARRGARBL!”
But, what is WHARRGARBL and where does it come from, you ask? The internets, my children. The internets.
Originally published at Prosthetically Hip. Please leave any comments there. Tags: amusing, beer, drunkery, molly's, nola, st. patty's, whiskey
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I could write up this whole elegant diatribe on blah blah blah, but I’m tired and plagiarism is much easier and faster.
So without further ado, I give you this summary and select comments from a story posted on Slashdot:
“Notable evolutionary biologist, author, and speaker Richard Dawkins was recently invited to speak on the campus of the University of Oklahoma as part of the school’s celebration of Charles Darwin. However, Oklahoma lawmakers are working to silence Dawkins with the passage of House Bill 1015 (RTF), which reads in part: ‘… the University of Oklahoma … has invited as a public speaker on campus, Richard Dawkins of Oxford University, whose published opinions, as represented in his 2006 book “The God Delusion,” and public statements on the theory of evolution demonstrate an intolerance for cultural diversity and diversity of thinking and are views that are not shared and are not representative of the thinking of a majority of the citizens of Oklahoma …’”
Pending legal action, Dawkins is set to speak tonight at 7 pm. (Luckily, we no longer live in the era of Bertrand Russell’s court-ordered dismissal on moral grounds from the College of the City of New York.)
And reader thms sends word of the Vatican’s Darwin conference (program):
“The conference, marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of “The Origin of Species,” has been criticized by advocates of Creationism or Intelligent Design for not inviting them. The Muslim creationist Harun Yahya, most famous for his Atlas of Creation, also complained about not being invited.”
And now, our comments:
Celebrating cultural diversity? You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.
No kidding. The resolution begins:
WHEREAS, the University of Oklahoma is a publicly funded institution which should be open to all ideas and should train students in all disciplines of study and research and to use independent thinking and free inquiry…
By paragraph THREE it is condemning Dawkins for, and I am not making this up:
views that are not shared and are not representative of the thinking of a majority of the citizens of Oklahoma
I did. Whether they are simply advocating the squashing of Dawkins’ freedom of speech or are actually squashing, if the University tells Dawkins’ to pack it in, the end result is the same.
Let’s also not forget that First Amendment also includes the freedom to practice a religion of one’s choosing. This also includes the right to practice no religion at all. IOW, Dawkins’ has a Constitutional right to be an atheist and to speak about his own beliefs (or non-beliefs) as an atheist.
I’m not an atheist myself, but I will defend the rights of atheists to believe (or not believe) what they choose.
The full resolution asked for Dawkins invitation be rescinded. Moreover, Note that they are unhappy because Dawkins views are “offensive”. Furthermore, this is the watered down resolution. The original draft included language attacking the the university’s “one-sided indoctrination of an unproven and unpopular theory” among other fun statements. See http://scienceblogs.com/erv/2009/03/the_first_draft_of_ok_legislat.php [scienceblogs.com] To me the most disturbing thing is the repeated emphasis in both the original draft and the passed version on the lack of popular support for evolution. These people really don’t understand how either science or government should work.
Originally published at Prosthetically Hip. Please leave any comments there. Tags: religiosity, science
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I need to get back on this horse. I got called out (not by name) by Pistolette, and need to take action.
I actually updated my wordpress installation (oooh, shiny!) and installed a new plugin, so it will x-post to my old LJ account - I notice that some of you post on the LJ feed account - but those go away! Hopefully, the x-posts are comment locked, forcing replies in one place - here.
So, here we go, cross your fingers…
*edit* Success! Delete your prosthetic_hip feed on LJ…
Originally published at Prosthetically Hip. Please leave any comments there. Tags: blog, geekery, lj, wordpress
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Hopefully by now, you have heard about this very bad WMF Vulnerability. It's _really_ bad. I'm not going to go into details, don't worry. Anyways, who knows when this will get patched by Microsoft, so the good guys at the SANS Internet Storm Center have gone ahead and created a patch. Pretty much everyone recommends that you install it. If you want to read more about it, feel free. There is plenty of coverage to go around . I went ahead and mirrored the patch. Or you can get it from SANS. It's small (only about 87k) and takes longer to download than to install. If you'll excuse me, I have to patch my office. I urge you to do the same to your systems. Tags: patch
Current Mood:  working
Current Music: Cannibal Corpse - Return to Flesh
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I was sitting outside the Austin Fire Department last night with my friends Andre and Leigh, just hanging out, discussing, etc. I metioned how Pcounts™ was heading back to nola soon, and how he should get innoculated. Well, Andre gave me a printout, and later posted up a pdf, which I will share here. And, as it turns out, the PDF is editable, so i also posted its contents. So, take one, and re-post: Katrina Disaster Preparedness Personal Protection Information Guide. In the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, many IAFF members may be deployed to the Gulf Coast to assist. However, anyone who will be contributing to this effort should also take some precautions. The following lists some basic information that should be followed: 1) Immunizations/Infectious Diseases · All fire fighters and emergency medical personnel should be up-to-date on their immunizations, but the most crucial at this point are Tetanus, Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B. · A repeat Tetanus should be obtained if the last injection was greater than 10 years ago. · If a person is unsure of their Hepatitis B status, then they should talk to their fire department physician or primary care physician about starting the three shot series and possibly receiving Hepatitis B immunoglobulin treatment. · Since sanitation is of great concern, Hepatitis A prophylaxis is important. Hepatitis A immunoglobulin provides immediate protection and lasts up to 3 to 5 months. A Hepatitis A immunization may be given at the same time as the immunoglobulin, but immunity can take 2 weeks to adequately develop. · If housing includes living in small, cramped quarters with numerous other individuals, then one should consider a Meningococcal vaccination. However, this decision should be discussed with your fire department physician or primary care physician. · Some news reports have expressed concern for the development of Typhoid and/or Cholera. However, these infectious diseases are not endemic to the United States, so it is not likely that we shall see such infections. 2) Climate · The Gulf Coast’s current temperature ranges from the upper 80s to low-to-mid 90s and being near the Gulf of Mexico creates a very hot & humid working environment. This can lead to an increased risk of dehydration, heat exhaustion or even heat stroke, which can result in seizure or death. · Wear loose-fitting, but breathable clothing, drink plenty of fluids (water or sports drinks), and try not to over-exert yourself. Use sunscreen and wear a hat if available. · Avoid alcohol or too much caffeine (coffee, tea, or sodas). · Signs of heat exhaustion include: weakness, headache, dizziness, muscle weakness/cramps, nausea and vomiting, dehydration, fast heartbeat, or worried feeling. If you have these symptoms, seek a cool, shady place to rest and drink fluids. · Seek medical help if the above symptoms do not resolve within 15 to 30 minutes, or if skin feels hot and dry (but not sweaty), confusion or loss of consciousness, frequent vomiting, or shortness of breath or trouble breathing. 3) Animals/Reptiles/Insects · Working in this part of the country, one should be aware of the different types of animals and reptiles that may be seen. Although rabies is rare in the United States, one should seek care and wound evaluation by medical personnel if they have been bitten by a stray or wild animal. · Animals/reptiles include: raccoons, squirrels, opossums, armadillos, rats, mice, moles skunks, groundhogs, beavers, ferals, bats, alligators and snakes (both poisonous and non-poisonous). · Poisonous snakes include: rattlesnakes, water moccasins, copperheads, cottonmouth, and/ or coral snakes. · DEET repellent sprays of strength no greater than 30% can be used on exposed skin and clothing to help prevent bites. More frequent reapplication of the DEET spray may be necessary if sweating profusely or frequently getting wet. 4) Food/Water-borne Illnesses · Again, sanitation is of great concern, so every means necessary should be taken to avoid any illnesses such as diarrhea. · Loperamide (also known as Imodium) can be found over-the-counter and should be used in case of frequent bowel movements. · Talk to your fire department physician or primary care physician and try to obtain Cipro or Doxycline. These antibiotics can be taken in case one should develop frequent bouts of diarrhea. · Avoid consuming the following: tap water, chipped ice, unpasteurized milk, salads, sauces or salsas, uncooked or undercooked meats or seafood or unpeeled fruits. · The following items are safe for consumption: carbonated soft drinks or water, boiled water, purified water, hot/thoroughly grilled/boiled foods, processed/packaged foods, cooked vegetables and peeled fruits, bottled water, or dry goods (nuts/dried fruits). 5) Universal Precautions: Rescuing Victims/Recovering Deceased, Handling Human Remains/Contact with Surfaces Contaminated with Blood and Body Fluids · Despite the chaotic conditions, universal precautions should be used at all times. · Gloves should be used in case of contact with blood, saliva, semen, or other bodily fluids. Goggles and face masks should be used if the potential exists for contact of fluids via the respiratory route. Finally, protective gowns/garments should be considered if the potential exists for exposure to large amounts of bodily fluid. · Wash hands after removal of gloves. · Document all exposures. 6) Trauma/Chemical Exposure · Since there is a large amount of debris in the work area, there exists a great potential to sustain cuts, puncture wounds, or exposure to chemicals or gasoline. · Regularly inspect your body for any unknown injuries or rashes to your body. If any injuries are identified, promptly clean the area with soap and clean water. Seek medical care if the injury/rash is serious. · Document all exposures and injuries. 7) Medical Kits Constructing a basic personal medical kit is a simple and easy process and can be useful since limited resources are available in the hurricane areas. A kit should include the following, which are available over-the-counter and do not require a prescription, except for personal medications and antibiotics: · Usual prescription medications (including additional doses) · Aspirin, Tylenol, or other anti-inflammatory medications · Throat lozenges · Decongestants (use with caution in hot & humid environments) · Antihistamines (use with caution in hot & humid environments) · Cough suppressants · Loperamide (Imodium or generic equivalent) · Antibacterial wipes/towlettes · Antibiotics for diarrhea · Sunscreen · Insect repellent · Bandages, bandaids, and adhesives · Tweezers and scissors · Antacids · Digital thermometer
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Good news everyone!
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