So you know that moment during the holiday season when people just, snap? When the already tenuous chord connecting the American consumer to reality severs, and people plummet into blind amok?

Apparently that moment happened the other day– at least, if drivers are a good indicator. It wasn’t even Thankgiving yet, and people were driving on the wrong side of the road, double parking on busy streets, and honking at pedestrians in walkways. I understand that in some places this is normal, but not in my hometown. At least not this early in the year.

In all this craziness, there’s an increased risk to drivers. But the risk to runners skyrockets. It’s not a hazard that many people consider– anyone running around a shopping center could tell you that.

What I mean to say is that the grill of a Nissan Murano is not my ideal resting place. So please, when you’re out driving, take into account those who travel on foot.

P.S. (sorry about the unfinished state of the earlier post. It would seem that I hit the wrong button when I tried to save my draft).

Compressor stations are causing a lot of problems in Pennsylvania. This video was taken after a release of an oily substance from Steckman Ridge Compressor in Clearville, PA, on August 23, 2009. The owners of this farm are fearful that their land is hopelessly contaminated, and they don’t know what is in the oily substance they found sprinkled all over everything: their farm equipment, the hay wagon, their crops and plants, their pasture land, their blueberry bushes, their springfed pond. They found soot on their roof. The pond has an oily scum on it. Their plants wilted after this incident. They are asking: Is our farm safe or not?Clearville farmers have watched their animals die- two cows, a horse, many cats, and all of their hens. There are three compressor stations, all within 10 miles. According to the DEP, air tests are not done around compressor stations, despite many requests from residents who live near them. Is the air safe in Clearville? The residents are worried.

The Photograph: Taken on National Highway 8 in Rajasthan in India. The man hanging on to the extreme right (in the blue checks) saw me take a photograph a few seconds from when the above one was taken, and he only had a smile to offer.  By Siddharth.

The Poem:  Wonder why the vehicle never breaks down.
If it did, there would be smiles; not all would frown.

Wonder how this country is still up and running;
The people, some like Gandhi and some so cunning.

Wonder how that driver manages to steer,
with the whole nation hanging on his rear.
By Akshan.

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It’s hot. It’s humid. Nothing would feel better than splashing in the ocean or a couple of laps in the pool. Great idea but, what do you wear? For most women searching for the perfect swimsuit is next to mission impossible. For women over 40 it is even worse. Here are some of the most common mistakes we make when looking for a bathing suit. We buy swimsuit tops that don’t provide the proper support. Women over 40 tend to have breasts that require more support. The little tube tops or skimpy triangle bikini tops just don’t cut it. Treat your search for a bathing suit, or suit top, like a search for a good bra. if you are large-busted look for tops that provide good support with built in bras and thicker straps.
We buy bathing suits made out of shiny fabrics. Shiny fabrics usually look good if you are model thin. If you are an average to large size woman, a shiny bathing suit will add pounds to your frame.
We still buy swimsuits in colors that don’t flatter us. Despite the fact we are a little older, women over 40 still buy swimwear in colors that are too bright or wash them out. Look for colors that will flatter you before and after you tan. Don’t assume that black and white are safe. If you are extremely fair-skinned a black or stark white bathing suit could make you look ashen.
We don’t buy swimsuits that emphasize proportion. If you have short legs you should look for suits that are high cut on the leg to elongate them. Color blocking is another way to emphasize your attributes and de-emphasize your problem areas. If you have large hips, choose suits that have a dark color block on the bottom. If you have a large bust and small hips, the opposite might be beneficial. Similarly, color blocks on your midsection can accentuate your waistline.

Scuba diving is a fun, exciting, exhilarating sport. Scuba divers get to explore the depths of the mysterious underwater world in a safe way, assuming they follow the rules and regulations of scuba diving. When scuba divers get hurt, people refer to the incident as a “scuba diving accident.” However, a trained, careful diver should very rarely have an accident. A majority of scuba diving incidents leading to injury or death can be avoided. In other words, these incidents are not accidents, but usually failures by the divers to scuba dive safely and carefully.

If you were to analyze scuba diving safety rules and regulations, you would notice that they are designed to eliminate almost all chance for any accident to occur. Safe scuba divers follow these rules, leading to good diving habits, and unsafe diving is caused by bad diving habits. Almost all scuba diving “accidents” can be avoided by following good diving practices and creating good habits. Some of the most common bad diving practices leading to scuba diving accidents include deep air diving, diving alone, diving without the proper training, diving in a medically unfit or overweight condition and failure to maintain certification and proper training.

Good scuba divers who are generally able to avoid all scuba accidents never dive beyond the limits of what their training has taught them. They regularly practice and improve upon scuba diving skills and always dive with another experience scuba diver. They also stay in good shape in order to avoid accidents caused by being unable to swim for an extended period. Finally, they always plan their trips in safe locations and keep an eye on weather reports in order to avoid scuba diving accidents related to storms or choppy water.

It is also important to realize that not everyone can dive even if they receive the proper training. In order to avoid accidents, people who have breathing problems, are over-weight or are cluster phobic should not dive regardless of the extent of training they receive. People who have had bad experiences in the water, are poor swimmers or have an abnormal fear of drowning should also avoid scuba diving. It is also important to be able to react calmly and quickly if equipment malfunctions, or any other problem occurs, and therefore, people with panic or anxiety disorders should also avoid diving.

Although almost all scuba diving accidents are avoidable by maintaining safe diving habits, a small percentage of scuba diving accidents are unavoidable due to unknown external factors. For example, some years ago two German divers died in Yugoslavia when a local started using dynamite to fish at the dive-site. The explosion knocked the two men unconscious and they drowned. Scuba accidents like this are almost impossible to avoid, but luckily they are also very rare.

Warning: this post required that I lead with a picture that I found bu Google Image Searching “hipster fixed gear.” So I did. You’re forewarned.

Philadelphia is, apparently, seeking to fine people riding brakeless fixed gears. This article reads like a list of things I hate about journalists writing about fixed gears. It writes and perpetuates just about every fixed gear stereotype available to somebody who logged on to bikeforums.net for the first time. Are there riders who are not good at riding or stopping their bike? Yes. Are all of them fixed gear riders? No.

Furthermore, this notion that out-of-control fixed-gear riders are a public menace is absurd considering the number of pedestrians and cyclists killed every year by automobiles and their drivers. In New York City, killing somebody with your car is the best way to get away with murder – it’s assumed to be the cyclist’s or pedestrian’s fault. Despite the law, cars have the right of way.

I’m not going to step up and defend fixed gears or the riders thereof. I just don’t care that much, despite the fact that one of my main rides is a track bike. Mostly, I hate the lazy, simple categorization (a shining example of expedient stupidity), demonstrated perfectly by author of the piece linked above. I hate the seasoned idiots who shake their heads at a broad class of newbies. And I hate the focus on it. I’m willing to step away from anticar rant to acknowledge that there are myriad bad bikers out there, and if anybody wants to correlate poor cycling with use of a brakeless fixed gear, well then, let me see some data, not anecdotal crap, backing it up.

And, for any driver that’s reading this and thinking I knew those cyclists were all bad bikers, please remember a few things: you speed, on streets and on highways. You know that light wasn’t still yellow. You know you cut off that person. You know you don’t use your blinker every time. Few people have a high horse in this argument, myself included. I consider myself a safe cyclist albeit one who runs red lights and does other scofflaw behavior. I will say this, though: the bike infrastructure improvements in New York City have made me a much, much more law-abiding cyclist. Go figure.

A far more level-headed approach to the whole debate/debacle was written in the Guardian’s Bike Blog a few weeks ago. It offers a perspective shift just in the title: “Antisocial Cycling Is Annoying, But Not Harmful.”

Annoying, not harmful.

Something to keep in mind, Philadelphia.

A woman has been taken to hospital after crashing her moped on Blackpool Road in Preston.

She was knocked off her bike after colliding with a blue Volkswagen Passat and broke her wrist.

The road was shut off on Tuesday evening while the vehicles were recovered.

http://www.lep.co.uk/travel/Moped-rider-hospitalised-in-smash.5853867.jp

I do think I may keep blogging my spills, breakings and other accidents, preferrably via photo…today’s wouldn’t really come out in a picture: during a meeting, I kept scratching my leg with a retractable pen, which turned out not to be retracted. Fortunately I was wearing dark blue pants, so I’m the only person who noticed the black sketch explosion on my thigh.

Medical News: Three Drug Classes Associated with Falls in the Elderly – in Primary Care, Geriatrics from MedPage Today

More than 30% of people ages 65 years and older experience a fall annually. Falls are associated with more than 40% of nursing home admissions, so research into risk factors “is urgently needed,” according the the researchers.

 

What is a pet peeve, you may wonder?  A pet peeve is a minor annoyance that can instill extreme frustration in an individual.   In other words, something so simple that it can irritate the sh*t out of you. 

Below are Hottywood’s TOP 20 PET PEEVES.  Beware.  If you’re caught in the hills of Hottywood violating anything on the pet peeves list, be prepared to get your ass kicked something good! 

HOTTYWOOD’S TOP 20 PET PEEVES:

Socks and Sandals. This is the devil.  If you wear socks and sandals, then your feet should be used as a target for an archery class. 

__________________________________________________________

Morning people.  Sometimes you just want to punch the hell out of them.

__________________________________________________________

When a smelly fat guy squeezes his fat ass into the only available seat next to you on the bus.  Jump out the window while the bus is still moving.  It’ll be painful, but a quick way to put you out of your misery.

__________________________________________________________

People who txt during a date. Karate chopping would be my first suggestion, otherwise let them know you’re just as bored with them as they are with you.  Pinch your nose tightly until you pass out from lack of oxygen.

__________________________________________________________

Not having enough quarters to do laundry. When in doubt, crawl inside the washing maching and dance on top of your clothes, creating your own soap suds. 

Trust me, it’s more fun if you do it this way.  Just make sure your feet are clean.  __________________________________________________________

People who don’t wash their hands after using the bathroom.  I’m sure I’m not the only person who wishes that unsanitary person would punch himself in the face with his germ infested fist.  

__________________________________________________________

People who stink. Pee on them.  There’s no doubt they will take cleanliness a little more seriously after that.    

__________________________________________________________

People who drive below the speed limit.  I’ll tell you what; set their car on fire and make the slow mutha effer walk! 

Let’s see how long it takes ‘em to get to their destination now. 

__________________________________________________________

People who ride their bikes in the middle of the street.  There’s only one way to settle the score. 

STRIKE!!! 

If this doesn’t work, nothing will.

__________________________________________________________

Anyone who says “Hammer Time” after they’ve heard the word “STOP.” 

They should be put to an end just like MC Hammer’s career. 

__________________________________________________________

Jerks who take up 2 parking spaces.  

Karma’s a bitch! 

__________________________________________________________

People that pop and smack their chewing gum.  Throw a lighted match on their hair. I promise you they’ll stop popping their gum.  

__________________________________________________________

Anyone who does this in public.  It’s just wrong on so many levels. 

__________________________________________________________

When you can’t tell if someone is male or female.  We get it already, you like to play dress up.  But come on, there is a such thing as too much. 

Is anyone else confused about her him – THIS??? 

__________________________________________________________

People who leave the door open when they go to the bathroom. If you know anyone who does this nasty sh*t, flush them down the damn toilet, please and thank you. 

__________________________________________________________

When you’re invited to a party with people you have never met, and the host doesn’t introduce you to anyone.  

Personally, I’d rather shoot myself in the foot.  Next time, stay home and count your hair follicles.   

__________________________________________________________

When someone with a full cart of groceries gets into the 10 items or less line. This basic rule of grocery store etiquette was covered in the Grocery Shopping Handbook for Dummies. 

A good karate kick to the back of the collar bone will put an end to this madness.    

__________________________________________________________

When someone leaves their phone number at the end of a long message and they say it so fast you can’t understand it and have to listen multiple times to figure it out. 

Don’t bother to listen.  Simply toss the phone into the nearest trash can and keep on moving.  If it isn’t Jesus calling, the message can’t be that important.   

__________________________________________________________

People who chew with their mouth open.  Chew on this! 

__________________________________________________________

Anyone who gets on an elevator and stares at another passenger for a while, then yells “You’re one of THEM!” and moves to the far corner of the elevator. 

…for obvious reasons. 

__________________________________________________________

So there you have it, people!  Hottywood’s Top 20 Pet Peeves.   Please don’t get caught with your tail between your legs attempting to violate any of the above mentioned crimes.  Because if someone catches you, they are liable to tie you to a tree and use you as “bazooka” practice!  And if Hottywood catches you…well let me just remind you that he likes sharp objects and things that go BOOM! 

If you are by chance an idiot who is guilty of anything listed above, then you’d better get off your ass and make some changes.  You can do it.  90% of any effort is getting started. 

Quote of the Week:     “I don’t have pet peeves.  I have whole kennels of irritation.”

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mrhollywood.2009

I’ve already ‘tweeted’ this but I thought I’d just go over it in a little more detail.

The accident sketch website is something I came across this week, and a site that would have been a deal of help after my partner was witness to an accident and ‘drive off’ involving a parked car.

It’s not that difficult to draw a sketch but the drag and drop format of this tool makes it much easier to accurately position vehicles in a wide variety of situations.

If you’re familiar with any drawing or sketching package, you should have no trouble finding your way around this tool.

Firstly, you just drag onto the central part of the screen the nearest fit to where the accident happened. There are a comprehensive selection of types of road including roundabouts, bends, cross roads, junctions on bends, pedestrian crossings, dual carriageways, slip roads, single track roads and even parking lots. Tip – first maximise your browser to get the best use of the screen.

You can then add your own vehicle (motorcycles are included – a CB500 by the look of it!) and the other party’s. You can change colours of the vehicles and add registration numbers at this stage. The tool is also drag and drop, and once placed, you can move them around and also change the angle of the vehicle with respect to the road.

It’s possible to add other vehicles and pedestrians, as well as a selection of road signs, although it’s worth pointing out that they’re not UK-specific; the one-way street sign is labelled in German. The final tab gives you some simple drawing tools, including skid marks, although for some reason there’s no curved line available, which is slightly odd. Here you could mark up buildings or where someone was headed towards. Anything misplaced can be dragged to the bin or adjusted as necessary.

When you’ve got the sketch laid out to your satisfaction, you can label it, to highlight the various features.

Finally, hitting the print option produces a PDF file, which has the sketch map appended to a page with details of the two vehicles involved, and space for a written description, which can be filled in directly via the keyboard, rather than handwritten. Further options embedded in the PDF allow for printing or emailing.

Elsewhere on the site, you can find downloadable European Accident Statements, which can be printed off in two languages; for instance in English (for us to fill in) and in Polish or Swedish, for the other driver. These would be very useful when planning a trip abroad.

The site is still in beta at the moment with several of the links “under construction”, but hopefully it’ll stay free to use. Even as it stands part finished, it’s still a very useful resource.

Scuba diving is a fun, exciting, exhilarating sport. Scuba divers get to explore the depths of the mysterious underwater world in a safe way, assuming they follow the rules and regulations of scuba diving. When scuba divers get hurt, people refer to the incident as a “scuba diving accident.” However, a trained, careful diver should very rarely have an accident. A majority of scuba diving incidents leading to injury or death can be avoided. In other words, these incidents are not accidents, but usually failures by the divers to scuba dive safely and carefully.

If you were to analyze scuba diving safety rules and regulations, you would notice that they are designed to eliminate almost all chance for any accident to occur. Safe scuba divers follow these rules, leading to good diving habits, and unsafe diving is caused by bad diving habits. Almost all scuba diving “accidents” can be avoided by following good diving practices and creating good habits. Some of the most common bad diving practices leading to scuba diving accidents include deep air diving, diving alone, diving without the proper training, diving in a medically unfit or overweight condition and failure to maintain certification and proper training.

Good scuba divers who are generally able to avoid all scuba accidents never dive beyond the limits of what their training has taught them. They regularly practice and improve upon scuba diving skills and always dive with another experience scuba diver. They also stay in good shape in order to avoid accidents caused by being unable to swim for an extended period. Finally, they always plan their trips in safe locations and keep an eye on weather reports in order to avoid scuba diving accidents related to storms or choppy water.

It is also important to realize that not everyone can dive even if they receive the proper training. In order to avoid accidents, people who have breathing problems, are over-weight or are cluster phobic should not dive regardless of the extent of training they receive. People who have had bad experiences in the water, are poor swimmers or have an abnormal fear of drowning should also avoid scuba diving. It is also important to be able to react calmly and quickly if equipment malfunctions, or any other problem occurs, and therefore, people with panic or anxiety disorders should also avoid diving.

Although almost all scuba diving accidents are avoidable by maintaining safe diving habits, a small percentage of scuba diving accidents are unavoidable due to unknown external factors. For example, some years ago two German divers died in Yugoslavia when a local started using dynamite to fish at the dive-site. The explosion knocked the two men unconscious and they drowned. Scuba accidents like this are almost impossible to avoid, but luckily they are also very rare.

If it weren’t for the coral reef located in the Florida Keys, the United States would have nothing to offer as far as scuba diving and coral reefs are concerned. In addition to the living coral reef that has been a main scuba diving attraction of the Florida Keys for more than 35 years, numerous dive able wrecks are scattered throughout the waters providing exotic and breathtaking artificial reef habitats. Here is a brief overview of some of the wrecks you can visit while scuba diving in the Florida Keys:

Benwood – The Benwood is perhaps the oldest scuba diving wreck site to be found in the Florida Keys. This WWII ship was sunk in 1942 when it collided with another whip while dodging German U-boats near the coast of Florida. While the wreck is not intact (it was blown apart because it presented a boating hazard) it is home to a wide array of marine life. Scuba diving near the Benwood will bring you face to face with critters such as Pork fish, grunts, lobsters, moray eels, glassy sweepers, Sergeant Majors, Goatfish, and Christmas Tree Worms. Since the ship had run aground before it was blown up, the dive is a relatively shallow one and great for novice divers as well as advanced divers.

Cayman Salvage Master – This wreck that can be seen while scuba diving in the Florida Keys is a Cuban refugee vessel that was confiscated by the US government. The ship was tied up to a dock where she sank before she was re-floated. Then, during her burial voyage of 1985, she sank in about 90 feet of water coming to rest on her side. Recently, Hurricane Katrina righted the ship and now divers can swim along the hull and deck hoping to spy huge Jewfish and moray eels that reside in the open hatches of the wreck.

Duane – If you’re experienced at scuba diving, you might want to pay a visit to the wreck Duane while you’re in the Florida Keys area. This US Coast Guard Cutter was intentionally sunk in 120 feet of water in the year 1987. Due to the strong Gulf Stream current and depth associated with the wreck, only advanced divers are allowed to dive this site. The Duane is home to grunts, sponges, chubbs, jacks, barracuda, and numerous tropical fish.

In addition to these three wrecks that can be seen while scuba diving in the Florida Keys, there are several other wrecks in the area that have been intentionally sunk to become artificial reef habitats. Each offers a different experience and a unique look into how the ocean transforms a foreign object into a beautiful habitat where marine life can grow and thrive.

Scuba diving is a fun, exciting, exhilarating sport. Scuba divers get to explore the depths of the mysterious underwater world in a safe way, assuming they follow the rules and regulations of scuba diving. When scuba divers get hurt, people refer to the incident as a “scuba diving accident.” However, a trained, careful diver should very rarely have an accident. A majority of scuba diving incidents leading to injury or death can be avoided. In other words, these incidents are not accidents, but usually failures by the divers to scuba dive safely and carefully.

If you were to analyze scuba diving safety rules and regulations, you would notice that they are designed to eliminate almost all chance for any accident to occur. Safe scuba divers follow these rules, leading to good diving habits, and unsafe diving is caused by bad diving habits. Almost all scuba diving “accidents” can be avoided by following good diving practices and creating good habits. Some of the most common bad diving practices leading to scuba diving accidents include deep air diving, diving alone, diving without the proper training, diving in a medically unfit or overweight condition and failure to maintain certification and proper training.

Good scuba divers who are generally able to avoid all scuba accidents never dive beyond the limits of what their training has taught them. They regularly practice and improve upon scuba diving skills and always dive with another experience scuba diver. They also stay in good shape in order to avoid accidents caused by being unable to swim for an extended period. Finally, they always plan their trips in safe locations and keep an eye on weather reports in order to avoid scuba diving accidents related to storms or choppy water.

It is also important to realize that not everyone can dive even if they receive the proper training. In order to avoid accidents, people who have breathing problems, are over-weight or are cluster phobic should not dive regardless of the extent of training they receive. People who have had bad experiences in the water, are poor swimmers or have an abnormal fear of drowning should also avoid scuba diving. It is also important to be able to react calmly and quickly if equipment malfunctions, or any other problem occurs, and therefore, people with panic or anxiety disorders should also avoid diving.

Although almost all scuba diving accidents are avoidable by maintaining safe diving habits, a small percentage of scuba diving accidents are unavoidable due to unknown external factors. For example, some years ago two German divers died in Yugoslavia when a local started using dynamite to fish at the dive-site. The explosion knocked the two men unconscious and they drowned. Scuba accidents like this are almost impossible to avoid, but luckily they are also very rare.

Although these terms are written with the transport industry in mind, they are highly relevant and applicable for other industries as well.

Minimum continuous break in a 24 hour period for a solo driver: 7 hours in the Standard Hours option, 7 hour continuous break or 8 hours in 2 parts (islimited) in the Basic Fatigue Management option, 6 hour continuous break or 8 hours in 2 parts (subject to conditions).

Night sleep: At least seven hours continuous rest between 10pm and 8am.

Shift: The period of driving and work time between two periods of continuous sleep opportunity. A shift is deemed to have started at the end of the last continuous sleep opportunity and finishes at the beginning of the next continuous sleep opportunity.

Short rest break: Any rest break that is 15 minutes or more in duration, but less than seven hours. Means time at work provided for rest and meals after a continuous period of active work and does not include non-driving work time or time not working. Short rest is recorded in minimum 15 minute periods (i.e. any non-work less than 15 minutes does not counttowards rest, any period of non-work of 15 minutes but less than 30 minutes is counted as 15 minutes rest etc.).

Night work: Any driving or work undertaken between midnight and 6 am.

Hazard: A source or situation with a potential to cause injury, illness or disease.

Hazard identification: Process of recognising that a hazard exists.

Risk: The likelihood of an injury, illness or disease occurring and the severity of any injury, illness
or disease that results from exposure to a hazard.

Risk assessment: Process of working out how big a risk is present and what risk factors are causing the problem.

Risk control: The process of applying appropriate prevention measures to eliminate or minimise any
risks.

Circadian rhythm: Circadian rhythms or the body clock regulates physiological and behavioural functions on a 24 hour basis. Sleep and wakefulness are programmed and sleepiness is greatest between midnight to 6 a.m. and to a lesser extent between 2-4 p.m.

Fatigue: Fatigue can be described as a progressive loss of alertness that ultimately ends in sleep.

Sleep debt: Failure to have a normal sleep results in sleep debt that accumulates and can only be paid back by undisturbed, restorative sleep.

Schedule: The pattern of driving and work covering one or more trips. For operators with rostered drivers a schedule might operate over a week or a month. For less regular or predictable situations a schedule may refer to a single trip.

Source: NTC’s Guidelines For Managing Heavy Vehicle Driver Fatigue August 2007

This past Friday was a crazy day.  There are a bunch of different things that happened that I plan to blog about this week.  Oh, so many things happened.  Too much for 1 blog.  Too many thoughts would explode this one post.

Anyway, so it wasn’t our first trip to the ER/urgicare, but it was the first time there was no indecision about going.  It had been a long day.  We had been out all afternoon.  We stayed out for dinner and came home about 8:15pm.  I told the girls to go right upstairs and get into their pajamas.  S went up first.  I went up about a minute later.  M was looking for her blankie in the family room, and my husband was just emptying his pockets.  I was gathering their pajamas when I heard a boom, followed by a quiet pause.  Then we heard screaming.  You know that screaming that just shouts pain?  It brought both my husband and I out running.  I looked down the stairs to see my husband cradling M, trying to calm her down.  She was bawling.  S ran to the top of the stairs, looking extremely curious and worried.

My husband, while cradling her, asked M what happened.  She yelled that she fell down.  He asked if she bumped anything.  She yelled the wall.  When asked what, she said my mouth.  He brought her upstairs, where she continued to cry.  M had been burying her head in her blankie.  When she pulled it away so we could wipe her tears and nose, the blankie came out red.  When I looked into M’s mouth, there was blood all over her bottom teeth and building in the pool inside her lower lip.  There was no way to tell where it was coming from.  We took her into the bathroom where she was able to rinse her mouth with a cup.  I pulled her lip down, thinking maybe she lost a tooth or bit her lip.  What I saw was gruesome.

There was a wide, very deep, jagged cut along the inside of the gums.  One part looked so deep.  I put a wet washcloth to her mouth, and told M to hold it there.  She was almost fearful of how bad it was. She asked me if it looked bad.  I said very calmly, smiling, “No, you have a booboo.  It’s not bad.”  I must have sounded like I was on drugs.  I was trying to stay non-chalant.  Inside, my stomach was churning.  I was truly grossed out.  I called my husband, and showed him.  First words out of his mouth, “Wow.  That looks pretty terrible.”  Fresh tears exploded from our 3 year old patient.  After throwing him a look, and he returned an apologetic one, he said, “We should take her to the ER.”  I agreed.

On his way down the stairs to grab his keys, my husband called out to me, asking about the urgicare.  During the off hours, our pediatrician’s office has a pediatric urgicare.  But they don’t do stitches.  There are a couple of private uricares, many of them walk-ins near us.  They don’t take a lot of insurances, but you have no wait, you see a PA (Physician’s asst) and/or doctor.  They see children, and do stitches.  Our friends had just been telling us about it last weekend.  He called to see if they were open.

I got M dressed, and sent her off with her daddy.  I stayed behind with S.  She was so tired, and asking so many questions.  She kept asking me if M was okay.  She wanted to know if Daddy was coming back or if he was going to stay at the hospital with M.  Poor thing was so worried.  When we realized that M was bleeding, S had run over with a bottle of water, telling M to drink it.  It would wash it all up.  S is not a maternal figure by any means.  She can be empathetic to others, but not so much to M.  When M is crying and having a tantrum, S gets so upset.  She stomps her feet near her, and sometimes kicks her in the legs.  I think she is hoping it will shock her into silence. We are working on that one BIG time.  Anyway, she was definitely concerned about her sister, and not just because her daddy wasn’t home, either.

I put S to bed, and just waited.

An hour after leaving, I heard the garage door open.  My husband came in with M in his arms.  She was subdued, but awake.  She got 3 stitches.  My husband became a believer in urigare that night.  He said he walked in, and they showed him to a room.  They gave him the paperwork to fill out while a PA started to examine M.  They checked her for head trauma and asked a lot of questions.  The doctor examined her, too.  My husband said that M was so good.  She nodded her head when they were talking to her.  They told her they were going to put a sheet around her arms because they didn’t want her arms to get in the way.  She nodded okay.

It was 50/50 if she needed stitches.  I still shake my head at that.  It would take 7-10 days to heal without, 4-5 days if she got them.  My husband said to do it.  M got a shot of novocaine.  Finally, the crying began.  They were dissolvable stitches.  They warned that she would probably play a lot with them with her tongue and try to chew it.

If that had been S, there is NO WAY, abosolutely NO WAY, that she would have been calm for any of that exam.  And the shot and stitches, forget it.  It would have been easier to knock her out for it!

Anyway, M is still adjusting.  She’s doing well.  Eating hurts her, depending on what it is.  She is trying to drink.  A lot of times, the liquid pools in her bottom lip and dribbles out.  She hates getting wet from that.  She doesn’t close her mouth all the way.  She’s congested from a cold she is starting to get, so her lips dry out and crack from breathing through her mouth.  Poor thing.

M needs a lot of TLC.  And let’s us know, too.

And today, she finally let us know that she was walking up the stairs with her blankie over her head.  Because she wanted to, she says.  Lesson learned.  Don’t walk around the steps with a blanket over your head.

Dupre´Logistics monitors it’s drivers.

Statistics suggest that a significant percentage of accidents are caused by human error. A major contributing factor in a number of these cases is fatigue. It is important to understand what fatigue is and how to deal with it. Dupre´Logistics hold their team accountable by measuring fatigue through Circadian Technologies’ CAS System.

Fatigue is more than just a general feeling of tiredness. It is a loss of our ability to remain vigilant, to perform a task, to maintain situational awareness, to think clearly and logically, to react appropriately and to maintain motor coordination skills. Very simply, when a person is fatigued, he is more prone to making mistakes. Fatigue affects everyone, even the most professional and dedicated people. It is not a question of mind over matter. Rather, it’s the body’s natural physiological response to working too much or getting too little sleep or rest.

Fatigue is monitored by examining the following 9 variables:

• Average sleep length per day
• Percentage of time below red and yellow thresholds on duty
• Average duration of episodes below red on duty
• Average alertness score while awake
• Number of recovery breaks per week
• Hours of work per week
• Hours of work per shift
• Biological limitations for sleep recovery
• Time of day activity occurs

Source:  Circadian 24/7 Workforce Solutions and Dupre´ Logistics

Are you confused about what business casual dress really means?

It’s a merging of the formal, tailored, dark & neutral colors of business wear, with the relaxed, loose, comfortable look of casual wear. It’s not weekend wear, or sportswear. It’s somewhere in between. It combines the professionalism of business dress with the comfort of casual dress, to create a smart, polished office look that’s a step below business formal.

Here are 5 tips for looking stylish in business casual attire.

1. Dress for your industry and for your company. If you are meeting clients, in most companies it’s a good idea to have a jacket handy. A jacket instantly upgrades your look, and presents a polished, professional appearance.

2. Choose your accessories carefully. You many be wearing a sweater and pants, but make sure your shoes are shined and stylish. Carry a good quality leather briefcase or handbag. Invest in a sharp-looking watch with a leather or metal band. Wear a leather belt to tie your look together.

3. Coordinate colors. Yes, you are wearing a more casual look, so you don’t need to dress in charcoal grey or navy. However, consider that these neutral colors are a great basis for a capsule wardrobe. When you begin with 2 or 3 pairs of pants in black, navy or grey, you can add any color shirt or sweater and still look business-like. When you top it off with a jacket, you look ready for any business event.

4. Check your grooming. Make sure your hair is clean and has a style that suits you. Check that your fingernails are filed, with no jagged edges. Check for stale breath and 5-o’clock shadows. Sometimes we don’t realize that we look less than fresh at the end of the day, when we may be heading out to see clients.

5. Give yourself a once-over in the mirror before you step outside. Look for loose threads, missing buttons, and scuffed heels. All of these details play an even bigger part of the picture when you wear business casual attire.

Pretend this is a picture of a beautiful, lip-smackin, green and pink piece of dragon roll sushi. Instead of a picture of a busted, once-lovely milk frother.

See, not only have I been extremely lazy in just about every regard in the past few weeks, I have also managed to break several important things in my life. Some of them irreparably. (This is not as boring as it looks like on the first glance) (I hope)

First, it was my foot. I was unable to move about for a couple of days,  if I wasn’t over-exhausting the muscles in my right leg by hopping around on it all the time and/or being proud of myself for having accomplished the mean feat of pulling on my pants standing up (after having worn pyjama pants for two days straight). I also used the occasion to watch the first three Pink Panther movies in a row with a friend whom I sadly couldn’t entertain in any other way.  That just might have been the worst bit about being incapacitated in this way, worrying all the time about having other people do everything for you because – “oh, man, I guess I can’t carry two cups of hot coffee upstairs whilst hopping on one foot, can I?”  Were there not exactly that aspect, I wasn’t able to make my coffee myself, nor was I able to cook myself, nor was I able to .. to.. well, what I’m trying to say is, I could hardly get all bossy (I already detested that in itself) because I was much more pissed off with myself for busting that foot as I absolutely hate not being able to do things myself that .. I just need to do. If you get my picture.

Anyway, next up was my finger. I had sharpened my wonderful Wüsthof cook’s knife so wonderfully on the morn of the final rehearsal a day before the (wonderful) annual Youth Symphony Orchestra of Cologne concert and decided to peel and cut up a wonderfully yellow orange with it. Well, what else should I have used for that purpose? One of my mother’s knives? I think not.

And then I did this:

(Please ignore the white spots on my middle finger. Hey, I could’ve just done this:

… but I’m an honest person)

In case you were wondering, no, take pictures of my finger wasn’t what I did, that came after I cut myself in my left pointer-finger, which is what I did before I took pictures of what my knife had done. (Huh?)

The rehearsal was, what can I say, bloody exhausting. So was the concert.

Next on the list was my oh-so-lovely milk frother:

I had destroyed the glass once before, having the set it on the stove without any contents. So when I did introduce some content (a.k.a milk) to the container (a.k.a. bodum latteo milk frother), the latter just burst into about 3 pieces without any further warning. This time I had left the whole thing standing on the stove, left the kitchen in a state of mind which wasn’t very… present, fiddled with my cellphone for quite a while, until a couple of interesting sounds as well as an extremely man-made stench wrenched me out of my … state.

So here’s what became it:

Heck, after everything that’s happened to these specimens (only ever by my doing), I might do well by getting one of these next time:

Maybe indestructible, but not as purr-ty.

A day later, I destroyed our camera.

I had just taken these pictures:

Another week later, I fixed it.

(This is what had happened to it)

The End.