Portrait of a Warrior

If you’re ever in or near Houston, take the time to drive a few miles east to the little suburb called Baytown.  At 308 W Texas Street there is a small storefront gallery, the Portrait of a Hero Memorial Art Gallery.  The resident artist, Ken “the dauber” Pridgeon, will likely be on hand to greet you as you enter.  According to his chroniclers, he paints on he premises about 14-hours-a day, 7-days-a-week.

Give yourself a few hours inside the gallery, because once you enter, you’re immersed in the paintings that line the walls.  They represent many of the over 500 fallen Texas heroes of the Iraqi and Afghanistan Wars.  And the portraits are not only good depictions of their subjects; they are so lifelike that you might swear they are looking back at you.

I could write the entire column about the work Mr. Pridgeon does—he doesn’t refer to it as work, but rather as “…doing exactly what I want to do every day.” However, there is a video that was sent to me about the gallery and it is available to all on YouTube. 

If you are one of those who doesn’t view YouTube videos, be heartened by the fact that this is merely a copy of the segment that was broadcast on Texas Country Reporter, so it is not anything that will spam you or otherwise do harm.

The video does a much better job of telling the story than I could, so I will sign off with only this link to it and let you view Portrait of a Warrior. 

Hands-only CPR

I know, I sent this column out two years ago, but it is never too often to review a life-saving technique, especially when there is a new video demonstration out that might save many lives.

If you wish to skip this week’s column and get right to the “heart” of the matter, here is the new link.. It is presented by a known personality, Ann Peterson, who was a news anchor at one of the Kansas City television stations.  I hope, however, that you will take the time to read through the column and gain the motivation and learning to administer CPR in an emergency.

I recently received a message from one of you concerning a “new” method of performing cardio- pulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and while I am already familiar with the technique, it is apparently still unknown to some people. 

Then I was watching some back episodes of the game show, Jeopardy! from my DVR player and one of the clues given by Alex Trebek concerned CPR. The clue as read was, “It calls for two breaths for every ten chest compressions.” It bothered me that Mr. Trebek was broadcasting the incorrect, outdated method for performing CPR to a huge television audience. 

The combination of those two incidents in less than a week inspired me to revisit my column from April of 2010 and republish it this week. Since I am one of those people who carry the risk of sudden cardiac arrest, I cannot pass up the opportunity to enlighten as many potential lifesavers as possible.  I hope you will spread the word too.

(Actually, I am not a candidate for CPR, because I now have an implanted cardiac device, called an ICD.  It will kick in whenever my heart has several irregular beats, or when the natural pacemaker in my heart quits or fails to work properly.  My condition is so critical that I cannot wait for lifesaving techniques to be applied.)

For those who are at less known risk, or those who have no medical history of cardiac problems, the chance of a cardiac event requiring CPR is currently about thirty percent. In other words, one out of every three of you will probably require CPR. That also means that another thirty percent will have occasion to administer it to someone else.  And that someone else is quite likely to be someone you know and love, a family member.   That being the case, it pays to know how and when to do it.

There has always been some aversion to performing CPR.  The main reason is that it has always required both chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth breathing.  Aside from the possibility of same sex administration, we all seem to have some reluctance to get up close and personal with strangers.  That has resulted in a lot of missed opportunities and delays in performing CPR.

When I learned CPR and became qualified in the 1970s, the procedure called for a 10-to-2 ratio of compressions to breaths if performing one-on-one.  If two people were present, the ratio changed to 5-to-2, but either way, there was no way to keep an even rhythm.  The one-on-one ratio was changed in the 1990s to 20-to-2, but it still wasted about 10-15 seconds to change positions and do the mouth-to-mouth.  Those seconds were critical.

In actual experience, it was found that the stricken person tended to gasp during chest compressions, so some air was being inhaled even without mouth-to-mouth.  Also, the lungs are never completely collapsed, so oxygenation of blood was not really an issue.

The hands-only CPR not only keeps a steady rhythm of the compressions, but it also removes the objectionable part of the procedures that has frequently prevented CPR from being performed. In my opinion, it will likely cause a much higher incidence of recovery from sudden cardiac events.

The new hands-only CPR requires the rescuer to perform continuous chest compressions at a rate of 100 per minute.  That compares to a rate of 30-40 compressions per minute with an irregular rhythm in the former CPR technique.  The survival rate is likely to go up with the new guidelines. That rapid and steady rate of chest compressions can be maintained if you hum (in your mind) the Bee-Gees' song titled, "Stayin' Alive" while you perform hands-only CPR.  It is perfectly paced to keep the beat.

Performing the New Hands-only CPR

If someone collapses, stops normal breathing and is unresponsive to shaking, here are the steps you should take:

• First, have someone call 911 and summon help, if a phone is handy.
• Put the person on the floor face up.
• Place one hand atop the other in the center of the person’s chest.
• Lock your elbows so that your arms are straight from shoulders to hands
• Push hard and fast, 100 compressions a minute.
• If there is another person with you, take turns.  It is hard work.
• Continue compressions until paramedics arrive to take over.

(Source – American Heart Association)

If the person on whom you are performing CPR regains consciousness or shows signs of a return of heartbeat and breathing, you may quit your efforts, but do not move them and stay ready to begin again.  Do not allow the victim to sit up, but make them as comfortable as possible.

There is a Website where you can learn more about hands-only CPR and even get some online training.  Just click on the link here for the American Heart Association.  Then be sure to read the links within that page.  Other links can be found at the following sites, and the last among them actually provides some step-by-step training.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/01/BAJ8VTF35.DTL

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/01/health/main3984803.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_3984803

http://www.heartrescuenow.com/

http://medicine.arizona.edu/spotlight/learn-sarver-heart-centers-continuous-chest-compression-cpr

Anticipation

I know we’ve all been through the experience of really craving something to a point where we become obsessed with it.  And then, when we finally get that item, or that experience, it turns out to be a big disappointment. It’s like going to Disneyland and finding that the best rides are all closed that day, something that actually did happen to me that I wrote about in a prior column.

I had another of those moments just last week.  Let me tell you about it…

A couple of months ago I was in a restaurant for breakfast. Nothing really appealed to me, so I ordered a ham and cheese omelet.  It was okay, but nothing special.  However, when we got up to leave, I walked past a table where someone was enjoying a bowl (and I mean a big cereal bowl) of corned beef hash with two poached eggs on top.

Even with my tummy full of omelet, I was jealous!  I had that feeling of regret that I hadn’t examined the menu closely enough.  I therefore missed out on what I imagined would have been a great breakfast treat.

From that moment on I was on a quest to find a restaurant that would serve corned beef hash and eggs.  It became a real thing with me, and I spent time online searching menus of local and regional restaurants for corned beef ash and eggs.  I even went back to watching the Food Network show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives to see if Guy Fieri would feature a restaurant that serves the dish.

Alas, I found none!

I know, I know, corned beef hash is sold in cans, and eggs are available at every grocery store, but it just isn’t the same when you make it yourself at home.  Besides, we don’t do much cooking anymore, and our use for eggs is nil; I’d waste ten out of a dozen.

Finally a break came.  Last week I got word that the Evans Diner, a local eatery, does serve corned beef hash and it is on the menu all day, not just for breakfast.

Well, I found an excuse to be in the area of that little diner around lunchtime.  I went in and ordered my classic dish, corned beef hash with poached eggs.  It took about ten minutes for the plate to arrive at my spot at the counter, and I sat with mouth watering while I waited for it.

When it came, the portion of hash was kind of small, the hash browns that went with it were kind of crispy, and the eggs were kind of hard, not runny like I prefer. And all-in-all, the whole plate looked kind of ‘greasy.’

Suddenly my heart’s desire turned out to be a total put-off.  Oh, I ate everything, but I was way less than satisfied with the dish that I thought would tickle my taste buds.  In short, the fire was out.  If I never have that dish again—at least that version of it—it won’t be soon enough.

Moral: Sometimes the anticipation is far better than the fulfillment of the goal.

The Day They Shut The Water Off

Back when I was in college I supported myself with a great part-time and summer job; bus driving.  In fact I actually drove bus for two companies, Greyhound and Grand Island Transit.  And since I was driving from Buffalo, New York, one of my frequent charter destinations was nearby Niagara Falls.

At some point during the trip around the falls I would tell the people on the bus that they were lucky to be there during the day, “…because they shut the water off at night.”  That usually got a big laugh, but then I would go on to explain that it was true.

Unknown to most people, after sunset the water intakes upriver from the falls are opened and about 40-percent of the water is diverted to the Robert Moses Power Station on the American side and the Sir Adam Beck Station on the Canadian side of the Niagara River. Of course, the decrease is hardly noticeable at night, even with the colored lights on.

However, there was a time when the water was intentionally shut off to the American Falls, the northernmost one and Bridal Falls, the small one near Goat Island. (And you thought there were only two waterfalls at Niagara)

From June to November in 1969 the American Falls were dewatered.  That is, there was a coffer dam built upstream from the shoreline to the upper end of Goat Island which kept all but a trickle of water from flowing over the brink.  The diverted water was shunted over the Horseshoe Falls or through those huge water intakes to the power plants.

The US and Canadian power companies and the US Army Corps of Engineers performed a joint operation to examine the riverbed rock formation.  There was talk of possibly removing some of the rock fall at the base of the American Falls, but that proved too expensive so it never happened.  The project did help to prevent some erosion of the falls, however, so it was worth the money and the effort.

During that five-month time span, the company I worked for, American Airlines, had a promotional gimmick to obtain new passengers that I took part in.  One Saturday we had a 727 aircraft and crew assigned to fly flightseeing flights up to Niagara Falls at a height of only a few thousand feet.  Believe it or not, tickets for the flights cost $5.00 and the round trip was about 30 minutes.

Of course we sold out all six flights, but I got on one of them.  What an experience! Not only did I get to see the falls from the air, but I saw them when the American Falls was dry. 

Somewhere, buried in some packing boxes, there are some 35mm slides that I took while on that historic flight, but I haven’t seen them in years, and have no idea where they are anymore.  However, that doesn’t mean that you cannot see what the falls looked like in its dewatered state.  Here are some pictures I borrowed from the linked article, which you are encouraged to read when you finish this column.

 The engineers could walk across the brink almost without getting their feet wet.

 Note the small fall of water in the center.  The rock could not be allowed to completely dry or it would have caused further cracking and splitting of the riverbed.

The fallen rock is not very far below the brink, but clearing it would have probably caused more of the cliff face to fall. It was left intact as it remains today.

The last picture is what the American Falls looked like the following summer.  It still looks similar today, though some erosion has occurred in the 43 years since the project.

The New Crime - TWD

Unless you have fallen asleep like Rip Van Winkle, or recently came from another planet, you can’t have missed the latest “crazy craze,” texting while driving.  Hardly a day goes by when we don’t see a news item or e-mail picture of some fool who got distracted by inputting and sending text messages while operating a vehicle.

The above picture purports to show a Corvette that went under the rear end of a semi due to a distracted driver who was apparently sending a text message.  The phone was found in his hand when they cleared the wreck.

My wife and I just drove home from Kansas City to Augusta, Georgia.  We saw and read several billboards and many of those roadside DOT signs that have light boards to spell out messages. The message on all of them was the same – “Don’t text while driving.”

I wish I could report that drivers were paying attention and heeding those messages.  Well, I can’t!

On one stretch of I-24 between Paducah, Kentucky and Nashville, Tennessee we had two close calls and both involved TWD.

In the fist incident a car went zooming round us at around 10-15 miles above the speed limit of 70mph.  Then it pulled in ahead of us and slowed down to about 60.  We were on cruise control, so we immediately checked for traffic on our left and pulled out to pass the fool.  As we did so I looked over and watched a woman driver resting her arms on the steering wheel while she manipulated her smart phone – certainly the phone was a lot smarter that she was – to type out a message. It must have been terribly important.

Several miles further down the road we were passing a slow moving car when it suddenly swerved into our lane, nearly sideswiping us.  Sure enough, the driver was in the act of texting.  It wasn’t the same car and driver, so at least two “textperts” were being distracted by driving while typing out that “all-important” message.

I have some questions for which I have no answers: 

1. What the heck is wrong with these people?
2. Is there a way for the highway patrol to monitor texting activity, like they do speeding with radar guns?

It is always tragic when we lose loved ones because either they or someone else commits the ignorant act of texting while driving. It gives new meaning to the term, “defensive driving,” because unfortunately this isn’t always a victimless crime.  Too often it is the innocent person who happens to be in the vicinity that winds up in the hospital or morgue.

Please, please, if you fit the description above, GET HELP!  You have a very dangerous addiction to your cell phone, and you will eventually pay for your sin.

Same Name, New Definition

Note: This column was already written and ready to publish before the shooting incident in Aurora, Colorado last Thursday. Instead of rewriting it, I’m going to send it as is and let you add your own post scripts…

For the past year or so there have been a rash of YouTube videos circulating that show people congregating in public places to entertain with song and dance routines that appear to be completely spontaneous.  Of course they aren’t, but are completely rehearsed and polished before the group assembles. The group entertainment is known by the name, “flash mob.”

Recently the term took on a new meaning.  Last Saturday evening a group of around 300 people converged on a Walmart in Jacksonville, Florida.  What ensued was a riot that caused untold damage to the store and the theft or destruction of over $1500 dollars worth of merchandise.  The flash mob turned into a trash mob.       

The whole thing was caught on video and made the online circuit.  A local Jacksonville television station broadcast a report  including the video and referred to the action as a “flash mob.”  The report did not at any point refer to the fact that the vast majority, and possibly the entire mob was composed of one race – Blacks. But even if it turns out that someone can find a few token whites or Hispanics in that mob, the culture is there.

The Jacksonville incident is not unique.  It is only one of many attacks that have been perpetrated on people and property in recent months.  Is it mere coincidence that these attacks started about the time that the Occupy Movement commenced? I think not.

With no end in sight, and very little response from public safety officials (a.k.a. police), it is highly likely that we are headed for a full-fledged civil war, and this one won’t be anything like that one that occurred 151 years ago. It was a skirmish by comparison.

If there is one fact we can count on it is that the new genre of flash mobs are likely to be armed and dangerous.  They have been incited to riot by the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, and the culture has been created by the Rappers and Gangstas, so we know that THERE WILL BE BLOOD!        

Is this scary enough for you?  Well, you haven’t heard the rest of the story…

Within the next few weeks Hillary Clinton will be signing a United Nations treaty for arms control, which has the full backing of our president.  The Arms Trade Treaty is supposed to control the spread of weapons to “the wrong people,” but it could also have the effect of revoking the 2^nd Amendment of the United States Constitution because it calls for full registration of all firearms, always the first step to eventual confiscation.

You might counter this possible outcome by citing that any treaty is subject to the ratification of Congress and the acceptance and signing by the president before it can become a done deal.  Let’s examine that premise.

We already know that President Obama is in favor of the U. N. Small Arms Treaty, so his acceptance is a foregone conclusion.  Well, that’s one hurdle that it clears, but then there’s that pesky senate, which has (at last count) 58 Senators opposed to the Arms Trade Treaty.  However, in order to pass or fail the Senate approval it has to be voted on, and President Obama has an ally in the Senate in Harry Reid.  All the Senate Majority Leader has to do is keep the treaty from ever reaching the floor for a vote, something he has proven very adept at. 

There is another treaty that the United States signed and ratified known as the Vienna Convention.  It reads that any signed treaty will remain in force unless it is either rejected by the Senate, or renounced by the president. However, if neither of those events occurs, it becomes de facto law. (Funny thing, treaties that don’t become effective by ratification are still fully effective by non-rejection) Don’t believe it? Watch this video.

If you own a firearm, you had best “lose” it.  I’m not going to counsel you on how to do that, nor am I going to give you my thoughts on what precautions to take to ensure that you won’t have your weapon taken from you. 

I can only warn you that the other side is going to remain well armed, and they never registered those Saturday night specials.  You can draw your own conclusions and plan your own defense. The overt actions we’ve witnessed in the past six months are only a prelude to total chaos and disaster if we don’t make a stand.

Are you really scared now? Well, you had better be.

A Quick Lesson in Self-Defense

This is another one of my columns that expands on an idea that was forwarded to me earlier this week.  It isn’t the first time I’ve seen it either, and I’ll bet you’ve seen it too.

The message I received concerned self-protection for those who don’t or won’t have guns in their house.  There are a lot of people who, either because of fear for small children on the premises, or their own fear of guns, will not keep any weapons in the home.

The solution for those people is to keep a can of wasp and hornet spray handy, not for killing the flying pests designated on the can, but for warding off intruders into your private living space.

The highlight of the message is that you can use the directional spray up to 20 feet to incapacitate the possibly armed and dangerous interloper by spraying it in the eyes or at least the face.  It is also somewhat more effective than a pistol, since you can spray it continuously while adjusting your aim.

Neat suggestion, and I took it to heart and went out and bought one of those large cans of wasp and hornet spray.  That stuff doesn’t come in small cans.  I guess they figure you need a lot of it once you rile those critters up.

Anyway, I now have a huge can of spray in the house, so if you plan on coming over uninvited, be forewarned!

No, that isn’t what I wanted to convey at all.  After I bought the can and realized what a task it might be to actually use it on a B&E would-be burglar, I decided to do a little more research.

What I found—well, I had some help from my cousin who is a retired lawman—is that there are pepper sprays—equally effective if not more so—that come in the shape of a gun with trigger and all.  Now you might be able to scare the nasty guy off by just pointing it at him. But in the more likely event that he detects that it isn’t a real gun, you can do great harm to him with it.

What’s more, you don’t run the risk of pointing the damn thing backwards and spraying yourself with it, a very real possibility with those big old cans of hornet spray.

The gun-shaped pepper sprays aren’t cheap; so don’t expect to get one for less than $40.  However, if it gives you peace of mind it’s worth every penny.

Oh, and one other thing that my cousin advised… If the other guy has a gun and you don’t, don’t be a hero.  If you can’t get away and you can’t spray him before he gets that gun out and pointed at you, then peacefully submit and take your lumps. 

However, that says a lot for having the right caliber locked and loaded to begin with. Make him the one staring down the barrel of a .45!

Have a nice day. :-)