Presented without comment

 

Dinner last night

 

Some potatoes were damaged while I was digging them up.

My beautiful and frugal bride used them to make mashed potatoes and topped them with a tomato/vegetable/turkey stew.

Waste not, want not. 

Recognize and learn from our mistakes

So there I was, trying to help a young man get his "whip" back on the road.

"Did you pull the codes?" I asked. I was expecting a simple "Yes" or "No". Instead, I got a lecture on why HE didn't need to use no-stinkin'-computer.

That translates to "No. I didn't pull the codes."

Our local parts store will gladly pull them for you, free-of-charge. They are in the business of selling parts. They become your preferred source when you don't waste money playing parts Remove-and-Replace Roulette.

That calls to mind the number of people who snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by refusing to consult with the Bible or the U.S. Constitution or Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People or any one of a half-dozen other solid references.

They are absolutely sure that whatever shiny-gum-wrapper of a partial thought that blew into their head a half-second ago HAS to be better than that old-shit.

They are forever surprised when they spew verbal abuse and then get punched in the nose by the targets of their abuse. Then, next week they lecture us that words are violence and they get punched in the nose again. After all, they just said there was no difference between words and action, same-same.

Much of the education industry is totally daffy. "Find your own truth!" Isaac Newton is smirking. So is William of Occam.

"Progressive" assumes "Progress" which assumes that we will recognize and learn from our mistakes. So far, the evidence does not support those foundational assumptions. 

Presented without comment

 

EHD, potatoes, squirrels and a few pictures

I got a call from my friend Jeff. He, his wife and a mutual friend named Jim were going to be in Eaton Rapids and he invited me to join them.

We chatted for about an hour. One of the things Linda, his wife, told me was that EHD is hammering the deer herd in Jackson County. Her sister lives on 80 acres and they have seen 25 dead deer on it. Her sister and B-i-L go for a walk every night and every night for the past two weeks there have been newly dead deer.

EHD is caused by a virus that is spread by a biting midge that incubates in water-saturated, highly organic bottom-lands and the bottoms of ditches. The levels typically grow through the warm months and is much more pronounced in years that are wet and in years when the autumn is warm. This year has been marked by both.

The die-off will stop after a killing-frost kills the adult midges. 

That much dead meat can be smelled from a long distance. 

On a related note, digging potatoes

The low temperature for next Thursday had been predicted to be 30F. That lit a fire under me and I started digging potatoes again.

I dug two rows yesterday. 

My intention is to dig another three rows today.

Squirrel guards

A view looking up from the bottom

I had installed a length of stove-pipe around a small oak tree. The trunk is probably about 3" in diameter. I also stuffed a swim-noodle into the gap between the stove-pipe and the trunk so they could not shinny up the tree inside of the guard.

A couple of days ago I harvested about 4 pounds of acorns from the tree. After picking the seed-nuts, I moved the step-ladder so it was about 6' away from the canopy.

A very short time later, I looked out the window and saw a fox-squirrel climb to the top of the ladder and then jump the six foot gap.

Conclusions:

• The squirrels were aware of the ripe acorns on the tree
• The fact that the squirrels had not stripped the tree before I picked acorns was not from lack of interest
• The combination of stove-pipe and swim-noodle was effective.
• Squirrels can jump a horizontal distance of six feet and still grab a slender twig. 

Random photos

Peppers.

Evidence of the little people.

Jim, the other person who was sitting at the table, shared a story of a four-year-old girl in his life. She is a tremendous mimic. She nails the tone and cadence perfectly.

Special High Intensity Training

There I was in a class receiving Special High Intensity Training.

The class instructor informed me that we would alternate 30 seconds of maximum effort with 10 seconds of recovery for the next 30 minutes. Then she started the music.

I attempted to move the way she moved, to no avail. At 67 years of age, I lacked the flexibility that she, in her early 30s, had.

Stretching,

then 

• Burpees
• Lunges
• Kettlebell swings
• Pushups

Repeat

Then another group of exercises.

• Rowing with weights
• Deadlifts with kettlebells (something that I actually could keep up with the class at!!!)
• Squats with weights
• Something else that is lost in the haze of lack of oxygen but I think she said they were Tibetan Pushups.

Repeat

Cool-down with some kind of dance exercise that looked like my bottom half was stomping grapes and my upper-half stirring a barrel of sour-mash before dumping it into the IBC for fermentation.

As I slogged out of the gym, the spritely lass who orchestrated the torture session asked me "Gonna be here next week?"

I haven't decided. I might if my muscles recover by then.

When the blogger's subconscious kicks him out of bed in the middle of the night

It pains me to write this, but I think the fitness-center/gym that Mrs ERJ and I frequent is a house-of-horrors from a fire evacuation standpoint.

Let me explain

I am the paranoid guy who likes to practice fire drills when he spends the night in a strange hotel room. Which way do I turn going out the door? Where is the stairwell? What visual and tactile clues identify the stairwell? Is it at the end of the hallway (preferred) or is the entrance a tiny alcove just like the room-doors? Where does the bottom of the stairwell kick me out of the building? Where am I parked relative to that point?

Where is my alternate stairwell?

I also worked in factories and we had fire drills. Sometimes the evacuation routes took us through high-hazard areas...places where extremely flammable or explosive materials were stored...places where material was precariously stacked or automated equipment wasn't necessarily stopped.

So, I admit to being paranoid and perhaps even overly vigilant. That is just the way I am wired and I deal with it.

Specifics on the facility

The fitness-center/gym complex is a warren of divided spaces with no discernible rhyme or reason. As far as I can tell, there is no master floor-plan posted anywhere and I cannot remember entering a space where the "Evacuation Route" was posted. Maybe they were there. Maybe they were small or not near the door.

Large portions of the building are off-limits to the general public. 

Obviously, men's and women's locker rooms are off limits if you are not of the correct gender.

Staff break-rooms and locker rooms are off-limits.

Physical, occupational and cardio therapy areas are off-limits.

Classrooms and conference rooms are off-limits.

Storage spaces are off-limits and my sense is that they are large and stuffed with flammables like mats, tables, mobile partitions, carpeting etc. Those items, when burned, often produce copious amounts of thick, toxic smoke.

Cooking areas are off-limits and are potential sources of ignition and flammable liquids. 

Material receiving areas (trucking docks) are off-limits. I have seen tires and high-pressure gas cylinders in these areas.

Custodial areas are off-limits. Those areas potentially hold toxic materials if heated. They are a choke-point for materials that are being disposed of.

All of those forbidden area makes it very hard to scout-out evacuation routes. The official evacuation plan might route people through those areas in the event that the "regular" exit is not accessible...but I have never walked through them.

General exercise spaces are confusing

They have multiple doors and are daisy-chained together.  You have to go through the locker rooms to get to some of them. Some lead to other exercise spaces and are used by staff. Others lead to storage areas. I have no clue where others lead to. There is the potential to walk around in circles inside the facility or hit a dead-end.

The rooms are covered with mirrors. In the event of smoke, the illuminated "EXIT" signage might not be clear due to reflected images.

Incidental notes

The clientele of the center might spend a few hours a month in the center so most of us will not be familiar with the layout.

Most of the clientele will use only a few of the services and will see only a fraction of the facility.

Many of the staff are "affiliates" or contracted help so there is no guarantee that they will be helpful in the event of a low-visibility evacuation. 

Policy is tolerant of people leaving locks on lockers. Lockers can be rented so regular clients can leave a change of clothes. There is no policing to ensure transients are not storing (potentially nefarious) items in a locked locker. 

In the event of a mutual-aid fire alarm, the supporting agencies are entirely volunteer firefighters. Sending them into a building with a maze-like layout is foolhardy especially when visibility is bad.

The facility leases out space for "events" like birthday parties and corporate training. 

 

The facility is large. It has about 70,000 square feet of interior space and over a quarter-mile of exterior wall. 

The clientele in the west and northwest parts of the building are often limited mobility (Physical Therapy), sensory handicapped (Occupational Therapy), unpredictable (Behavioral Therapy) or fragile/impaired respiration (Cardiac Therapy). Additionally, many of the clientele in that part of the building are ancient and their mental processing speed when confronted with novel challenges might be slower.

Tasks for me

Look for signage. It might be there but obscured due to visual clutter. If it is there and I didn't see it, shame on me.

But as I try to remember the "space", it is largely partitioned with half-walls, plants in urns, lattice and has a very open and airy feel to it. There isn't a lot of wall to hang things on. Additionally, the mirrors make the spaces seem semi-infinite and magnify the visual clutter.

Potential action items for the facility

Put tape on floor to direct clients out if visibility is impaired and first-responders in. Different colors can designate different areas.

Audit signage.

Store flammables with high toxicity when burning off-site.

Post a regular audit schedule for the "back rooms" like receiving and housekeeping to ensure hazardous materials don't accumulate. Have a sheet that must be initialed and dated that the site manager actually toured the area.

Review policies that might allow clients to be placed (staged) in treatment rooms before the therapist arrives. They are most at-risk in the event of an evacuation event.

Review locker policy on an annual basis to weigh risk-reward of allowing people to store private property in locked lockers in the facility. Traceability of locker "ownership" is a cluster-festival and the facility has some degree of litigation exposure to contents stored in lockers. Example: A malicious person stored peanut dust in his locker and another gym-goer goes into anaphylactic shock.

Supplemental materials

Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

Cocoanut Grove Fire

Hamlet Chicken Processing Plant 

Crans-Montana Bar Fire 

Overview of fire/smoke hazards on airplanes 

One of the recurring themes in these disasters is that the "safe way out" didn't work out. Victims were stacked up against the door that didn't open. Other ways out were available but the victim's were unable to process alternatives due to panic and the crowd-mentality.

There is probably a deeper message here.