Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Black Friday and Cyber Monday – How about Prepare Wednesday?

We have officially moved into the biggest shopping time of the year. The rules have changed – you get sneak peaks at Black Friday ads for practically every store a full week before rather than waiting for Thursday’s paper, which has 3 times more ads than newspaper itself – but essentially it boils down to the same. Get ready to buy something!

Some things have alarmingly gone awry over the years. For example, I used to get up at 6 am to get to the stores by 7 am (gasp!), but this year some stores didn’t even pause long enough to sweep the floors before starting in again. Gone is open at 3 am – now it’s “Open at midnight!” And along with this craziness is the inevitable... people go crazy. Most notable is the pepper-spraying incident at a southern California Wal-Mart. In case you missed it, apparently a woman was a bit possessive over an electronic game and was willing to use a little unfair offense to get it. Wal-Mart is a place in my opinion that has its own issues (don’t get me started...), but the point is that we have taken things a little too crazy!

My proposal is Prepare Wednesday. The timing is right, too. Prepare on Wednesday for all the food you will eat (and suffer for) on Thursday. Prepare on Wednesday for shopping on Friday, which depends on which store you shop and when. Prepare on Wednesday for something you don’t know is coming, like an earthquake or fire.

So while you are wheeling around stores snapping up unbelievable deals on stuff you may never possibly want or need, toss a couple more things in that cart you can use. Maybe a new flashlight and an extra pack of batteries. There are newer, cooler, crank-type radios coming out all the time. And how about an extra blanket? Grab a couple of those door-busters and toss in your Home or Car Preparedness Kit. See some comfy shoes that may not be stylish, but are cheap? Get those, too!

All the crazy shopping may still be crazy, but it can be worthwhile if you plan it right. Just keep focused on what you really need, have fun and leave the pepper spray at home.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

It's not too late!

Two months ago both my husband and I succumbed to a most terrible bout of the flu. He, one week and I, the next, ached and had horrible sore throats for nearly a week, then coughed for the next six weeks as added insult. When this weekend we both started with the aches, the fever and sore throats, we couldn’t believe it – AGAIN!? Haven’t we paid our dues already this flu season?

Well, apparently the dues he paid are a different rate than mine. Today, after just a couple days of feeling really lousy, I feel pretty good and am back to work. He, on the other hand, is still at home, and feeling terrible. He also had a bonus 104-degree fever, which I never got.

The difference? Prevention. Yes, OK, a few horses escaped the barn before I closed the door, but about a month ago, I got my flu shot. I was in for another reason (I got kicked in the head, close range, with a soccer ball and I thought I’d broken my jaw... another story...) and when asked if I wanted my flu shot, I thought, well, I’ve already had the flu, but why not.

Why not, indeed. While I cannot confirm we had the exact same virus, we did have the same symptoms (albeit at different temperatures) at the same time. So, I am guessing that while my flu shot did not completely shield me from getting infected, the army was ready, so to speak, and once the call was made, I was more ready to fight back and kick those little bad boys out of my system.

So, when people tell me it is too late to prepare--"What’s the point? I’ve lived so long being unprepared, so why start now?"--I am going to remind them of that flu shot. Yeah, I still got the flu, but it just visited instead of setting up shop. That’s what being prepared is all about. It won’t shield you from a disaster, but it will allow you to survive it much better than those who are not prepared.

So, it really is not too late for anything. Like cleaning out your garage, writing a will, or getting your emergency preparedness kits ready for home, car and work, you can start any time. Don’t wish you HAD done something. Be glad of it.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Happy Birthday, Marie!

One hundred and forty-four years ago this past Monday, a baby was born in Poland who would become one of the greatest scientific minds in our history. Born Marie Sklodowska, we all know her today as Madame Marie Curie. She and her husband Pierre discovered radioactivity (a term they coined) and forever changed life on earth.

Radioactivity is a multi-faceted thing. In the beginning, the Curies thought they had discovered something wondrous and fascinating. It was thought to be a cure for cancer, among many other things. Radium, discovered in 1898 and one of the two radioactive elements they discovered together, was often carried by men in a small vial as a small, albeit novel and perhaps magical, fashionable accessory for any man worth this scientific salt. Then it went through phases of a health potion (from innocuous to sometimes dangerous results) and diagnostic tool, to bombs.

Of all those uses of radioactivity, our fear rests with the power held within those nuclear-heavy atoms. Certain radioactive elements are so unstable in their nuclei, that they fission, or split, with no outside force, and generate tremendous energy. On a positive note that energy converts to heat, creates steam that turns turbines and generates electricity. Negatively, those forces can be sealed in vessels and dropped on enemy forces, which sadly were unsuspecting Japanese citizens. Nuclear bombs have not been used since those dark, tragic days of August 1945, but the threat remains.

When Emergency managers consider possible threats to their institutions, I often wonder what they think when they rank “nuclear threat” on their lists. As a health physicist, I am no expert, but I think I do have a solid foundation of the mechanics of the how radioactive elements interact with matter, especially people. Certainly, people can be severely hurt and die from over-exposure, but the biggest threat comes from just the possibility that someone, somewhere, could use it to threaten, harm and destroy, which is so far from what the Curies intended.

So, Marie, I hope you know that you did find a good thing, a wondrous thing. It HAS been used to treat cancer and allow people to live longer, healthier lives. It HAS powered things in remote locations where conventional energy is not possible. It HAS been used in places to light up dials so we can navigate more safely. We can only hope that one day, as a present to you, that we stop any harmful use of radioactivity and honor your dedication and years of hard work and suffering to find the magic that is in those special atoms.

Prost, Marie.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

This is Only a Test

On Wednesday, November 9, at 11:00 a.m., (California Time – 8 a.m. Eastern, etc.) the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will be conducting the first nation-wide test of this kind.

At this same time, all across the nation, a three and half minute message of “This is a test of the Emergency Alert System...this is only a test...” will be broadcast to all radio and television stations. Most people probably have seen some type of local monthly tests on TV or radio, but the timing and messaging of these systems vary from station to station, state to state. By contrast, this one will be the same from coast to coast.

I found this reassuring that we are getting our emergency messages standardized across the nation and that support for these types of important services are now supported at a federal level and not dependent on the resources, or lack thereof, of local TV and radio stations.

And, actually I was feeling pretty good about this test until my husband said, “But most people don’t watch live TV anymore and, for that matter, many don’t listen to live radio.” Geesh, he was right. [Yes, he WILL frame this blog and highlight that sentence...] But, it’s true! I can’t remember the last time I watched live TV. We record the programs we want to watch and super-fast forward through commercials and other interruptions, so any emergency message that could be there would be swept along with all those messages to help me be prettier, have a cleaner toilet bowl and drive a cooler car.

The good news is that even if a real emergency message were passed along this way, we would still catch wind of it. We may not be hooked up to TV and radio the way we once were, but we are very connected to “ancillary” devices such as iPods, iPads and smart phones that are connected to news feeds. Social networks also seem to be close tabs on the pulse of what is going on, although from my experience the validity of what is posted is variable and often questionable...

So, when you hear the “This is a test, this is only a test,” relax. You didn’t need to study or even cram for this test. It just happens and you will receive an A just for being alive to hear it. Congratulations.