Normal day on the range, T.'s self improvement programme, and the incredible Oarfish

Normal day on the farm -- a long day at school, Qi Gong class at night, go to a friends' business to literally sniff at a hot smell and postulate what might be causing it (it's almost never electrical, but I get the call anyway), and come home to hear T.'s stories of First Aid class.

Did you know if you puncture or cut one of the "big" arteries (Carotid, Femoral) you have approximately 2 1/2 minutes before you are in steep steep trouble, maybe 5 minutes after that before you are expired? All those scenes from action movies with studs running around with arterial bleeding pumping out of wounds didn't ever look real... but will look even less real now.

T. has taken to "improving himself" lately. Not that he isn't always doing that, and hasn't been doing that ever since he reached adulthood, to my knowledge. I can't go into details because he's Mr. Private, but he is not exactly a slacker in the self improvement department. He's more on the super hero side of things, actually.

He's decided not only to become versed in classical music and opera (taking an audio lecture series and everything), but to become disaster-prepared. He read a disaster preparedness book, which has lead to good conversations and plans. It is a total trip to think about, actually think about, if things get seriously effed up. What you do, what you don't do, what you need in the house, who you let in who you don't. It feels very adult and responsible and sane to be thinking over this stuff -- some of the answers are quite a surprise.

There are culinary benefits to thinking about disaster preparedness. For instance, there may be a hand-crank grain mill in the works. Anything that helps with food and isn't electric needs to be considered. I'm excited about this particular item because of the prospect of fantastic home-baked, freshly-milled breads.

T. has also taken a First Aid class. Despite being woozey through most of the class, he learned a ton and now we plan to get this same instructor to teach us and our friends in a Cpr/First Aid workshop. It's cheap, and the guy loves teaching voluntary classes (as opposed to company-mandated classes). We are going to get a hold of 20 - 40 of our closest friends and run a full class (or classes, depending) for CPR and First Aid certification. I did it when I was in The Union, because it is required for Electricians -- but it's been a few years now so a refresher is in order.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention, the picture at the top there is an Oarfish. It is possibly the longest of all fishes, and to my eyes, a real looker. No, it doesn't have anything to do with anything -- I just thought it was pretty. There is an older picture at the same website I got that one which shows a much much bigger specimen.
[clicking a few google ads when you go to the fish site could keep this blog in good karma, since I just grabbed the photo gratuitously -- it was shiny, I couldn't help myself]

Enjoy your strange juxtapositions,

Bp