Donating blood

Once upon a time, I used to be a fairly regular donor of blood.  I even earned my 4 gallon pin from Puget Sound Blood Center for being a regular customer. 

Then I stopped giving shortly after we moved to the Tri-Cities.  It wasn't entirely my idea...they kept chasing me away saying my blood pressure was too high to allow me to donate safely.  I tried convincing them that removing the blood as a donation would actually correct my high blood pressure, but I didn't have much luck with that argument.  Eventually, being turned away from donating was one of the things that convinced me to go to my doctor to be placed on lisinopril. 

Earlier this week, I got a call from the local Red Cross, with the typical 'blood supplies are low, please come donate spiel.'  Sure I said, schedule me.

I don't mind giving blood.  The needles don't bother me, and I have been in and out in as little as half an hour before.  It's one of those small things you can do to try and maybe help someone out some day.  I used to joke that it was helping me earn Heaven Points. 

As another postive side even, being down a pint also helps to make me a really cheap date...one, maybe two beers and I am done. 

I don't want to be 'That Conspiracy Guy', but...

Kind of frightening news out of the northern part of the I-5 corridor, as shortly after 7 last night, a span of a 4-lane bridge collapsed, dropping at least three cars into the water.  Preliminary reports are that the collapse was caused by an oversize truck striking part of the bridge.  Additionally, reports are coming out that there were only 3 injuries, and luckily no deaths caused by this incident. 

That's nice...it's nice because it sucks when people die in freak accidents, and also, it's nice because if someone had died, I would be a total ghoul and jack-ass for what I'm about to say:

It's very convenient that the truck which caused the accident made it safely off the bridge, and that this accident happened at the end of a week in which the Washington Legislature, locked in special session, has been debating a 10-cent a gallon gas tax increase. 

Now...I'm not saying(because then I would both a tin-foil hat AND a colander)....but I'm just saying.

On the other hand...it blows my mind that a bridge on I-5 cannot handle any traffic that it is legal to have on the road.  I-5 in the major west coast highway, running from the Canadian to the Mexican border, you would think a bridge on that road would have to meet certain guidelines....which I'm sure it does, it just might be time to revisit those guidelines. 

Bolting already!

So far, I've been fairly satisfied with my container gardening.  The kale and Swiss chard have both came in pretty well, and I hacked them both back awfully hard yesterday to use in making a pot of wanna-be Zuppa Tuscana. 

 

 

Like wise, the 'leaf lettuce mix' has been doing pretty good.  While there is not quiet enough in the pot to make a dinner salad all by itself, when mixed with some iceberg(or some baby kale, Swiss chard or spinach) it helps add some character to a salad.  It's already been harvested pretty hard three times, but it just keeps coming back. 

 

 



The only thing I have been kind of underwhelmed by is the pot of spinach.  It just never gave much output, and now, even though I have kept in the shadiest section of my yard, it's bolting already. 

 

 

I'm not quite giving up on it yet, but I sense the chickens are about to be very happy.  

 

 

Product innovation.

On the way home after work today, I stopped at the local store, and spotted this product which I had not previously seen:

A portable, disposable shot. 

Holy Crap, that's brilliant.  I can't believe no one thought of it before.  I'm both very happy and very sad that they didn't have a product like this during my professional drinking days. 

Now...as for this particular flavor, I can not recommend it.  Not because of it's name...whatever...it just didn't taste very good.  I'd rather drink nyquil than this flavor again.  They had about another 6 or 7 flavors though...in 6 packs or singles.  A single shotglass was $1.95...not bad by the standards of what a shot costs at a bar, but then again, it's not as strong as a shot of 80-proof you would get at the bar. 

Strictly for research purposes, I'd be willing to try a couple of the different flavors before entirely writing them off...

No middle ground.

Yesterday, I made a solo run to go see Iron Man 3.  While my wife enjoyed the first two Iron Man movies, and The Avengers, she said she would rather use our next date night for seeing Star Trek, so I should go see Iron Man 3 alone, that way she could go see The Great Gatsby alone.

Deal.

Iron Man 3 was highly entertaining.  It was better than Iron Man 2, and might even have been better than the first one.  As always, Robert Downey jr. was outstanding.  If they try to continue doing Iron Man without him, you want to be the guy after the guy who replaces Downey.

I think more time was spent outside the armor than in previous movies, and that was okay.  It was just a good movie, with some fantastic acting by Ben Kingsly, and a great relationship between Downey and Don Cheadle.

As good as the movie was though, what made the biggest impression on me yesterday was getting to see the trailer for Pacific Rim on the big screen.

Oh my.

Pacific Rim is what I was referring to in my post title.  There is no middle ground for this movie.  It is either going to be the biggest, coolest movie of the year or the biggest disappointment of the year.  I'm putting my chips down on it being amazing.

Good Question!

WHY ARE YOU ON THE COMPUTER INSTEAD OF MOWING THE LAWN?????

But, it's my day off!  I've done been furloughed!!!  I have to suffer through back to back 4 day weekends! 

But yes, I should go do something productive. 

Now...I'm okay with that!

It seems like more and more we are seeing stories of police officers using their tasers to end difficult situations they might once have talked their way out of.  Occasionally, this goes poorly, as some taser uses have led to death. 

Well, police officers in Snohomish County thought a little outside the box after a wanted criminal fled from them and hid up a 40-foot tree.  They called in the fire department, who proceeded to spray our bad guy with water in an attempt to get him out of the tree. 

The solution worked, as 'after a few blasts of water, the suspect willingly agreed to climb down the tree.' 

I can only imagine...we used to use fire hoses to convince sea lions to get off the bow of the submarine do some training topside in port, and you wouldn't have to hit me with a full stream blast of that many times on a cold morning to convince me to climb out of a tree.