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[wombat]

"National Epidemic: short people have difficulty reaching things on top shelves - news at 10."

My God, I thought I was the only one!

The heat is really bad for you. Even if you don't get heat stroke it is stressful to the body and makes you miserable. I think we are all allowed to cut ourselves a little slack while the weather is trying to kill us.

[side_show]

There was a local news report on yesterday about how the most popular ice cream spot in the city is actually suffering due to the heat. It's one of those walk-up joints, no indoor (aka air conditioned) seating, and it seems no one wants to be standing in the noon day sun with a puddle of post-ice cream melt.

[theinevitable]

dang, it is so hot out. me and a lady went and got burgers and sat in the park to eat them, and it lasted a very, very short time. there were so many bugs. and so much sun-heat.

but then we came to my house to watch The Godfather II, which she had never seen. so that was good.

addition: also, the other day, the first time I watched The Godfather II (actually the second, but I do not remember anything from the first time.) I watched it while riding a stationary bike.

I rode 7.5 miles! This was possible because it was inside, at night, with a big fan on.

[Hobot]

I know these are extreme examples, but really, watch your ass in the heat people.

And don't forget that in 1995, over 700 people died in Chicago because of a particularly nasty heatwave.

Thanks, NPR!

[Mite]

Man, Ash, that's one fucked up story. Dumb people shouldn't be allowed to own animals.

Still no a/c here. Management fucked up and ordered the wrong part, and then the head girl downstairs went on vacation. So it's 95 in here during the day, and it only cools off at night if I keep the door proped open. I try to keep feeding the cats ice cubes, but only one of 'em really licks them. They seem fine, if a little pissed off. Much like their owners, in that regard. When the perky girl down front gets back (tomorrow), I'll tell her she can shove my rent hike up her tight little ass, along with the bulk of this month's rent, 'cause I ain't paying it.

[wombat]

Cats don't care.  Cats will lie on a blasting radiator with the sun beating down on them. I think they actually have to get hot enough to cook for it to matter.  But dogs are very sensitive to heat, especially short-nosed dogs like my pugs.  All summer I get terrifying mass emails from the pug rescue in LA, warning me that my pugs can die if I'm in my car in a traffic jam and my air conditioner breaks, but apparently it's not safe to leave them home either because they can die in a hot house if the air conditioner breaks there too...

I was thinking of hooking up a webcam pointed at the thermostat so I could check the temperature of the house from work for the rest of the week when it's supposed to be 100 degrees.  Then I sat down and took a deep breath and had a cool drink and reminded myself that A, I am usually home by 4 in the afternoon and B, the house is old with brick walls and would probably take an extremely long time to heat up enough to kill anyone.  But I'm not entirely happy about the situation.

[theinevitable]

hobe-- the summer of that heatwave, I lived in Chi-town.
and my mom was pregnant.

that basically sucked. for her. I, personally, had a grand ol' time with pools and sprinklers and such, being 7 and all.

[Mite]

Thanks, Womby. I'll stop worrying about them now. I sorta freaked when the kitten was panting the other day, but I think he might just be weird.

But I'll start worrying about the cute little puglet down the hall from me! So cute! So little radiative heat loss!

[linnea]

Smells, I'm glad you are OK from this. You so could not be.

PSA to all you fucks: Please don't be stupid and kill yourselves 'cause it's hot out, Wombats comment is dead on. Cut yourself a little slack and pay attention.

Extreme example follows:

Two trips in a row into the local San Berdoo mountains to go offroad and outback on advance deer season scouting I have had my day fucked up by having to rescue idiot morons who went out ill prepared and had it bite them in the ass. One young couple was hiking the Pacific Crest Trail with their doggy when they started having problems. The only reason I heard them calling for help (they were 200' above the fire road I was scouting) was 'cause I stopped to piss on a tree near the trail split. Turns out they came up from San Diego that morning and set out on a day hike wearing shorts and tank tops, no hats, sandwiches and 2 liters of water each. 7 miles in their doggy quit on them, it was lethargic and wouldn't walk or drink. They emptied one day pack and sorta loaded the dog into it for the guy to carry, the girl took the rest of the load in her pack and they tried to hike towards civilization. When I found them it had been ~90d for hours and we were at 7200' altitude. They were overheated, altitude sick and panicked.

I put them in the bed of the truck and poured most of the 5g jerry can I travel with on them to cool 'em off and threw the 2.5g drinking water jug in with them and took them on a 1.5h trip to the ranger station near the trailhead they had parked at so they could get some medical help for them and the dog. They were really concerned about the dog and wanted to find a vet, I figured the ranger volunteers would know where to send them locally. Got to the ranger station and realized they had both vomited all over the bed of my truck and needed help pretty badly too, they were kida lethargic raving. I hadn't paid much attention to them on the drive 'cause I took a short but pretty rough way out and had to pay a lot of attention to the (lack of) road.

I gave their dumb asses over to the ranger volunteer I hailed over, and helped them get inside, I bailed as they were no longer my problem.*

Two weeks later I had to haul in from 5 miles out a dad and four kids who took a scenic fireroad trip in a MINIVAN that suffered a punctured oil pan on the trail. (dumbass)

I know these are extreme examples, but really, watch your ass in the heat people.

*I was pissed at them 'cause the dog died sometime on the way in.

Ash is trying to get me hot by talking dirty about search and rescue/emergency situations (I'm a volunteer firefighter/medic for those of you who don't know).
Heh! *dirty old lady laugh*

Seriously, though. Heat injury is nothing to fuck around with. Ash, I'm glad it was you and not me, because I would have had to stay with their sorry asses until I could get them to the ER (unless the ranger was a paramedic, because for me it would legally be considered abandonment I left a patient with someone who has less training than me).  However, most of the medics I know only carry BLS (basic life support) kits, so there ain't much you can do with 'em other than throw water on them, give them some water to drink as long as they're conscious, and get them to medical attention asap.

[wombat]

Thanks, Womby. I'll stop worrying about them now. I sorta freaked when the kitten was panting the other day, but I think he might just be weird.

But I'll start worrying about the cute little puglet down the hall from me! So cute! So little radiative heat loss!

Well, really extreme panting is not a good sign even in a cat.  But I think it's highly unlikely that a cat who can move around to find the cooler parts of a normal house would be affected.  You still don't want to leave them in a car or anything like that, of course.

Oh, but this is making me crazy now.  Can I just call in sick to work for the rest of the week?

[jough]

Why not leave the AC on low for the cats?

I'm just saying.

[Mite]

It's broken, dude. Or are your talking to Wombat? I'm so confused.

[misterqueue]

Yeah does womby even have cats?  I was under the impression she hated felines to hell, what with her choosing to lay down with the filthy canis genus. 

When the revolution comes canis lovers will be the first against the wall...  okay well after Richard Jeni.

[wombat]

You can buy dog beds that you soak in water and they stay cool for hours, like scroll down here:

http://www.sitstay.com/store/equip/beds1.shtml#EQCC

That one's so expensive you might as well get your AC fixed though...  I think there are cheaper ones out there.  But you know how cats are, you'll spend all that money and they won't go near the thing.

[wombat]

I have two cats, Q.  I'm heartbroken that you've never even bothered to look at my Flickr pictures.