Wednesday at work was more hectic. More transfers that came in 'late' so that put me behind. And one inmate that came to us with tachycardia. Tachycardia is a fast heartbeat. Normal is between 60 and 90. This cat's heart was beating at 170, occasionally up to over 200. That's not just fast... that's deadly. If your heart beats that fast, it's not actually pumping enough blood. I got the PA on staff to take a quick look and she immediatly decided to send him to the local ER via ambulance. I worked on getting everything ready and called the ER to give them a report... sadly I misdialed and called the prison system's hospital ER. When I spilled the beans and told the PA what was going on he freaked out. We had it under control, but I had to actually calm him down before I could pass the phone off to the PA and actually do my job by calling the local ER.
Once he was out I jumped into the transfers and was just about to finish up on time... and then the guy came back from the hospital. Fuck. That gave me another 45 minutes of overtime.
Friday at work was easy... but I had an inmate with the complaint of hernias. As I try to always do, I looked up the inmate so I had a basic understanding of his current medical status. He had just earlier that week signed an ROR or Release Of Responsibility. More or less that means the doctor wants to treat something, but the inmate is refusing the treatment. In this case he has high blood pressure and is refusing all blood pressure medications.
It's not really relevant to his hernias, so I got him in and took his vitals expecting to see elevated blood pressure. Umm... yeah... it was 177/106. That's... well that's deadly. Our normal procedure is to immediatly treat that level of hypertension before he leaves the clinic... except he has already signed an ROR on this. If I wanted to follow my job I could have ignored that and just did the exam for the hernias.
But that's not me. Yes, he talked to the Doctor (technically the PA), and yes he was told what high blood pressure can do (up to and including kill him). Yes he signed a document saying that he heard and understood that. But I had to give it a shot. Instead of starting lightly talking about how having high blood pressure is bad and can hurt him in the long run, I went right for the jugular. I explained how dying from high blood pressure would work. I explained that the best scenario would be blowing out an artery in his liver... he would bleed out internally but not really feel a lot of pain. He'd just get sleepy and fall asleep. Forever.
I then talked about a stroke (losing half of your body and brain and probably not ever getting them fully back... and hopefully dying from it as living that way is awful). I then talked about having his descending aorta blow (INCREDIBLE pain in your back, often described as someone stabbing you with a dull knife over and over and over), then having one of the arteries in your kidney blow (mind blowingly lower back pain that will probably kill you but if it doesn't will continue for the rest of your life). I didn't bother with the less than lethal versions of high blood pressure (blowing out arteries in your feet, hands, eyes, ears...). I just quietly and calmly explained the horrible deaths that might await him. I then told him that with a current blood pressure of 177/106 that this wasn't talking about a death that might come in a few years. I told him that this death could come right here and right now.
I ended up setting an appointment up with the PA. He's willing to go back on blood pressure pills. BTW, the reason he didn't want to take the blood pressure pills.... they give him heartburn.
Yeah.. he's going to drive down the morning of the train.
Yesterday I got Fiona washed (dirty girl!), bought my stuff for lunch the next week, did some grocery shopping for both R and Mom, booked the extra night in Chicago, got a refund on the previously purchased Amtrak tickets, took care of a bunch of paper work, and made sure we were buttoned up in the house. Why buttoned up? Because snomagedon is (evidently) upon us.
We're right smack dab in the middle of a big snow storm slowly blowing through. Earlier in the week it was predicted to be 3-5 inches of snow. Friday it was predicted to be 6-8 inches. The current (Sunday morning) prediction is 9-14 inches. I'm not sure we're going to get THAT much as the snow was supposed to start around midnight, and as of right now we only have about 3 inches. But hey... they keep upping the predicted total. Hell, last NIGHT they said it would be 8-12 and didn't up the total to 9-14 until 8am this morning!
I watched the first half of Deliverance last night. I had heard so much good about this movie that I really was looking forward to it... and meh. Sure, I still have about 30 mintues of it to go but so far it's just an alright movie.
Other things on my mind:
I took down my alarm clock and am solely relying on my phone now for evening music and time keeping. The downside? While I'm here at the computer and want to check the time I look over to my left... the former location of the alarm clock.
Well... it's not there. There's nothing over there that will tell me the time. So I then have to look back to my right and squint down at my screen to check the time or pick up my phone. I'll have to look into this situation and figure something out. Time is to my left. It has been for 7 years now and should always be so.
R is ready to buy a gun. He's focused in on a Kimber 1911 Crimson Custom II. I won't go into all the little details, but it's a nice looking gun. Are there better 1911s out there? Hell yea there are. But they go upwards of $7,000 for a good custom gun. This Kimber, brand new, goes for $1200. Yesterday was a day of texting between my buddy A who has the most experience with guns.
They went back and forth all day and really made no progress. A kept showing us nice 1911s for sale... that were all going for over $2000. R just held to his guns (pun intended) and still expects to buy himself a Kimber next Saturday.
R also is planning on taking the CCW class so that he can get the CCW license. No, he doesn't want to carry it around town concealed, but he does want to avoid getting in trouble for having it on or near his person. Here's the stupid laws:
You either have your gun strapped to your body openly displaying it to any-and-every one around, OR you have it locked up in a case. Anywhere in between those two positions and you are illeaglly carrying a weapon. Think about that... R's main use for this will be while out fishing (he's now fishing in bear country). So he puts it into a holster on his hip. It get's cold in the day, so he puts on a jacket.... a jacket that slightly covers up the gun. Yes, at that point he is illegally carrying his weapon.
Even simply having it in his car. If he has the CCW he can have it sitting on his passenger seat and be fine. Without the license that's illegal (I guess the car itself is concealing the weapon). Now R wouldn't dare do that... he'd have it in a box in the back of the vehicle. But even there, without the licesne you can get in trouble if a trigger lock isn't on it and it isn't in a LOCKED box.
So getting the CCW just makes sense.
Obviously we'll need to get cases to carry the guns in. We'll need to have trigger locks to be safe. But we'll also need cleaning kits. Honestly we should have one already as we have the two shot guns and the 22 rifle. But we're also considering getting a gun safe. Together we already have the following guns:
My Remington 870 12 Gauge shotgun
My Grandmothers Winchester autoloading 12 Gauge shotgun
My father's bolt action shotgun
My father's 22 pump action rifle
And now we're going to add a 1911 .45 hand gun and possibly a CZ 9mm 75.
Yeah... we should have a safe to keep everything... well... safe. The big problem is where to put it. Those safes are heavy and hard to move around. It's not like we want to put it in one place and have to move it later. We're considering the basement (good, secure, bastard to get into), the garage (easy access, but not nearly as secure), or upstairs (secure, bastard to get into).
Thankfully I'm going to be able to afford all of this. I have quite a stash set aside for traveling and Chicago won't eat all of that. I could probably get both the gun AND the safe and still be able to afford a later trip to San Fran.
So I purchased a new wallet. It won't get here for a week or so, but I'm quite excited about it. Yes, you read that correctly... I'm excited about a wallet.
As a child, having a wallet was the measure of a man. If you had important papers and paper money to carry around, you were the cock of the walk. When I was a boy and started carrying around a wallet, I more or less copied what Dad always carried. A standard tri-fold wallet. Dad's was leather, mine was denim with a velcro strip.
I carried variations on that for years. Eventually I decided that I just didn't like the big bulkiness of a trifold. To my dad's disappointment (seriously... he looked sad when I did this) I eventually moved o n to a Bifold wallet. I also moved up to leather. Or at least pleather. That's what's been in my back pocket for decades now.
But on days that I'm NOT working, I have my wallet fit into my back right pocket. But now that feels strange... it feels like I'm leaning to the left while driving around. It's not all that much... my wallet is about an inch thick... but it's enough that I have to adjust my rearview mirror.
It's... It's just too big.
It seems the popular thing to do now is to forego the 'back pocket' wallet all together. Slim is in. The most popular wallets are now 'front pocket' wallets. More or less money clips that have a space for three or four cards.
I must have looked at those types of wallets for hours over the past few weeks. Yes.. I DO carry around to much in my wallet. But I'm not sure I could shave down THAT much. Plus having to fold your cash each and every time you access it would get real old real fast.
Bellroy is an Australian company that has been making thin inovative wallets for years now. Long before it became a 'trendy' thing. This is one of two 'standard' wallets that don't require folding your money (again, that's something I'm just not willing to do). But everything else about this wallet is designed to keep it small and thin. It will be about 3/4 the size of my current wallet and hopefully about 1/3 to 1/2 it's thickness.
The first thing it does is remove space for a lot of cards. My current wallet has 9 standard spaces for cards, plus an ID slot and two pockets for additional cards. Each of the 9 standard spaces has room for two cards. So if I can shove 6 cards into each pocket, there is room for 31 cards.
31!
And I use all of the spaces. No, not with 31 cards, but I currently have 19 cards in my wallet.
- Drivers licence
- Nursing license
- ATM/Debit card
- Credit Card
- Health Insurance card
- Vision Insurance card
- Dental Insurance card
- Prescription drug discount card
- Sam's Club card
- BP rewards card
- College ID
- Funeral Director's business card
- Voter identification card
- Michigan Works ID card
- Credit Union Membership card
- Credit Union Membership card (yes.. I have two accounts, so two cards)
- Retail rewards card (from when I worked at that retail location)
- Social Security Card
- Blood Donor Card
I obviously carry cash too, but I also have about a dozen fortune cookie fortune slips, as well as a big bulky paper list of all the drugs my mother is on (in case I take her to the hospital and need to tell them what drugs she's on... seriously it's a list of about 25 medications!)
Now... what do I NEED to carry with me? Well the first and foremost reason to carry a wallet is money and identifcation. So my drivers license and my cash. Cash now a days is some cards too, so my ATM/Debit card and my credit card. I should always have my insurance cards. I do go to Sams' to get stuff for lunch on a regular basis, so that's something I should carry. But the rest?
First, I don't need my prescription drug discount card... With the insurance I have, I don't need to use it. The Vision insurance card isn't something I should need for a year or more, so why carry it around? The Dental card? about the same thing. I can grab those cards when I need them.
I really have no need for my nursing license. If someone needs to know, they can look me up. If I need my license number.... well I'm probably either in trouble, or have time to go home and get it.
The BP card I can leave in my car... I only gas up there and even if I'm with someone else, I can use my phone number to get the rewards.
I most certainly do not need to carry my college ID 4 years after graduating. Carrying around the funderal director's business card is just morbid. Yes, he did Dad's and Grandpa's funerals. And yes, he will more than likely do Mom's funeral... but I can keep that on my desk (along with many other business cards) and just access it a decade or more from now when Mom passes away.
My Voder ID card ironically does not serve as a state required voter ID card. For that I need my licsense. I could use the card to see what my precinct and school districts are, but I can also look that up online. So that card can go.
The Michigan works card is for when I was on unemployment. In 2007. Yeah... I can ditch that.
The credit union membership cards are more or less ways to have my account numbers on them. But when I need to access my accounts I can simply give them my drivers license and tell them I don't remember my account number.
I don't use the retail rewards car (more or less got that because I worked there). I don't even shop there now a days.
Honestly, it's probably not a good idea to carry my social security card around.
And I just don't donate blood any longer.... but then again that's a good thing to have in case of an accident. The paramedics and ER nurses could quickly find out what blood type I am.
So... I can pare down to:
- Drivers licence
- ATM/Debit card
- Credit Card
- Health Insurance card
- Vision Insurance card
- Dental Insurance card
- Sam's Club card
Yes, I could take the vision and dental insurance cards off too, but I shouldn't need to pare down THAT much. And if I do need those cards, it may well be in an emergency.
I can take out the fortune cookie fortunes, and digitize my Mom's drug list into my phone.
BOOM.... I will soon have an appropriately thin wallet and it will help force me to thin out all this extra crap I carry around!
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