RATED XXXX

BL  stop reading now!   Save yourself!    Just kidding...

Just a reminder if anyone cares or is still waiting on pins and needles for the end of my story 'The Killing',  I am still working on it.  The ending is harder to write than the beginning.   It's a idea flow problem. I am struggling with cohesiveness.

DO NOT READ (Warning, graphic, R)

About a month ago, I read a news story about a fellow that awoke after spending 20 some hours lying in a morgue cooler.  Apparently, this fellow was discovered by his family members and they thought he was dead.  They called 911 or the equivalent and from there this fellow ends up in the morgue.  This story, is so frightening and macabre it would make a great horror movie.  Just thinking about it,  sends chills racing up my spine.

How in the world did this happen?  Who made this horrible mistake?  How on earth did they declare him dead?  And could this happen to me?    Could I fail to recognize when death has occurred?  

Death is not a stranger to me.  In my line of work;  it is inevitable.  I patiently await its arrival. 

When a death has occurred or is suspected, I am notified by phone.   I never know when the call will come. Once I do get the call,  I may have to travel  anywhere from 10 minutes to 60 minutes to reach the home.  Once at the residence, the soul responsibility of determining whether death  has occurred is mine. 

Determining death's presence can be daunting.  Even though I have been intimate with death on countless occasions,  I  still,  carefully go through several steps  to be absolutely  sure  death has occurred.  I  have known  others in my field who often rely on assumptions when determining death.   And I myself... have, at times made the same assumptions regarding the presence of death. 

I mean after all....I have seen it so many times; I know by looking at the person if they are dead.  

Caution, for those who are squeamish or just plain scared, you may not want to continue to read.   In other words....THIS IS THE STUFF NIGHTMARES come from.   BE warned!  
 

The first step I take, is I call the person's name. Then while feeling for a pulse I observe the chest for movement or breathing, then I will listen to their heart with my stethoscope, then I will take the blood pressure, if there is still no response, I will open their eyes and check whether the pupils are fixed and dilated, I may also apply pressure to the eyeballs. While going through all these steps, I have felt whether the body is cold and stiff.  If there is no response and I have gone through all these steps I feel confident  to declare the person dead.

Generally,  I feel much better about determining death when the body is already cold, white and stiff than when  I have a body that is still warm  with some color left.  I suppose the reason is because a cold, stiff body looks and feels dead.  Whereas, a body which is still warm, with some color,  where the  limbs are still flexible can still look and feel alive.  (Sorry, about the morbid description)

This, I guess  has to be one of my greatest fears.    Even  with all steps  checked off,  I still  can have doubt.  Naturally, this is human nature.  For most of us,  seeing a dead body is not a normal part of daily life.  The mind can play cruel tricks on even the most experienced folks who deal with death.    After all, death is permanent.  Once I send you to the funeral home there is no turning back.    Or is there?  

 It was about 3am when I got the call.  Through the phone,  a pleading voice says...."please come quick; I think he has stopped breathing."     I tell them.... OK, I'll be right there and I tell them where I live so they will know about how long it will take me to get there.  

I have no problem finding the home once I locate the street because I can see 15 cars parked all around the drive.   I am not  greeted by anyone.  I  introduce myself as I am walking through the maze of  crying people standing in the yard and porch.  As I enter the home,  instinct takes  over in my quest to find the next of kin.   In this case, the family is sitting beside the bed of the  apparently deceased person. .   After briefly expressing my condolences,  I get down to business of pronouncing death. The time of death is used for the death certificate and I need to establish this as quickly as possible without appearing to hurrying.

I asked the family to allow me to examine the body and proceed with my assessment.  With the family still present in the room,  I softly call his name while feeling his neck for a pulse. At the same time I am looking at his chest for movement and listening for breathing.  When I lift his limp arm to take a blood pressure, I  feel his skin is still  very warm.  Unable to feel a pulse, hear a blood pressure, I open his eyes one by one to check for pupil response.  Both pupils are fixed and dilated.  With one final glance at his lifeless body,  I am confident  to  pronounce  him dead. 

Again,  I  offered my condolences to the family.  The next step would be to notify the doctor of the death.   After that, I asked if the family was ready for me to notify the funeral home so they could remove the body and they said they were ready.  They had spent  many days at his bedside and were exhausted.  They were ready for this to be over.   

After the family members had left the room,  I was alone. The room was quiet except for the distant sorrowful cries of  the family.  I turned off the overhead  lamp which garishly illuminated  the deceased.  Silence filled the room.  I  headed across the room where there was a nice desk with a dimly lit lamp.  I settled myself into the rather comfortable desk chair.    Here I would await the funeral home's call and complete my paper work.  While straining my eyes under the dim light to complete my paperwork, a faint sound  briefly filled the room.  I continued  with my work....  and there it was again,   a faint,  but familiar sound.   I completed my paperwork and peacefully relaxed while looking at a framed photo on the desk.  I pondered whether the young man in the photo was the same man that lay silent on the bed behind me, wondering if he had lived a good life.  I closed my eyes for a moment to rest them,  when I heard the  sound again. 

Immediately, without hesitation I knew what that familiar  sound was. Adrenaline  surging through my body, my heart is pounding;  I can't breathe!   I jumped  from the chair leaving it spinning. As I spun my body around to see him,  my eyes were focused on one thing only,  the chest.   This loud, panic filled voice in my head is telling me to...  LOOK AT THE CHEST!     THE CHEST!      LOOK AT THE CHEST!    IS... IT... MOVING?    IS... HE BREATHING?

MY GOD !    IS HE ALIVE!!!! 

I  have no recollection of walking to his bedside from across the room.   In a flash, I was standing over him, staring at his chest and face for any signs of life. There were none.  His body lay quiet and very peaceful in death.   I slowly released the grip of my clutched hand from his arm and realized I had become an unwitting victim of my imagination.

 

ET Phone Home

Science fascinates me.  All types of science are interesting to me even if I have difficulty understanding the specific lingo used.  

Recently,  I watched a program where, Stephen Hawking, a world renowned physicist was discussing our universe and its possible origins.  He  made some very interesting observations and predictions.  But what really got my attention was his discussion of Voyager I. 


Imagine if you can, a man made object that is now approximately 10 billion miles from Earth.  It has been traveling at about 35,000 miles per hour since it was launched in 1977.  During its 33 year journey it has continued to collect data and images of our solar system and transmit this information back to Earth.  At times, it may take up to 14 hours for these transmissions to reach Earth, but don't forget this data is coming from a distance of 10 billion miles away.   Truly, incredible.  This object is Voyager1

Where is the Voyager prob now?   It has reached the edge of our solar system and is struggling to enter what is known as interstellar space.  So for now, Voyager is stuck in something called a heliosheath and no one knows when it will break free to continue its long journey. 

The Voyager 1 is expected to have enough energy to continue traveling til 2020.  From there,  who knows what will become of this wondrous space craft.  But if it were to be intercepted by creatures such as ET, NASA has made sure that ET will have something to listen to. 

A Golden Record was placed in the probe before its launch.  The gold plated record which looks like an LP.  For you young folks,  I would say it looks like one of those old time vinyl disks they used to play on something called a record player.   Anyway,  the record contains all kinds of recorded sounds, music, speeches, photos, etc.  I think ET would enjoy this Mandarin Chinese greeting most.....

(How's everyone? We all very much wish to meet you, if you're free please come and visit)

Black Angus Found Smothered To Death In Cheese

Unhealthy eating habits are an affliction of our society.  Fast food joints bombard us in our homes with their relentless TV adds  during commercial breaks.  Showing us mouth watering, savory dishes that make us drool. 

                                      We are doomed!

  It is the restaurant's business to make money.  To do this they have to sell food and lots of it. Their goal is to turn every thin, healthy  person into a walking blob of fat.  And...once they have succeeded in turning you in to a unrecognizable, fat  blob, what do they do next???   They want to make even more money off of you by by enticing you with so called new and  healthy menus. 

 Of course this is all marketing tactics.  Do they think we're stupid? 

They ask themselves in their marketing meetings, why are all those fat ass blobs no longer eating our food?   Then it dawns on them.   Oh,  they are so... fat they can't get out of their homes and  they are dieting to lose the weight.  The weight those fast food places worked so...very hard to get you to gain.   They want you fat, and happy with change left after you purchase  your meal.   They come up with a plan.


In marches the new cow...the Angus beef bearing cow.

   Yes,  what's different about this cow, this beef?   It is leaner and much healthier for you so they say.   Finally some good news on the fight against obesity.  So you would think.



The fast food industry has upped their game.    They have recognized the error of their ways.   Now they switch gears and go into   ' healthy' mode.   Fast foods/ healthy....isn't that an oxymoron?   
Well if it's healthy,  I'll eat it... Oxymoron beef or Angus, makes no difference to me.


At a recent visit to Arby's, the young lady at the counter greets me with... Hello, would you like to try one of our new Angus beef sandwiches?   After straining my eyes trying to read the menu with the description of the new ( #7 The Ultimate Angus Sandwich), I finally  asked her... What is the difference between the Angus beef sandwich and the regular Arby's plain beef sandwich?   She politely and with much enthusiasm  says.....Oh,  the Angus beef is so... so.... much leaner and healthier for you.  OK, I said...give me that healthy Angus beef.  The employees almost broke out in applause congratulating me on my decision to eat healthy.


Proud that I had chosen the healthy Angus over my usual unhealthy plain Arby's beef sandwich.  Which  never really tasted like any beef I have eaten from the butcher.   I always  harbored the suspicion  it was made like Mc Nuggets.... you know,  they put all the animal parts together grind, cook, chill and cut out or slice pieces and call it real meat.   But I like it!   And I love me some Spam too.   So don't be dis-in these culinary delights til you try them. 

  Ok, back to my dining experience.

I sit down and eagerly  unwrap my wonderfully healthy sandwich.  Can't tell much form the outside and there is not a thick sandwich like my regular beef I usually choose. 

  The first bite really should be the best.   Not with this sandwich.   I couldn't chew it for some reason, there was something thick and hard on it.  I pulled it from my mouth and was horrified.    On my napkin lays this fatty, hard, salty slab of a bacon slice.  BACON!   Where the hell does bacon fit into the healthy sandwich thing?    I rid my sandwich of the rest of this unhealthy evil meat and take my next bite...knowing that this would be the much anticipated, ultimate Angus beef moment I had been waiting for.  SALT!   Why is there so much salt on this 'healthy sandwich'?   That's it I can't eat it.   It was so salty you could have left this thing out for a week and bacteria wouldn't have even looked at it.  

  I gathered up my uneaten remains of The Ultimate Angus sandwich and told the girl in a very nice tone.   Hon,  this sandwich is way too salty for me;  I don't know why that  is?    And what came out of her very sweet but naive mouth bemused me.    She says....in an ever so polite voice,  oh, it's probably the creamy Parmesan spread.  It's the third cheese we put on it.    That's what makes the sandwich....The Ultimate Angus 3 cheese and bacon.   THE EXTRA, creamy third cheese makes this sandwich!   

  WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY 'HEALTHY ANGUS BEEF'.    I KNOW.....WHAT HAPPENED TO IT.    IT DIED A SLOW DEATH BETWEEN THE THIRD CHEESE!              


Get your glasses out and read the ingredients folks.  These places are trying to kill us with ' Healthy stuff'