I have made fire! – Tom Hanks, Castaway As I mentioned in the previous post, at the beginning of August, I attended the California Survival School Core Skills class. What a fantastic day! We started with creating shelter and finding/sanitizing water, then we moved on to finding simple foods (small game hunting is a…
People live in each other’s shelter – Irish proverb On Saturday, August 9, I had the most incredible day. I spent five hours with California Survival School in the Saratoga woods. I wasn’t sure what to expect before going up there, but the day was better than what I had imagined. Anyone who watches Survivor…
About a year ago, one of the employees at my work was attacked by a dog as he approached the front door to notify the owner that we would be working on the power pole in the rear yard. Fortunately our employee got away without injury, but the incident made it clear that we needed…
April is Earthquake Awareness Month in California, which is rather fitting – if chilling – considering the devastation that Chile is experiencing right now with multiple massive quakes hitting their county. Going back years before the Loma Prieta Quake of 1989, I’d kept a complete earthquake preparedness kit. I have been asked by family, friends,…
Do you have a crawl space or basement under your house? How can it be accessed? How easily can it be accessed? Do you know who has been down there? Could someone be down there right now without you knowing? Can they get into your house from there? Most people don’t even think about…
I’ve been on the road a lot over these holidays, and I’ve seen some pretty horrific driving out there. Here are a couple driving pet peeves I have that I’d like to share… First and foremost – if you are driving and you hear a siren, look around. Find the source. Police, fire, and/or medical…
Here are some interesting facts that writers may find helpful. These facts came from a couple of my Occupational Safety and Health classes: Eugene Meyer, Chemistry of Hazardous Materials: “On average, the detonation velocity of an explosive is a staggering four miles per second.” Definition of “Brisance”: the shattering power of an explosive substance. The…
As many of you know, I have just finished my BS in Occupational Safety and Health and am about halfway through with my BS in Criminal Justice. The class du jour is Juvenile Delinquency, and one of the texts is Juvenile Justice in America by Bartollas and Miller. Last night, just before turning my light…
BOOOOOM! In the spring of 2007 I was a witness to the aftermath of people doing something stupid. Okay, maybe not stupid, just ill-advised without consideration to the possible outcomes of their actions… I had just been promoted and was working in my office late on a Saturday night. The explosion came without…
Dennis Stanworth has been called an evil man. In 1965 and 1966, he committed some atrocious crimes in California and was sentenced to death. • August 12, 1965. Approximately 5:30 pm. o Richmond, CA, outside a shopping center (Contra Costa County). o 20 year old nursing student. o Forced his way into her vehicle, threatened…
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