MELLOW YELLOW (August 19)

DID YOU KNOW? Anyone who has been to Washington D.C. sees the perpetual protest groups complete with brochures, flags and dance music ensconced in Lafayette Park across from the White House. Did you know the first group to use it as a protest staging area? The suffragettes as they lobbied to be considered more than a second-class citizen (1 step above slaves) and be granted the right to vote. Their proud tradition of tilting at windmills continues to this day. Democracy in action. Messy but interesting. One prez who shall remain nameless wanted the military to shoot them so he could safely stroll to a local church and hold a bible upside down. There was tear gas, but they came back. 

 PERSONAL OBSERVATION The country is full of outrage just looking for something to vent on. 

CAMERA, ACTION Back to work on podcasts. Recording programs ahead certainly gave me a good summer for recovery. Almost enough down time to consider how long I want to keep doing this.  However, my popularity precedes me as I got three requests for podcasts in quick succession. The latest one was with a local association for Road Infrastructure and Transportation. He promised to be political, and I promised to cut him off if he went too crazy. 

Spoiler alert. He backed down on that threat during the recording even though I teased him with a topic close to the issue-insufficient enforcement and fines for killing road workers. Though actually he claimed that the majority of fatalities occur to our ever-distracted drivers swan diving into the construction zone. I used to work with his boss when I was at MIOSHA and RC never backed down on a controversy, usually at a high volume. His final thought to my "Fix the damn roads" was "We build the best damn roads in the country".  May get pushback on that. Should have asked why they keep fixing the "same damn road" over and over or maybe I'm just imagining it. 

Next topic is a toss-up between the new Heat Stress standard or the dangers of molten metals. I'm all for riveting stories about foundries I have known, or rather my guest has known. The heat standard on the other hand has some really wicked and unpopular sections on record-keeping and references to 115-degree heat. This ain't Florida folks. 

WHY? A lot of things that seem to be common sensical, but in the safety world we can always be surprised. Like the guys freakin' out as the playbox sand they're pouring says silica: carcinogenic. Only if you lay in it for days inhaling it like a sleeve full of coke. (you need the sleeve as you have to keep wiping your nose). Or can a smell make me sick? Void yes, permanent disability not so much. Can we drink the water in the water conditioning tanks for an upset stomach? Well as the song says "put the lime in the coconut" or coo coo nut. Though it is calcium carbonate from limestone wells I'm not sure raising the pH of your insides is a genius move. 

Then the scary ones. Can't I just turn off the back-up alarm. It's bugging me and nobody pays attention anyway. Or having to address a building maintenance meeting to explain why a temporary seasonal worker cannot come inside with the master electrician when he accesses a live bus section. Or why did you go back into the sewer vault after the detector was going off? I didn't think the detector was working right..argghh. 

Followed by the ones that do not complain as they pull out a deep pit pump on the intake side of the wastewater plant. Or the meter reader who lowers themself into a dirt-filled Michigan basement to read a meter. Who would think reading a meter could be so hazardous? I was monitoring the work as we entered an older lady's cockroach infested kitchen and I will not forget the family group covered with blankets in the middle of the day in a house with bars on the windows that just stared at us.  I asked the po po to check that one out. But their biggest complaint? My not allowing them to wear shorts in the summer when EVERYONE had been bitten by an animal at some point when doing their rounds. After I left, shorts and white vehicles appeared. Ah well. What a party poop. 

The dogs may bark, but the caravan moves on.

New bird feeder placed to encourage the yellow finches I've been noticing. They really love the birdbath so decided to provide the whole spa experience. Though I just saw a squirrel climb the metal pole so sq/inhibitors may need to be installed. Peace out....💚  💙💛