Summer Heat

It is summertime. Not according to the calendar but in Texas, for all practical purposes, it is. So, I thought I would touch on a summer safety issue, Heat Exhaustion (HE). Many of us have been dehydrated countless times and have called it “heat stroke" (HS). I learned the difference this weekend between dehydration and HS/HE.

Yesterday I did about 5 miles of kayaking on LRR and exited the activity with no complications. It was in the mid 80’s, partly cloudy, nice breeze. All in all not the kind of weather you would associate with HE. However, over the next several hours I got a headache, cramps, hot dry skin, ringing in my ears, clumsy, my arms and legs seem to weigh a ton and I was shivering in an 80 degree house. During this period I drank maybe a gallon of water. The shivering was what got me scared. In the past I have only shivered when cold, duh, or running a fever. I took my temp, orally for anyone curious, and it turned out I was running a fever of about 100 and a half degrees. The whole time HE or HS was In the back of my mind. I had never felt like this. It was like the flu without the cold-like symptoms.

By now I should have carried myself into the Emergency Room. Instead, I got online and started researching HS & HE. Everything I read pretty much suggested I do the same thing. One of the simplest descriptions was “virus like symptoms with the absence of sneezing or runny nose, sometimes with no fever or a fever up to 107 degrees.” My saving grace was that I had been drinking water all day and most of all was the little bit of congealed dry Gatorade mix I remembered in the middle of the night. Almost the instant I drank the Gatorade I began sweating. Avery good sign, probably the only reason I did not go to the ER. Apparently water is not enough. There I went, not believing the corporate hype again.

By 3am my fever had broken and I felt much better. Monday was a long work day lugging around my 2000 pound appendages and a ringing melon.

As I dissect the day I found a few places where I went wrong:
1. Diet coke for lunch. I actually went for the fountain PowerAde but it was dispensing with carbonated water and it tasted pretty bad.

2. One beer. It is customary to drink a malted beverage upon completion of a manly endeavor. I may pass on this custom in the future. Beer flavored PowerAde?

3. I stayed outside after I began to feel sluggish.

4. Heavy lunch. 1/3 pound burger with fries & crispito.

5. Hot shower. I bathed when I got home. I am sure the steamy hot shower did nothing to help my overheated body.

6. I did not consider the increased humidity of that day.

However, I am not a total idiot, I did do a few things right:
1. I wore a hat.

2. I slathered 45 S.P.F. sun-block on every square inch of skin.

3. I wore light colored clothes.

4. I drank about 1.5 liters of water over a 3 hour period. An acceptable amount for the conditions.

5. We took multiple breaks and never pushed it too hard.

So why am I telling a boating story in the Motorcycle blog? The physical factors on the lake were not that different than what is widely considered to be optimal riding conditions. Factor in engine heat, full riding gear and the 70 MPH breeze and the rider could get into trouble sooner than the three hours it took me on the lake. Rowing a 52 pound kayak on the open water may not be any more exerting than rowing your 500 pound sport bike or 700 pound cruiser through the many turns on the devils backbone in the Texas hill country.

11-4-2004 is a date I had not thought of in a long time. So long in fact, that I did not even realize that I was not thinking of that date. A lot has happened since then. I’ve changed jobs, bought a house, had a child and much more, so I am not surprised I had forgotten the date. Unfortunately I didn’t forget the date, I blocked it out, repressed the memories. I did not realize that until today.

What happened 11-4-2004? A notorious robbery gang called the “take over bandits” had a very raucous shootout with the Dallas police, the Richardson police and the Texas State Troopers in the parking lot of a building in which I was attending a training meeting. It may not have been so bad if I had not been in the parking lot trying to crawl under a ford explorer while I heard bullets whirling overhead. That is the sound they make, they whirrrr. Roll your tongue in a slow high pitch as you say it and you will be pretty close. I would not have been there had the idiot center manager, Lois, not evacuated us into a gunfight. Oh yeah, and the back door was exit only so we, about 15 of us, were left to find our own cover. There were a few stories of bravery and heroism that day. A mother, protecting her child from the gunmen, threw her car keys into the bushes so they would not take her car with her child still strapped into the car seat. Another of an employee in the building securing the front door while staring down the barrel of the AK-47. I survived and I guess I had not thought about it too much since then.

So, why did I remember a date I had not thought of since who knows when? I walked out of my regular Monday morning staff meeting to find out some nut-job in Blacksburg, VA had just murdered 30 or so people on the Virginia Tech campus. I work at a college now. Ironically, in the staff meeting we discussed the evacuation and emergency policies for the new building we just moved into this last January. It took a few minutes but by the time I reached my desk I could hear the whirrrr overhead, feel the grit of the parking lot on my palms and my face and smell the oil of the still warm engine of the green ford explorer. That is how I remembered 11-4-2204.

There have not been many details released yet about what happened in Blacksburg but I am sure in the end it will have happened for some senseless reason.