Sunday, June 14, 2009

Sunday afternoon

It's Sunday afternoon in central Louisiana. Ninety-four-by-God degrees on the scale and not a single breath of wind. I was just standing out on the carport and was impressed by the lack of any wind activity. Not a single breath of a breeze. The pine trees, for as far as I could see, were standing perfectly still. Very few neighbors outside. The subdivision is as quiet as midnight.

Accuweather puts the heat index at 103. I believe it. It's a good afternoon to sit in the easy chair and watch old television.

The weather forecast for this week is more of the same. Hot, still, no rain anywhere in the predictions.

I have training this week, and I've made plans for hydration. Ice, water, a cooler in the pickup truck. No sense tempting a heat injury.

5 comments:

Old NFO said...

Water works... better than anything else, but I DO love my ice tea!

Rivrdog said...

Gawd, even the Army would call a Red Flag Day for training in those heat indexes.

The POST people must be nutz....doesn't Worker's Comp in LA have any say in that?

Pawpaw said...

Bo, dog, the Army doesn't call Red Flag days any more. Not since Desert Storm. We learned that we can work in the heat and we train right through. Give the troops time to acclimatize and bring 'em up to speed.

Our agency will train through, too. Although only about two days of the five are outdoor. Today we'll be training indoors, in A/C, in a nice facility the last sheriff had built.

This is a standard Louisiana summer. Like the weatherman said last week. "you better enjoy this cool snap, it's liable to get hot."

J said...

From the J dictionary:

successful man: one who enjoys going to work.

Rivrdog said...

I "trained through" in Survival School in the early 80's. The school had an exemption from the Red Flag rules.

At every training location, there was a Lister Bag set up, and the instructors had orders to make us drink enough water so that we peed pure clear, and yes, they watched us pee. After the first indoctrination in forced hydration, if you still peed yellow, the instructors called the medic, who put you on the ground and gave you an immediate IV. Since we couldn't afford to miss much instruction, that IV was given FAST. After the first troop who didn't drink enough got one, the rest of us guzzled our water as if there was an M16 to our heads.

Survival School was the toughest 15 days I had in my entire military career, but since I was also in command of my class of 32, it was also the most rewarding. I had ZERO washouts, which was unusual for the time.