Iowa – Page 29 – Go Retire Psychiatrist

Civil or Uncivil Bird Society

We caught sight of several birds engaged in the usual interactions with each other and their prey (in the case of the hawk). Call it civil or uncivil society, it’s natural no matter how you see it.

I’m going to call it a Red-tailed Hawk that caught a gray squirrel and had a tough time managing to eat it or even carry it up a tree.

We saw a male Cardinal nip a sparrow who was dining a little too close to him on a tree. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess it was a White-throated Sparrow.

We a Black-capped Chickadee flitting around and a couple of wild turkeys trudging through the snow. The turkeys seemed to be almost encouraging each other at times.

Music Credit for video:

Call to Adventure – Comedy by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1300022

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Tomorrow’s schedule for the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration of Human Rights Week has Michele Norris presenting the MLK Distinguished Lecture, “Our Hidden Conversations.” It’s based on her Race Card Project which produced her new book “Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity.”

Sena and I probably are not going to make it to Michele Norris’s lecture tomorrow, mostly because of the bad weather.

The Race Card Project involved people sending in cards with just six words on it which described their experience with race and identity and much more than that. I didn’t learn of the project until this month.

If I were to send in a card, it would say, “Everyone changed but Jim.” What’s important about that is who said it, because it wasn’t me. It was somebody who was my best friend in grade school. I lost touch with Dan, who was white, for a while when we were kids.

When I caught up with him while we were still pretty young, he had changed. He seemed much older than our real age. He used to have a great sense of humor, despite his life being a little difficult. Our lives were both hard, in many ways that didn’t involve race. We both grew up in relative poverty.

But after only a few years of not seeing each other, he seemed cynical, which was very different from how I remembered him.

I don’t recall how I found him, but I met with him at his school. I expected to find the same guy who made me laugh. But he didn’t seem glad to see me. I must have mentioned it, and I probably pointed out that he had changed.

And that’s when Dan said, without looking at me, “Everyone changed but Jim.” The meeting was brief. I left and never saw him again.

Friends were tough to find for me. I didn’t have any black friends. My father was black and my mother was white. They separated when my younger brother and I were little, and we lived with mom. Despite what some people may or are rumored to think, racism has always been a part of living in America.

Black people tended to live in different zip codes, not the one in which I grew up. I was often the only black kid in school, and this story was and is still common. I didn’t have black friends because I didn’t live in the zip codes where black people lived.

Dan wasn’t the only friend I had. There was only one other; he was white too. Like me and Dan, Tim and I didn’t stay friends.

A lot happened after that, which is always a part of coming of age. And I guess that’s because a lot of things changed—including me.

Generosity, kindness, and love, especially the love from my wife, saved me from lifelong bitterness, for which I’m grateful. I think a sense of humor was also important. And even though definitions differ about what friendship is—I have friends.

Sena Gets Her Lume!

Sena finally got her Lume products delivered yesterday. That’s right, I said “Lume,” the total body odor remover you see being advertised on TV. I can’t bear to watch them, which might say something about how we’re socialized to avoid confronting our own B.O. In my defense, the commercials have been described as “in your face.”

The packet arrived after 11 days, starting its delivery journey in Kentucky. I suspect the recent bad winter weather had a lot to do with the delay. The postal service delivered it and the products inside were frozen. The Acidified Deodorant Wipes package was a solid brick and I bet you could have broken a window with it.

Sena ordered the Lume products with the goal of experimenting with them to just to see if they work as advertised. The long message Lume sent after the delivery was interesting:

UPS has marked your package as delivered! This is one of the best days of my life, second only to when you placed your order.

Please allow an additional 1-2 business days for your lovingly prepared package to arrive on your doorstep. Sometimes packages are marked as “delivered” while they’re still in your faithful mail carrier’s bag or looking cute in the mail truck.

If you still haven’t received your Lume in 2 more business days, please contact us! (Not to brag, but we are pros at Where’s Waldo^TM.)

Tips & Tricks for Becoming a Lume Pro

Prep Your Clothes & Prime Your Pits

Body odor happens in two places: ON your skin and IN your clothes. Learn how to both places ready for outrageously effective odor control on our Getting Started Page!

We Had to Break Some Rules to Be This Good

What’s that smell? It’s the sweet smell of science! Our water based cream rubs in like a lotion, and because Lume is not like ordinary deodorant, it doesn’t smell like ordinary deodorant. A natural, unexpected, fleeting scent leaves you smelling like nothing at all.

Pits, Feet, and Privates

Odor reactions are the same no matter where they happen on our body! You can use Lume anywhere you have external odor but wish you didn’t. Yes, even there.

Have Some *Private* Questions?

No need to be coy. We all have private parts, and we all have odor! Find answers to your questions on our FAQ page or by messaging our knowledgeable team at website address. (Trust us, we’ve heard ALL the questions.)

Doubts have been raised about whether or not the deodorant keeps you odor free for 72 hours. I’m not sure what to make of the claim. Most deodorants and antiperspirants that have been on the market for years make that claim. I’m not sure how you’d verify it. I don’t generally go without showering for several days. I’m likely to wash the deodorant off well before 72 hours after application.

Along those lines, there’s also a product like Lume for men now, called Mando. I’m not sure why the name was chosen. It can be short for mandolin or Mandalorian (fictional male warrior character in the Star Wars franchise) among other meanings, usually suggesting machismo.

The Mando product may or may not be connected to the acquisition of Lume by Harry’s Inc. (maker of men’s personal care products) in 2021. According to the web, Mando was launched in 2023.

So, the logical question, of course, is when will the Bigfoot deodorant be released? Hey, it’s well known that Bigfoot stinks to high heaven, and while explanations differ about what he smells like and why, there’s no reason not to develop a total body deodorant for Bigfoot. It could be called Bigfoot B.O. Begone (BBOB for short). It has a ring to it. And there’s even a Minnesota connection relevant to the Lume/Mando creator. The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) have documented at least 75 sightings in Minnesota.

BBOB could lead to making him less shy and more willing to share his favorite food, which is beef jerky. And we’re always talking about Bigfoot as though there are only males in the species. The classic 1967 Patterson/Gimlin film of Patty the female Bigfoot (with boobs no less) clearly illustrates the need for an “under boobs” deodorant for the Sasquatch tribe. It would probably have to last more than 72 hours.

I’m not making any guarantees here, but there may be an update to this post.

Tegeler Wrecker and Crane is the Heavy Rescue Team in Eastern Iowa

We saw the KCRG news item about Tegeler Wrecker & Crane getting almost 10,000 calls for help after the big snowstorms last week. They’re a big towing and wrecker service which reminded me of the Weather Channel shows Highway Thru Hell and Heavy Rescue 401. Tegeler pretty much does everything they do, including heavy duty towing and recovery, air cushion recovery, roadside assistance, and more. You can see their operation on Facebook. They go pretty much everywhere, including Iowa City.

We don’t have anything like the Coquihalla here, but I-80 was all but impassable around Iowa City last week. One similarity is that many drivers didn’t pull off the road to someplace safe to ride it out. I guess that’s how similar Americans are to Canadians.

We’re not out of the arctic blast just yet. We’re supposed to get a January thaw early next week.

Kurten, A. (2024, January 16). Towing company receives almost 10,000 calls for help after winter storm. KCRG.com. Channel 9 ABC. https://www.kcrg.com/2024/01/17/towing-company-receives-almost-10000-calls-help-after-winter-storm/

Heed Warnings About Risk for Frostbite

I just saw an article in the Daily Iowan about the importance of knowing how to avoid frostbite during wind chill advisory and warning periods. As a consulting psychiatrist in the general hospital, I saw what can happen to people who suffered frostbite injuries. They were treated on the Burn Unit.

The risk for frostbite will continue to be high for the next few days with wind chills as low as minus 30 below zero, according to the National Weather Service.

The University of Iowa Hospital has a frostbite education web page worthing reviewing. There is also a compelling story posted in 2022 about how two patients were treated for severe frostbite injuries.

Martin Luther King Upcoming Schedule of Events

Upcoming Events for Martin Luther King Celebration of Human Rights includes:

“Service Day – Kit Building for Those in Need | Jan. 20, 2024 from 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Location: Activity Center (260 IMU)
Come together to make a positive impact by assembling kits for individuals facing various challenges. Your participation will contribute to creating a better community.”
“MLK Distinguished Lecture by Michele Norris | Jan. 23, 2024 at Noon
Location: Prem Sahai Auditorium, 1110 Medical Education and Research Facility, MERF
Title: Our Hidden Conversations
Join us for a distinguished lecture by Michele Norris, NPR Journalist, on the theme “Our Hidden Conversations.”

Woodpeckers Coming Out of the Woodwork After the Snowstorms!

We have not seen any birds in our backyard since the arctic blast began this past week or so—until a couple of days ago.

We saw a Red-Bellied Woodpecker, a Downy woodpecker, and a White-Breasted Nuthatch. Hardly a flock, but interesting anyway.

We had a little trouble deciding whether we saw a White-Breasted Nuthatch or a Black-Capped Chickadee. But there were a few clues. The bird was climbing down the side of a tree. Chickadees don’t do that. It didn’t have a black throat patch, either. And it had a chestnut undertail.

The downy Woodpecker had a stubby little bill and it was smaller than a Hairy Woodpecker.

That reminded Sena of the time about twelve years ago when she went to a lot of trouble looking for our camera. She caught a shot of a Pileated Woodpecker in our backyard while I was at work. She thought I wouldn’t believe her unless she had a snapshot to prove it. I’m glad I didn’t bet on it.

Balaclava Beats the Blizzard Blast

The arctic blast continues with temperatures well below zero and cautions about going outside—if you dare.

I have a balaclava, which is a combination scarf, hat, and extraterrestrial two-way radio. I wore it on the first day of the snowstorm last week, when the snow was great for juggling snowballs. I somehow got it twisted and my left eye got covered up. I didn’t know I could be a one-eyed juggler.

I’m not sure if I finally figured out how to don the balaclava correctly or not. But I did it my way. There are models without antennae, which might cut down on extraterrestrial abductions.

Actually, you probably should stay indoors for the next few days while the big wind chill grips the area.

Martin Luther King Day About Peace and Unity

I noticed that Iowa City and Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas have a couple of things in common regarding the celebration of the Martin Luther King holiday this week—one is inclement weather. The other thing is hope for peace and unity.

I was a student at Huston-Tillotson (one of the HBCUs) back in the 1970s. I saw it snow there once. It turns out that one of the MLK events will be postponed to January 27, 2024, and that’s the Austin MLK March. It’ll be too cold, with a chance for freezing rain. The event is billed as the MLK CommUnity March. The MLK Festival and Food Drive has been rescheduled to January 27^th as well, and that will be at Huston-Tillotson University. The emphasis is on unity.

In Iowa City, the MLK Peace March on January 15, 2024 will instead be a vehicular parade because of the really cold weather we’ve been having recently. The emphasis is on peace. The parade will start at 9:30 AM.

All of my life I’ve admired Dr. Martin Luther King for his efforts to unite everyone in peace. Despite the world’s current events, I still have hope that the effort will continue.

We all have a lot in common, and it’s not just the weather.

CDC Guidelines for Preventing Hypothermia & Frostbite

It’s going to get colder in Iowa with wind chill factors raising the risk for cold weather-related illness. Read CDC guidelines about how to recognize and prevent hypothermia and frostbite.