The Perils of Living in Oklahoma

Last night was the the first time that a tornado has come within five miles of my house. It was a really intense couple of hours as tornadoes were just popping up everywhere and landing with unpredictability. One passed by the OU campus blowing out windows and causing a lot of damage and it passed over a really busy street during rush hour and luckily no one was seriously hurt. Here is a video of it crossing that street. This is the one that was just miles from the house and we could see it in the horizon from the front porch. What was so strange is that this particular tornado formed in a matter of minutes, barely giving storm spotters any warning to activate the sirens.

It is a really eerie feeling when tornadoes happen. We were eating dinner with the news on in the background when I started hearing hail and rain hit the house and then almost immediately the winds picked up. The intense rain, winds, and pea sized hail lasted just a few minutes then all of sudden it stopped and the sky was a weird greenish haze. But it was like the brakes were hit. My hair was standing on my arms and you just get this sense that something bad is going to happen. My oldest boy Parker who was standing at the door with me said, "Are the storms gone, daddy? I told them to go away." I told him that I didn't know and when I turned around my wife was shaking and crying hollering at the boys to get in the middle closet and hide. Then the sirens went off. You see, my wife lived in the Midwest City/Del City part of Oklahoma when the big one hit on May 3rd, 1999. That tornado was the strongest ever recorded with speeds of 301 miles per hour and caused massive destruction. She knew what was about to happen. But this tornado warning had a different sense of panic. In 1999, she only had to protect her cat, not two children. Then it happened. The news in the background said that there was a tornado on the ground in Norman Oklahoma around Hwy 9, heading towards the OU campus. As I looked in that direction, the winds suddenly picked up, but in reverse. The trees were bending to the South instead of the North and you could hear a light rumble....then there it was off in the distance just moving across the horizon to the Southeast from my house. I told my wife that we were OK as it went South of us and she just stood there hugging the boys, watching it disappear in the tree line.

We were lucky but quite a few others were not. One of the hardest hit places was a truck stop to the Northeast on I-40 and Choctaw. There are additional images of it on the video above. They confirmed one fatality there as a child was not able to get to shelter and was killed by flying debris. This was from a tornado touched down about five miles North of our house and went through the city of Moore and headed in that direction about 15 minutes prior to our scare. The nickname for this area in tornado alley and I can see why, just driving to work this morning and seeing where it crossed on I-35, it looks like a bowling ball rolled through the fences and trees, knocking them all down. According to the weather forecast for tonight and tomorrow, more storms with the possibility of tornadoes so it may be another interesting night.

Here is a great video of what it was like.

Medicine Recalls

In the news lately there have been a number or stories of product recalls concerning children's items. You hear about carseats, baby formula, baby food, strollers, and carriers, but the one that should really catch your attention is when it involves children's medicines. We routinely switch between Children's Tylenol and Motrin as recommended by our child's pediatrician. The Pediatrician is the one person that we trust when it concerns your child. So where do you turn? Who do you trust?

The latest medicine recall involved children's Tylenol and Motrin in the liquid form. It covers a wide range of liquids from regular Tylenol to allergy medicine such as children's Zyrtec and Benadryl. Evidentially, these medicines may contain tiny particles, increased concentration amount of medicine or "inactive ingredients that may not meet internal testing requirements". What you may ask are the inactive ingredients that may not meet testing, they are BACTERIA. That's right, bacteria was found. There have not been any reported deaths or hospitalizations resulting from children taking the contaminated medicines, but the FDA feels that it is best that they discontinue it and pull it off the shelves. It is also recommended to use generic branded medicines for the time being.

Now just because we are adults, it doesn't mean that we are in the clear. There have been numerous over the counter medicines recalled from Tylenol in the last few years and a complete list of them can be found here. Please be sure to check your medicines cabinet tonight and flush it if you happen to have some of the contaminated medicine that I had. One bright side is that if you do have some of the medicines on the list, go to this website and enter in your information to receive coupons or a refund. It only takes a few minutes to do so, and at least they are offering some form of compensation and accepting responsibility for their actions. It is the least they can do for being a leader in making children's medicines.

So now comes the most important question, "Who can we trust when it comes to recommending products for our children"? There is always a risk with being a doctor or nurse as the rate of malpractice lawsuits seems to climb more and more each and every year. I personally wouldn't do it because they were only their job. You asked what to give them and they told you. They didn't knowingly get a memo saying that this medicine is bad and then start pushing it out to every patient that visits, but I bet that there are a few walk-in type clinics where the gifts that the doctor got for pushing XYZ medicine makes him feel compelled to give you a certain brand of medicine isn't necessarily the best medicine for the ailment that you went in for. It happens, and it is a lucrative business. But I doubt that it happened here with a $4.00 bottle of children's Tylenol.

I urge you to check and make sure that your medicine is safe and when giving medicine to your small children to watch them and immediately take them to the hospital if the symptoms get worse.....It even says it on the bottle. Be Safe!

Friday Rant

I have officially run out of things to write about. Life is on autopilot this time of the year as all the faculty and staff will be leaving the building soon and we will get 3 months of solitude. It is rather annoying that on most days, kids will be carrying on about their dating life or how horrible their roommate is. I think that it is annoying because I am 12 to14 years older than them, but it is college. Grow Up. I think that really what bothers me the most is that these people are in school to become nurses and most do their clinical rotations at the Medical Center, which is the place to go if you are an employee because the "in-network" rate with our insurance is super great. Hopefully as the years go on, they will mature.

One thing I find really annoying is the tailgating students who try to wait for you to leave using your employee parking pass and then high speed it under the gate with you. It's a dollar to park people...Your tuition cost $15000 a semester and you cant pay the buck to get out? There is one other guy here who finds it annoying as well so now, we swipe our card, drive forward a few feet and then STOP. We wait for the gate to come down then we proceed. It is really funny to do it especially if the student drives a stick because most times they will hit the gate arm.. HILARIOUS!!! The buzzer goes off and then everyone looks. Hopefully they learn a lesson.

I hope everyone that reads this blahg has had a great semester and looking forward to the summer break. I am actually going to take 9 hours during summer school to try to save $1500 on tuition since the double price for out of state students doesn't apply until Fall. I want to be so done with school, to get the degree and prove to myself that I can achieve anything that I set my mind to. I will be the first one in my immediate family, but since both me and wife will have graduated from MSSU, I hope that my two boys will go there as well. Hopefully they will play sports and get scholarships, as in 2024 the price of out of state tuition will probably be $750 an hour at the current rate of increase. But one thing is for sure, most of the faculty that I have taken classes with are very great at what they do, and I hope they forgive my boys for who their dad is as I can be very outspoken. Bets of luck to all my English 102 classmates and if our paths should cross again, feel free to shoot me an email.

Take Care and Good Luck on your finals!!!