You’d have thought the world was ending. Traffic was gridlocked for blocks. At the grocery store, the aisles were jammed with aggressive, monomaniacal shoppers, and the checkout lineups were backlogged into a huge interlocking mess of people and carts and crying babies.
Had war been declared? Was an alien invasion underway?
No. It was a Friday night and there was a bit of a snowstorm in the forecast for Saturday.
As it turned out, it was a pretty decent little snowstorm, but nothing really worth panicking over. Still, Halifax was in a state of chaos both before and after the storm.
I’m actually a big believer in being prepared. I’ve always got my little emergency lantern and battery-operated radio on standby, plus a few tins of beans and bottles of water stashed away in the basement. Still, I really don’t see why a simple snowstorm should throw everyone into such a frenzy of grocery stockpiling. I wouldn’t have even been at the store myself, but it happened to be my week to take my mother-in-law shopping for groceries.
So there we were, when we finally got through the traffic, helplessly getting bumped and jostled around the grocery store aisles. Some aisles were impassible, completely crammed with carts. Some shelves were bare, and I mean stripped, of whatever had been for sale there a little earlier. One woman who passed us rolled her eyes and said, “Some guy just ran right into me with his cart and then gave ME a dirty look!”
I had to work pretty hard to be Zen about it all. Close eyes. Breathe in. Open eyes, reach gently for chicken soup. Ignore woman who just knocked entire shelf of cans almost onto partner’s head. Exhale.
And I do have a theory about what was going on. I think we Haligonians have a pretty serious case of what I’m calling Post-Juan-Induced Panic Disorder, or PJIPD (pronounce it with me, “puh-jip’-DUH”). We pretty much all got caught with our safety-pants down (is there such a thing as safety-pants?) when Hurricane Juan hit, and again, when White Juan left us buried under what appeared to be the beginning of a new ice age.
We vowed to never again be stuck in a state of emergency without at least a week’s supply of food, water, and Captain Morgan. So with every new forecast of snow or high winds, we all rush out to stock up, just in case we get hung out to dry, once again, by the power company or the plow.
Sure, it’s an over-reaction to an ordinary winter forecast. But on this particular weekend, as if to prove me wrong, most of Halifax did end up stuck indoors for the better part of the next day, because the folks who manage the city’s snow-clearing crews were so utterly unprepared for a snowfall in November. As they scrambled to get plows on the road, they managed to demonstrate, once again, that a tiny bit of weather DOES equal a near-state of emergency in Halifax, thereby justifying and reinforcing the need for a good, pre-storm panic.
If this is what it’s gonna be like every time we get a storm this winter, I may have to do some stockpiling myself. Fill the cupboard with nuts and berries and go into hibernation. Somebody wake me up when the last snow is melting, so I can start freaking out about whether I’ve got enough sunscreen to make it through the summer.
Monday, December 8, 2008
The Day I Saved Three Lives
They told me I had just saved three lives, so I proudly went about the rest of my day repeating that fact. “I just saved three lives,” I said to the grocery store checkout clerk. “I saved three lives today,” I told the lady at the lotto booth.
Last month, Canadian Blood Services put out a call for blood donors due to a national shortage. The last time I had given blood was many years ago – back when blood donation was still in the hands of the Red Cross. I had been a semi-regular donor since the age of sixteen, but that last time, the nurse (perhaps she was having a bad day) told me my blood was coming out too slowly, and suggested I probably shouldn’t come back.
So I didn’t. For fifteen, maybe twenty years. Then, when I heard about this shortage, I thought, “What the heck is keeping me from donating again? I’m healthy, I don’t mind needles, I can find the time. And that cranky nurse is definitely long gone.” So I made an appointment, went down to the clinic, and was in and out in an hour. I would like to point out to whoever’s listening that my blood came out in a mere ten minutes! And I was probably thanked for donating more than half a dozen times in the course of that hour, so it was an excellent self-esteem boost.
Jillian Brown, of Canadian Blood Services, says people have really stepped up since the recent call for donations. “We actually had an incredible response from Canadians coast to coast, and we are no longer in ‘urgent need’ mode. That said, blood has a shelf life of 42 days, and platelets have a shelf life of five days, so that's a really big challenge.”
Brown explained to me that each donation is separated into three different products (whole blood components, plasma and platelets) which can go to three different patients – thus the “saving three lives” figure. She also told me that they are heading into a really challenging period – the holidays.
“The need for blood is constant because of its limited shelf life,” she says. “But right now, forecasts are showing that more blood is going to be going out the door than coming in between December 1 and January 2.”
No doubt some people stay away because they’re just not fond of being poked with sharp instruments. “You know what?” Brown says. “We're not going to lie. We are asking people to come and help, but we are going to put a needle in your arm.” She laughs when I tell her I have a friend whose greatest fear is the pricking of the fingertip. “Yes,” she admits, “we are also going to prick your finger, and it's going to hurt a little bit, but not for very long.”
So what is it that keeps people from donating over the holidays? Brown acknowledges that it’s just a busier time of year for most folks. “People are preoccupied. There's the regular holiday stuff going on - kids’ school plays, Christmas concerts, Christmas parties, shopping. Blood donation just isn't top of mind.”
So here’s your reminder. It takes about an hour. It doesn’t hurt much, and you get free cookies and juice. Plus you get bragging rights for the next 56 days – until your next donation. And it seems like a pretty good Christmas gift for those three recipients, who might not behaving a holiday that’s quite as merry as yours.
Last month, Canadian Blood Services put out a call for blood donors due to a national shortage. The last time I had given blood was many years ago – back when blood donation was still in the hands of the Red Cross. I had been a semi-regular donor since the age of sixteen, but that last time, the nurse (perhaps she was having a bad day) told me my blood was coming out too slowly, and suggested I probably shouldn’t come back.
So I didn’t. For fifteen, maybe twenty years. Then, when I heard about this shortage, I thought, “What the heck is keeping me from donating again? I’m healthy, I don’t mind needles, I can find the time. And that cranky nurse is definitely long gone.” So I made an appointment, went down to the clinic, and was in and out in an hour. I would like to point out to whoever’s listening that my blood came out in a mere ten minutes! And I was probably thanked for donating more than half a dozen times in the course of that hour, so it was an excellent self-esteem boost.
Jillian Brown, of Canadian Blood Services, says people have really stepped up since the recent call for donations. “We actually had an incredible response from Canadians coast to coast, and we are no longer in ‘urgent need’ mode. That said, blood has a shelf life of 42 days, and platelets have a shelf life of five days, so that's a really big challenge.”
Brown explained to me that each donation is separated into three different products (whole blood components, plasma and platelets) which can go to three different patients – thus the “saving three lives” figure. She also told me that they are heading into a really challenging period – the holidays.
“The need for blood is constant because of its limited shelf life,” she says. “But right now, forecasts are showing that more blood is going to be going out the door than coming in between December 1 and January 2.”
No doubt some people stay away because they’re just not fond of being poked with sharp instruments. “You know what?” Brown says. “We're not going to lie. We are asking people to come and help, but we are going to put a needle in your arm.” She laughs when I tell her I have a friend whose greatest fear is the pricking of the fingertip. “Yes,” she admits, “we are also going to prick your finger, and it's going to hurt a little bit, but not for very long.”
So what is it that keeps people from donating over the holidays? Brown acknowledges that it’s just a busier time of year for most folks. “People are preoccupied. There's the regular holiday stuff going on - kids’ school plays, Christmas concerts, Christmas parties, shopping. Blood donation just isn't top of mind.”
So here’s your reminder. It takes about an hour. It doesn’t hurt much, and you get free cookies and juice. Plus you get bragging rights for the next 56 days – until your next donation. And it seems like a pretty good Christmas gift for those three recipients, who might not behaving a holiday that’s quite as merry as yours.
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