Safety
Home Repairs
NAME: Z
STATUS: Watchful
GOAL: No ER visits this year
PEEVE: Proscrastination
GLEE: A good contractor
We pay a handyman to clean out our gutters. We’ve done this for a year or two, ever since a friend fell off a ladder and dislocated his right knee and made his wife miserable complaining about it for the next two months.
Our friend was on this ladder trying to replace a wood soffit. The soffit had rotted because debris piled up in the gutters, trapped water and kept the wood wet because the gutters had not been routinely cleaned.
For them, it was a painful lesson [...] Read More
Fire Safety with Deputy Chief Kim Lawson
Deputy Chief Kim Lawson is a 32-year veteran of the Nashville Fire Department. She currently heads the Community Services Bureau and serves as the Chief Public Information Officer and is the primary point of contact for all media inquiries and public relations/marketing for the department. Lawson’s responsibilities include public fire safety education and prevention. In May 2003, Lawson was promoted to Deputy Chief making her the first female in the history of the Nashville Fire Department to hold this rank. Lawson holds a B.S. degree in Public Safety Administration and has completed the Fire Service Executive Management Program at Owen [...] Read More
Fire Safety
NAME: Lily
STATUS: Sweating in the sun
GOAL: Acquire a tall cold one
PEEVE: Rude waiters
GLEE: Nice boys who buy you drinks
The great thing about being under-employed is having lots more playtime in summer, laying around a friend’s posh condo pool with waiters and adult beverages. Or wake-boarding and jet skiing at a friend’s parents’ lake house. Or just chilling with another unemployed pal, like my friend M.
Poor M. has had a string of terrible luck lately – boyfriend dumped [she was the dumper, but there was no joy in dumping a cheater], laid off from work, apartment fire. It was that [...] Read More
Weather Preparedness
NAME: Z
STATUS: Pensive
GOAL: Batteries for the flashlights and radio
PEEVE: Flashlights with dead batteries
GLEE: Gnawing on pepperoni from the emergency kit after storm season
I have a friend who lived in New Orleans and worked at the newspaper during Hurricane Katrina. Her evacuation bag included a flashlight, a coin purse stuffed with quarters, a small first aid kit, a bottle of red wine and a corkscrew. Once the crew was evacuated from the newsroom to Baton Rouge with only the clothes on their backs, she was immensely popular. The first aid kit got a workout, the wine didn’t last long, and [...] Read More
Weather Preparedness with Lisa Patton from WKRN
Lisa Patton is a native of Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. She currently serves as the weathercaster on News 2. Lisa and News 2′s Storm Tracker 2000 have been seen on CNN during and after the infamous April 16th tornadoes and they are both credited for saving lives when severe storms ripped through portions of Middle Tennessee. Lisa attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and graduated with a degree in Communications. Lisa is the one of few television weathercasters in Nashville that was born and raised in Tennessee, giving her the tremendous advantage of working in front of her hometown audience. [...] Read More
Home Safety – Poisoning
NAME: Lily
Status: Waiting for cicadas to go back underground
Glee: Bonus $10 in jeans pocket
Peeve: Beady little red eyes
While I may whine about the occasional dateless Saturday night or boyfriend-less dinner party, the reality is, as a single woman I kind of have it made. And all it takes to make me appreciate this anew is spending time with a friend who has a toddler.
Toddlers have their own version of an eating disorder, in that they put EVERYTHING in their mouths. My friend C. said she has to treat her house like a fatal obstacle course, since, when it comes [...] Read More
Home Poisoning Q&A
The following information has been sourced from the Tennessee Poison Control Center, American Association of Poison Control Centers, and American Academy of Pediatrics.
Q: What are the most common poisons for children?
A:
Cosmetics such as perfume or nail polish, and personal care products such as deodorant and soap.
Cleaning products (for example, laundry detergent and floor cleaners).
Pain medicines (analgesics) such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen.
Foreign bodies and toys including silica gel packages to remove moisture in packaging and glow products.
Topical preparations such as diaper rash products, hydrogen peroxide, acne preparations, or calamine lotion.
Q: What are the most common poisons for adults?
A:
Pain medicines [...] Read More
Ask an Expert: Green Cleaning
Have a question for our expert? This line is open until Friday, April 1st. Heather Sullivan will then answer the top questions and we’ll post the answers right here and on our Facebook Page.
The below was sourced from an interview on Gaiam Life with Seventh Generation’s Jeffrey Hollender
Q: What’s so bad about chlorine bleach?
A: If you bleach paper using chlorine you get dioxin, a deadly chemical 300,000 times more dangerous than Agent Orange. There are also many other hazards with chlorine bleach. For example, if there is chlorine in your automatic dishwashing detergent, the chlorine mixes [...] Read More
Relationships
NAME: Z
STATUS: Thankful
GOAL: More random acts of kindness
PEEVE: TV commercials for diamonds
GLEE: Flowers in February
By many standards, my first husband behaved like a textbook mate. Roses and chocolate on Valentine’s Day, something extravagant and impractical for my birthday. Expensive dinner out on our anniversary. More roses.
So, Z, you ask, what was the problem? Most women would love that.
This woman didn’t. Sure, I liked it, especially in the beginning. I felt special and appreciated. After a few years, though, these events started to feel more like rituals that he checked off and less like occasions to celebrate our partnership and growth. [...] Read More
Ask an Expert: Safer Sex with Sarah Sheldon
Have a question for our experts? This line is open until Friday, October 15th. Sarah will then answer a few questions and we’ll post her answers right here and on the forums.
[...] Read More
