Great Power Outage

From: ALISON PLACE <alison_place_at_...>
Date: Sat, 16 Aug 2003 17:26:33 -0700 (PDT)


Thanks for the kind thoughts, Guy. Fortunately, it was August. The Ice Storm in '98 was far more interesting. Many local farmers are now so happy that they still had the generators that they bought to cope with that emergency! Up in Ottawa, there weren't many real problems. No subway or tram system to com to a dead stop, thank goodness. We played "Lord of the Fries" by Coleman lamplight on the deck, outside. (Would have been RQ, but had two extra visitors who weren't in the loop.) Burgers from the barby for supper. No probs...

However, I'd like to add a slightly off-topic suggestion, from my perspective as a member of the Canadian Blood Services. All you eligible blood donors, check with your local blood donor clinic about giving blood in the next couple of weeks. No blood would have been lost due to spoilage; that's covered with emergency back-up power. However, we lost about 1600 potential donations in Canada (Ontario collects about half our supply) because of cancelled clinics during the outage. and we *need* that blood in the hospitals, especially with the Labour Day weekend coming up.

A couple of quick facts: red blood cells last 35 days, but the platelets that are separated from a whole blood donation (and are used by cancer patients, people needing marrow transplants, etc.) are useless after only five days. Platelets can't be stored. A continuous supply of platelets is absolutely necessary.

How many units the US didn't get, I don't like to think about. Rack up by 10-20X? Even if you aren't in the affected area, don't worry, it'll get used. Blood banks swap it around to wherever it's needed.

Back on topic. Truly, though, I am looking forward to seeing the actual, honest-to-God Heroquest game. That remark from Greg of saying, "Next year", for the last 20-odd years reminds me of the famous Jewish toast, "Next year in Jerusalem.". But the year has come, it really has! However, if HQ did have anything to do with the Great Power Outage (Harbinger of the Hero Wars? Nooooo!!!), fire that PR guy!




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