Work and blood

Today is my four-hour day. I go in at 10 pm and leave at 2 am. Hopefully my "Check Engine" light doesn't turn out to be something serious. (I checked yesterday, and everything looked OK. I did add oil, but that's become a regular thing with this car. After more than 314,000 miles...)

After that I will work twelve-hour nights on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Monday is a holiday - Martin Luther King, Jr. day.

Wednesday I am scheduled to give blood - which means I should be bulking up on iron right now. I wonder what the blood situation is in Haiti right now? There are a lot of injured people. Are there many in need of blood? Is there a clean, safe supply of blood available? Are blood supplies being shipped there? And is that depleting available domestic stock?

After 9/11 lots of people rolled up their sleeves for the first time - resulting in a massive oversupply of blood, much of which had to be discarded after it expired, unused, weeks later. When this news broke many of those first-time donors vowed never to give again.

This is, to put it mildly, dumb.

Blood is needed throughout the year, in routine situations as well as emergencies. Everyone who can donate blood, should - if not out of altruism, them maybe out of some bizarre fascination with the alleged health benefits of the ancient practice of bloodletting.* A good way to randomize blood donations to make sure there's a steady supply: give blood on your birthday, then every eight (or twelve, or whatever) weeks thereafter. Assuming that birthdays are spread evenly throughout the year, this should mean that donations will also be spread out.

Anyway. Time for a shower. And maybe some red meat.



*Well...yeah. Don't judge.