Eludius - the Blood Donor

Martin O'Malley - do you donate blood? I never see you bragging about donating blood. I hear you bragging all the time, though. But never about donating blood.

I donated blood today. I called today to learn how many times I've donated in my lifetime. I know I've donated twice with the Carolina Blood Bank, but the remainder of the donation are through the Red Cross.

Chris, the friendly fella at the Red Cross customer service center, said that I've donated 39 times. However, he said the records only go back to 1999. I know that I donated once as a senior in high school to help my friend Tom with his Eagle Scout project. I donated a couple times while at Harford Community College. I donated on the day the Alfred Murah building was bombed in Oklahoma City in 1995 while I worked at the VISA Assistance Center in Owings Mills. And I know I donated several times at American Amalgamated Corrugated Conglomerate of America prior to 1999.

So by estimation, I've donated 47 times. Not too bad. I know there are others that have donated much more. I've always felt obligated to donate blood. It's easy to do and I've never had any problems. But now that my daughter has leukemia and has needed blood and platelets I feel even more dedicated - to the point where I'm going around harassing other people to donate. And I just calculated it - a donation is roughly 1 pint of blood. 47 pints is 5.875 gallons. I've donated almost 6 gallons of blood in my lifetime! Hokey-smoke, Bullwinkle!

Funniest donation story - was actually when I donated the day of the attack in Oklahoma City. There was a young girl donating in the chair across from me. She didn't look too good. Sort of gray in the face. You could tell by her eyes that she was mentally all over the place as the blood drained from her body.

The phlebotomist (people who take your blood) kept asking the girl if she felt okay. The girl said yes. I don't even have an education in phlebotomy and I could tell she wasn't okay. Nonetheless when she finished they let her get up and instructed her to walk over to the table to get some juice and cookies. She took two steps then started staggering to one side until she was doing a face-plant on the linoleum. Yes, that's probably not too funny. But it is. They laid her down, got her fluids and she was eventually okay. But, duh, I knew she was going to pass out.

Phone Calls

On Saturday during the big rain storm I got a phone call that went like this:

"Hello, Mr. Oakley. This is Hapless Phone Representative from the Baltimore Sun. We see that you haven't subscribed to The Sun in several years and we really miss you."
"No you don't."
"Well, we miss your money. And that's why I'm calling you today to present you with some great discounted..."
"No thanks."
"You say that with such conviction. Any reason why?"
"You mean other than teh fact that The Sun is a one-sided liberal propaganda machine? How about the scathing article written last week by Susan Reimer ripping apart Republican Sarah Palin?"
"You have a nice day, sir." Click.

I thought for sure he'd like to have a debate or some kind of conversation with me. Perhaps he's heard that a lot this week. It must be tough working for a company that is so divisive.

Now what bugs me the most is that I am on the Federal Do Not Call List and I think The Sun has violated this law by calling me. I mean, it's been several years since I've done business with them. Can I turn them in for this? Perhaps if they promise to fire Susan Reimer, I'll let them off easy.

And speaking of Do Not Call Lists, I donate blood for the Red Cross 4 times per year. And I donate fairly regularly. I've donated about 35 times in my life. They come to where I work making it really easy for me. And I get out of work for an hour and a half. How great is that?

So regardless of the fact that I donate 4 times per year, the Red Cross calls my house 300 times per year asking me to donate. They'll call me the day after I donate and cry that they're extremely low on my blood type. I tell them, "At the moment, so am I!"

I have called them repeatedly and asked them to stop calling me. I will continue to donate, but they have to stop calling. The calls did stop for a while. Then last month they started calling again. And they don't really call me. I'm at work. They call my wife at home. And she hollers at me that the Red Cross keeps calling when I'm not home. Yes, that's totally my fault.

So, Red Cross, if you continue to call my house, I will be forced to ask you again to stop calling me again.

Fire in Eldersburg

Sometimes you see something that really makes you thankful that your family is safe.

Last night some vicious thunderstorms rolled through southern Carroll County. After one of these brief, but heavy downpours that were accompanied by fleets of banging lightning, I loaded up the kids and headed to a friend's house to borrow a canopy for my daughter's birthday party on Saturday. While there we heard a lot (read A LOT) of sirens.

When I left I kept my eyes open for flashing lights for an accident or something. Eventually I came upon Johnsville Road, just west of Route 32. I saw heavy smoke billowing from behind Wesley Freedom Church. I immediately turned onto Johnsville and as I passed the church I realized that the smoke was coming from a group of high-density townhouses.

High-density town houses are six to eight in a group with no rear entry. On the back of these units, are six to eight abutting units. So your back wall is the back wall to someone else's house. So you basically have one way out - the front door.

As we turned onto Piney Ridge Parkway, I saw the flames flickering through the roof and into the sky. We quickly pulled into the parking lot of the church, because everyone else was. There must have been several hundred people there.

The roof had totally collapsed. The dormer to one unit was just laying in the attic. While we were there fire companies from 10 stations had come - Freedom (Sykesville), West Freedom (Howard County), Winfield, Westminster, Reese, Gamber, and Glyndon (Carroll County), and Liberty Road, Reisterstown and Franklin from Baltimore County.

Fortunately, everyone got out in time and there were no reported injuries. Unfortunately, at least 6 families were displaced by the fire. The Red Cross is helping to place these families until they can get back on their feet. The cause of the fire had not yet been determined by today's article, but it appears that it was from lightning