Safety Precautions

A friend of mine recently returned to Brazil to travel, sight see and just live the Brazilian life. As many know, the Olympics in 2016 will be held in Brazil, and so I thought I should shed light on some violence that occurs down there, and well as remind people everywhere about safety.

Anne has been to Brazil before, she lived down there and speaks the language, she knows the area and is a pretty smart cookie. Anne was walking down a relatively safe street when a man approached her and told her to give him her cellular. Anne had a suitcase, her backpack and her cell phone; in her backpack was her very expensive laptop and other valuable items. Like instructed she threw the cell phone as far as she could and ran as fast as she could in the opposite direction towards the main street. She started screaming at the top of her lungs screaming help me and get away from me. Luckily two taxi drivers heard her and both went running after the culprit to get him away from her.

This happened just last night, Anne was walking in the afternoon, in the broad daylight. The reminder is this, while we all like to believe we are aware of our situation and in a safe part of town the reality is that you need to be prepared for anything. What Anne did, throwing her cell phone, was probably the thing that saved her and her possessions. We’ve all received the emails about locking our doors right away, not walking in garages by ourselves, and many other things; however, rarely has anything they’ve warned about happen to anyone we know. Not all of you know Anne, I realize that, but her experience makes me aware that those emails aren’t being sent out for fun. There is a reason that people warn others about how to escape, dangerous situations to avoid, and all together remind us of safety in all situations.

I hope if nothing else this posting will keep one person safe, even if they never run into confrontation. I hope that maybe they will prepare and act smartly about their life so they never need to use any techniques that those helpful emails instruct us about. And just in case you deleted your emails with the information, here is a copy of mine:

Because of recent abductions in daylight hours, refresh yourself of these things to do in an emergency situation...

This is for you, and for you to share with your wife, your children, everyone you know.

It never hurts to be careful in this crazy world we live in.

1. Tip from Tae Kwon Do :
The elbow is the strongest point on your body. If you are close enough to use it, do!

2.. Learned this from a tourist guide.
If a robber asks for your wallet and/or purse, DO NOT HAND IT TO HIM. Toss it away from you.... Chances are that he is more interested in your wallet and/or purse than you, and he will go for the wallet/purse. RUN LIKE MAD IN THE OTHER DIRECTION!

3. If you are ever thrown into the trunk of a car, kick out the back tail lights and stick your arm out the hole and start waving like crazy.. The driver won't see you, but everybody else will. This has saved lives.

4. Women have a tendency to get into their cars after shopping, eating, working, etc., and just sit (doing their checkbook, or making a list, etc. DON'T DO THIS!) The predator will be watching you, and this is the perfect opportunity for him to get in on the passenger side, put a gun to your head, and tell you where to go.
AS SOON AS YOU GET INTO YOUR CAR , LOCK THE DOORS AND LEAVE..

If someone is in the car with a gun to your head DO NOT DRIVE OFF, Repeat: DO NOT DRIVE OFF! Instead gun the engine and speed into anything, wrecking the car. Your Air Bag will save you. If the person is in the back seat they will get the worst of it . As soon as the car crashes bail out and run. It is better than having them find your body in a remote location.

5. A few notes about getting into your car in a parking lot, or parking garage:
A.) Be aware: Look around you, look into your car, at the passenger side floor , and in the back seat
B.) If you are parked next to a big van, enter your car from the passenger door. Most serial killers attack their victims
by pulling them into their vans while the women are attempting to get into their cars.
C.) Look at the car parked on the driver's side of your vehicle, and the passenger side... If a male is sitting alone in the seat nearest your car, you may want to walk back into the mall, or work, and get a guard/policeman to walk you back out. IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY. (And better paranoid than dead.)

6. ALWAYS take the elevator instead of the stairs. Stairwells are horrible places to be alone and the perfect crime spot.
This is especially true at NIGHT!

7. If the predator has a gun and you are not under his control, ALWAYS RUN! The predator will only hit you (a running target) 4 in 100 times; and even then, it most likely WILL NOT be a vital organ. RUN, Preferably in a zig -zag pattern!

8. As women, we are always trying to be sympathetic: STOP It may get you raped, or killed. Ted Bundy, the serial killer, was a good-looking, well educated man, who ALWAYS played on the sympathies of unsuspecting women. He walked with a cane, or a limp, and often asked 'for help' into his vehicle or with his vehicle, which is when he abducted
his next victim.

9. Another Safety Point:
Someone just told me that her friend heard a crying baby on her porch the night before last, and she called the police because it was late and she thought it was weird.. The police told her
'Whatever you do, DO NOT open the door..' The lady then said that it sounded like the baby had crawled near a window, and she was worried that it would crawl to the street and get run over. The policeman said, 'We already have a unit on the way, whatever you do, DO NOT open the door.' He told her that they think a serial killer has a baby's cry recorded and uses it to coax women out of their homes thinking that someone dropped off a baby. He said they have not verified it, but have had several calls by women saying that they hear baby's cries outside their doors when they're home alone at night. The Crying Baby Theory was mentioned on America 's Most Wanted when they profiled the serial killer in Louisiana.

10. Water scam!
If you wake up in the middle of the night to hear all your taps outside running or what you think is a burst pipe, DO NOT GO OUT TO INVESTIGATE! These people turn on all your outside taps full ball so that you will go out to investigate and then attack.

Another Day, Another Dollar Towards My Car

As you may have read previously, I have had some recent car troubles. It came as a great surprise to me then, to have my car die on me on the way home from work today. I was exiting Highway 62 to take the back roads, and good thing I did. Just as I was turning on the next intersection my car stated losing power was flooring it and it kept going slower. The lamp dripping oil and the battery signal light up and my car died. One minute later I got it to work again, just enough time for me to be completely frazzled that I had already put a ton of money into the damn thing and just picked it up from the mechanics yesterday!

Well I called the service place and let them have a piece of my mind. I told them what happened and that this was quite disconcerting because I just picked my car up yesterday and I was quite surprised that the $110 complete diagnostic test yielded no suspicions on my engine. If you're going to charge me for it you better damn well make sure you can put your money where your mouth is.

I told them I was dropping my car off tomorrow morning and they were driving me to work and they were going to fix this problem because that's what the $110 paid them to find out before I had to have my car die on the back roads. So hopefully after tomorrow, I won't have any more car issues to report.

And because I didn't blog about this earlier - the piece of metal I hit didn't do any damage, turns out a water pump burst and there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. So good thing I had left otherwise there wouldn't have been a towing place or mechanic place open by the time I left. Oy. Hopefully by tomorrow this will all be a thing of the past.

The Bad Day Continued

So.....I thought my bad day at work was just going to be about my heel breaking and nothing really going my way. I mean, isn't it enough punishment for a girl to ruin her favorite heels after the third time wearing them?

Well long story short, I was dog-sitting Annie & Skipper, my Uncle's two white labs whom Chanel absolutely adores. When she was dog-sat by my Uncle she looked less than thrilled to see me, she would have preferred that I never come home I think!!! So Chanel and I had left my sweat pants at work with my flip flops at work. I had let the girls out, fed them and let them out again. I was on my way back to work to get my sweat pants to relax with the girls & watch some tv on the HUGE plasma television, what a great night, right? Well for whatever reason Chanel wanted to come with me. Probably lucky she did. I'm driving back to Edina and am rounding the last curve before my favorite road of all time - Ferndale Ave. All of a sudden I drive over a LARGE piece of metal. This awful scrapping noise starts and there are cars behind me. The speed limit is 50 mph. I can't just stop, so I start heading off to Ferndale. The noise comes to a screeching stop as the piece of metal flies out from the car and my car starts to seriously smoke up. There is the most awful smelling smoke coming out of my car hood.

My flashers are on and about twenty cars pass me, each giving me the evil eye. How dare I let my old, piece of crap (which mind you is relatively new and in no way shape or form a piece of crap) die on their beautiful road? This old, crappy car pulls up next to me and these two men come out and one of them is missing teeth. He tells me, the green goop coming out of my car is anti-freeze and that the area the metal tore is most likely the hose that connects the radiator to the engine, making it impossible for the engine to stay cool. I call one of my best friend's dad who helps me with my car and he tells me he will fix my car if I can get it back to St. Paul.

I get back onto Shoreline Dr. and my car starts overheating within 45 seconds. I pull over to the side and cars are whizzing by at 50 miles an hour. It takes over half an hour to even get 20 more yards to the next road. I finally call Progressive Auto Insurance and they tell me, that I had somehow neglected to click the spot for 24 hour complete road side assistance. Said assistance covers towing and any other problem. The cost? $1 more a month. They finally send me a tow truck and my poor dog is deathly afraid of cars, let alone loud noises. My dog decides to drool all over me and my pants the entire way there.

The silver lining? Well there's a few. All of my friends offered to come get me, knowing I have amazing people in my life makes bad times better. The other? The place my boss introduced me to in order to get my oil changed was one of two places open on Friday past 7 pm. They stayed open until I got there to make sure they could process my car. And the last good news? Progressive said to try and claim it as it was technically a collision with a hazardous material in the road.

What a Friday, my motto turned into Thank God It's Saturday instead. Then my car didn't get fixed in time, my allergies got bad and I got Pink Eye, right after I made fun of people who get Pink Eye. Moral of the story? Always pay for roadside assistance, you never know when you're gonna need it. AND when it rains it pours, but what doesn't kill you makes you so much stronger.