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Blogging took a back seat to life… lots of life-activities going on around the ol’ BHD homestead this weekend. A large part of it was a major event that earned me my Life Membership in my local fire department.<\/p>\nBlogging took a back seat to life… lots of life-activities going on around the ol’ BHD homestead this weekend. A large part of it was a major event that earned me my Life Membership in my local fire department.<\/p>\n
This past Saturday marked the 25th time that about 40 friends and I executed our “Senior Safety Saturday” event. This is when we…
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\n…visit the homes of people who are aging-in-place and install (or replace) safety devices that make living in the place one feels safest … more safe.<\/p>\n
* Grab bars for the bath\/shower — statistics show that 4\/5ths of falls in the home that result in broken bones occur in the bath or near the shower. Having something to hold on to while getting in and out of an environment with slippery floors prevents those falls. <\/p>\n
* Slips-trips-and falls in the home are the second highest result of broken bones. So we install non-slip bath mats, remove “slip rugs” in places most likely to cause a hazard (top and bottom of stairs and at entries to bedrooms and bathrooms). Occasionally, we’ll also install hand rails at other strategic locations, such as stairs and even in kitchens.<\/p>\n
* Finally, our state now mandates sealed 10-year lithium battery smoke alarms. Most smoke alarms in homes are of the older type that required battery change once annually. And many homes have smoke alarms older than ten years, which is about their lifespan. So we replace all smoke alarms with new ones that comply with the new law.<\/p>\n I am grateful to have the support of a major home retailer’s foundation that covers most of our expenses (about $10,000), a discount on supplies purchases there as well, and community support with additional donations that cover expenses beyond supplies, such as insurance, food for the volunteers, and miscellaneous stuff whose costs all add up.<\/p>\n My Mom would be proud — after all, she inspired this effort by being my first “guinea pig.” Then her next-door neighbor, then that nice lady across the hall… then … then… then… now with more than 2,300 homes so protected, statistics show that we have not had a deadly home fire or injury-causing fall in any of the homes we have serviced over the past years we have been doing this. Yay!<\/p>\n Life is short: care for the community you love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Blogging took a back seat to life… lots of life-activities going on around the ol’ BHD homestead this weekend. A large part of it was a major event that earned me my Life Membership in my local fire department. This … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Pathlight-300x142.jpg?resize=300%2C142\")
* Older people frequently have to get up at night to urinate. Unfortunately, we’re not kids any more and we can’t “hold it” like we used to. Yet, few adults want to use a bedside commode (makes them feel that they are really feeble) and think that a trip to the toilet at night isn’t difficult. Sure, we know where it is and we can get there with our eyes closed. So we don’t turn on any lights — too stark and blinding — yet did we remember to make sure the path-to-the-bath<\/em> is clear? Ooops! That pair of shoes! Kaboom! — To remedy this, motion-sensitive floor-path lighting significantly helps. It lights the floor — the path-to-the-bath<\/em> — without blinding someone whose eyes do not see that well in the dark any more. Easy, simple, solution to a major cause of in-home falls (still under study; no stats yet on the number, but I know it must be huge.)<\/p>\n