With summer in full swing, I have a couple of reminders about safety. These are not new messages but ones that resonate with me because of personal experiences.
Be careful of thunderstorms. Remember, lightning can strike ten miles away from where you hear thunder. I witnessed this one afternoon after a brief thunderstorm that moved quickly through the area. When we thought it was gone, lightning struck a tree beside our house. You can read about the details here. We were very happy that no one was hurt, although Theo felt a tingling go through his arm, and many things in our house got fried.
Wear Sunscreen and have regular dermatologist visits. A close friend was recently diagnosed with melanoma. Luckily, it was in situ (hadn't spread into her body), but from under the one little red spot that was visible on her cheek, it had spread from ear to nose and up to her eyelids. Removing the cancerous cells was a painful, involved ordeal, but luckily, she's going to be okay. She had regular checks with the dermatologist, so the melanoma was caught just in the nick of time. If she hadn't been vigilant about keeping appointments, hers would be an entirely different story. And if sunscreen had been around when we were kids, she might not have had this problem at all. (BTW, there's a lot of misinformation going around about the safety of sunscreen. Talk to your doctor to get the real facts.)
There are many more ways that we need to be careful with summer activities, but those are my warnings for today.
Now, go have fun - Safely!
Until next time...
