Geek Habitat

The state of the art new Center for the Intrepid rehabilitation facility, and two more Fisher House living centers for injured soldiers’ families, opened yesterday at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC) here in San Antonio, Texas. The facilities serve the burn and amputee populations returning from Iraq and Afghanistan (more).

A young soldier, Ty Ziegel, that my parents’ neighbor (a BAMC nurse) worked with during his extensive 18-month recovery at BAMC is photographed in two of the Express-News photos from Monday’s dedication ceremonies. The first photo (#3), shows him seated next to Senator John McKain and Senator Hillary Clinton, the other (#15) shows him seated with his wife. Their story was featured several months ago by both Time Magazine and the Oprah Winfrey Show (the Time article’s worth seeking out; the Oprah coverage was minimal and seemed out-of-place.)

The new facilities were privately funded by citizens through the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund and Fisher House Foundation, and corporate sponsors such as San Antonio’s own Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union and USAA. Upon completion of construction, the U.S. government, through the Army and the Veteran’s Administration, runs the facilities.

The Center For the Intrepid facility offers our injured soldiers state-of-the-art rehabilitiation, including: a full size rock climbing wall (for rebuilding upper body strength, and confidence), a wave pool (for therapeutic value, recreation, etc.,) and a 360-degree Virtual Reality (VR) area for working on balance and other skills.

Sadly, there is already talk of when we will need another such center to handle the never-ending flow of newly injured amputees and burn victims — most of them casualties from Iraq’s prevalent IEDs.

Read more on CNN.com about the Center For the Intrepid opening.

CNN.com also offers more photos from the grand opening.

God Bless our Troops!

…but a mother, I am soon to be. To mark my 31st week of pregnancy, Justin spent over an hour working with me and his new studio lighting setup to create some memorable pregnancy photos.

Any and all flaws or annoyances in the photo are due purely to the model, and not the photographer and his skill. I would never have photos even remotely like this taken, if not by my husband and soulmate of 18 years… (And, in the interest of full disclosure so folks don’t get weirded out — I am wearing nude-colored underwear. You will.never.see any nude photos of this body, ever, on GeekHabitat.com or elsewhere, and for that I believe we are all justifiably relieved and thankful!)

Thirty-One Weeks Pregnant

Copyright © 2007 Justin W. Moore / Moore Photography & Design

Today marks the transition to single digits for my “weeks remaining in pregnancy” — 9 weeks to go (give or take a couple).

One of us (me) is now going a little nutty, feeling like there’s no possible way we’ll have everything done by then, while the other (Justin) is going nuts at work, but when he’s home, has a confident (if not slightly eerie) calm about him that we’ll be set by the time Sprout arrives.

Nonetheless, the recent string of sunny days — and the slow greening up of our lawn — have Justin and I excited about the upcoming Spring, and having Sprout with us by then! Time has certainly flown by these past 7 months!

Yeah, leave it to a pregnant gal to search for Orange Julius at 5:59 AM…

I’d lamented to Justin some time back that there was no longer a place to get an Orange Julius in San Antonio. Apparently, I was wrong — there is one location in Rivercenter Mall, a combination Orange Julius/Dairy Queen location that serves the much-loved concoction. We’ll have to visit and try it out sometime. It appears they have added more flavors since the 80’s, but I bet nothing’s as good as the original Orange!

* San Antonio’s Orange Julius Location
Scroll to the bottom of the above link for the store location.

Anytime a non-smoker smells cigarette smoke — even if it’s on a smoker’s breath, hair, clothing, or their home furnishings – it is considered second hand smoke.

THE FACTS:

• Secondhand smoke is classified as a known cause of cancer in humans by the EPA.
• Scientific evidence cited in the current Surgeon General’s report indicates that there is no risk-free level of exposure to second hand smoke. Short exposures to second hand smoke can cause blood platelets to become stickier, damage the lining of blood vessels, decrease coronary flow velocity reserves, and reduce heart rate variability, potentially increasing the risk of heart attack.
• Secondhand smoke exposure causes disease and premature death in children and adults who do not smoke.
• It takes two weeks for one smoked cigarette smell to leave a room. Secondhand smoke contains more than 250 chemicals known to be toxic or carcinogenic, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic ammonia and hydrogen cyanide.
• Secondhand smoke is especially harmful to young children. Secondhand smoke is responsible for between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections in infants and children under 18 months of age, resulting in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations each year, and causes 1,900 to 2,700 sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) deaths in the United States annually.
• Secondhand smoke can also aggravate symptoms in 400,000 to 1,000,000 children with asthma. New evidence suggest that secondhand smoke is a risk factor for induction of new cases of asthma among children and adolescents.
• Secondhand smoke exposure may cause buildup of fluid in the middle ear, resulting in 700,000 to 1.6 million physician office visits per year and. Middle ear infections are the most common cause of childhood operations and of childhood hearing loss.
• Babies whose mothers smoke while pregnant or who are exposed to secondhand smoke after birth have weaker lungs than other babies, which increases the risk of many other health problems.
• A study found that nonsmokers exposed to environmental smoke were 25 percent more likely to have coronary heart diseases compared to nonsmokers not exposed to smoke.
• Secondhand smoke causes approximately 3,400 lung cancer deaths and 22,700-69,600 heart disease deaths in adult nonsmokers in the United States each year.

For those who are ready to quit:
Call your local American Lung Association at 1-800-LUNG-USA (1-800-586-4872) to find out more about how to stop smoking for good. The Lung Association is offering a new way to stop smoking through its Freedom From Smoking® online smoking cessation clinic. The Freedom From Smoking® online smoking cessation clinic can be accessed day or night, seven day s a week, on any schedule a smoker chooses.Visit www.ffsonline.org and stop smoking today! This is the most important step you can take to protect yourself and your family from the dangers of secondhand smoke. — Secondhand Smoke and Your Family.