Here are this week’s 5 Things You Should Know.
01. If one of your calves is swollen or hot and feels “tight”…
If you don’t know why you are having these symptoms, you need to go to a hospital. Those are symptoms of a deep vein thrombosis blood clot. I’ve had to take my dad in a few times for them, yet I don’t hear them get as much attention as chest pain or heart attacks, even though if the blood clot breaks off and makes it to your heart, that’s probably what you’ll have. One made it to my dad’s lungs and caused a pulmonary embolism. Consider the warning signs more severe if you’ve recently been sitting down without moving for a long time (like in an airplane) or if you’ve recently had surgery.
02. You can plan your commute in advance with Google’s Typical Traffic Feature
With Google Maps, you can get things like a quick overview of traffic for your commute, transit lines in a new city, bicycle-friendly routes, or information about the landscape.
To Get traffic, transit, bicycling, or terrain information
- On your computer, open Google Maps.
- In the top left, click the main menu
.
- Click Traffic, Transit, Bicycling, or Terrain.
- At the bottom, you’ll see more info.
- When done, turn the switch off.
If a type of map info you want is grayed out in the main menu, that information isn’t available for the area of the map that you’re viewing.
03. How to make your own sports drink
It’s much cheaper to fill up a bottle with tap water than to buy bottled water. Same is true for sports drinks (ie. Gatorade). It is much, much cheaper and healthier to make it at home.
Ingredients for about 9 cups of Greaterade:
- 8 cups fresh cold water
- 3 tablespoons honey, or other sweetener to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon fine *pink salt (mine was coarsely ground, so I used a rounded 1/2 teaspoon)
- 3/4 teaspoon calcium magnesium powder (this is the one I used)
- pinch cayenne
- 3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- 2 lemons, juiced
- 2 limes, juiced
Here is the full recipe on youtube
04. It is a huge fire hazard to throw out fireplace/wood stove ashes in the garbage
It doesn’t matter how long the fire has been out. A friend of mine has been firefighter for almost 7 years. Year after year they respond to house fires due to the improper disposal of fireplace ashes. NEVER PUT YOU ASHES IN A FLAMMABLE CONTAINER. No matter how long the fire has been out, there still could be an ember in there capable of igniting what ever it touches. If you have a fire place/ wood burning stove buy a metal pail and the old style garbage cans. Use the metal pail to move the ashes to the metal garbage can.
Keep the metal can quite a distance away from your house. I would say at least 10 feet and keep that can away from anything flammable like a shed or fence. That ensures that if a fire was to fare up, it would just involve the metal can’s contents and nothing else. Also do not throw anything other than ashes in this garbage can. Make sure to spray the ashes down with water every time new ashes are added and leave the lid off when it rains/snows to help ensure extinguishment. After a lot of time has passed, you can bag up the ashes and leave them at the curb or use them for compost.
05. How to land correctly to avoid a dangerous fall
It’s going to happen at some point, and you can’t beat Newton’s laws of motion when it does. Might as well be prepared. My brother has taken Taekwondo for seven years, and here are the most important things to know when you fall.
- Watch your head. This is the most important part. Remember to tuck your chin and turn your head before you hit the ground.
- Just go with the fall, don’t try to stop it with your hands. If you can, roll your body to the side. You don’t want a fractured wrist.
- For harder falls, spread out the forces of impact by landing with as much of your core body as you can. Your sides and butt provide more padding than your back. Also, keep your knees and elbows bent.
- Breathe normally.
Yes, I know falling is reactive instead of proactive, but if you know these tips beforehand, it could help avoid serious injury at least having them in the back of your mind. Here a good video I found on the subject, if you need a visual demonstration.
