3,181 Comments Posted by Lynne

Whoa! The angle is great! It feels like it is collapsing!

Oh boy! More pix! :-)

This is an adapted prone cart for someone with severe contractures. For people whose bodies are stiff and don't bend easily, you will sometimes have to take a standard prone cart, gurney, or wheelchair and adapt it (which is why this particular one looks home made). Prone carts are normally used for people in the (duh) prone position, but there are some people who normally lie flat on their back but who can sit up some, and this is good because you want to relieve pressure when you can so as not to cause pressure sores. With this particular device you can put the back up so the person can be seated as much as their contractures will allow, and when they need to lie back, it folds down. You can see the push handle at the top that is used to push the cart/chair/bed when it is flat. There are still devices similar to this in use today in many places. I can't find a picture of one on the web that looks like this one, mostly because the ones I have seen like this were made by the local rehab engineer in his/her lab on grounds. However, it is the same idea as is used on this patented convertible gurney:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5584082.html

Here are some power and some manual prone carts/gurneys:
http://wheelchairs.com/gurneyspage.html
http://www.miad.edu/gallery/faculty/pmalassigne/pc_electric.pdf

Rich, a pentagram isn't always a desecration. A pentagram is also used by Wiccans (and Freemasons) - it is not exclusively Satanic by any means. And the chances are excellent it was some stupid punk kid who was just trying to get a reaction, anyways, rather than someone's calling card.

See:
http://altreligion.about.com/library/weekly/aa100102a.htm

I'LL give you some buttons, Missy! >:-(

Interesting thing about curtains - at work a few weeks back several of us were touring through some of the buildings in the old section of campus that is closed down and was last used in the late 70s or early 80s (but built between 1910 and 1914). All of the basement rooms looked like nightmare alley with the peeling paint and falling ceilings, but those durned curtains looked pretty good every where we went. Must be something in that starch. ;-)

Don't make me have to come over there, you people! >:-(

This is a sling for a Hoyer lift, and that is a mechanical lift used to transfer people from place to place without having to use your back to lift them. Safer for them, easier for you. You can lift folks out of their chairs, onto toilets, into bed, into the pool, into the tub (or shower trolley!), etc.
http://www.dmeonline.com/PTLIFTS1.JPG
http://www.rehabmart.com/pim...-D_en.jpg
http://www.rehabmart.com/20...Hoy18.jpg
http://www.edmond-wheelchair.c...sling.JPG

Hee hee! Motts the interior decorator, sneaking into abandoned ruins just to spruce the place up a bit and freshen the decor! :-)

Boo-hoo, you young punk! You make us decrepit oldsters feel positively aged! 8`-(

But yes, that ink DID smell good! :-)

Oh, they are out there. I had one made back in 1990 or so. Baker's Pink, too! :-) I worked with a gentleman who was very strong and used to hurt staff and other clients when he became agitated (which happened quite easily), so we wanted to use a time out room to decrease the injuries to both him and staff when they were trying to get him to calm down after he hurt someone. The first time we tried it, he beat his head against the (solid) wall, so I had them pad it top to bottom. He then tore the padding out with his teeth and hit his head against the wall again, so I had them do some super-dee-duper unrippable padding. Unfortunately, he just started to eat his arms when he couldn't hit his head against anything solid, so we had to take him out and wrestle with him anyway. :-(

But once he understood that we weren't trying to hurt him when he was out of control, that we were just helping him calm down and learn to control himself, he gradually got better and better until I understand he is currently living in a community group home somewhere and doing quite well. :-)

Those of you who are critical of seclusion really ought to go one-to-one with someone who can't control themself and is twice your size and thinks you are trying to kill or hurt them. It gives you a slightly better perspective of the various ways people use to cope with difficult situations. There is significantly less restraint and seclusion used these days, but most of it is because of the psychotropic medications someone was slamming a month or two ago. Again, here is a devil's choice - do you want people drugged or do you want them restrained? Spend a week with someone who is paranoid and needs medication and isn't taking it - you'll have an interesting and new perspective, I can almost guarantee you. :-)

Heck, Sande, I have some drapes in my house that have very likely been hanging longer than that and they are pretty much in the same shape (and they are pert near that attractive). Want 'em? ;-)

"Bucky"? Who is Bucky?

Well, what do you know! :-)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A14611718

See? It's not just me! Or ~Me either!

That was also my question about this place. When you see lots of windows with bracing it makes you think they are trying to save it. Otherwise, why not just let it crumble naturally at its own pace?
Also, what is the boarding up above the balcony that runs parallel to the ground?

[Groan]

Wasn't there a short interval in time in which many exit doors were painted red to color-code/alert people that it was an exit?

How is that baby standing up? Or is it dangling? Or is it actually dancing?