"The bear's gonna getcha."
I heard that warning many times growing up, a reminder to alter my behavior to head off a visit from Florida's invisible ursine, the one that comes up behind you and grabs you around the chest if you're outside and not paying attention to him on a hot day.
A tragedy at the park we walk in twice a day:
Minutes into his first cross-country race Monday, 15-year-old Corey McKenzie -- suffering from severe heat exhaustion and possibly disoriented -- tried to cool off by taking a dip in a man-made lake in Davie's Vista View Park, the coroner said Wednesday.That decision, the autopsy concluded, was fatal.
But the medical examiner's report did little to solve the mystery of how the Boyd Anderson High honors student, who lived in Tamarac with his mother, could have wandered off course and drowned, and his body not discovered until the next morning.
No one can figure out how he got so far off course and so far out into the lake. There are no steep drop-offs near or in the man-made lake, so we're puzzled as to how he got in there to the point he wasn't visible, and so sad that the poor kid died.
As for all the warnings, my one experience with EMS was for the bear. Once I'd started feeling bad I got about six steps before the ground rose up and the lights went out. It was 9:00 a.m. and I'd been sitting on a bench in the shade. I guess it was the suit and stockings that did me in.
When I came to I was looking at a sea of concerned faces that instantly vanished. That's probably because the first thing the damsel in distress did upon opening her eyes was puke.
(Herald login/pswd=crockett@tubbs.com/miamivice.)
Posted by floridacracker at September 13, 2007 08:31 PMyes.. there is a bear. It got me once weedeating on a golf course in August. My head started tingling..like someone was tickling my brain. I squatted down and turned the weedeater off..and had to crawl over to some shade. A golfer came by and gave me a ride to the shop, but I hardly remember anything.
Too bad about the kid...
Posted by: csason at September 14, 2007 07:23 AMMaybe his cool down was too rapid.
We had a young track athlete,14, from Estero who died on the course. Horrible.
When you passed out, Donnah,...ya know,... blood sugar can also be a bear. Maintaining a size 2 could have been a factor too. Yeah?
I remember the first time I saw you eat a french fry after almost a decade.I remarked, "Your eating a french fry ?"
You were home on a leave, and you told me a Sgt. had once ordered you to go back and get some food on your plate.
funny :)
Nancy, it wasn't blood sugar. Oh, believe me, it wasn't blood sugar. EMT came and Mr. Cracker arrived shortly thereafter. I couldn't even maintain a sitting position; I'd just topple over. I spent all day in wet sheets with a fan on me, feeling like I'd been run over.
I'm surprised at how far this kid got in his condition. Owen was crawling, I got six steps. Where this boy got the strength to wade, I can't imagine. Everybody's having a hard time trying to figure this one out.
I remember mom out there trying to pull up a stump single-handed at full noon, and dad telling her twice "Bear's gonna getcha, Violet." She went in the hospital that day all right, but I think it was for traction. :)
Posted by: Donnah at September 14, 2007 08:40 AMI blacked out once too, but I was pregnant and standing in the line at the movies. It happens just this fast...blink...zap.
If I had been standing in water, I would have drown too.
there are things you can do to the body that are just unimaginable...btw, Donnah, don't you have any
diaper hangin' pics ??
In Georgia, back when people actually bailed hay into rectangle shapes, and stacked them..the 'bear' was a frequent flyer in the region. Lots of water is not the answer..either by mouth or otherwise.
At the cellular metabolic level, that ricky little balnce of sodium, potassium, H2O and assorted friends is very delicate.. its a great little mechanism..cellular function. The only problem is, when it is being pushed to the limit it's like
a jet engine- all it takes is a little pebble to ruin it.
ya know, Donnah,
if Owen had tied a diaper around his head that day he might not have fell out.
;>
8D
Posted by: csason at September 14, 2007 05:09 PMGatoraid ftw ;p
But you have to know you need it first and in those situations it's the bear that tells you.
Point > Bear, gravity and LZ
Sad sad tradgedy, I glad that ya'll's ended on a positive note.
Posted by: Gmac at September 15, 2007 07:57 AMThe bear got me in high school track. Our coach used the term and I didn't quite understand what he was talking about, until running the last few yards of an 880 during an actual meet.
The furry bastard didn't kill me though, just knocked me down and played with my limp body a bit.
Posted by: Bill from INDC at September 16, 2007 12:26 AMThe bear got me the first time back in high school, working at a car wash on US 41 in Sarasota. Standing out in the pavement in the August sun I started feeling light headed and wondered why I felt so bad since I wasn't even sweating...
Good times.
Posted by: ThomasD at September 18, 2007 01:06 PM