That was the signature line used by Sergeant Phil Esterhaus at the end of roll call in the old TV show, Hill Street Blues. It’s good advice.

When I’m working on a house I always have two pieces of safety gear on, wrap-around safety glasses and a hard hat. There are a lot of good reasons.

The glasses aren’t just about saw dust or metal chips from using tools, I use a lot of chemicals and don’t want them on my regular glasses, or in my eyes. Some of the things I use are caustic, and others are oily, but neither kind is anything you want to deal with. Even latex paint, especially the tiny splatters from using a roller, are not benign.

The hard hat is to protect my head. I’m bald, so if a board falls, or the guy helping me accidentally whacks me with hardwood closet rod, or galvanized pipe, it is going to open a gash that will bleed like crazy. There isn’t a lot of cushion between the skin and the bone on your skull, so the skin breaks easily and bleeds profusely. The hard hat stops that from happening.

Having watched what is going on in NYC, I think that both items would be a good idea for the people at Occupy Wall Street. I graduated from a police academy in New York State, and know what the procedures are for the use of force, specifically chemical weapons and the baton. The NYPD is not following the normal procedure, in fact, they are doing things that I was specifically taught not to do.

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Photo Shoot

Are we done?

[Editor: Ringo is actually being very patient, as I took a dozen shots before I got one of her actually looking at me… almost.

Friday Ark