a million stairs and a million stares

Car spinning, ferry spinning and cottage spinning

Finally finished!!

According to the CDC, in 10 percent of those drownings, the adult will actually watch the child do it, having no idea it is happening. Drowning does not look like drowning—Dr. Pia, in an article in the Coast Guard’s On Scene magazine, described the Instinctive Drowning Response like this:

“Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled before speech occurs.

Drowning people’s mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people’s mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface of the water.

Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water’s surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.

Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help, moving toward a rescuer, or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.

From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people’s bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.”

This doesn’t mean that a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn’t in real trouble—they are experiencing aquatic distress. Not always present before the Instinctive Drowning Response, aquatic distress doesn’t last long—but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in their own rescue. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.

Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are in the water:

Head low in the water, mouth at water level

Head tilted back with mouth open

Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus

Eyes closed

Hair over forehead or eyes

Not using legs—vertical

Hyperventilating or gasping

Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway

Trying to roll over on the back

Appear to be climbing an invisible ladder

So if a crew member falls overboard and everything looks OK—don’t be too sure. Sometimes the most common indication that someone is drowning is that they don’t look like they’re drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck. One way to be sure? Ask them, “Are you all right?” If they can answer at all—they probably are. If they return a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them. And parents—children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.

Source/article: [x]

I’ve been a lifeguard for 6 years now and of all the saves I’ve done, maybe two or three had people drowning in the stereotypical thrashing style. And even those, like the save I made last weekend, it was exactly like OP describes where the person’s head is going in and out of the water but it isn’t long enough to get any air. Mostly you recognize drowning by the look on someone’s face. If someone looks wide eyed and terrified or confused, chances are they’re drowning. That look of “oh shit” is pretty easily recognizable. And even if you can’t tell for sure: GO AFTER THEM ANYWAY. I’ve done “saves” where a kid was pretending to drown and I mistook it for real drowning, but that’s preferable to a kid ACTUALLY drowning.

Also please remember that even strong swimmers can drown if they have a medical emergency, get cramps, or get too tired. If your friend knows how to swim but they’re acting funny get them to land. And even if someone can respond when you ask them if they need help, if they say they do need help? GO HELP THEM.

However . If the victim is a stranger, I can’t recommend trying to get them. Lifeguards literally train to escape “attacks,” because people who are drowning can freak the fuck out and grab you and make YOU drown as well. If you do go in after someone, take hold of them from the back and talk to them the whole time. IF YOU ARE GRABBED: duck down into the water as low as you can get. The person is panicking and won’t want to go under water and should release you. Shove up at their hands and push them away from you as you duck under. Don’t die trying to save someone else.

When the lifeguard got us both out, a woman came running down and accused me of harming him and said he had been completely fine in the water. That there was no reason to drag him out of there. The lifeguard had to explain to her that her son had been drowning, to which her response was to say that she didn’t hear him call for help.

and I do not have to hand it to them, but I will say that I never in a million years could have guessed that one of their hot new character reimaginings was going to be taking the head of the blood purity house, the guy who torments his students beyond reason on a regular basis, the guy who has a specific hate-on for the protagonist because he wanted to fuck that kid's mom, the guy whose hair and nose are frequently remarked on to emphasize that he's a unpleasant and creepy-looking motherfucker—never would I ever have guessed that anyone would have come up "hey, what if that guy was Black?"

I'm getting a late start because I had to finish the Fluffy Yarn first (not yet skeined or washed so no pics, but it is Done). Which, I suppose, technically still counts towards the "spinning every day" goal, so I only started one day late.

My goal this year is to spin one kg of wool, so about one and a half sweater quantities. Will I be able to accomplish this? Who knows! I feel it's ambitious but not crazy. Contrary to the Tour de France, which is insane.

First batch is these two braids from my dyeing spell in spring:

About 400g Cheviot which I did not split into even amounts because I'm an idiot, so the blue braid is much larger than the green. 400g isn't enough for a sweater, so I'll need to combine it with something else. I have these two to chose from:

Beige didn't-write-down-the-breed wool (carded) from local sheep that I got at the shepherd's day a year or two back (top) and grey Corrie (bottom).

I was gonna do a poll, but I mean. Obviously it's gotta be the Corrie.

That brings me to about 650g total which should be just enough for a sweater.

The dyed braids came as "multicolor" wool, meaning white and grey fibre carded together. The colour difference was kind of subtle in the undyed fibre already, and now it is almost invisible but still there when you look closely.

This is probably the best blue I have ever done it's so nice. I want to peacefully drown in this colour.

I did some digging.

@unashamedly-enthusiastic

Scammers coming into my messages trying to tug my heart strings by threatening to hate me forever if I don't help.

Me:

@scam-alerts, are you really out here claiming randos in a message on tumblr might be trustworthy to send money to? When you can see the link in the message goes to gofundme, which doesn't pay out in Gaza?

Are you really out here trying to tell me that gazavetters is a trustworthy vetting source when it's been proven time and again @gazavetters are scammers????

Are you on the internet in the year of our go fuck yourself 2026 acting like Gaza scamming isn't one of the most successful tumblr scams of all time that was based on making people fear they'd be called racists or baby killers if they didn't assume every single rando in their inbox or messages was totally trustworthy??

"We don't call them scams, so you shouldn't either." No. That's not how that works. I call a scam a scam. You don't want to call it a scam, that's up to you. But it's real fucked up that you are here saying you're an authority on scams acting like Gaza scams are some rare thing or that MOST Gaza posts AREN'T provably horseshit.

Did I step on your scam? Is that what this is? Are you running this scam while running a so-called scam-alerts blog, and you're mad because you're worried my posting these messages could lose you money? Because that's what it feels like. Why fucking else would a so called scam-alert blog be trying to talk someone out of calling out a deeply suspicious scam that we all learned years ago is not trustworthy?

If a rando shows up in your inbox asking for money, they are most likely scamming, and the bigger the sob story, the more likely the scam.

So, someone who runs scam-alerts got into my replies to say gazavetters is trustworthy when it's very well known at this point that gazavetters ISN'T trustworthy and that I SHOULD trust randos asking me for cash when they have link that I know DON'T WORK IN GAZA.

And they just happen to be doing something so nice like drawing stuff for people who give money to supposedly valid campaigns that are very likely not valid at all because gazavetters has been proven to be scammers. And, if gazavetters is as crooked as we know it is, this person might very well be pretending like they're not getting a kickback from those donations to encourage further donations that they are very likely getting a cut from.

In short: I think this person who helps run scam-alerts is running a scam with gazavetters to get a payday off donations to the so-called verified list that has been proven repeatedly to be completely untrustworthy. This is my opinion based on the circumstances.

TdF Day Five: A Teal Unicorn Barf

~160g/275m, spun and plied today from a John Arbon limited edition falklands corriedale.