Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group I was going to put this in the Asylum, but....

Guys, thank you. I hope Michelle won't mind me saying, but she's in flare right now and is feeling awfully unwell. Still, she helped so much this week, doing very last minute arrangements yet again. I'm hoping that she will spend tonight relaxing with her family and friends at BBQ.

My sweetie flew back this morning. He just arrived at Michelle's where he's picking up a whole whack of HE, that she took delivery of on our behalf yesterday. They are going back Grand Isle way so that in the morning they can, we understand, he will be demonstrating HE for members of the Parish government. I have been trying all day to get in contact with Canada'a top two news networks and have left messages all over. My sweetie just told me that there are U.S. news media alerted to the demo tomorrow.

Our engineer's data after last week's adventure were pretty darned conculsive as to the efficacy of HE. Even given the limited amount of time we had to conduct the tests, he says that HE is capable, in a 3,000 foot roll, depending on the width, of picking up about 5 barrels of oil at a fraction of the cost of current reclamation methods. The oil can be reclaimed.

So, that's where we stand. Luckily the rental car agency messed up the reservation and gave my sweetie and his equally tall associate a smaller vehicle than was requested. The problems were immediately evident and they upgraded them to an SUV for no extra charge. They're picking up the HE and driving several hours back across the state to be in place in the morning.

Wish them luck. The drive behind this, the immediate goal for all of us is to try to help fix this for the people of Louisiana and for the beautiful land they live in. We know what we have can be part of the solution, for it will have to be a multi-pronged approach to have any success in cleaning up this mess.

By the way, the hair idea is ingenious and it does soak up oil, as we've all found out at various times in our lives. Problem is, it gets too heavy and sinks, as Michelle found out when she invented the idea back in the '90s after a tanning oil and hair incident in her pool.

Warm hugs,

Best of luck to the plan, Kat! And to Michelle, for her contributions!

Guess we have now all seen that the Top Kill plan has failed, can't say I'm very surprised

So how may I ask, might you be financing the idea?

(Not a millionaire, but I'm a $100-aire!)

Everything is going fantastic too...I'm so excited about all of this!!! It's so rare to have people like Kat, Brian and the rest of the crew doing this wonderful thing...and to be a part of it is a feeling that I cannot put into words...their generosity has been very heartwarming....yes, wish us all luck...we really need it...if I could only get this flare under control...it feels like it might go either way...up and down around the clock, I probably should be thankful that I get the little breaks throughout the day...and yes Kat, it did sink like a rock as you know, which is fine in the swimming pool but it would be hard to retreive it at 5000 ft... Hey, by the way, Brian and my Dad got to talk, it was phenominal!!! I had to be on another phone and listen in to interpret for Dad, it was great!!! big hugs & much love to all...xxooxx

That is an interesting idea! Keep them coming!

I wonder how the 5000 feet of pressure would affect it. My first thought would be that it would take an incredible amount of air pressure to inflate a balloon at that depth of 5000 feet, and perhaps collapse the balloon, I dunno

Back in the days when I was a scuba diver, I once wanted to see what would happen if I went down to like 60 feet, and tried inflating a balloon, taking the air from my respirator, and blowing into it. Wasn't sure what would happen, would it be really hard to inflate, or would it shoot up like a rocket to the surface? I wanted to try..

But the problem was, when I was discussing this with my dive buddy on the boat, with my little party balloon ready, someone overheard us, and came over, mad as hell, saying that he thought it was a really bad idea, that a sea turtle might find the broken balloon and eat it, was considering reporting me to some sea life protection agency..

so never tried it

I did do an underwater puppet show, though, hiding behind a reef, with sock puppets!

that didn't work so great either, the bubbles coming up behind the puppets kinda gave the gag away

It is a great idea...but you'd need counter-pressure as well at those depths...

Right now, my little company (that my sweetie's been building for me) is covering much of the phone traffic, as he's working from here. And also, half of our flights last week and my sweetie's this week and the rental and food and such. One of our partners has been looking after some consultants' fees and also for the rolls of HE that arrived yesterday. Our manufacturer retooled and rolled out the test rolls on their own ticket, but our partner paid them a bit for the rolls my sweetie picked up today. And the inventor's widow, well, she and her husband gave up an awful lot over the years for this, so right now we're protecting her interests and keeping her up to date. She's absolutely lovely and I like her very much by the way. She is so upset by what's going on in the Gulf, like the rest of us, she's just happy to be a part of trying to help.

Had we been able to afford my airfare, nothing would have stopped me being down there this week. My sweetie and I are a good team. I know he wishes I were there.

It's all happened so quickly. With my sweetie involved, that's not surprising. Michelle described him as a freight train one day, and that's pretty apt. But the thing is, the urgency of the situation has necessitated a lot of instant decisions when it comes to travel. It has my head spinning, I must say.

Warm hugs,

Yes, a freight train...but a very nice, considerate freight train with a great sense of humor...and he's wild about "his sweetie"...definitely a great guy...

GOOD LUCK
on this round of trials and demonstrations.

Please keep us posted.

Kat, I am sorry that you couldn't make this trip. It has to be hard not being there with Brian.

Michelle, I hope that your flare is short and that it doesn't interfere too badly with your weekend.
While I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you or Brian, I think I can honestly say that it takes a Freight Train to recognize a Freight Train!!

Happy Thoughts sent to everyone involved!

Sam

Chris...