October 6, 2009

The Least I Could Do

When I go running with my set of keys I take comfort in the fact that should someone find my dead body they could use my YMCA card key chain as identification. Of course, that would take some leg work but I think going down to the YMCA is a simple enough task to perform. Lately, however, I've been running with the extra set of keys tied to my shoelaces and that means no YMCA card and no means to identify me. I should probably get a "road id," a bracelet that has all my information on it- name, address, phone numbers. It's a handy thing to have. It's the least I could do for the poor schmuck who finds me.

My wallet makes things much easier. It has a handy info card for any emergency medical professionals who would be called to care for me should I have a stroke, heart attack or suffer a debilitating seizure and can't identify myself (and haven't been robbed.) It's a business card from my old place of work that has the following listed:
  1. My emergency contacts
  2. That I don't wear contacts, but do wear glasses
  3. My allergy to penicillin
  4. All the supplements I currently take
  5. The prescription on which I am currently
  6. The name and number of my general practitioner's office
The medical professionals would also learn that I love books (library card and reward card from local bookstore), have teacher and musician friends (business cards), exercise with conviction (YMCA card), like to eat sandwiches and drink tea or coffee (more reward cards), fly frequently (Southwest member card), that I am a registered Democrat (yes I carry my voter registration card- you never know when you'll need it for those spur of the moment primaries), and never have any cash on me. My wallet would make it appear I'm a bleeding heart. And it's not much of a stretch. Whatever. The emergency medical professionals would probably work even harder to save me since I made it so easy for them to figure out who the hell I am and learn about all of my hobbies. Their appreciation would be so great, they'd medi-vac me for free.

I should really get a Road ID anyway. Mike, too. I also want to pick up a reflective vest for the night runs we're going to end up doing. Now that I've discovered the distance runner in me safety needs to be more of a priority. I need to think less about what to do once my corpse is found and more about how to prevent becoming one. But in the meantime, I am super prepared.

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