The lovely wedding photo reminded me of something I read this morning.
As the obesity epidemic keeps growing larger, ambulances have also had to grow.
For example, Medstar, which provides ambulance service to 15 Tarrant County cities in Texas, is replacing its Ford chassis with a stouter Chevy chassis.
The new ambulances can carry an extra 800 pounds.
As people have become wider and heavier stretchers have also had to stretch. Strap extenders, like those used on obese people on airplanes, are used on stretchers, when the need arises.
Strong winches have also been added to several of Medstar's ambulances in order to get the Big People in and out of the ambulance.
How do the EMT's get the Big Person on the stretcher, I can't help but wonder?
It has been a long long time since I rode the It's A Small World ride in Disneyland. The first time I rode that ride I think I remember thinking it was cute. And it was fun being in a boat.
I don't think I was ever back in a It's A Small World boat after I left my teenage years.
It's A Small World is now in pretty much all the Disney parks around the world.
The It's A Small World version in Disneyland was shut down from January til November 2008 for some major refurbishment.
Disney denies it, but it is widely believed that American Obesity is the major reason Disney had to shut down It's A Small World for almost a year.
Seems there were some problems with boats getting stuck, causing It's A Small World traffic jams, which made those behind the stuck boats cranky.
When It's A Small World was designed, Disney Imagineers calculated the boat's load capacity based on the average male rider weighing 175, with the average female rider weighing 135. Those figures are as out of date with 2010 reality as the City of Tomorrow.
Over the years, to compensate for the ever growing heft, ride monitors would leave seats open. This annoyed those waiting in line. I guess Disneyland did not think it a good solution to put up a sign informing those in line that due to the Obesity Epidemic the boats could not be fully loaded.
Even with leaving seats open, so the boats could be buoyant enough to successfully float, occasionally one would bottom out at some point in the ride. The ride monitors then would have to locate the stuck boat and tactfully get the plus-sized persons off the boat and on to the emergency escape route. Some passengers did not take kindly to being selected as the cause of the boat not floating.
Disneyland needed a solution to the BIG problem with It's A Small World. So, the It's A Small World's water way and boats were replaced, with deeper water and more buoyant boats.
I don't know how long it is estimated the new boats will be able to reliably keep floating before the Obesity Epidemic starts sinking them again.
If you have never been to Disneyland and have never heard the It's A Small World song, or ridden the ride, watch the video below. You will likely see why being stuck on a boat hearing that song over and over again would quickly get quite annoying.
I am in Fort Worth. Fort Worth is in Texas. Texas is one of the United States.
Fort Worth is one of the most obese towns in one of the most obese states in the most obese nation in the world.
America.
Europeans call Americans balloon people.
When I am in a more healthy part of America. Like Denver or Seattle, it looks to me like a lot of people have had the air let out of them.
Among the many things that bothers me about obesity is it is just hard to look at. The extreme cases, I mean.
Sloth and obesity, for the most part go together. By sloth, I mean slob. Way too many obese people squeeze themselves into clothing they have no business trying to wear. The vast majority of obese people, or so it seems from what I have observed, have let themselves go in multiple ways.
Overweight, out of shape, ill-dressed, ill-kept. And way too often with a tattoo and some strange body piercing.
Visit any random Wal-Mart, particularly in the South, and you will usually get yourself an eyeful that you would prefer not having seen.
I have no idea, for sure, where I am going with this DurangObese blog. We'll see.
