Hey, be careful out there

Here we are with kind of a strange Chat Day.

Yes, of course it’s Wednesday, but this feels slightly unreal — especially seeing as how some of you may be starting the New Year with a major league headache.

If you began partying on New Year’s Eve and you’re just getting around to the Excedrin and black coffee now, well ...

Let’s go gently through this one today, shall we?

I promise not to yell.

First thing, I sincerely want to thank all of you who wrote to wish the best for Sammie the World’s Greatest Cat.

Too many emails to pick out one or two, but several of Sammie’s fans checked in to talk about the pain of losing a pet.

It seems that all pet owners truly understand the awful realization that their beloved dog, cat, ferret or whatever is not going to make it.

But just so you know, Sammie TWGC is still alive and bouncing around. She apparently doesn’t know what’s happening within her intestines.

And even though we’re looking at long odds, she’s now being given a special high-calorie food to keep her weight from dropping any further.

This isn’t exactly the same as the loaves and the fishes, but Sammie HAS gone up from 6.2 pounds to 6.4 in the three days she’s been on the diet.

Bless all of you who feel like you know Sammie — plus pet owners in general — for your thoughts.

Thank you again.

Now, moving on with the show ...

ITEM: There’s kind of a theme to this Chat Day.

We want you to be careful and enjoy 2019 without any kind of injury.

First off, Mrs. Language Person broke her wrist while ice skating just before Christmas.

Years ago, I worked for a team in the National Hockey League, and one of the benefits to the job was a beautiful ice sheet on which we newcomers could learn to skate.

But as the professionals were finishing practice each day, they’d see us lacing up for our hilarious turn on the ice.

Like clockwork, one of the players would say: “Elbow pads. Get on your elbow pads.”

I learned back then that when you fall on the ice, there’s a great chance your elbow will strike first, with some force.

Those bones can shatter easily.

It turned out that even the players, when just skating on their own, had to follow a team rule to wear elbow pads.

Frontier Ice Arena, the most likely place you’ll be gliding around in this neighborhood, has elbow pads (and helmets) available for customers.

You only have to ask, and it’s a very good idea.

ITEM: There are also plenty of snowmobile enthusiasts in this neck of the woods.

One of them is Alan Harper of Rathdrum, and I ran into him Friday night while he was going through the process of gassing up several of his beauties in their massive carrier.

Alan, along with his wife and boys, was preparing for a trek early Saturday morning — heading off to Montana with another gang for some serious zooming.

I was admiring the snowmobiles and hearing about the excitement of cutting loose on some wild terrain, when Alan said ...

“It’s really great fun, but it also can be really dangerous. You have to know what you’re doing, and where you’re doing it.”

So ...

Another warning that one of our winter pleasures requires some caution,

I’m not suggesting anyone stay home, but ...

Please be careful.

ITEM: I suppose this next issue is a warning, too.

Just on a different topic.

Remember when we discussed the remarkably low birth rates (and amount of actual sex going on) in the United States?

Well, my man Jack Frazier suggests that this disaster may have been coming all along.

Jack thinks if you add social media addiction to the non-stop TV binges of an earlier era, the answer was sung back in 1992 by Roger Waters, former bassist and co-founder of Pink Floyd.

Here are the last few lines of Waters’ hit “Amused to Death”...

“Our last hurrah

And when they found our shadows

Grouped around the TV sets

They ran down every lead

“They repeated every test

They checked out all the data on their lists

And then the alien anthropologists

Admitted they were still perplexed

“But on eliminating every other reason

For our sad demise

They logged the only explanation left

This species has amused itself to death

“No tears to cry, no feelings left

This species has amused itself to death.”

Look, you know me …

The eternal optimist, right?

I refuse to quit smiling, or laughing, or hoping that we all can get our acts together and create a terrific 2019.

But in case you hadn’t noticed, the alternatives are becoming more and more dire.

Where are those bagpipes, anyway?

Don?

•••

Steve Cameron is a columnist for The Press.

A Brand New Day appears from Wednesday through Saturday each week.

Steve’s “Zags Tracker” column runs on Tuesday.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

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Twitter: @BrandNewDayCDA