Did you Know? May 27th is Heat Safety Awareness Day

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Did You Know?

May 27th is Heat Safety Awareness Day. I can only guess that this pertains to either your pets or barbequing in the back yard. As for your pets, National Spay Day (I kid you not), well, that is the in the last week of February so I will get back to you on that.

Memorial Day weekend is almost upon us and grills will be firing up all across the country. The aroma of burgers, hotdogs, chicken, chicken that actually tastes like chicken, will awaken the primitive carnivore that sleeps in most of us. In the spirit of this heat safety awareness, there are only two things that people have a primal fear of. One is fire, the other is water. Both are needed to ensure success and safety while grilling out doors.

Experts advise not to use a spray bottle of water on ‘flare-ups’. I tend to agree, and the garden hose does provide a safer distance in which to douse the flare-ups that lure enthusiastic firefighters. The spray bottle can, however, be used to keep stray tomcats away in the event you were on vacation the last week of February and missed Kitty's vet appointment. You can also use it to extinguish eyebrows.

Let me explain. Christian, my oldest, feeling that his rite of passage was an open road, went out to light the grill. He turned on the gas, lifted the lid, and pressed the ignite button. Nothing happened, so he immediately stuck his head into the area where the flames were supposed to be coming out and pressed the button again. Know what happened next? The flames came out… in a whooshing ball of fire.

Now, I have always prided him on his quick reflexes.  I’d rather be more proud for his smarter thinking. See, I thought ahead, I grabbed the spray bottle and extinguished his brow, which had not fully ignited, but smoldered a bit. He walked away relatively unscathed, I walked away cursing and spritzing.

While there are many explanations of the word ‘barbeque’, one not being something to do with eyebrows, this one is my favorite:

'Barbecue' may have originated from the French word "Barbe a queue" which means "whiskers-to-tail." So those of you that don’t heed February’s ‘Spay Day’, this could be a possible solution come May. I’ve heard it tastes like chicken.

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