by Flagship Staff | Jun 30, 2015 | Blog
Outdoor tips to keep your family safe this summer
With July 4 upon us, many families have plans or are making plans for a weekend getaway or vacation. Whether you’re a veteran or a beginner, here are some safety tips for camping, boating, riding an ATV, or using fireworks.
Camping Safety Tips
1. Familiarize yourself with your campsite. Many times when we go camping, the car doors fly open and the kids are off as soon as we get to the campsite. While I know everybody is excited, it’s best to take a step back and look at the site first.
Some things to look for are:
Smoldering fires from the previous camper
Broken glass
Tree stumps
The slope of the site
Insects or poison ivy
Any leftover food that may attract animals.
2. Take plenty of water. Depending on where you’re camping, you may have access to streams or natural springs. While it may look clean to drink, it probably isn’t. If you’re really roughing it and the amount of water you can take is limited, iodine tablets can be used to purify water.
3. Pack antihistamines. For seasonal allergy sufferers, antihistamines are necessary. In addition, antihistamines are also very useful for those unexpected allergic reactions to bee stings, poison ivy, etc.
When I was growing up, my dad got stung by a bee and had a severe allergic reaction. It had never happened before so we had no idea he was allergic to them. In this instance, we had to call 911.
4. Notify family or friends. Before heading out on your camping adventure, tell family or friends where you’re going and when you expect to return.
Boating Safety Tips
1. Don’t drink and drive. This common-sense tip also applies to boating. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, alcohol was the leading cause of fatal boating accidents in 2013 where the primary cause was known. The effects of alcohol are amplified because of sun exposure, wind, and noise.
The boat traffic can be very heavy depending on the size of the lake. Staying alert is key to keeping your passengers, as well as other boaters and swimmers, safe.
2. Wear your lifejacket. Each person on board should have a U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket. If you decide you’re not going to wear it, make sure it’s easily accessible. You never know when a serious situation is going to arise.
3. Keep a watchful eye on the weather. Weather patterns can quickly change during hot summer months. Watch for changes in the wind direction and listen for thunder off in the distance. Take along a weather radio or SMART phone to help monitor the weather.
ATV Safety Tips
1. Take a rider safety course. If you’ve never ridden an ATV, and this is a new hobby, it’s wise to take a rider safety course. Many people jump on an ATV and away they go. So many unexpected things can happen, especially to an inexperienced rider. These vehicles are fast, and handling one in an emergency is much different than a car.
Always wear a helmet. An unexpected rut or bump can send you flying, maybe straight into a tree.
2. Wear appropriate clothing. Shorts and flip-flops are not appropriate clothing. When riding an ATV, you should wear:
Goggles
Long sleeve shirts
Pants
Gloves
3. Pick the right ATV. If you’re buying or renting an ATV, make sure it’s the right size. You should never ride or allow your child to ride an ATV that’s too big in size and horsepower. Again, they handle and react very differently from other modes of transportation.
Fireworks Safety Tips
1. Only competent adults should handle fireworks. If you’re nervous about using fireworks or you’ve had too much to drink, please leave them alone. Children should never be allowed to light them. Injuries often occur when the person handling the fireworks is inexperienced and/or judgment impaired. Most injuries are to hands and faces.
2. After fireworks burn out, toss them in a bucket of water or spray them with a hose. Pay special attention to sparklers. While they seem like one of the safest fireworks, they burn at a temperature close to 2,000 degrees. If your child drops a sparkler, tell him/her to leave it on the ground because it’s hard to tell which end is safe to pick up. Spray the sparkler immediately to put it out.
3. If you’re lighting fireworks that launch into the sky, plan for their landing in a safe area. Over the years, I’ve had the neighbor’s fireworks land on my roof, which I wasn’t very happy about. Please be mindful of the wind direction.
by Flagship Staff | Jun 22, 2015 | Blog
Many people use social media to keep in contact with friends and family, but burglars can use what you share online to know when your house isn’t occupied. Here are some tips to deter would-be thieves:
- Don’t share when you and your family will be out of the house for extended periods of time.
- Don’t use Facebook or other applications to check in with your physical location.
- Make sure that those traveling with you are not sharing your location without your permission.
- Wait until you are home to post photos from a vacation.
- Update social media sites to give the impression that you are home.
- Remember to check the privacy and location settings on your mobile phone and social media sites.
by Flagship Staff | Jun 15, 2015 | Blog
Your car’s tires are essential for safe and efficient driving. Normal wear and tear, along with the changing seasons, will decrease the effectiveness of your tires, leading to less traction and decreased braking ability. Use these tips to ensure that your tires are in good condition and that you are safe on the road.
- Inspect the tread wear bars on your tires, which appear as small bridges that form between treads. If you notice these bars are beginning to form between the treads or are running across the tires and become flush with the tires’ tread, your tires should be replaced.
- Take a standard penny and insert it into a tread, with the top of Lincoln’s head facing the center of the tire. If you can see the top of his head or the metal above it, your tires should be replaced as soon as possible. You should also consider replacing your tires if Lincoln’s hair is visible.
Tire maintenance is a key aspect to staying safe on the road. To learn more about your automobile insurance coverage, contact your Flagship Insurance Services, LLC today.
by Flagship Staff | Jun 8, 2015 | Blog
As the weather warms up, relaxing on an outdoor deck can be a great way to spend time with friends and family. However, the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors estimates that only 40 percent of the 45 million decks in North America are safe. Use these tips to inspect your deck and keep your friends and family safe.
- Inspections should begin at the bottom of your deck. If a deck seems unsafe or is sagging in any location, do not walk on the deck.
- Inspect the connection between your deck and the building to ensure that it is secure.
- Ensure that railings on the deck and stairways are properly supported and stable.
- Check for water sources near your deck that could contribute to accelerated wood decay. These can include the following:
- Lawn sprinklers that regularly come into contact with your deck.
- Indentations around your deck’s support beams where water may pool, especially in newly installed decks.
- Downspouts from gutter systems that exit near your deck.
- Narrow gaps in the deck’s floor boards that don’t allow water to pass through.
- Make sure that none of the deck’s wood has decayed. Keep in mind that layers of paint can hide decay.
- Visually inspect the beams below your deck for signs of sagging.
If you have any concerns about the safety of your deck, refrain from using it and contact a home inspector to perform a complete inspection. Using your deck should be a relaxing experience, and following these tips will help ensure that everyone using it will have a safe and enjoyable time.
by Flagship Staff | Jun 4, 2015 | Blog
Breaches, scams, fraud, identity theft. These words are all over the news and, sadly, have affected millions of people. Unfortunately, these crimes will not be going away anytime soon.
Do you ever think about how secure your passwords are? You should. Passwords are vital in protecting your home computers, as well as your bank accounts and credit cards. Because of that, passwords can cause a fair amount of consternation if you have to remember so many of them.
One way to solve this dilemma is to develop a method/scheme to create passwords that are easy to remember, but hard for others to guess. Here are just a few suggestions for devising a password.
• Use a password scheme that contains characters that are the same across all of your passwords with other characters that are unique to the site you’re logging onto. For example, if you’re a dog lover and you use the stock symbol (or some other way to represent the company), you might come up with a password for Yahoo that’s “yhoodog2015.”
• Use a passphrase and turn it into a password. “A Coke and a smile” could be “aCokeAndaSmile.”
• Create a compound word using a couple of small words. “My dog Odie” might become “MyDogOdie.”
• Take a word or phrase and remove the vowels from it. “Fly like an eagle” becomes “flylkngl.”
• Pick a memorable word or name, as well as a number that’s the same length as the word and intermix them. “Kennedy” plus “1234567” is now “K1e2n3n4e5d6y7.”
In addition to these suggestions, it’s always a good idea to mix upper and lower case letters in your password and add special characters (i.e., @, $, !, etc.) within the password to make it harder to guess or hack. Just do it in a way that’s easy for you to remember, like replacing each letter S with a $ or a 5. To make your password even stronger, remember that longer is better
Below lists various passwords and the time it takes a hacker to crack them.
Password < 1 second No method
P@55w0rd 3 days Replacing letters with sympbols and numbers
wbmidog01 7 hours Company representation, a word, and a number
Wbmidog01 39 days Same as above, but added an uppercase letter
1Xa5jK@9# 275 days Random 9 charcter password
Du4*fB9$0t 58 years Random 10 charcter password
T4@nk$J04n@bil 2 billion years Using mixed caseand replacing letters with numbers and special charcters. (Says Thanks John a Billion)
K1e2n3n4e5d6y7 98 billion years Intermixed letters and numbers
As you can see, there are ways to create passwords that are easy to remember but hard for others to guess. If you do this, you won’t have to write them down on a piece of paper and stick it to your keyboard. What can you come up with?
by Flagship Staff | Jun 1, 2015 | Blog
Sitting for extended periods can contribute to health problems later in life, including heart disease and diabetes. However, research suggests that engaging in a low-intensity activity every hour, such as a two-minute walk, can help reverse the negative impacts of sitting for a long period of time.
Here are a couple ways you can fit those two-minute walks into your work day:
- The next time you need to speak to a coworker, considering walking to talk to him or her instead of using electronic messages.
- Instead of taking an elevator, walking up or down the stairs is an excellent way to get moving.
The benefits of walking, or engaging in another low-intensity physical activity, are also additive. Every extra minute spent walking not only contributes to the health benefits, but it is also a minute that you didn’t spend sitting. Even small amounts of physical activity can help improve your health.
