Feeding Vampires!

Right now I'm busy feeding vampires. For the next couple hours I'll be connected to a machine that takes my blood, separates the components and returns part. I've included a picture showing the machine. The red tubing is really clear and you can see my blood flowing through it. The purpose of this apparatus is to extract platelets. Those are the little buggers that let your Blood clot. Mine are plentiful enough that the local blood bank, United Blood, has asked me to be a platelet donor. In exchange they give me chocolate chip cookies. In all actuality I do it for the satisfaction of knowing that it may save someone's life. Platelets are only good for about 5 days so the supply needs to be refreshed often. You can donate after 10 days which is much more frequent than regular whole blood. It's also a 3 hour process unlike whole blood, which takes about 30 minutes. So it's a bit tougher to find the time and energy to do this.
Fortunately I have new blogging software that lets me write from my chair. United Blood Services has wifi so I have a good connection. One arm has a needle in it, so I'm one thumb tapping. But I'm not that fast on the touchpad anyway.
So if you are in good health and feel like you want to save someone's life today, consider donating blood. It's a lot easier than running into burning buildings.

photo: the_vampire.jpg