Very Quick One

Check out this link (sorry, still can't get links to work, you'll have to copy/paste):

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091213/WILLIAMSON01/912130326/2033/WILLIAMSON/Friday+blaze+served+as+training+exercise

I wasn't at this, I was working that day but they left me on an engine to run calls since this took place in another district. As far as I know, they are still planning to run it on the 23rd. I'll let you know if that changes.

See ya real soon folks.

Merry Christmas

Escalation

So last time I posted a picture of me with my head shaved. I couldn't leave well enough alone, so that night at the station I went ahead and took a razor to it and went on down to the skin. If you've never done this before, it was pretty dang weird feeling! My head was pretty sensitive too. I did it again last night (since some of the guys I work with were off last shift and didn't get to see it) and it wasn't nearly as tender. It's also pretty amazing how fast the hair on your head grows.



Of course, any idea this cool is bound to have imitators.



They're just pretenders, of course. I think I was the only one of us who took it all the way down to the skin. April is not a fan, so I'll be growing it out. I kinda liked having it shaved, but I could probably do with it being a little longer. Luckily they allowed us to finally wear 'watch caps' at work, so my little bald head stayed warm today.

On another note, we got our tree put up too. We had a system, I picked up the tree and got it put on the base, then got the stuff down out of the attic. April handled the lights and decorations. I like our system.



Anyhow, that's about it for now. Talk to ya'll later.

#100

I just noticed this is my 100th blog. I guess I should have had something monumental or special to write about, to commemorate the event, but I don't. Instead I have a link to some pictures for you. One of our guys has been diagnosed with cancer, and he has started chemo and radiation therapy. Rather than let the drugs strip his hair from him, he decided to go ahead and shave his head. You know us firefighters, we can't do anything without each other, so most of the shift pitched in and got our heads shaved too.

Here ya go. For some reason I can't get the link to work, so you'll have to copy and paste it into your browser. Sorry!

http://picasaweb.google.com/gregory.becky/FirefightersUnifiedForRicky?authkey=Gv1sRgCI7kkez6mYOinwE&feat=email#

Hope ya'll enjoy.

Hope Everyone Had a Nice Thanksgiving

I worked, but it wasn't too bad. I took the lead on dinner, so April and I did the shopping the day before. We had Turkey (my first try at one in the oven), stuffing, mashed potatoes, cornbread pudding, mac and cheese, greenbean casserole, and probably some other things I am forgetting. We offered to feed some of the cops and EMS crews too, so I wanted to make sure we had enough food. The city was kind enough to foot the bill for the meal, so that was a nice treat too.

We used the cajun injector on the bird, and that turned out awesome. I was unable to locate the giblet package, but we did find them after when we carved the bird. Oh well! I'm sure I'm not the first one that's happened to. The bird was awesome, nice and tender and plenty juicy.

Everyone enjoyed the meal, it turned out great. Fortunately, we didn't have time to overeat, because as soon as we finished eating, before we even got up from the table, we had a house fire to attend to.

http://www.wsmv.com/news/21733954/detail.html#

We were first due, but since it didn't get reported until it was well involved, the fire was through the roof when we got there, so we fought it from the outside.

Luckily we had eaten, and we were the only crew that had. One crew had just sat down to eat, but didn't even get the first forkfull, one was about to put their turkey in the fryer, and another called the restaurant delivering theirs (while on the way to the fire!) and told them to hold on to it for a while. They offerred to bring it to the scene for the guys which was very nice of them, but they wisely declined, since their food would have likely been descended upon like locusts on crops haha.

In the end, no one was hurt and the family wasn't even home, so it certainly could have been much worse. They had been gone for over an hour and half, so the fire likely burned a good 30-45 minutes before being reported.

Anyways, that was my Thanksgiving, hope everyone had a nice day.

Remember Me?

I'm sure you do. I hope you do, anyways.

So, it's been a while. I'm not sure exactly what to blog about, I am really just announcing my return to blog land. If you'll recall, I felt the need to temporarily suspend my blogging activities and hide my blog, but that seems to have blown over with no problems, so I'll open it back up and see what shakes loose.

It looks like we'll be making it down to ATL for the big Christmas extravaganza this year. We won't be able to stay long, but hopefully we'll be able to stay overnight.

Otherwise, not much new to report. I'll try to be better about blogging in the future. Take care everyone!

Test for reader

I noticed that it didn't pop up in my reader either... this stinks haha! Maybe I can just go back and delete some older blogs to minimize my exposure here... that may be the best option. Let me know if this one pops up or not.

I made a boo boo

And now my blog has been set to private so that some things don't get out. I blame the liberal media. Even though it's my own dang fault.

So in the mean time, I am attempting to send invites to everyone. If you can read this and someone you know can't, please have them email me and I'll get them added. Sorry for the trouble!

Not quite sure what to say. This is the 5th title I've tried!

As mentioned in the comments, I did not get an award for memory. I wound up working a double, so I have not had a chance to update ya'll till now. Plus, I've kind of been struggling with how to write about this. I'm not really good at talking about myself. Luckily for that problem, I've been in the news a little bit, so I'll just let them tell you about it.

Here is a link to a local newspaper/blog.

The local news did a quick blurb (about 5 seconds or so) about it too, but I haven't seen it on their website yet. It probably won't be there, it really wasn't much.

I wound up with a total of 3 awards, one for the prior medical save (which I referenced in my last post), the main one mentioned in the article above, as well as the unit citation mentioned in the article.

My Chief is big on getting word out about accomplishments in the department, and as such he is asking if I am willing to do an interview or two. Not my style, but I am a team player, so I suppose I had better do it haha.

I'd like to thank the academy

It's awards time at LFD (Little Fire Department). They've done awards in the past, but with some recent changes in management, they have started up a more formal awards program. I think it's great, but I'm not really interested in it.

I guess that bears a little explaining.

There's a variety of things you can get an award for, but the way I look at it, unless they start giving awards for mopping the floors or checking off the equipment, there's really no reason to give awards for doing other parts of your job. Oh, sure, some parts are a little more glamorous, but in reality the 'glamorous' parts of the job only constitute about 10% of it. If that.

Now, having said that, I got 2 emails last week. They basically said, 'If you are getting this, you will be receiving an award, and your presence at the ceremony would be greatly apprecaited'.

So now I'm really stumped. I have received 1 award in the past, and from what I have gathered, they will be re-recognizing those awards, so that explains 1 email (and don't get me started on that award; I was brand new, I think I was out of the academy about a week, and my role on that call basically consisted of being told what to say over the radio and staying out of the way haha). The second email has me stumped though. The members of the awards committee are keeping mum on who is getting what, so no help there.

To top it all off, yesterday I was walking past the Assistant Chief's office, and he called me in. He asked if I was going to be at the ceremony (banquet? party?), and when I said that I imagined I would, his only response was 'Good'. I told him that I had been asked that question a few times lately, and that the response was always the same as his. His answer to that was, 'Good, see you later.' I was dismissed, and no follow up questions were going to be tolerated.

As I was heading up the stairs, he yelled to me from the bottom that 'The good news is that if we are giving you a pink slip tomorrow night, at least you'll have some friendly shoulders to cry on.' He was kidding. I hope.

So anyways, in the past they have been big fans of giving 'joke' awards out for humorous events that transpired over the previous year. I can't think of anything I've done either good or bad over the past year to deserve anything, so I guess I'll be just as shocked as anyone else. A few people have suggested to me some things that may be deserving of awards, but I just don't see it.

Like I said, unless they are giving out awards for mopping or emptying the dishwasher (or if I've repressed an incredibly embarrassing moment!), I'm stymied as to what is going on here. I guess I'll post an update later to let ya'll know what is going on.

Volunteer 20 is in service

Yeah, they had the guts to report that on the radio, for everyone in the city to hear. Pretty impressive in my humble little opinion.

The headline for the article reads:

Boston fire union refuses to leave closed stations

Here's part of the story:

Defiant off-duty firefighters are disobeying Fire Department orders and voluntarily staffing three Boston fire companies that were closed today as part of a new “brown out” policy aimed at reducing overtime spending.

“It’s the people’s firehouse. We are volunteering to staff these firehouses to make sure the public gets the protection it deserves,” said Boston firefighters union President Ed Kelly, who used a department radio this morning to report that “Volunteer Engine 20 is in service.”

The rest of it can be read here.

Any guesses as when the last time the City of Boston had a volunteer fire company in service? I would venture to guess the year started with an '18'.

I'd like to say that's taking pride in your job, but most likely it is a political stunt. However, I'll go with the pride option. I'd rather believe that anyway. I did hear that ATL is supposed to be getting the money to correct their current staffing situation, so hopefully Tom will chime in on that.

Still, I thought this was pretty cool and worth sharing.

About yahoo 360

Yes, I'm still awake. Going to bed soon.

Someone asked about the yahoo 360 blogs, and if they were gone. I did a google search for mine (typed in the blog name that was what it was under) and it popped up.

If you are looking for yours, I would recommend the same. That way if you need anything from there you can rescue it.

If you really want to save something from there, go to the upper left corner, click on file, then save page as... that will let you save it to your computer. You should be able to get pictures from there by right clicking them and hitting save as...

Hope that helps! Now off to bed...

Well, that was... something

I won't call it fun, but I still wouldn't call it work either. I worked 8 out of the last 11 days, and (I think, it was all a blur really) 10 out of the last 14 days. If that's true, that's 240 hours in 2 weeks. We didn't have a ton of night calls but it was lots of nights not in bed until after midnight and up at 5 or 6, so it makes for some long days.

Anyhow, that's where I've been and why I haven't been blogging.

Also, I've noticed some of the other blogs that I read reporting problems with blogger. I know I had some trouble getting to the post new blog page tonight to post this. Or should I say this morning.

My sleep cycle is all messed up right now, and we had a bit of a scare this evening, which explains this blog at 02:30. I had just fallen asleep, but I woke up realizing it was pretty hot in the house. I checked the thermostat, and despite being set around 75, it was 80 in the house. I turned it down further, and it did not come on. I switched it to heat and ran it all the way up. Nada. I could hear it clicking the thermostat on and off, but that was it. I even tried to manually turn on the fan, and that didn't do anything either. Great. Hottest part of the year and the AC died? I'm sure it'll only take them a week to work their way down the list to come fix ours. I checked the breaker in the house, but it was not tripped. I flipped it on and off anyway, but that didn't fix anything. At this point I was wide awake and figured, what the hey, let's go look at the unit. It was cooler outside anyway.

I shined my light down into the fan blades, and they were clear (I was actually looking to see if there were any leaves down in there Katie, I was kinda surprised to see it clean!). I saw what I figure was the power box for the unit, and opened the lid, thinking I'd see if somehow the power to the unit got turned off. Some kid might have thought he was clever doing that, ya know? Turns out there is a circuit breaker out there too, and it was tripped. Turned it off, then back on. Voila, AC. Not sure why it tripped, but from time to time I get breakers tripping in this house for seemingly no reason. Chalk it up to the low bid guy I guess.

The only downside is that the panic at the thought of having to shell out for a new AC has me wide awake. Go figure. I can ride screaming through the night on a multi ton piece of aluminum towards a dangerous situation and then go back home and right back to sleep, but face me with the prospect of spending a ton of cash, and I'm up for the night. I really am my father's son!

So yeah, if you've noticed any problems with blogger, let me know and I'll see what I can find out for you.

So let's see, if I go to sleep right now, I can still get ... as much sleep as I want, I finally have a second day off from work haha.

Man, another 2 blog day!

This is something I've been thinking about for a while and I finally found what I was looking for.

Some of you asked how to make your blog private so that you would not have strangers reading it. The following is copied and pasted from the 'Getting Started Guide' under blogger help. Hope it helps if you choose to go that route (the getting started guide can be found here).

Privacy and permissions

By default, your blog is completely public, and can be read by anyone on the internet. However, if you want to keep it private, you can do that, too. You cna change these settings on the Settings | Permissions tab.

1. Under the 'Blog Readers' heading, you'll probably see 'Anybody' selected as the default. When you change this to 'Only readers I choose,' you'll get an Add Readers button.
2. Click the Add Readers button and then enter the email address of a person to whom you'd like to grant access to your blog. To add multiple people, separate their addresses with commas.
3. For each address entered, the Google Account associated with that address will be given access to view your blog. If an address is not associated with an account, that person will receive an invitation email with a link allowing them do one of three things:

• Sign in to an existing account.
• Create a new account.
• View your blog as a guest (no account required).

Hope that helps!

Fast Update

Rumor has it that the insurance company from the house that burned estimated only about 2,000 sq ft out of 8,000 was damaged, and will be repairing the home rather than tearing it down. They said that it pretty much needs a new attic and roof, but otherwise should be fine. I guess we made a pretty darn good stop afterall.

From the 'I couldn't make this up if I tried' file...

Sorry for 2 blogs in one day, this is what I get for not just doing it at the end of the shift like normal.

Anywho, we just returned from a, let's go with, unique, call.

Dispatcher: 'Engine 1 respond to XXXX XXXXXXX RD for a Fire Department Assist, female locked in a car'

E1: (giggling) 'E1 is responding.'

Dispatcher: 'Affirmative, show Engine 1 responding, will be a female locked in her car. She is reporting that the battery is dead and that her doors will not unlock. It'll be a silver XXXXXX XXXXXXX.'

By this time, we are absolutely rolling with laughter. We get about 45 seconds down the road and then,

Dispatcher: 'Engine 1 from Alarm'

E1: 'Engine 1'

Dispatcher: 'Engine 1, you can cancel response. She figured out how the door locks work.'

E1: (openly laughing) 'Engine 1 affirmative, available'

I would have given anything to have actually made it to the call. To top it all off, it was a PD officer that called for us to respond to that location!

The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed.

If not for the the courage of the fearless crew, the Minnow would be lost.

Ok, so maybe the weather Thursday evening wasn't THAT bad, but it was pretty rotten. We were at work watching it come straight at us. For a long time it looked like it was going to just stall out in Nashville, about 1/2 a mile to the north of us. The news kept reporting lightning strikes in the thousands (as high as 7 thousand in about a 2 county area in a 15 minute window), so we really figured we'd have a fire.

The storm was supposed to hit our city at 21:45, then at 22:20, then by 23:00. I got tired of waiting and went to bed about 23:30. I had been watching the lighting to the north, and it was pretty fierce. It was popping fequently enough and close enough that I could clearly see colors and details on objects in the distance. It really was like daylight when it hit.

Sometime after I went to bed, I'm still not sure of the time, the tones started going off. I was on the ladder for the day, so there was a really good chance that the engine was going out to move a tree out of the road or babysit some downed power lines, but something told me to go ahead and get up and start moving towards the door. The tones just kept coming, and I quickly realized that what had started out as being dispatched as a residential fire alarm had been upgraded mid tone to a working fire. We hopped in the trucks and began our trip across the city.

The first engine on scene reported that there was no smoke or fire visible from the road. About 45 seconds later they reported heavy smoke in the second story, and about 20 seconds after that, they told the ladder that they needed us to perform verticle ventilation (get on the roof and cut a hole in it to let the heat and smoke out). I was a little nervous, this was the first fire call for this particular ladder truck and the roofs in the neighborhead we were destined for were known to be pretty treacherous.

We got on scene and quickly got the ladder set up. Since there were only 2 of us assigned to it, we picked up another guy from an engine, and he and I headed up in the bucket towards the roof while the driver of the ladder stayed on the platform to help control the bucket we were riding in, and to spot for us.

(the pictures are a bit out of sequence here, and this computer has a problem that won't let me move them or even delete them, so I'm sorry, I'll try to fix it later)



Unfortunately, even with a 100 foot long ladder, the house was set so far back from the road that we could only just barely reach the roof, and to top it all off, this roof was just like I had feared, very steep, lots of angles, and not a good one to be climbing on in a thunderstorm. I never noticed, but apparently there was a ton of lightning still going off while we worked. I was a little pre-occupied with the fire in front of me and never noticed. We were positioning the bucket, and the crews inside reported that they could not make any more progress until we got the roof opened so they could continue to advance. It was way to hot for them to reach the seat of the fire without us relieving the heat. We couldn't quite get to where we wanted, but as I looked at the roof, I saw it start bubbling, then two big holes burst open with flames shooting out of them. The roof had vented itself, so our job was partly done.

In the above picture, you can see a ground ladder that someone had put up. To the left of that is a hole we had cut in the roof (there is a picture of that further down), but we weren't able to get it open all the way. A few of the guys climbed that ladder, and were going to attempt to open it further. We had backed the bucket up to give them light and cover them with our hose. It was kinda funny to see them, and I felt pretty justified for not getting on it. They were from another department, and were there as mutual aid. The guy climbing first got face to face with that roof, looked down at his buddies, shook his head no, and tried to smash it open from the ladder. It still was unfortunate that we couldn't get it open, but it was nice to see other people shared my opinion of this roof!

Believe it or not, they tell me we actually probably saved the house. We were able to contain the fire to the attic and upstairs areas where it started.

We moved the bucket around a bit trying to find another place we could try and vent. We went ahead and punched out a ridge vent and started knocking bricks out of the side of the building, figuring any holes we could make would be a good start.

We had made a little headway with venting the roof, and the crews inside were able to advance some more and start knocking the fire down. At one point their hose stream dislodged a brick that flew right between me and my buddy, so we had to duck down and take cover in the bucket from flying debris.

I tried cutting a hole in the roof on that eve on the far left in the photo below. It was awkward, because I couldn't get out on the roof and had to try and hang over and cut. I had one foot on the platform, and the other on the peak of the roof. To top it all off, when I started cutting, the smoke was so heavy, I couldn't see what I was doing and had to stop so I didn't hit my foot. I was way too off balance to attempt to do it blind.

The guy that had hopped into the bucket with me was able to lean against the bucket and start making some cuts to open the roof, but even that was precarious and didn't work out that well. We got a hole cut, but weren't able to open it as well as we would have liked. There were a few things going against us; the roof was incredibly steep, and we weren't able to place our roof ladder, which is a ladder with hooks on it that goes over the ridge of the house. Then we have something we can stand on to get traction. The ridges of this house were at crazy angles, so it wasn't really possible, plus the roof was really tall in a few places, so we couldn't reach the ridge to place the ladder. There are probably some FF's in the world that would call us weenies for not getting out there on this roof, but I'm ok with settling for going home in the AM instead.

While he was cutting that hole, I was leaned down holding on to him to help steady him in case he slipped. At one point so much smoke was coming out of there that I literally could not see my hand at the end of my arm. I could feel his weight and hear the saw, and that is the only way I knew he was still there.

I had a little excitement trying to control the bucket too. It is all hydraulic, and you need a delicate touch at times. I had gotten decent at it during training, but with my adrenaline and nerves running the show, what was a gentle touch in training turned into Mario Andretti ripping through the gears! I tossed us all over the place. The guy on the ground kept telling me to be smoother. It was kinda funny, my mind was telling me to be gentle, but my hands just wouldn't co-operate!

So anyhow, it made for a night of hard work, but we live for this sort of thing, so while we felt bad for the homeowners, we were happy to be able to do our jobs and help them out. I really wanted to be the big hero and get on the roof and get a hole cut so we could make a quick stop, but it just wasn't to be. Everyone in the house made it out safely, and none of us got hurt. We probably saved the house, but this community is notorious for tearing them down and rebuilding anyway. I'd still call this a win, all things considered. Talk to ya'll later.

I'm still here!

We just ran a medical call here for a guy that was either drunk or having a diabetic emergency. Turns out he was both. We gave him something for the low blood sugar, but unfortunately there was nothing we could do for the reported history of alcoholism. After his sugar came back up, he was a happy drunk, laughing, slurring out jokes (not joking out slurs, that would be bad!). He had a Boston accent, which reminded me of our family up North. He was a hoot and happy to see us, just kept laughing at his situation (or whatever silly thing drunks laugh at!) He would start to wander off, and one of us would call out his name and give him a simple command (sit here, move there, hand me your arm) and he'd focus his eyes briefly on whichever of us was talking, favor us with a smile and a laugh, and comply. It turned out to be a much better call than we were anticipating. Hopefully rehab will work out this time.

As for the work on the kitchen, we realized that we don't have any pictures up yet, so we'll take some and I'll try to post them soon. I also finally finished up my bow, so I need to post that as well. Hope everyone had a good weekend, and I'll talk to you soon.

Happy Birthday

To me!

I want to start this blog off to thank everyone for their cards, calls, and gifts for my Birthday last Friday. It's great to know everyone was thinking of me, thank you very much!

I worked Thursday, and my birthday got off to a fast start Friday when I was brushing my teeth at the station before coming home. I bent over to spit and they took that opportunity to administer a birthday spanking. I wasn't ready for it, but it was a good laugh.

My parents came in Friday and we had a great visit. They just left this AM and are still driving home while I type this. We went out to eat a few times and last night we cooked the quail from our hunting trip and had them for dinner. It turned out great.

We don't have a cute little baby here, so there weren't many pictures taken. It did rain like crazy last night, and we got some pictures of that. There was a little flooding here, but luckily it ran into the side yard and not into the house. I'm sure April or I will post them soon.

We've also been pretty busy the past few weeks secretly redoing our kitchen. I wanted to surprise my parents and see their reaction to it, so I've kept quiet about it. I'll do another blog soon to post the pictures of it.

Anyhow, that's enough for now. We're enjoying a quiet rainy memorial day at home today, I hope everyone else is having a nice day wherever you are. Remember the reason for the day, and a special thank you goes out to Grandpop and Bryan, and everyone else that has served. They are the reason we get to have a BBQ today, and we should never forget that. I won't say anymore about it, there are a ton of other people that say it better than me. But thank you, one and all.

Quick one

I figured I'd share a quick story with you guys and gals about a prank someone pulled off the other day at the station. We have this new ladder truck, and it literally cost ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!!

We also have a new Chief's Car, a brand new Dodge Charger. The ladder driver was backing into the bay, and his backer didn't do the most effective job of helping him out. The driver didn't need it, but since his backer didn't stay behind him the whole time, he left himself open. After the driver got the ladder parked, we distracted him, and someone moved the Chief's new car so that it was parked <>under<> the bucket of the truck. It only had about 3 inches of clearance from hitting the hood, and he pulled up until it almost hit the windshield of the car. Then we called the ladder driver over to show him his 'handiwork'. The poor guy was floored, thinking that he had only missed disaster by mere inches. We had a good laugh and then let him in on it.

I know it's hard to describe it without pictures, but I wasn't able to find any good ones, so you'll just have to settle for those at the top. I'm having some computer problems at work, so this blog is laid out a little funny. Sorry!!. Enjoy!

Well hello there

I've missed a couple of post opportunities, but there really hasn't been too much going on lately. I have a post I've been kicking around for a while, but I am not quite sure I'm ready to write it. It's nothing bad, just dealt with a call and I want to be careful how I word it.

We've been getting rain here pretty steady lately, and I still haven't finished my bow yet, so no pictures of it for now. I have a little sanding left to do on it before putting on the finish, so I need a dry day to get it done.

Another great thing about this time of year is that the rain tends to make it so that I get a little behind on mowing the yard. We were all laughing about it at work the other day. You pretty much get one shot to mow the lawn, and if you miss your window, it'll be knee deep before it's dry enough to cut again. April was nice enough to cut it for me while I was in Clarksville, but this week I had to tackle it again. Naturally I missed my window, so there were parts that literally swallowed the beagle! If she hadn't been tied to a tree in the front yard I would have had no clue where she was. Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes. I cut what I could, but our side yard pretty well stays under water this time of year, so it'll be a weed eater cut job later. I had to buy blades for it last year, and they are pretty well worn out at this point, so I guess I'll need new ones this year!

Anyhow, that's about it for now. Talk to you later!

Not much new to report

I knew Aunt Sue would know the name of the 'Utili-kilt'. It had slipped my mind. I'm glad you guys enjoyed my blog, and thanks for sticking with it even though it was long. This one will be short, I promise!***

I would love to have a few of you join me next year if you want, I really did have a great time, and having more people that I know would make it even better.

We had a fairly quiet shift, a few calls but nothing exciting. The highlight of the day was doing annual fire drills with a few of the offices. I always get a kick out of watching people exit the building. People will walk past 2 exits to get to the one that they come in and out of every day. At one point offices on opposite sides of the lobby were exiting, and they passed each other in the middle as they went all the way across the lobby to use the furthest doors, rather than the ones right next to them.

They say that is very common in an emergency, and that people really do frequently react that way. Think about that next time you go to work!

Of course the best part of doing it is that the property management company for these particular buildings always has an ice cream truck come out to reward the people for participating, and we get some ice cream too. We all ate waaaaay too much, but free ice cream is like kryptonite to a FF (as are free cookies, cakes, pies, deli platters, well, you get the point.) It's kind of funny, the police won't touch the freebies, they worry that someone has done something to it. We don't think that way. I guess we just figure no one has anything against us, we don't write tickets! Of course, if anyone ever wanted to take out a FD, I guess I know the best way!

I am going to substitute for a half day tomorrow at April's school. I'm not sure why they need me; there is a big field trip and of the 2 classes I'll have I think I'll have a total of 7 students! Oh well, if they want to pay me, I'll take their money.

I guess that's it, talk to you later.


***Ok, well, short being relative to my usual length blogs haha!

Well, the flood didn't carry me off...

But it did run me off, at least at night! I'll fill you in on that part later.

I know it's been a while, but things have been hectic around here again. I'll get into all that in another blog, but for now let me apologize for not commenting on all of your blogs. I promise I'll try to be better about that in the future!

I should probably also break this up into a few small blogs rather than one long one, but that just isn't my style. Instead I guess I'll steal a move from mom who stole it from Kate and warn you that this will be a long one, and if you aren't ready for it just come on back later when you are! I really need to get back to blogging more regularly so that things like this don't happen, but I have a few new responsibilities at work that have me tied to a computer more than I would like, and so my desire to hop right back on one later in the day has waned a bit. I'll try to get it back on track soon though!

I also wanted to tell you about my little adventure this weekend. If you'll recall from my last blog, I was heading about an hour north to participate in an archery contest this past weekend. I went up there Thursday and got started on building my own bow to be able to shoot it on Sunday as part of the competition. I did not know a soul before leaving, but I met a ton of nice and helpful people over 4 days. In fact, everyone I met was really nice and super helpful. This is one of those places where you could set something down, like your several thousand dollar custom bow, walk away for a while, and when you came back it was still there. I'm not sure I would have the guts to do it, but hey, more power to the guys that were willing to risk their expensive custom bows that way!

While I was working on my bow, I met a guy and his dad from IL that were there on their own as well, and were building a bow together. We hit it off and they let me buddy up with them for the rest of the time, which was really nice of them.

I started on my bow Thursday afternoon about 1:30 or so, and by Friday afternoon I fired my first ever arrow! It was really a neat feeling to shoot my first arrow ever from my first bow ever knowing that I had made the bow myself.

The process involved in making a bow was pretty simple, which I guess given the fact that there is like a bazillion years of history in these things shouldn't surprise me. I've seen people online build them using power tools and all kinds of specialized clamps and flanges and do-hickies, but there was none of that this weekend. Ok, well, it was all there and available for use, but for the most part mine was built with simple hand tools.

<><>Here's my bow, I've already tillered it by this point and I am working on the handle.<><>

When I got there, I introduced myself and told them what I wanted to do, and they whisked me away to the bow making area.

<><>The bow making area, each table had a vise attached to it. There was more to it than this, but this is the only picture I got. There was an impressive array and number of tools and benches, but there were way more people than workspaces, so you were constantly sharing and swapping up with people. I'm definitely glad I got started on Thursday and done before it got busy Friday night.<><>

This place was amazing. It is on 500 acres of private property, and it really was like heaven on earth if you enjoy the outdoors. I would put it right up there with Hefflin, AL (for those of you that know haha), only instead of being for the shotgun enthusiast, it was geared towards archery. The owner of the property lets his friends hunt deer and turkey, so he would be a good guy to get to know better! I knew some of the guys were going Turkey hunting Friday morning before the crowd got big, so when I heard a truck go by my tent early in the morning I didn't think anything of it. Right after sun came up, though, I got awakened by a shotgun blast! I had figured they were going bow hunting, but I was wrong. My heart was pounding, I was so startled. They weren't near me but I wasn't expecting it either. About the time I got settled down and fell back asleep, it happened again! They did pretty good, 2 birds on 2 shots, so I was happy for them.



<><>This is the front porch of the cabin the guys who work the event stay in. The cabin is probably close to 3,000 square feet, and I was priviledged enough to get to go inside and check out a few bows. I wouldn't mind living in a cabin like this one!<><>



So after meeting a fellow named Greg who would go on to spend all of his time over 4 days helping people tirelessly with their bows (with an endless patience to match his endless work!) he took me over to a cabinet that was moisture and temperature controlled. I got to pick out a piece of hickory that had been already shaped into a rough bow blank. These guys had taken the time to cut down trees, split them into staves, rough them out into bow blanks using a draw knife and band saw, then put them up for a year (or several years) to dry out, leaving it just right for me to start on. It was really impressive. I used a saw blade that had been cut down and converted into a scraper to shape the wood and get it to where it would bend. Everytime I would bend it I would flinch, expecting it to just snap, but so far so good! I felt like I was seconds from disaster the whole time, but I eventually wound up with a working bow, so I guess it all worked out in the end.

<><>Greg explaining the process.<><>

After getting it shaped and thinned out a little, I began to 'tiller' the bow. Basically that means making sure it bends evenly in a nice arch. You start out bending one side on the floor. If part of it looks stiff, you scrape a bit there and try again. After you get it bending on the floor, you put a long string on it and use a 'tillering board' for the next step. You basically have a 2X4 with notches cut in it, and you put the bow on top. You slowly work the string down the notches, causing the bow to bend, again making sure the arch is even. When you get it pretty well there, you string it like you would to shoot it and move on to final tillering, which involves using a scale to make sure you get the draw weight you are looking for. The scale (which is basically a game scale) has a hook on the top which attaches to your bow string, and a rope off the bottom of the scale that runs through a pulley. Your bow rests on a block mounted to the wall above the scale. You get to stand about 6-8 feet away when you flex the bow and check it out. That way if it 'blows up' you don't get whanged in the nugget! I managed to get lucky and hit my weight on the first try!

<><>Final Tillering in action. This is the rig that lets you determine what draw weight you have and gives you one last chance to make sure you have a nice curve.<><>

I finished up the handle (with lots and lots of help from Greg) and it was ready.

<><>The roughed out handle, before getting rounded out. The little lip is the arrow rest.<><>

I got to shoot it once, and then Greg fired it too. He told me that it was a great shooting bow, and I had to take his word for it. As far as I was concernced, the arrow went in the correct direction and it didn't shatter, so I was happy! It isn't quite finished though. It rained <>ALL<> weekend long, and it was so humid that I couldn't put a finish on it to protect it. It will have to dry out for a few more days, then I'll put a polyurethane finish on it to protect it from the weather. The handle turned out a little thin for me, so I may put a little leather on it, but I'm not sure yet. I'll post a picture of it when it is completely done.

I had a really great time over my 4 days. It was raining so hard that we had some flooding back home. April said the news was reporting that they had to do a water rescue in downtown! I had been debating whether or not to spend a second night in the tent or head home. Due to the weather and the fact that home was so close, I hit the dusty trail and came back the next day. Yes, you read that right, I gave up the chance to sleep in a tent in a monsoon to sleep in my own bed after a hot shower and getting dry.

<><>My tent right before I took it down to head home. It still hasn't dried out!<><>

The guys from IL that I hung out with had brought some extra bows with them that they were hoping to sell. They let me borrow one of them and taught me some of the basics of shooting. There was a practice course set up (seperate from the one that you shot for score) and you could shoot that as many times as you wanted. Basically, you took a nice walk through the woods, and you would come to a shooting station. There would be a 3D target, a bear, or deer, elk, turkey, moose, something like that, and you would take your shot, retrieve your arrows, and move on to the next one. It was a great excuse to take a walk in the woods, and I had a blast.

<><>Even the concession stand was cool. From what I could gather, all of these animals were taken on the farm where this all took place. The stand was under a large pavillion, so you had a dry place to eat and hang out.<><>

<><>The other side of the concession stand.<><>

The dad had told me what he was hoping to get for the bows he had for sale, but after hanging out with them and getting to shoot one, he offered to sell it to me for half of what he was asking. It was a nice fiberglass and wood recurve bow, and he offered it to me for such a good price that I couldn't say no. He was so happy to be able to bring a new shooter to the sport that he threw in a quiver, several arrows, and a finger tab. I couldn't believe it. Just the accessories he gave me alone were worth more than I paid for the bow. The whole weekend was like that, people were generous and happy to help a new guy out. I'll have to remember all that for next year! On the last day I was having a hard time stringing the bow, and the guy that had helped me build mine gave me a bow stringer so that I could be safe when I strung it.

There were lots of demonstrations and guys practicing primitive skills. They had a whole area where people could practice their knapping, which is basically chipping the edges off rocks like flint to make arrowheads, spearheads, knives, etc. It was pretty cool.

<><>The Flint Knappers hard at it. One guy was so good that he was able to make a perfectly round 'nose ring' that you would have thought was store bought if you didn't know better!<><>

In fact, I had so much fun I forgot to take pictures! The whole first day my camera stayed in the car, the second day was a bit wet so I didn't get to take many, and I pretty well forgot about it after that. I wish I had taken more photos, but I was just having way too much fun. Although it did rain a ton, it did a great job of knocking down the heat. In fact, it probably never got about 70, which was great for being outdoors. It was plenty muddy, but I would trade that to avoid the heat in a heartbeat! The real downside to the rain was that I didn't have the guts to shoot my bow in the contest; I was afraid of ruining it!

I think I have talked my dad into trying to go next year, and I would love to have anyone else join us that thinks it sounds like fun. My house is close enough that it's no big deal to just drive back and forth, or we can camp. Their concessions were dirt cheap ($1 for a hotdog and $2 for a hamburger) so food isn't a big deal either. If you can't make it up until Saturday and Sunday, I can go up and pick out a bow blank for you. They had several people do that; they bought one and put their name on it, then stuck it back in the cabinet to keep it dry and warm. By Friday evening they had sold out of blanks, so the turnout was pretty good! If you don't want to build a bow but want to check it out, there is no cost to come spectate. I would love to have as many of my family and friends come as possible.

I didn't know how to work this into the blog, so here it is at the end. I've read about these things, but this was my first time to see one in the wilds:

<><>The Camo Kilt, which is apparently the newest trend in outdoor wear. I wish I were kidding you, but it is what it is. While I feel there is nothing wrong with kilts, I do feel that some people will do ANYTHING if someone tells them it is trendy. I think I'll just stay old fashioned, thank you very much!<><>

Sorry to leave you with that image as the last thing to remember this blog by!

Once Again...

This time with feeling.

Last shift, after the combat test, I got to bed about 10:30 or so. I shoulda known we were going to be in for a strange night. About 9pm we had a PT with a nice laceration show up on the front ramp of the fire station. They were new to the area and not used to living in a place with 911 coverage, so they were hoping that some of the volunteer firefighters would be at the station and able to help. Whoops. No volunteers here haha. Luckily us paid guys were able to get them sorted out.

Anyhow, after getting to bed at a decent hour, we got up about 3:45 to go rescue a dog. A well loved (read: fat) beagle had managed to get herself stuck in a fence. The owner said that she was old and scared of storms, and had likely panicked. The odd part was that she was trying to get <>into<> the yard, as opposed to getting out. Whatever, no big deal. She had too much belly, and not enough noggin, much like a certain beagle that is near and dear to my own heart. If you picture a fork, imagine something being stuck between the tines right in the curve. She had gotten her shoulders past the bars, but was now well and truly hung.

If you've ever heard a beagle start caterwalling, you know what we were up against. Luckily she quit as long as someone was there with her. We tried to dig her out, but that didn't work, there was a strategically placed tree root blocking our efforts. You'd think that if she could get in there, she could get out, but I think that she had turned herself sideways to get in, and then wedged further trying to move. The poor lady that owned her was in her nightgown, and said that she had let the dog out to potty. Did I mention that we had one heck of a thunderstorm going on?

To make a long story short, we were unsuccessful in prying the bars apart, we couldn't dig her out, and we could not cut the bars that were holding her because her little beagle body was wrapped around them, so the only option was to use the hydraulic cutters (like you'd use on a car wreck) to remove a section of the fence. It took longer to set up than to cut, and we soon had a wiggly, licky beagle giving us grateful slobbery kisses before running over to her owner.

It's things like this that make it all worthwhile haha.

On another note, I'll be doing something at the end of the month that I thought I'd throw out and see if anyone here was interested. It's short notice and would be a bit of travelling, but if I don't ask you'll never know. I am going to something up in Clarksville, TN (where I went to college). It's an archery competition, but they have a special group that you can participate in. They provide you with a chunk of wood, all the tools and instruction that you need, and help you make a bow. Then on the last day you get to participate in a special shoot just for the people that made their own bows. I believe it starts on a Thursday and runs through Sunday. It's at the end of this month and first of May. I'm really looking forward to it.

See ya later.

Missed it by THAT --> <-- much

I missed it by 8 seconds. Now, to this guy

8 seconds is an eternity, but for me it is nothing. I coulda, shoulda, woulda, but in the end I missed it by 8 seconds.

Sorry, I'm talking about our twice a year combat test at work. That's the one I've talked about before where we climb the stairs, raise the ladder, hit the sled with the sledgehammer, drag the hose and then drag the dummy. My time this go round was 3:08, and under 3 minutes is considered perfect. Ok, so I guess technically I missed it by 9 seconds which equates to

--> <-- that much (as opposed to --> <-- that much as previously stated), but I hope you'll forgive me.

What really made it worse is that the whole time I was doing it, I was walking, and I knew I should be running. I knew I had enough gas in the tank to step it up, but I just didn't do it. I wasn't tired, my legs were fine (90% of this is leg power and endurance, if you can come off the stairs feeling good you are golden), but in the back of my mind I knew we had a new, heavier dummy who was very stiff, and I was afraid of running out of gas dragging him or struggling to get him positioned to pick up.

It was silly of me. The other day I picked him up and threw him over my shoulder just to have my picture taken doing it, to prove I could. I know I can manhandle him. When we tested applicants last time I spent a good portion of the day moving him around to get him reset for the next guy.

I got to the end and was still feeling so good that I knew I should have run. I could have made up that 8 seconds easily.

So here it is, a line in the sand, if you will. In 6 months, I'll be sub 3:00, which will put me in some fast company. At least in my department. This guy does it in about 90 seconds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECTh4KRTfg0 . Of course, he trains specifically for this event and has special gear for it, etc. He also does the hose hoist instead of the ladder raise, which is tougher. I'm not worried about being that fast, I just want to be one of the fastest ones in my dept (which means I need to ultimately be about 2:00 flat, and in this game a minute is an eternity!) I think I can do it.

Ahhh, and before I forget to mention it, April was nice enough to bring dinner to us tonight at work before she goes on her trip. She made lasagna and a chocolate chip cheesecake and ate with us. It was greatly appreciated and delicious!

See, it hasn't been a month yet!

This time anyway.

April told you that I put a small roof on our outdoor swing, and I figured I'd post some pictures of it.



Not much to it. I had to do a little engineering to get them stable, the trusses were just a little too flimsy to do much more than hold them up there. They had a pretty good amount of swing to them. Luckily I had some leftover 2X10 scraps from when I redid some step treads, and I was able to make them work as bracing.



For the roofing material I used some 'sun screen' material. It blocks the sun but still lets some light in. It makes a nice little shady spot, but the real purpose of the whole thing was to keep the birds from making a mess on the seats themselves.

I even had some left over 2X4's from when I put in the fence, and they worked perfectly on this. You can see one of them is partially stained already, so that will save me some work! Actually, that is from when I was staining the swing and managed to knock over the jar of stain. I had been using that 2X4 as part of a saw horse. My ladder matches it haha. All told I had to spend about $20 to get this done, and I think it was worth it.


Anyhow, that's about it for now. We've been dodging bad weather. They say it might snow tomorrow, and it was 75 today! How do you like that? Take care all.

Chris

In the spirit of the day

I'll go ahead and post about a little prank we pulled yesterday at the firehouse. It almost got us in hot, well, water. You'll see what I mean.

We had our main engine in the shop, and it got brought back to us while we were working out. We went down to the bay (we have a 2 story firehouse) and swapped our equipment back to it. As we were about to go back inside, one of the guys suggested we climb the firepole back upstairs instead of walking. The first guy climbed, then the second guy. There was me and one other person downstairs. I wasn't sure I could do it, so I let the other guy go first. He got a few feet up but kept sliding back down. The pole has a trap door at the top that opens when you put weight on the pole. The theory is that if a child were to step on it, it would hold the child up, but an adult on the pole weighs enough to open the trap. I think it holds like 60 lbs or so. Anyhow, I realized that I could only see one guy through the opening, and I got a funny feeling about where the other guy had gone, so I just took the stairs.

About 3/4 of the way up I could still hear the conversation between the guys upstairs and the guy downstairs. Both guys upstairs were back, and were feverishly trying to convince him to 'give it one more chance'. Then the began clammering for me to try and climb. I turned the corner and saw what they were upu to: they had set a bucket of water on the trap door!

Luckily my gut (both instinct and size!) had led me away from danger. The guy downstairs had given up and was going to just take the stairs. But it dawned on me that we had a new guy who had just started on Monday, and he was downstairs in the Training Officer's office, and it was about time for him to go home. In other words, a perfect opportunity. In a flash the original prankster went downstairs and started trying to talk the new guy into climbing the pole.

Being that he was so new and would be working on our shift, he was eager to give it a try. He came out into the bay to size up the pole before his attempt. He asked how the trap door worked. To our horror, the Training Captain, who had come with him to see what the new guy had in him, said 'It's easy, your weight opens the trap, watch'.

It's amazing how time seems to slow down sometimes. I remember looking at the guy standing at the top of the pole with me. We both had the same 'Oh No' look on our faces. I had a thought to grab the bucket, then replace it when the new guy tried to climb up. It seemed like about 10 minutes. In reality it was about 3 seconds. I saw him through a crack in the trap, then it was all over. As soon as he grabbed the pole and pulled, he knew his mistake. He had a shocked look on his face, as the bucket overturned. I swear I could see individual water droplets falling. And here we were, the 4 of us, the new guy, and the man third from the top of the department, who was now thoroughly and truly soaked.

Luckily for us he knew that it was not intended for him, and though you could tell he was furious, he laughed it off pretty well. I thought we were cooked, but so far he has let it go pretty well. From what I can tell he's the type that will wait a while and then get back at us. I'll let you know when that happens. I suspect it will be Monday, when we have to do our bi-annual combat test. It won't surprise me to find a dumbbell in the hose back or a 45lb weight strapped to the dummy.

Ugghhhh

It's been over a month. Again. I don't know where the time goes! I sit down to blog (or respond to email or do anything really) and it never seems to get done! I have several projects that I want to get done and I have just seemed to waste the time entirely!

I had a ton of fun with my Dad, Bill, and Dixie hunting down in AL this past weekend. If you haven't seen Bill and Deb's floors yet, they really are fantastic. I haven't gotten to go hunting in several years, it is another thing on my list that I keep planning to do but never get out and accomplish. Dixie did phenomianally, and I have to admit I was a bit surprised. She is a little bit of a spaz, but she was totally in her element. Dad said she would be fine, and that was an understatement. Everything I have ever read is that there are two kinds of 'sporting' dogs. The ones that are pets and the ones that are workers. The general consensus is that you can't have both. Conventional wisdom also says that if you have a good hunting dog, it will be too high strung to keep around the house. Dixie sure did prove them wrong on all accounts! She instinctually knew what she was looking for and what to do with it when she found it. It really was a treat to watch her work. I would like to say I was as natural a shooter as she was a bird dog, but that would be a complete lie!

It was a bit like playing golf at first I would bring the gun up and start thinking. Ok. Keep breathing. Don't jerk the trigger. Find the bird. Close one eye. Not that one, close the other one. Keep the barrel moving after the shot. Lead the bird. Too much. There you go. Squeeze. Ok, you missed him, stay with it, you've got two more shots. Ok stupid. One more. Squeeze. Ok, now duck, maybe someone that can shoot will hit it.

See, that's alot to have go through your mind in about 3 seconds. And it leads to a missed shot (just like in golf). After missing several easy shots, I finally just stopped thinking about it. And you know what? It worked! I kept both eyes open. I think they call it 'instincual shooting' with a shotgun. With a pistol it's something like point shooting. I just know that I would find the BB on the end of my barrel, then find the bird, and then shut off my brain. My body knew what to do from there. Things got better and I got a few birds in the bag.

At least till I switched guns haha! The gun I started out with was my 20 gauge that my dad got me when I was a kid. It is an semi-automatic, which means that you pull the trigger and release it. It's ready for the next shot. The gun I switched to was a 12 gauge pump my dad gave me. That means you fire, then you have to 'pump' the gun to get the next round into the chamber for a followup shot. Nothing quite matches the experience of pulling the trigger, hearing the bang, feeling the thud in your shoulder, realizing you missed your shot, knowing you are lined up this time, and getting the click of an empty chamber when you pull the trigger because you forgot to pump it!

Pull trigger, go bang, repeat until empty. That's how it's supposed to work anyway haha. Oh well.

I think I shot about 5 of the 21 birds we got, so I guess I held my own ok. The best part is I got to come home with 6 birds, so at least we won't starve! Plus I didn't have to lie to my wife about how great a provider and mighty hunter I am. A little embelishment didn't hurt anything though.

I drove in from AL, took a quick run through a shower, and then April and I jumped back in my truck and drove an hour to a wedding. We were about 10 minutes late, and had to sneak into the back of the church. We got to see some old friends at the reception and had fun. We made the same old promises we always make to see each other more frequently. Hopefully this time we'll stick to it. The reception ran way too late. It started around 5pm and didn't stop until about 9:30 or 10, so we had to cut out a bit early to make it back home. I hated to leave before the bride and groom made their exit, especially since so many other people were doing it too, but we still had an hour to get home and had to do it.

Alright, well, I'm heading out back to chop up some firewood. Our neighbor behind us cut down a few trees and the guy doing it was nice enough to section some pieces for me for the fire pit. I'll let the trunk portions season for a while before I split them (plus I need to get a new axe first, I'm not splitting them with a dang hatchet!) but some of the limbs will be easy to section with the hatchet.

Talk to you later!

Ok ok

So it's been a while. How's your mama and dem? Good, good. Glad to hear it.

So things are just rollin along here, not much to report these days. We haven't done any work on the house since the last painting, we haven't had any good calls at work, and we haven't taken any trips. So there.

I missed a few phone calls today, and I'm sorry about that, but I'm not feeling that swell just yet. I think I may be having a case of too much caffeine and not enough sleep today, coupled with too much sauce on my BBQ at lunch today.

One of the guys I work with asked me to give him a hand today, he has a toddler and a new baby, about 13 months apart. Both are still in diapers, one is just learning to walk. He works on my shift, so 1 out of every 3 days he is gone, his wife works as a respiratory therapist , and is a 'contractor' with a local hospital, meaning that she sets her own hours. She is going to be working a 36 hour shift starting about 0700 today. My buddy needed to run some errands, and said he would like some company. What he really needed was an assistant wrangler. I tagged along with him, keeping one or the other kids occupied while he did what he needed to do. I even got to finish up a bit of shopping for April's birthday (which is the 20th of this month). He bought me some lunch (Famous Dave's, but not the same one that Famous Robert works at, if you remember that story, sadly it was lost in the great Yahoo migration of 2008). The big thing he needed to do was get a haircut, which apparently is complicated by having 2 small kids tag along. Who knew?

Anyhow, I hung out with him till after lunch then came home. It was fun hanging out. I didn't feel like I did much, but he was appreciative, so it all worked out in the end.

Hey, look at that. Something to blog about afterall!

BTW, those of you who called today and I did not answer, please don't take it personally, I was feeling pretty ill, and still am (so does April) so I'll try to call you back tomorrow. See you gang.

Its been a long time since I rock and rolled

Its been a long time since I did the stroll.

Its been a long time since I blogged too!

Not much new to report here, things are pretty much maintaining the status quo. It's been cold but not nearly as cold as that one day. We've almost managed to avoid most of the bad weather, it's been way to the north of us. I almost would rather have the snow and ice though, right now it looks like it should be about 75 degrees outside and it is closer to 35 or 40. We did get some good rain though, so that helps after the long dry summer we had.

The most exciting thing to happen lately is that I got a new tool for work. Well, more appropriately, the City bought a new tool, but I had the idea to get it, and I'm the first one to get to play with it. I've spent my morning playing with it and teaching April to use it.

I don't remember if I blogged about this before or not (ok, I just checked, and it appears I have not) so here' s a quick background story for you.

Sometime around the holiday season, BPD got a call out to do a welfare check on a Sweet Little Old Lady (SLOL) that lived alone. See, her kids lived pretty far away, and she had not been answering her phone when they called, she wasn't returning email, she wasn't mailing letters. So naturally they got worried, and asked the PD to swing by and check on her.

They go to the house, knock on the doors, the windows, ring the bell, call the house, and nothing. No answer, no 'go away', not even a dog barking. They aren't exactly equipped to get into a house (I mean, they can kick the door down I suppose, but that isn't a generally accepted practice, it's harder than the movies would have you believe and you could end up hurting yourself), and their procedures say to call us if they need in.

The local engine company responds to the house to force entry. I was not there. I have not spoken with anyone that was. I am just related the story as told to me. They opt to force the front door open (there has been debate as to whether this was the best method, but it is the one they went with, and I am not going to second guess them).

So with a bang and a crash, they use their tools to bust open the front door. I'll give you 3 guesses as to what they saw on the other side. Being that it was the holiday season, I guess Santa Claus would be a good first guess, but that wasn't it. Shucks, maybe they would have visions of sugar plum faeries dancing in the entryway, but no, wrong again.

Naturally, after breaking down the door (figuratively) they see said SLOL standing there asking the most natural question in the world; 'Why did you break down my door?'. I can only assume that they had some questions in return, but again, that would be speculation on my part.

So here's the end of the story. SLOL said that her kids not treating her right, so she decided to ignore them and have a nice holiday to herself. She also decided to send the city a $2600 bill for the damages of forcing entry.

Here's the part where I join the story (with how much I write, can we call it an 'Epic Story?'). Several emails come out from the powers that be about how things are going to work, and how to avoid this in the future. I remembered reading about a tool in a book called an 'Auto Pick'. Essentially it is a mechanical lockpick, helping negate some of the skill needed to pick a lock. I did some research and found out that we could get one for less than $50. I did a little more research, and sent two proposals to the Assistant Chief about alternatives to breaking down SLOL's doors. In the end the Auto Pick was the option that was chosen. It came in the mail today, and I spent my morning learning how to use it, and then I was able to teach April how to use it. She actually picked up on it much more quickly than I did. Hopefully this will mean that I will be able to teach the guys at the department how to use it.

My idea is to leave it on the shift commander's vehicle. That way the most senior guy on duty will have control of it, and since he is also the most mobile, if anyone needs it he can bring it to them. This won't be used at fires and such, but when time is not of the essence and we need to gain entry to a house with minimal damage, this will hopefully fit the bill.

The hard part now will be making a training document that will show everyone how to use it. I am also hoping to train one person per shift to show the others, since it isn't really something that lends itself to reading about and then easily picking up (it took me about an hour the first time to pick a lock, but it has gotten steadily easier ever since). The real trick (and the part that I think will be the hardest to teach) is that you do not want to use force. If you try to force it, it will not work and you will likely break it. It is definitely a finesse tool, and I think that is part of why April was able to pick it up so easily.

If you were wondering what it looks like, well, this is it:


Not much to it, but it is pretty cool. Sorry for the long blog. Hopefully April will blog about her cool new kitchen knife, but if not I'll post it up for her. See you guys later.

I'm looking like a genius about now...

I mentioned yesterday about the Nielson thing... I said our TV had gone out on us once in the month we've had it. What I meant by that was that the picture on the TV disappeared. Nothing works except to turn it off, and when you do that it makes a loud pop. When you turn it back on, it works just fine. It has done it twice.

Today it did it for the third time! I called Toshiba and they gave me the number for a local place that is supposed to do in home repair on TV's this size. It should all be under warranty, so no problem there. I'll give them a call Monday (I may be working my part time job today or tomorrow, so I don't want to try and set an appointment just yet).

But yeah, I'm pretty glad I didn't let them open the TV up yesterday!

Hey, a short blog for once... you're welcome!

Nielson Ratings

So today April and I both had a vacation day at work. She's been busily working around the house, I've been trying to reach the end of the internet. So far she is winning.

The doorbell rang, the dog went bonkers (as is her usual routine) and the little lady standing there promptly thrust an ID badge into my face and proclaimed that the Nielson people wanted to put a box in our house and monitor what we watched. Apparently we fit the demographic they were looking for, which is why she came to our house first. Naturally after telling me that we fit the profile, she asked a few questions. I guess maybe they weren't sure.

Turns out we were what they were looking for, and she gave me the little speech. Every time she moved, the dog lost her mind again, and finally was banished to a bedroom where she loudly snuffled at the bottom of the door, bewildered as to what was going on.

The Nielson thing sounded good, they were going to monitor what we watched, give us $150 the first month, $50 every 6 months, and $100 at the end of the 2 year program. Admittedly, not a king's ransom, but hey, it was money for watching TV, isn't that the American dream? I was left standing there thinking, this must be too good to be true.

Of course it was. She was telling me how the whole process worked, and offhandedly mentioned that they would remove the back of the TV, wire the box directly to it, and replace the back of the TV. I'm not sure why that is necessary, since she said they would be splicing into the audio plugs of the TV, but hey, it's their box, I guess they can hook it up however they like.

Unfortunately for all involved, I was not about to let them void the warranty on my brand new TV. She said that Nileson was aware of the fact that the warranty would be no good, and would gladly pay for any repairs their box caused, and split any repairs with me that were not their fault. Seeing as how our TV has already gone out on us once since we got it, I didn't think that sounded like the best idea.

So in a nutshell, while it would have been cool to be one of only 10,000 households in the US providing those Nielson ratings (think about that next time your favorite show gets cancelled because no one is watching!) I wasn't about to gamble on having to buy another TV (oh, and should you need a new TV during this program, Nielson would happily chip in $25 towards the cost!). Talk to you later!

So very, very cold

Well folks, those that have been screaming global warming seem to have missed it again. It's been cold here, real cold, especially for a poor kid raised in Mississippi. Last shift we had single digit temperatures, with a wind chill that I don't care to remember. And of course yours trully was out in the best of it.

In fact, it was so cold, that my engine crew had a gentleman's agreement that, should we make a structure fire, we weren't going to put it out until we had confirmed from 2 different sources that A) rehab had been set up and B) there was some sort of warming source at it. Hot Chocolate would be acceptible.

Honestly though, what we were dreading the most were busted water lines. See, not only does it make a mess, it freezes, and we get to splash around in it to get the water cut off, then drained or squeegied away. Wet gear is no fun on a night that far south of freezing, and your boots can only do so much to keep the cold out.

Modern turnout gear is a wonderous thing; it has 2 properties that you look for when speccing it: how much heat you can keep out and how much heat you can let out. Sounds similar, but it is really different. And they function inversely. The more heat you keep out, the more you trap in. That's great in a house fire, but standing on the side of the road in July cutting up a car, that's no fun at all. Our gear kinda meets in the middle, a good mix of the two.

How does that effect you on a cold night? Well, turnout gear can tend to not be quite as warm as you'd think it would be (or like it to be for that matter!). As long as I was moving around, I was ok, but if I ever stopped for long, a chill would set in that ran bone deep and was tough to shake. The worst part is that you are pretty limited in what you wear under your gear, you hate to dress too warmly under it because then you'll wind up overheated on a serious call. But hey, that's why you keep spare clothes on the rig, get cold, add a layer, get hot, take one off.

Shucks though, it wouldn't matter if we didn't run any calls, right? So naturally we were busy. Luckily for us though, there were no busted water lines for us. We ran some medical calls, and a few fire alarms. We got to bed about 11pm, up at 12, back to bed at 4, and up again at 5:30 for a structure fire, which turned out to be nothing. Except we had to walk around the building making sure everything was cool. At that temperature, after 2 minutes outside, my fingers felt like someone had been smashing them with a hammer. My ears were so cold they didn't even hurt anymore. I've never been so happy to get back on the truck in my life. We wound up running 14 calls as a shift, and my crew went on 8 of them. I had fun though, I always prefer a busy shift to a slow one. Time goes by so much faster that way, and I love what I do.

As for the police, let's just say it was a good day to be a speeder in our little city!

But it has warmed up again now, realatively. The wind still cuts right through you. Yup. Global warming at it's finest.

Happy Newyear!!!

Hey all, I'm not sure where the time has gone lately, but this is my first shift of the new year, so I figure I'll try to get back on track.

Not much to report, we've been busy but not with anything exciting.

We worked New Year's eve, but it was pretty quiet.

So far today we've done a bunch of projects around the station (installed some hose reels for garden hoses and air hoses in the bay to de-clutter) and worked out. Hopefully that will pretty much cover our day!

I think tomorrow we are going to go back out to the Bluffs and hike again, weather permitting.

Hope everyone is having a great New Year so far. Talk to you later!

Chris