Friday 7 December 2012

Then I'm gonna go over there...

I have found blogging to be harder than I thought it would be at first.  I just can't get psyched up to write something especially if it is mundane stuff... we went over here and then I'm gonna go over there...  that level of mundane stuff I cannot stomach let alone post.  I am reminded of a song by one of my favorite artists (Jackson Browne)  who put it this way

...Let the disappointments pass
Let the laughter fill your glass
Let your illusions last until they shatter.
Whatever you might hope to find
Among the thoughts that crowd your mind
There won't be many that ever really matter...
                                                                       (The Only Child)

You could take that section as un-diluted pessimism but I think the author is just pointing out truth - there just isn't that much that we say or do day to day that is earth shattering!  But that doesn't take away from life in my book...

So I find it hard to be a regular and consistent blogger.

I hope you won't hold it against me.

Friday 21 September 2012

Would you like living with a person like this?

I don't get it.  Half the world lives like this and I think it is crazy.  This other half of the world has a certain religion.  Any time some nut job criticizes them or in some other way offends their sensibilities they fly off in a rage and act out like bad behaving children.  Only it is real!  Deadly real! 

You and I live in a world here in America where if someone says or does something you don't like... you deal with it and move on.  We have grown a thick skin because we have learned that no matter what you do or what you say someone somewhere won't like it.  We don't go off rioting and burning and pilaging and looting (usually) every time some insult (real or imagined) is hurled our direction.  My advice to the rest of the world that lives like this?  Get over it.  Who would want to live in a world like that anyway?  Toe the party line.  Don't get caught speaking ill of the Grand Poobah!  What an awful thing!

Of course, the tendency for us in the USA is to say "To hell with them!"  Then we hear all about letting the rest of the world try to function without all the millions and millions of our hard earned dollars going to prop up those crazy regimes that turn and attack us every time they get offended.  I know it would be bad policy but it sure would feel good!

If you don't agree with me, I won't be offended.

Friday 14 September 2012

The bluest skies you ever saw...

I love living in the Northwest but especially in the months of August and September.  Those two months are usually rain free and often are clear blue skies and nice warm median temperatures.  This year has not been an exception.  We have enjoyed many consecutive days of blue.  I like to look at it as building up the bank for those times when it rains twice a week... once for 3 days and once for 4.

Keep it up!

Friday 7 September 2012

The Hot Water Adventure

For many years we were renters.  We made that choice because we wanted a certain lifestyle for the kids.  We could have bought a home in almost any residential tract (within reason of course) but we wanted to be where there were woods nearby, large fields for horses and other animals.  So I was quite used to calling the homeowner when some major appliance stopped working.

The Saturday of Labor Day weekend I recieved a call from my wife while at work telling me there was no hot water.  She had checked the HW tank and concluded it had died a natural death.  The Saturday of Labor Day weekend is not a good time for a HW tank to die.  I still had to work on Monday and then again on Wednesday for my debit day (see yesterdays post regarding that moment of fun in the sun).  So it was back to primitive life for us.  If you wanted a bath, heat the water on the stove.  If you needed clean dishes heat the water for a sinkfull and wash them by hand.  It was getting old for my wife and daughter (I showered at work each of the affected days!) but we wanted to take the time to purchase the right tank for our home.

On Tuesday the purchase was made but we couldn't pick it up until Thursday due to the late hour of the purchase and my working on Wednesday.  So Thursday afternoon we get it home.  My wife and I wrestled it into the house and then slowly slid it down the stairs to the basement that would be it's home for many years to come.  I took it out of the carton and moved it to the spot... it was over a foot taller than the old one!  Now the water connections were right at the level of the top of the HW tank - no good.

So we called a plumber to come and move the connections up a bit.  Once done (and a few $$ later) the electrical connection was made, the lines purged of air, the tank full of water and the hot water lines all full and running - my wife flipped the breakers and ...

Hot water!

I suspect there will be more of these events in the life of my home ownership.  May they be solved with a similarly low amount of problems!

Thursday 6 September 2012

Don't fall over.  I know it has been a while (nearly two months!) but I have been busy...

Yesterday worked at our busiest station for my debit day.  I used to work there in the 90's and it could get pretty hectic then.  My regular station has an average of just over two calls a day, a pace I like and want at this point in my career.  The station I worked at yesterday has an average of over 8 per day... so I was pretty sure it would be busy.  Now I know that some of you may think boo-hoo, but we had 17 calls - 14 of which happened before dinner.  Thankfully we had none between 6 p.m. and 1 a.m. and then finished the shift with 3 calls after mid-night.  Still - I did get some sleep and I thought that was going to be a fantasy after the daytime we'd had.   The best part of it all was that I was familiar with the location of every call... I still used the mapbook to be certain but I knew where we were headed right off the bat for each call.  That is a good day no matter how many or few calls you have.

Perhaps this post will break the dam and I will 'blog' a little more often.

Monday 16 July 2012

Fire at a Distance

Every fire station is monitoring dispatch during the working day.  There are several reasons for this.  One, pagers have been known to fail and hearing your unit number on monitor is not something you want but it is better than missing a call!  Two, you hear what is going on in the whole area.  Three, you hear what is going on in the stations adjoining yours. Four, when the actions starts you get to hear it begin.

So our ears perked up last Sunday when we heard an apartment fire get toned out.  Now you have to understand that I work at a station that is on the farther reaches east of our rather oddly shaped Fire District.  It isn't unusual for our station to be left in quarters while others more centrally located are sent to the fire.  This fire was almost dead center of our district.  The report was smoke and flames seen, people knocking on doors and alerting residents to the fire.  Then it got a little more ominous as it was reported there may be people in the apartment on fire.

The first due engine, Engine 21, arrived and reported fire showing from a 2nd floor of a three story, wood frame apartment building, they were taking their own supply, establishing Millwood Command and doing a 360 walkaround.  He wanted all units to base on the street outside the complex and staging would be behind engine 21.   Shortly after this he reported that they were going into 'fast attack' mode (our way of saying... I've got immediate life rescue to do!!) and that the next in apparatus should take command.

All the while this is going on we are following closely.  I was training one of my crew to be an Acting Captain.  So I quizzed her on what she thought her first actions would be, what assignments she might make and all that goes with being first in on a fire.  It was a great teaching moment and we took full advantage of it.  Later in the day, when the BC visited our station (and he was Incident Command on the fire) we asked a lot of questions and my Acting Capt candidate learned a lot.

It occurs to me now that 10 years ago I would have been really frustrated that we didn't get to go and "play".  Yesterday it never bothered me for a second that I was on the outside listening in.  Fire at a distance is just fine with me.  My chances to fight fire are still good and I'm sure there will be more opportunities.  I guess I must be changing.

Part of the flow of a career.

Tuesday 10 July 2012

Weird with a Capital "We"

So yesterday at work we had a couple of transports to the ER involving young teens who had either threatened suicide or had acted it out somehow.  This always results in a transport to the ER for an evaluation.  Both teens just wanted to go back to their room and forget about the whole thing. Both were pretty unhappy when they found out their choices were limited to going with us or going with the cops.

Anyway... the second such transport was for a young man almost 15 years old.  As we were waiting for the officer to complete his paperwork and as we were starting to get the young man ready for the fact that he was going to the ER his mother showed up at the back of the ambulance.  I went out to speak with her to see if she had any further information.   As we were talking she informed me that things had been hard for this young man since his father had died just a couple of years before.  That's when I recognized her.  Our crew had been the one called to their home and had done CPR on her husband!  That shed a little more light on things.  So after I explained that her son would be going with us to the ER for a physical evaluation I went back into the ambulance to explain it to her son.  (He wasn't happy as I said before).

It gets weirder...

As we were transporting the crew was trying to explain to the young man that he still had some control on how his evening would go.  If he was polite, cooperative and reasonable he would get home sooner than if he was an idiot, carrying on and cussing everyone out.  One of the crew shared how he had lost a friend in the last couple of years as well.  Then our young man said, "Yeah, I had a friend die in a sand box."  Believe it or not, our crew had been on that call too and had done CPR on the 10 year old all the way to the hospital (a 15 minute transport at least even going code.  I was the one doing compressions that whole trip)!

Talk about a weird co-incidence!  Weird with a Capital "We".  (Thanks to Red Dwarf for that quote...)

It isn't always that way at work but sometimes it can be.

Wednesday 27 June 2012

This is harder than it looks

I notice that the last time I posted anything on this blog was mid-May!  I'm finding this is harder than it looks to keep adding things of interest.  Maybe that is why I have a hard time in that I don't think of things to post.  I will have to work on that!

Last Sunday was the wedding of my niece and I was the officiant.  It went very well.  During the wedding she chose to have a song played.  It is by Christina Perri, an artist I had never heard of.  The song was called, "A Thousand Years".  When I got home I decided to go to youtube and look her up.  The song was there.  It had been 'posted' in October 2011 and already had over 37 MILLION hits.  Then I noticed that it was a song used in the Twilight series and the movie was Breaking Dawn.  My daughter told me that the movie sucked big time, but it explained why the song had already received over 37 mil ...  I won't hold that against the song... I like it!

Been spending lots of quality time on the yard... de-thatched it twice in the past month so there has been all kinds of dead grass and moss that has needed picking up.  Hope all the hard work results in a great looking lawn.

So.  I am telling myself I need to post at least once a week.  I will make an effort to do so.

Thursday 17 May 2012

Once or twice in a career

The other night my crew and I were invited to take part in a ceremony at work honoring the garbageman who performed CPR on a man in cardiac arrest.  (I wrote about it in a previous blog.)  By the time we had transported the man to the ER he had pulses back so it was what we call a "code save".  Over 90% of the time that means that we deliver them 'alive' but they die in hospital from the initial event or the many complications that arise from suffering cardiac arrest.  However, once or twice in a career you get the chance to meet someone on whom you have performed CPR.  The first time this happened for me was about 10 years ago.  We had been called to a local YMCA gymnasium.  Someone had collapsed playing basketball.  My crew was second in on that one.  We helped package and transport.  A year later the man came by with his family to say thank you.  Let me tell you it is quite a moment when you are looking the family in the eye and they are so grateful at their second chance in life!

Now, as I said, the ceremony was for the young garbageman who performed CPR.  I had not seen his face because when we switched over and I took over doing compressions for him I only saw his back.  From that point on I was 'a little busy' and so only learned who he was much later.  Well, the man who had suffered cardiac arrest not only lived to get to the ER - he walked out of the hospital on his own!  From what Eric, (the garbageman) told me, there had been one cardiac artery that was 98% occluded and another that was 90% occluded.  Now he was home recuperating with a good chance at living a normal life.  One of my crew told me that the family had come by the station to say thanks (though I was not at my station that day as I was Acting BC so assigned to a different station).  There is a real satisfaction at experiencing this kind of outcome even though it is so rare.  Now my second time in nearly 28 years of involvement with the Fire service...and a lot of CPR done in that time.  It is all down to how quickly someone starts effective compressions after the arrest occurs.  Do you know CPR?  You could save a life if you do.

Monday 7 May 2012

I see dead people...

Yesterday I pulled a shift at a station different than my own.  I am a Hazardous Materials Technician and the station that houses our techs was one short.  So I was 'detailed' to fill that spot.  It was a beautiful warm, sunny day; quite a bit different from the cloudy rainy patch through which we in the NW were slogging.  After a call around 2 p.m. we discovered that we were going to have to go to the station in which I usually work to conduct a tour.  After the tour we returned to the Haz-Mat station via a circuitous route.  It was while we were returning that we were called to a MVC involving a motorcycle and a car.  The initial report was that CPR was being performed on the motorcyclist.  We were not first on scene but we made the scene and supported the first in crews in their CPR efforts.  Sadly the cyclist was DRT (dead right there) and all resuscitation efforts were stopped.  Now, every FF will tell you they see lots of death.  I always find it a bit sad when someone who was enjoying the same sunny day as me suddenly, and before they could say "Oh No!", was now dead.  A great way to die but it sucks for your family and friends as no chance for goodbyes exists.  Guess it's one reason to keep short accounts!

   Later in the day we were called to a local AFH (Adult Family Home - the fireservice is chock full of acronyms!) to confirm a death.  When someone passes away outside the hospital we are called to confirm asystole (flat line - no heart action at all).  Then the Sherriff's officer has to come to do a basic investigation and then contact the medical examiner so the body can be realeased.  In this case, a sad one to boot, the deceased had been living in the AFH for some time.  No family, no relatives apparently alone in the world... he had been hospitalized with kidney failure and had begged the Dr. to be allowed to 'come home' to the AFH to die.  Someone paid to care for him would be the last person he would see in this world.  It was kind of the owner of the AFH to allow him back - a kindness not often seen - and it was a bit sad that he died without anyone to mourn him.

Glad to be home now for 5 days so I can go back again.  Now I will see live people...

Tuesday 24 April 2012

Some gifts keep on giving

In 1988, through a series of circumstances, I ended up working for some friends of mine.  At the time they owned a company called "Omar's Built-In Vacuum Systems".  I was hired in the late fall and my first job was to man the front desk, answer phones, take orders and learn the ropes.  Later I was brought into the warehouse section and taught how to manufacture the vacuum itself.  That was the part that came into play yesterday.

You see, I considered it a gift, the chance to work for these friends of mine.  I was working construction but as winter approached I could see clearly that my misery index was going to go up in proportion to my income index.  The chance to work inside and also learn a new craft was a gift.

We have an Omar's in our house.  It was also a result of working with the company and we have had this built-in system in every home in which we have lived since the late 1980's.  Just this past month it was clear that the vacuum motor on our system was failing.  I had changed the brushes once in the past and I was pretty sure either the armature or the motor itself was starting to go from the horrendous noise.  So I ordered a new motor and was determined to do it myself.

So yesterday the motor arrived from UPS and I took the power unit down and brought it outside. (It was a beautiful warm and sunny day!)  Once I got the cover off and looked everything over I cut the wires I needed to cut to get the motor free.  I then peeled off the old gasket, placed the new one on and put in the new motor.  OH NO!!  I discovered there were two small electrical connectors that I did not have and would definately need to make things work.  So off to the local hardware store I went telling myself there was little to no chance that these little parts would be there... surprise!  They had them!

I then returned home, applied these little connectors and sealed everything up and plugged it in... the moment of truth.... everything worked!  I was transported back to the shop in 1989 where I first learned to assemble these things.  It was a gift that kept on giving right down to today.

It is nice when those gifts received many years ago return to bless our lives.  It was so nice I vacuumed the house just to enjoy the 'brand-new' vacuum system once again.

Sunday 15 April 2012

Don't even think about it!

In early April my wife and I traveled to Florida to visit my parents.  The travel east is tough because of the 3 hour time difference from west to east coast.  We left Seattle around 0915 and arrived in Tampa, FL just after 10 p.m. EDT and by the time we drove to Bradenton, where my folks live, it was nearly mid-night.  Now that is only 9 p.m. PDT but we were tired and were able to go to bed and sleep right away.

We spent a pleasant week visiting family, taking in the Ringling Art Museum in Sarasota on Monday, Busch Gardens on Wednesday.  We returned to Seattle on Easter Sunday.  All in all a successful trip!

What was amazing even in the age of wonders was the flying.  The planes hold nearly 200 people (all sitting in neat rows in a long metal tube) with all their luggage.  You are easily 6 or 7 miles high, traveling at a speed in excess of 500 mph able to look out a window not much bigger than the computer screen you are looking at right now but the most amazing thing to me is this: most people don't even think about it!  They want to know when the drink cart will start.  They want to know if the Captain has turned off the seat-belt sign so they can find the bathroom.  Some are reading. Some are watching their personal CD players or computers. For most of these people the plane is just a time machine: in about 4 or 5 hours they will be 2,000 miles away from where they started.  In fact, the trip from home to the airport was more perilous than this incredible journey.

Another incredible thing is the complete disregard for the time of day.  These aircraft have no need to see where they are going.  They follow coordinates and computers guide them to the proper spots.  It gets dark and it matters not.  Are there thunderclouds ahead?  No matter they just turn and go around them sometimes with a light show for the amazed passengers.  They fly in complete darkness and you watch the lighted cities slide by underneath the plane (by the way - where does all that electricty come from?) and then before too long the plane is floating gently toward earth and you see the ground rushing by and realize that you really are going quite fast.  Then the wheels bump and engines roar and the brakes are applied and once again you are a huge car with wings.

Why does everyone immediately stand up even if they are in the back of the plane?
Why do they load the front of the plane first and then finally the back?
Why do babies that are flying always sit by me?

Don't even think about it.

Wednesday 21 March 2012

Who will remember?

Some of the monumental questions we ask ourselves is: Who will remember me after I'm gone?  Will it matter that I was here? Will anyone care?  These questions can haunt us and cause us to worry and wonder and, sometimes, do crazy things in an effort to be remembered.

My Dad's grandfather on his Dad's side, my great-grandfather was named Erik Olson.  He was born in Sweden in 1851.  He grew up in Stroms Parish, Stromsund, Jamtland, Sweden.  It is fairly certain he was an only child.  I don't know how much school he completed.  He married in 1875 a neighbor girl named Maret Martensdotter.  They had 9 children together.  Sometime in 1892 (or perhaps earlier than that), when they were pregnant with the 9th child, they made the decision to migrate to America. It appears the decision was motivated by the Swedish government's policy of requiring military service of every male Swede.  Maret did not want her sons to face this requirement. So in April 1893 they started the long process of packing and moving.  I can only imagine what that involved.

A family sponsored them in northern Minnesota.  Toward the end of the summer they moved into a one or two room 'shanty'.  On Halloween that same year Maret died.  Once again I can only imagine the feelings that must have swept the man as he contemplated this new life in America with 9 children, the youngest only 6 months or so.

Faced with this difficulty he did what countless of folks have done, he gritted his teeth and did what had to be done.  The younger children were cared for by the older.  The baby was 'farmed out' to another family.  (He was actually adopted by that other family and so had a different last name than his brothers and sisters!)
They got on with the business of living.  Reading 'between the lines' as they say you have got to admire a man who could take what had been handed to him and make a life for his family in this new, and sometimes strange, new world.

My father remembers this grandfather.  He categorized his grandfathers as 'the singing Grandpa and the grouchy Grandpa'.  This one was the grouchy one...  I must remember that my father was just 6 years old when this man passed away.  It seems harsh to judge a man through the eyes of a 6 year old!  He died in 1937.  There are pictures of him throughout his life that I have in a 'book' compiled by one of my aunts.  She had contracted ALS, Lou Gerhig's disease, and this was a labor of love that helped her get through things.  What a gift she gave to all of us!  A chance to know something about your forebears.

I will write more about this later.  Right now I am in awe of a man who moved his family to America when he was he was in his early 40's and took what came and handled it. 

I named one of my sons after him.

Tuesday 13 March 2012

Oh yeah...

Oh yeah...

     - if you don't post stuff on your blog people will stop reading it.
     - life is short, enjoy it.  Went to a memorial service last week for a friend from college years. She found out she had colon cancer that had spread to lungs and liver.  She died 20 days later.  Could I go to the Dr. for what I thought was a small problem and be dead inside a month?  Why not?  Life is short, enjoy it.
     - As I am writing this at my computer the computer table is strewn with toys...my grandsons and their mother are visiting.  This is what it was like living with children.
     - in our town this past weekend a child, 7 years of age, was shot by her 5 year old sibling.  They were in the family van while Dad and Mom were just outside the vehicle talking to a friend.  The kids were rummaging through the vehicle and found a loaded handgun in the glove compartment.  Now I work for a fire department though not the one in our town... Is there anything in your training that teaches you how to deal with taking care of a gunshot wound (GSW - how I hate those three letters in that combination) to a 7 year old?  To their credit they got the child to the nearest hospital who then transfered her to the Level 1 trauma center.  As has been my sad experience when children are wounded by guns the child died the next day.  So... is it worth having a gun for protection?  Pretty steep cost.
     - On Sunday our Battalion did a drill, one station at a time, where much of the hose/equipment was taken off the engine.  I was Acting BC and so I was evaluating each station.  Six times on Sunday I helped re-load the engine.  I was whupped by the end of the day... oh yeah... I remember... I ain't 35 anymore!
     - I started this blog in the hopes that it would help me to write more...here's hoping you are still a reader!

Saturday 25 February 2012

Computer Problems

It has been nearly a month since I have been able to post anything.  Our computer was shutting off at random times, right in the middle of whatever you were doing.  No warning, no messages just "Boink!" at it was gone.  I began to despair that we had lost all of our pictures, files and such that weren't backed up.  I have a device but hadn't actually done any back up for well over a year!  My bad.

So, in discussing the problem with my oldest son he seemed to think it was an overheating issue.  Then in the mail this past week a local company was advertising 1 day repairs.  So I called to find out what they needed me to bring in.  When asked for a description of the problem the tech felt it was a hardware issue and that was more than one day and pretty expensive (in-other-words -  buy a new computer!).  I decided to take the tower apart and see if it was dusty/dirty... and it was!  So I vacuumed extensively, blew dust out of parts the vacuum didn't reach and generally tried to clean it up.  When I put it back together and re-attached all the plugs/wires it came on and has worked seamlessly since!  I had all but decided to buy a new computer today and now have received a reprieve!

Now, while I cannot promise that blogging will resume in earnest I have at least explained why there was no change for so long.

Sorry.

Monday 30 January 2012

It's Not Fair!

Recently read that President O is planning to push his tax code reforms on the basis of fairness.  If you listened to the SOTU address you heard this theme there too.

I won't deny this has me concerned.

Remember when you were a kid and playing some game?  What happened when something didn't go your way?  You stated (in some form or another at some volume or another)  "It's not fair!"  By that you meant clearly that it wasn't fair that you lost and the other person won.  They had some advantage over you and it wasn't fair.

Have you ever observed a family where the main goal of the parents is 'to make everything fair'?  What one child gets the other must as well.  It becomes the main goal in life and it warps the world.  It isn't possible to make everything fair and to try and frame the world for the children that it is fair puts them at a disadvantage.

Now we are being told that 'it's only fair' that the rich pay in taxes 'their fair share'.  It sounds good.  It sounds right.  It isn't fair that they have money and I don't.  I'm one of the 99%.  I'm entitled to get relief from the unfairness of the world by making those rich people shoulder 'their fair share'.

But do you see the problem?  Remember back to the childhood game?  This time remember when you were the winner and your friend cried out, 'It isn't fair!'

The world has always been about those who are in power make the rules.  Now it appears that the rules are this:  everything you own belongs to the government.  They will determine what is fair and will take (tax) 'only what is fair'.  You shouldn't complain.  It is fair.

This, my friends, is at best socialism and at worst communism.

America always used to be about trying to give everyone a chance to make it big.  It wasn't always a perfectly level playing field and some had advantages of wealth, education or talent.  But the key was that it was up to you.  If you worked hard, took chances and risks, kept your nose to the grindstone and sometimes were lucky, you could make it big.  But it feels like we are straying away from this hard work ethic and moving towards an entitlement mindset.  I suppose we shouldn't be surprised... this is the generation that learned in school that giving out grades would hurt the self image of children.  Everyone was special (think that one through.... if everyone is special then the word/phrase loses meaning and no one is special) and we need to celebrate the uniqueness of every person.  But people don't get anywhere convinced that their unique status will win the day!

While this may come across as a political post it is meant more as an expression of exasperation at this brave new world.  Here then is the power - if you can define what is fair then you will be able to switch places with them and have what they've got!  It is the hope and dream of our times.  Just occupy it and it is yours. Because it's fair!

Tuesday 24 January 2012

A Whole Lotta Miles

On my way to work on Saturday morning the 1996 Chevy Silverado that we have owned since 1999, bought used with 78K miles turned over the magic mark:

          2           0          0          0          0          0    miles!
     only 2       20      200      2,000   20,000  200K

This means the little dial that measures 10th's of a mile has gone around a staggering 2,000,000 times!  Of course, if you tried to calculate the number of times the pistons have gone up and down while powering the vehicle....  I don't even know how to begin trying to figure that out!  Nor could I calculate the number of times the tires have rolled.

What I do know is that this means my truck is O L D!!!  In fact, both of my front line vehicles now have over 200K miles on them.  Do you suppose this means it is time to start looking into getting something with a little less time on the dial?   You bet!  My only obstacle is money.  I don't really want to get into a vehicle payment again but the choices may be so limited now that it could literally come upon us tomorrow!

I will keep you posted on what transpires!  Until then - squeezing every mile I can!

Thursday 19 January 2012

Oh the Weather outside is...

Living in Western Washington as I do, if I want to get into the snow all I have to do is drive up into the Cascade Mountains.  Usually, that is... because every once in a while we get slammed with it.  This is a view up our driveway. Now, I grew up in Minnesota and this amount of snow was just what the first part of winter had to offer.  Many, many times I had to shovel the driveway (and it was nowhere near this long!) only to go and do it again the next snowstorm.  The problem in W. Washington is the snow removal plan.  There is such a scarcity of snowplows (because, really, who wants to tie up all kinds of dollars in vehicles that are used so rarely?) that they can only keep the main roads clear.  Everyone else... is on their own.

So, with this post there are two things I am proud of:  the first is the beauty of this picture and the second is that this is the first picture I have figured out how to get into the blog!

Hoping for warm weather since that is truly our snow removal device on these back roads...

'til next time.

Tuesday 17 January 2012

A Full, Rich Day

Since in my last post I gave you a flavor of what a day at work was like I thought I would follow it up with what the second day of the cycle was like.

I came in early, on overtime, to cover for the Capt at the station who had taken 2 hours of vacation to leave early:  he was taking a child to swimming practice and his wife did not like driving in snowy conditions.  So it was up at 0430 to make sure I left plenty of time should I also hit snowy conditions.  I arrived at the Station around 0540 and parked my vehicle in front of our 3rd bay to avoid making noise in the lot right next to where the bedrooms are.

I switched over at 0600 and did a little work on some personal projects.  Around 0730 the other two members of the crew came in and around 0745 we had a call.  It was snowing by now and that always makes driving a bit of an adventure.  We transported to a local free-standing ER and then got back to quarters around 0900.

Shortly after getting the report completed I got a phone call from dispatch.  He was reporting that dispatch had received a call from a woman who was complaining about a crew that had transported her son the previous night.  He was giving me the name and phone number saying she wanted contact.  I took the information and then had the crew gather because it was our crew that had transported.  We suspected there may be further issues from that transport as the Mom had tried to direct the paramedic to administer certain drugs on her time frame and was angered when the paramedic refused to do so.  So we made contact with our MSO (medical services officer) to let him know what was going on and he asked that we all write statements regarding our contact in this case.

All the while we were dealing with this pleasant little nugget I was watching it snow harder and harder.  Not long into our little meeting I asked the engine driver to get the chains 'staged', that is ready to apply immediately.  We weren't at the snow depth yet, but if it kept on dumping, we would be.  Shortly after this task was completed we received our first call of the day, a residential fire alarm for E-13.  So now, we have to decide if we put on the chains or respond.  I decided to respond.

This call was about 6 blocks from the Station, right off the main street.  We arrived and soon discovered that a child had tripped the alarm and there was no problem.  So, since this was a cul-de-sac we had to turn around.  We decided to just nose into another 'lobe' of the cul-de-sac and back around.  So the driver just nosed in and when he put it in reverse to back out the rear tires just spun and polished the section on which they were sitting!  Crap!  So out came the shovels and we removed snow from behind the tires about 4 or 5 feet, then removed snow from in front of the tires so the truck could go just a bit forward and then back up.  All the while, of course, I am hoping that we don't get another call!  Just as hoped the engine eased a bit forward and then came back without trouble.  We were able to get back to the station without further incident and immediately put on the chains!

We then decided we needed to go to the store as it was around noon.  We had invited a neighboring station (from another district) over for dinner to celebrate their company officer's retirement at the end of January.  So we needed to pick up a few things.  This included a cake.  In icing on the top of the cake we had this written:  "Happy Retirement, about freaking time!"

Once back at the station we noticed that it had stopped snowing but not before dumping 7 - 8 inches!  This isn't much for places that get snow all the time but it is a whole lot of snow for Western Washington!  The main reason is that there aren't too many snow plows and so the snow on the roads gets compacted into about 2 inches of pure ice.  Any more snow on this layer and ...  you get the picture!

About 3 p.m. we got a call for a 16 YOA female with an asthma problem at the local high school.  We surmised that there was a tournament there and that it was a player.  We were right.  She had run out of her medicine and so we gave her a breathing treatment.  As we were clearing this call a late teens or early 20's male came up to us and said he had just lacerated his thumb pretty bad.  We checked him out and found that he had lacerated himself down to the bone!  So we used sterile dressings to replace the ragged t-shirt he was using to staunch the blood and then his buddy drove him to the local hospital for stitches.

Around 5 p.m. the visiting station arrived for dinner.  We had a great time laughing about past incidents, telling great stories and just generally having a nice dinner together.  We had Thai Coconut-Curry Chicken over rice with salad and, of course, the cake.  Finally around 1920 hrs (subtract 12 to get normal time - we function on military time to avoid having to specify am or pm) they mounted up to leave.  Our Battalion Chief had called in sick for the day and while he was covered on overtime during the day I was going to be moving up to Acting BC to cover the night.  I had to wait for a firefighter to come from another station and so expected him around 2015 or so.  But as one might expect we got a call at 1945 hrs for a power line down.  After we got back from that (it wasn't a line down but was a line being impacted by a tree limb laden with snow) I packed up my stuff for the drive to Station 11. 

It was slick everywhere but I made the drive in just a little longer than the usual time.  I tied in with the overtime BC and then settled in to catch up on some reports, paperwork and e-mails.  I called my wife around 2130 and noticed that I was getting pretty tired...(up at 0430 - I wonder why).  So I finished up what needed to be done and hit the sack.  No calls for me during the night!  I was happy about that.  Got up around 0700 and began to get ready for tie-in and shift change.

Another full, rich day at work.

Saturday 14 January 2012

Wasn't what I thought...

I will admit that when I began contemplating participating in the blogosphere I thought I would be writing a whole lot more than I actually have.  Part of it is a revulsion to having to read about the mundane world that some people consider blogworthy.  Part of it is realizing that if I only blog when something big and interesting occurs that there will be no reader(s?).

So as I look back I see that once to four times a month is about my speed.  Perhaps that will pick up in the future... but I don't see anything changing to make me blog more.

I do enjoy the process of writing and putting thoughts in a written format.  I actually look forward to reading older blogs after a while to see if I was able to communicate or if it was a jumble of confused thoughts and ideas.  So all in all I am enjoying the process.  I notice that my daughter and DIL have lots to write about what with surrounding themselves with small children and the burgeoning of a new career.  I think I myself would die of boredom if I had to chronicle my day.... so I thought I would do that from my shift yesterday.

Stopped at the Safeway store, as usual, to purchase items for the day.  I had come across an interesting recipe in the paper for "Roasted Red Pepper-Pumpkin Chili".  So I bought the ingredients (one of which was ground bison at $8.99 a pound! Think I'll be using a substitute lean meat next time!) and then headed to the Station.  The day begins with catching up on e-mail and a note from the off-going crew that the medic unit was going to be taken for its regular preventive maintenance so we were going to have to swap into a back-up unit.  This means that any equipment that the back-up doesn't have gets taken off our regular unit, catalogued so it comes back, and then placed on the back-up.  This happened around 9 am.  I also had to deal with the report of an off-going crew member that bay 3 door wasn't going down.  The crew operated the disconnect so we could get the door down because it was really cold outside... and then I notified the proper people about this issue.  (Turned out that one of the components of the electric eye wasn't lined up and so the device thought the door was blocked.  Once aligned everything was put right.)

Then, at 10 a.m. or so I began my workout routine.  Our department alots 2 hours of time for working out.  They don't specify what you must do just that you need to spend two hours doing it.  My routine is to stretch on a big plastic ball for about 10 or so minutes.  I am trying to maintain flexibility so I stretch hamstrings, back, legs, hips and shoulders.  Then I do some dumbbell lifting (I am up to 35-40 lbs each arm, 15 reps) and then, because it is winter and cold outside, I have a route I walk in the station that equals a mile.  Then I will stretch and lift some more depending on the time and what is going on.

We decided to go to the local Subway shop for lunch.  When we walked in a woman with an 8 year old boy said hello and remarked that we had held her son's 4th birthday party in our station and that he still talked about it to this day.  We exchanged pleasantries and then gave our order.  When it came time to settle the bill we were informed by the staff that the woman we had been speaking to had paid for our food!  That was quite a surprise and it left me wishing I could thank her more directly than just a general 'thank you' spoken to the air.  While we were waiting for our third crew member to come out of the Safeway (she had gone to get items to compliment the chili) our Battalion Chief drove up and went into the Subway to get his lunch too.

So, back at the station we ate lunch with the Chief, chatted about various things going on in the department at the present time, informed him that we couldn't turn in our training records for 2011 because we had one more drill to complete and were, in fact, planning to complete it right after lunch.  After he left we hauled out all of our water rescue items; life preservers, throw bag, and the kit we use to inflate a 100' section of  2 and 1/2 inch hose with a life ring lashed to it that could be scooted across the water to someone in need.

Just as we were finishing up this drill by re-loading the 2 1/2 inch hose the boys from a neighboring fire district stopped by: E77 and Aid 77.  Their company officer is retiring at the end of the month and so is going round and saying his farewells. (We are having them for dinner next shift as our part of the farewell)  They stayed for a little over an hour as we chatted, okay, war-storied for most of the time.  If you know an old fireman he will have many war stories to tell.  Believe it or not, just as they were leaving our medic unit was returned from it's preventative maintenance and so we switched back into our primary rig just reversing the process used earlier.

Then it was time to fix dinner.   I had never made this dish before so it was kind of an adventure as I followed the recipe.  The beanery smelled oh so good as the dish neared completion.  Finally around 5:30 it was time to eat.  Curious taste combination but actually quite good as we three all had second helpings.  Just as we were finishing up the tones went off.  M13, E11 for a 86 YOA female, breathing problem, diabetic history.  The call was in Station 12's area so was a long run for us.  Due to traffic we beat E11 to the scene.  Turned out to be a transport to the hospital in North Everett,  Providence/Everett.

Once we got back to quarters the crew focused on cleaning up dinner and I completed the necessary reports.  Then it was time for whatever one wanted to do.  The crew watched T.V. (back episodes of NCIS) and I worked on a personal project that I have been doing for years... stats!

Finally the crew headed for bed.  I watched the 11 p.m. news and turned off the lights at 11:30 p.m. and went to sleep.

Tones went off at 0300 hrs:  E12 M13 for 16 YOA male with seizure history, request transport to Children's.  This too was in 12's area so we could hit the bathroom before responding ( a real need if we are going to be transporting!).  Sure enough, off to Children's Hospital we go.  It is in Seattle, down by the University of WA and so is quite a trip.  We didn't get back to the station until 5 a.m.  The crew headed for bed (although both reported quite a bout of tossing, turning and staring at the ceiling) but I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep.  So I stayed up and worked on my stat project until around 0700.  Then I made coffee, put dishes away and cleaned up in the kitchen a bit.

Finally on coming crew is in place and at 0800 I am free to go home.

Interesting... that wasn't what I thought either!