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.

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!

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!

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.