I hate calling in sick...

So just a day or so after our family Christmas celebration I began to notice a catching in my throat, which proceeded to become a dry cough.  I have visited this exhibit before!  Sure enough by Monday night the 19th I was getting a full on attack of Bronchitis, the viral kind (and I have had it before!).

An interesting side note:  my daughter had sent an e-mail that said that if you want to stop coughing at night while you sleep you rub Vick's VapoRub on the soles of your feet (wear socks to keep the stuff off your sheets).  When I read this I scoffed!  What would rubbing it on your feet accomplish when it is your chest and throat that are hurting?  On Monday evening as I was entering the sickness freeway my wife decided I was going to try this.  Already in bed (and hacking away) I wasn't going to argue.  SURPRISE!  I felt calmed almost immediately... in fact before my wife could remove the latex glove, wash in the bathroom and return to our room.... I was asleep!  Didn't cough all night either and that was a blessed relief - though it didn't stop the bronchitis.

So I picked up the phone at 0700 hrs and called the on-duty BC to call in sick.  When he answered I literally croaked "This is Dan... I won't be in to work today."  His reply was to thank me for identifying myself since he would have never recognized my 'deeper than Darth Vader' impression. (Luke.... I am your father!)  I have over 2,000 hours of sick leave on the books!  I hate calling in sick!  I had to use 48 hours of sick leave and it was my debit cycle to boot!  My debit was scheduled for Christmas Eve.  No way am I going to call in sick on Christmas Eve unless I am hocking up a lung or something.  I hoped for a quiet day... no such luck.

Well.... it has been an interesting year.  I have enjoyed this blogging experience even though I don't do it much more than once a week or so.  Maybe my 'New Year's resolution' will be to blog more regularly and also figure out how to incorporate pictures into the ruddy thing!  You might actually appreciate that - my reader (s?)

Have a great 2012.

Christmas celebration for the fam...

My family celebrated Christmas early for a couple of reasons... my youngest son and his wife were able to be here this weekend but not over Christmas.  I am also scheduled to work on Christmas Eve and so will not be able to with the family except on Christmas Day. Fortunately our family is used to these re-scheduled holidays.

So the traditional meal of Swedish meatballs, mashed potato, corn and raspberry jello with the trimmings of pickles, black and green olives was enjoyed by all.  Then, after dishes were done, we retired to the living room to distribute and open presents.  As an added touch, we Skyped our daughter Shawna and included her in the event.  Our grandsons dominated at first but soon a TV show gathered there attention and our daughter was able to focus on the opening of presents.

It was a fine time of fun - savoring each gift and watching others as they opened theirs.  Then we topped off the evening by watching the film - "Stupid, Crazy Love".  It was fun.

Rekindle!!!

There is nothing that a firefighter hates more than a rekindle.  It is embarassing.  It is a royal pain.  It is no fun.  For those who are not of the firefighting persuasion I will define a rekindle.  It is a fire in the same occupancy where you extinguished a fire earlier.  Usually the same day but not always.  What it means is that when you thought you had gotten every possible pocket of hidden fire... you didn't.  Rekindles usually happen in occupancies where there is a lot of "stuff" strewn everywhere and also in places where there are lots of potential hidden pockets.  There is only one thing that can make a rekindle marginally better...one where you were dispatched to assist BUT it was not your jurisdiction.  I was on just such a fire last cycle.

The first dispatch was around 3 in the afternoon (1500 for you fire types) and it was to a neighboring jurisdiction.  This is how it works for us.  We have two dispatch agencies in our county.  We received tones from the one we do not regularly use.  The clue for us at our station is that the tones go off but we do not receive a CAD printout.  For me that means a quick trip to our computer, a command to remotely access the other dispatch center to get the printout they are sending to the other agency.  I do that because it lets me know more information... like who else is responding, any occupancy information they may have, and the type of emergency.  I can do this before our dispatch agency can send the tones and a printout.

We were the 3rd engine to arrive with a Battalion Chief, aid car and ladder also arriving before us (this is normal when going to another agency because it isn't your first due area but you are close).  The occupancy was an older home:  a 50's vintage single wide mobile home that had at some point in time had an additional two or three rooms added to the side of it with at least two different roof systems.  This may or may not have been done legally (meaning permits and inspections) and they can be a real problem.  The fire appears to have started near the chimney and appeared to be in the roof between the different roof systems.  My crew and I reported to command to await assignment.  After 5 minutes or so we were assigned to assist with overhaul of some of the contents considered salvagable.  We spent 10 - 15 minutes helping with that task and then the crews onscene 'cut us loose'.  This too is standard in that 1) they want to handle their own fire problem and 2) since we are mutual aid it is common curtesy to get you back in service in your own area as fast as possible.

Then around 1930 hrs (7:30 p.m. to you normal folks) we get a tone for a structure fire with our neighboring department at the same address!  No need to look this up!  As we were responding the Battalion  Chief was the first to arrive.  You could hear the disgust in his voice as he reported "B... onscene. Fully involved. Establishing ________ command."  This wasn't going to be much fun!

Again we arrived last and moved forward to report to command.  This time command was nowhere to be found!  So we moved forward to the fire (and it was ripping!) and finally found him.  He didn't even want the accountablility tags I offered him (that means he was pissed off about the rekindle...)  We got a nozzle and began knocking down fire from the outside (known as a 'surround and drown') and then worked our way inside.  I was helping my crew by feeding line to them.  As I always do I looked up to check what was going on over my head and saw the moon and stars through the smoke!  No roof!  Burned away!

So we spent a couple of hours this time helping dig out this fire from the rubble (this person had bookcases covering every wall full of paperback books!).  Finally they cut us loose again so we could get back in our area.  Even then we had to go to another station and fill our SCBA bottles.

Rekindles.... I hate 'em!

Observations on the trip

The other day I was at work and we were doing a drill at the Training tower in our department.  Afterwards we were doing the typical stand in a circle and talk about what happened.  I was standing next to one of our younger members and mentioned a fatality fire that occured in Massachusets sometime in the early 2000's.  His offhand comment to me was "I was in the 8th grade then" caught me up...  I was probably between 48 and 50 years old.  Here was a young man who didn't have a clue what I was talking about because he was only 12 or 13 years old at the time.  Talk about your reality checks!

This is what it looks like out the window as life speeds by... you don't feel that you have changed that much.  Maybe you are a bit wiser and certainly have more experience but for the most part you are the same person year in and year out.  Then a sign post pops into view that says "Senior menu available to those over 55".  Wow.  Someone else gets to define me as a 'senior'. 

Now I am going on aid calls to people my age and younger who are experiencing serious medical issues.  I found out a friend of mine 2 years younger had a stent implanted in his heart to open a blocked artery!  WOUCH!!

It is interesting to look out the window.

Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean

Perhaps you saw the movie, or if you are a reader, you read the book:  A River Runs Through It.  The author of that work also wrote an account of a forest fire that took the lives of 13 young men on August 5, 1949 at a place called Mann Gulch.  The book is called: Young Men and Fire.  I just finished reading it.

Earlier in October I was taking a class for my job in the fire service.   NIMS 300 was the class.  For the uninitiated it stands for National Incident Management System and it was the 300 series of the class.  The instructor spoke of this book during the class, in the morning session.  I happened to have my lunch with me that day and so did not anticipate going out to eat.  I also happened to have my Kindle along as well and so at the break I bought the book and started reading!

Now, I am a structural firefighter.  I know about wildland firefighting but only from books and textbooks.  This was a fascinating account of the Mann Gulch fire that killed 13 young men in a matter of minutes.  He carefully, almost reverently, takes apart this fire, the attitudes, the policies and the politics and lays them bare for all to see.  It is an intriguing account written in the style you would recognize if you had read A River...  This fire and the resulting deaths sent shock waves through the country and the Forest Service as well.  The picture of these men, some as young as 19, one of them a veteran of Bastongne, fleeing before a 'blowup', a fire phenomenon not well recognized is poignant and touching, almost as if he were showing these young men what had happened to them.  In doing this he also brings to us an encounter with our mortality.  I really enjoyed it and recommend it to you, my reader.

Why do we feel lonely?

I am getting two opportunities a week to revisit this question via a study in the Book of Genesis.  Genesis offers a spiritual answer to this question alongside the scientific answers we encounter daily.  Why?  How do we come to be here in the first place?  Is there a reason for it all or is this the sum of a billion different random chances?  These questions are answered for every person on earth with varying levels of intensity.

How is it that our universe exists?  We are told it is expanding at a faster and faster rate... but expanding into what?  We are told that according to statistical probability there should be millions of 'earth like' planets out there in space and, again, statistically speaking thousands of them should contain life.  Still... everywhere we turn our gaze we find probability and possibility but nothing like the planet we inhabit.

What does my being alive mean?  What does my death mean?  If it is all meaningless then it is a cruel and terrible thing to spend ones life learning, growing and building only to cease to exist.

So, I choose to find meaning in the faith answers provided by Scripture.  Genesis tells me that there is a reason for it all, there is an intent behind it all.  "God saw that it was good" gives me hope in the face of death.  The values of love, honesty, kindness, faith and joy are worthy and provide a basis for a life here and now but also in the future.

This puts me squarely in the 'religious' camp and likely in smaller company than other views. So be it... but I am enjoying the process of looking at it again.

One Size Fits All

The other day I saw a bumper sticker with which you may have some familiarity... it is just one word and is composed of all the symbols used by the world's religions:  COEXIST.  In the words of a famously beat down man:  "Can't we all just get along?"  If you stupidly religious people would just pull your head out... we'd have a far better world.

This is an interesting viewpoint.  I think it is built on a culture that is widely varied with choices.  Like fast food?  Your choices are extensive.  Want to buy some clothing?  Anyone who watches TV could quickly name 5 places where your clothing needs can be met.  Need some groceries?  A plethora of stores, all fully stocked, await your arrival.  So it is no wonder that people see this same viewpoint when it comes to churches.  Have some vague sense that there is something more than just this world?  There are more religions than you could shake a stick at (wonder where that euphemism came from?).  All claim to have direct connection with the mind of God.   All prescribe certain behaviors and thoughts that when acheived should give you peace of mind and holiness.   If they just weren't so 'exclusive' we wouldn't have any problems.  This is a problem by the way.  When you claim to speak with the blessing of God... it's hard to be wrong until you are.

What is a person to do?  We live in a world that is increasingly separating along 'party lines'.  There are now 7 BILLION people in the world (and McDonald's has made a burger for each of them if you see their signs...) and it seems that at some point in time there will be a 'play' for some of the precious resources left.  It is most likely that this will be along secterian lines and the 'team' with the best organization, plans, weapons and warriors will win the day.  That may be pessimistic but I don't think it is that far afield.  Besides, this is my blog and I get to say whatever I am thinking.  There hasn't been a government in the world that hasn't made use of God in one way or another...  "Gott Mitt Uns" was on the belt buckles of Nazi soldiers.  "In God we Trust" is on the currency of a nation that pretty clearly doesn't anymore and maybe never did...

I must admit that I have only the ability to delineate a problem and would be straying down the wrong path if I used this platform to promote my view (although I have already declared it my blog...).  The usual answer is that this is a personal choice and should not be imposed on the nation in which one lives.  Try telling that to the nations in Africa that have recently deposed their long term dictators.  What form of government are they installing?  Not trying to be prophet here but...

So... what store should we shop at today?  Someday there may not be much choice.

Thanks for listening.

The Six Weeks have ended

Six weeks have passed in our lives measured from the 10th Anniversary of 9/11.  In that span of time I have been the 'preacher' at our church.  (Our pastor completed 25 years of service in January and the church decided to send him on a 3 month sabbatical)  Having had several months lead time to think, plan and pray we went on a 5 week retrospective study in the Gospel of John.  If you, the reader, are interested in hearing any of these you may locate them on the website of the church:  cedarhome.org and if you go to the 'listen' section they should be there for a few weeks.

On Saturday we attended the funeral of a former neighbor.  She had battled 5 long years against lung cancer. A life-long non-smoker she did not give in to the disease and though it took her life it did not destroy her.  It was an up-lifting service and an opportunity to join with much of the Stanwood community in honoring this fine friend, wife and mother.

Did I mention that I am a blessed man?

Musings in late September

Life is grand!  So many opportunities to learn and grow keep coming my way.  I find myself having to remember something important... there are way too many people my age (and younger) that are done too soon.  I remember a song by Neil Diamond called just that "Done too Soon".  It was on the B side of a single - oddly enough I don't remember the single - and in the song he names all kinds of people who passed away before their time.  The song ended:
    And each one of them
    has one thing shared

    Have sweated beneath the same Sun
    And looked up in wonder at the same moon
    And wept when it was all done
    For being done too soon. 

So here is celebrating (quietly and in a dignified manner) the joy and wonder of being alive.  The world is:
in the words of A. J. Rimmer (fusspot to the world)
   "A place of wonder, amazement and... wonder."
Salut!

Trips in Genesis

This evening I will begin teaching through the book of Genesis to our home fellowship group.  Tonight we will be talking about what was there before the first verse: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

Our current society is built upon the premise that science has the answer to every question.  Given enough time and chance to experiment the answer will be able to be displayed.  But even science has some basic pre-suppositions:
     1.  Everything that exists can be proven.  If it cannot be proven then it does not exist.
     2.  We can measure everything and repeat the measurement again.
The current view of our world is that we are the result of 'billions and billions' of years of time and during this interval of time amazing things have happened.  These amazing things have happened by the laws of physics and science and are not the result of any intelligent being called God.

It is this belief is now beginning to bear fruit among the young people of our country:  There is nothing to believe in.  No great cause for which to sacrifice.  The only reality is the relatively short 70 or 80 years of life and so the best thing to do is to experience as much of life as possible.  Don't worry if that experience ultimately leads to your death as you are going to die anyway. "Better to burn out than fade away" was in the suicide note of Kurt Cobain summing up all that is left for our younger generation.  Taste it, try it, explore it... this is the new mantra.

As always, the old generation doesn't get the new one.  What man learns from history is that man learns nothing from history.  Easy to get pessimistic.  But we will see where this series of lessons will go.

A Tenth Anniversary survived

As anyone with access to the T.V. internet or any other kind of media knows we just passed the 10th Anniversary of a terrible day for anyone in the Fire/Police community.  I had the very distinct priviledge of being the person who was designated to preach at our church on that day.  I asked all the men/women in our church who are LEOFF (Law Enforcement Officers/Fire Fighters) and there are easily a dozen and a half from all over the area, to wear their uniforms or Class A uniforms in a show of respect for those who died that day.  Not everyone could do it.  Some felt it would draw undue attention on themselves and so chose to dress normally.  I completely understand.  What really surprised me (and it shouldn't have) was that the police officers who came to church in uniform were armed!  Of course they were!  Once you put on the uniform you identify yourself as a target.  No officer I know would like to announce that to the world without the ability to defend themselves.  It is a lot easier for we firefighters.  People like us.

If you would like to listen to the 'sermon' you may do so at the website of the church.  Just go to cedarhome.org and look for the title "Don't Let Your Heart Be Troubled: You Mean I've Got a Choice?" in the appropriate section.  Let me know what you think.

A Quick Trip

Whew!  I took a quick trip back to the State of Minnesota (where I grew up) for the wedding of my niece.  Flew there on a Friday and back home on Tuesday.  Had a great time though, got to see my three grandsons again, saw three of my five children, saw my parents, saw my second sister and her husband and 2 of their 3 kids, saw some friends from growing up years, saw some fireworks from the Grandstand show at the Minnesota State Fair (not from the fairgrounds but from a house nearby), saw some food I had never seen or tasted before - we went to a Nepal/Tibetan restaurant (it was good!).  I saw way too much of the middle seat of two airliners... why is it that if you pay for a seat some (PC here) 'overlarge' person gets to take 15 - 25 % of your seat too?  I hate the "Tyranasaurus Rex" postition (where your arms are attached to your rib cage) just because somebody is too big for the seat they paid for and have to spill over into mine).  Oh well... it was a great time.  Looks like it might be next summer before I do it again... I hope.

Summer on the wind down

We have finally been enjoying some summer here in the Pacific Northwest.  Warm, sunny afternoons with a quick cool-down for nighttime sleeping are the norm for us in August and on into September. But all too soon it will wind down to fall.  Time for fire wood to be stacked and cut and split and stored and stacked ad nauseum...  I do love the break I get from the fire wood front during the months of July, August and September.  Man that stuff warms you up three or four times before it ever sees the inside of the woodstove!  So it is coming on like a freight train... I love summer.

Man am I sleepy!

I think I might have mentioned that one of the reasons this blog is called "Fire Garden" is that I am a firefighter...  Last night up at Oh dark thirty for a fire with a neighboring department... Man!  am I ever sleepy right now.  I don't think I can get through this day without a little nappy poo.  It is definately one thing to not like about the job.  Don't worry - I'll make it dancing in the Fire Garden.

An Exercise in Expression

So why did I desire to do a blog?  I think it was to provide an opportunity for writing and communicating through the written media.  I am finding that this is not as simple as I had hoped.  I find that many days can go by before I realize that I haven't written a thing.  Then I enter this site and sit before the keyboard wondering what on earth I will spend the next 10 minutes talking about.

I think it is still a good idea but it is one that I will have to learn how to incorporate into my daily routine.  I think another hurdle to clear is getting over the idea that I must have something important to write about, or say something profound, or make pithy comments or observations.  Good writing doesn't countenance such things but is content to report, observe and comment leaving the relevance of it all to the reader.  Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to slober on about nothing either.

So blogosphere ... I am still planning to make this a regular event but I am involved in a learning curve here and hope to make slow but significant progress in writing about the daily things along with the weighter stuff.  So I ask:  "Will you still love me tomorrow?"

A thing I have missed...

I grew up in the Midwest, Minnesota to be specific. We are, in fact, visiting there at the present and ran into something that I didn't realize I had missed until...

We arrived on Wednesday the 20th of July to very hot and muggy weather.  We must have brought the "summer that wasn't" with us from Seattle because the next day the weather broke and it was pleasant and less muggy.  On Friday we rented a car and headed "up nort" for the Crosslake area where my parents have been spending the summer in a cabin they have rented on Whitefish Lake. 

That night, it happened.  The thing I have missed but didn't know it.  A Thunderstorm.  Nothing severe, no tornado or straight line winds, just lightning and thunder and heavy rain.  My reaction was not annoyance or frustration that sleep was now less likely, no, it was pleasure!  I had missed that crack of light that displays everything in a macabre fashion for just an instant.  That BOOM of thunder, especially the close ones.  Then the rain pounding down.

A few days later we headed out to visit our daughter and son-in-law and our grandsons in Western Minnesota.  Farm counrty.  Fields of corn. Fields of soybeans and vice-versa.  While en-route we encountered yet another thunderstorm dumping huge, fat drops of rain with an occasional THUNK! of 1/4 inch hail!  The car was washed clean!  The temperature was returned to reasonable. AHHHH!

The next night there was the light show of lightning and thunder from around 11 p.m. to at least 3 a.m.  I slept fitfully but not in a bad way.  There were mostly distant flashes and low rumblings, but once in a while a brilliant flash and fantastic BOOM...

Did I mention that I have enjoyed visiting my family?

The Learning Curve is Steep

Instead of quoting the lyrics I thought I might try adding the video.  Hope it works out.

What will it be like?

Yesterday I finished reading a book: Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy's Story.  The basic story is that a family with a 3 year old boy nearly loses him to a burst appendix. After the ordeal, described in excruciating detail, the child has knowledge of events, persons and people impossible to explain and also describes meeting Jesus, John the Baptist and seeing God in heaven.  It was an easy read, enjoyable and in no way a soapbox to brow beat anyone.  I purchased it on my Kindle for just over $6.

I have spent time with my Sr. High Sunday School class trying to figure things out about heaven.  Simple, right?  We recently went through Revelation and it spends a bit of time trying to describe it.  In the book I just mentioned the little guy said there is no one old in heaven.  A great-grandparent he met while in heaven he didn't recognize in pictures until they showed him a picture taken when that great-grandparent was a young man.  What age were Adam and Eve when they were created?  That would likely be the 'age' we would be.  Does that mean that infants and children are that age too or are they forever infants and children?  As usual one question answered brings up another two or three that rise out of that answer.  How many people will be there?  Take into account the world population since the beginning of ??? - then estimate a percentage of that ??? - Then take into account the world population as it is today 6-7 Billion and then estimate a percentage of that (1% = 60-70 million) and suddenly heaven starts to look like a crowded place!  Then, of course, I begin to estimate that if it took Jesus just 10 minutes to interview each person and greet them... (300 million - a guess - times 10 minutes = 3 billion minutes divided by 24 hrs times 365 days = a honkin long time if you are at the back of the line!

See what fun it can be?

Brad Paisley recorded a song written by Rivers Rutherford/George Teren: When I get Where I'm Goin'

When I get where I'm goin'
On the far side of the sky
The first thing that I'm gonna do
Is spread my wings and fly
I'm gonna land beside a lion
And run my fingers through his mane
Or I might find out what it's like
To ride a drop of rain

Chorus:
   Yeah, when I get where I'm going
   There'll be only happy tears
   I will shed the sins and struggles
   I have carried all these years
   And I'll leave my heart wide open
   I will love and have no fear
   Yeah when I get where I'm going
   Don't cry for me down here

I'm gonna walk with my grand-daddy
and he'll match me step for step
And I'll tell him how I missed him
Every minute since he left - then I'll hug his neck
   Chorus then Bridge:

    So much pain and so much darkness
     In this world we stumble through
     All these questions I can't answer
     So much work to do

But when I get where I'm going
And I see my Maker's face
I'll stand forever in the light of His Amazing Grace

Chorus

That kinda sums it up for me.

This is going to sound familiar...

One of the 'perks' of getting older is the ability to rant and rave over politics.  These usually start... "When I was a kid..."  So:

When I was a kid (1950's) politics was the same as it is today. 

How's that so far?  What isn't the same is the degree of 'entitlement' that the public feels for itself.  It is often expressed in expectations of service (high) and demand for little or no taxation.  I'm ticked off when the roads are filled with potholes, or are lined with tall grass and weeds, or haven't been painted in a while because I have come to expect all these things to be done.  Lawyers have sued the pants off the public sector for "should have done's" or "should have known's" (no offense to lawyers intended here - it is what they do).  It is we who have changed my friends.

I buy a house with no money down and then, when the economy goes bad and I can't pay then I want to know what my representative will do to help me out.  I own a company that builds cars no one wants anymore and I turn to my representative to find out what he/she are going to do to help me out. After all I employ all kinds of people... (who are now being vilified by the press for being overweight, overpriviledged and overpaid).  A hurricane comes through and buries my city (built on a delta of a river 8 feet below sea level) in water and I want to know what my government is going to do to bail me out.

Apparently in America we believe that everyone is entitled.  This will only lead to madness.  So to play an old song... our country was built on the backs of people who worked hard, dreamed big and took responsibility for their own actions - good or bad.  It is inherant in politics to try and please the people who elect you so they will elect you again!  If that is unrestrained... you get something very similar to what we have today and that is my point exactly.  If this is going to change we, as a nation, are going to have to re-focus on that old idea that came with the founding of our country that hard work and perserverance will pay off and laziness and the expectation that someone else owes me will not.  No amount of political payoff will ever change that.

So... never dicuss politics and religion eh?  Religion must be next...

Thanks for listening.

I've created a monster!

Oh dear.  Now that I have joined the 'blogosphere' I feel that I have created a monster.  I notice that my last post was well over a week ago (and a morose one at that!) and I am feeling the pressure to have something interesting to write about.  I guess that really is the point, to have a reason to write.  Whether it is interesting or not is really not the point as others will decide that for me.

So now... I am drawing a blank.  I think I'll sign off until something pertinent comes to mind.

Sorry about that but monster, you win this round.

A Priveledge to Serve

It was sure to happen.  The illness was too severe, and had progressed along that unstoppable path.  And so, just as one suspected, the obituary appeared in the paper.  Part of you feels sad but part of you feels relief.

Any person who has the real honor of serving in the Fire Department has had this experience.  You are called to help someone with an immediate physical need.   It rises out of their profound illness, sometimes early on but most often at stops along the way to a sure end.  One author I recently read described it as "a depth of sadness" in the eyes that takes many long years to understand.  People get sick, disease takes root and people die.

We don't like death in this country... unless it is in a video game or a movie.  We hide it away, we avoid the ugliness preferring to see a bright new home in heaven.  I understand it. 

Recently my fire station took one of our profoundly ill patients to the hospital.  The Parkinsons disease that had stolen his life was soon going to steal his Life.  His wife patiently and lovingly cared for his needs before we moved him to our gurney for the silent ride to the ER.

It is a priveledge to serve in the Fire Department.  Thank you to my community for giving me that chance.  It has changed me.  Sometimes I can see the 'depth of sadness' in me.  It is one way to understand the human condition.

I hate pictures... I love pictures.

Is there anything with which a person has a more convoluted relationship than photographs?  The camera is faithful.  It tells the unvarnished truth (if you let it) and while we all know they can be doctored to tell the story you want for the most part, especially with candids taken on the fly, it shows just what is.  I hate it.  I love it.  What a conundrum!

I have an image of myself in my mind and lately, every time I see a photo, it shocks me out of that reverie!  What has happened?  Where did the time go?  Who is that next to my family?  I hate it.

Pictures arrive regularly that show our family enjoying each other.  Whenever we can get together to do something we look like we are genuinely enjoying it!  I love it.

My grandsons live in Minnesota.  The internet provides the best link to their lives with youtube, facebook and skype.  They are such fun to watch and enjoy as they grow.  I love it.

I don't think this will be resolved any time soon...

Sitting around the fire

Last night we had a campfire.  We have a nice little spot on the west side of our house that is a ring of decorative stone.  There was also about 2 years worth of windfall twigs and branches from the trees on the west side of the house.  So with this happy coincidence we started a campfire.  We didn't cook or have marshmallows either.  We just sat and talked. We moved our chairs quite a bit too as the smoke was swirling.  Of course the fire had to be tended and encouraged and there were plenty of fallen branches to accomplish this task.  I really enjoyed the slow pace and pleasant conversation as we savored a mild evening and a fine campfire.  It was just my wife and I and one of our sons and daughters-in-law.  Fun.

This is not why this blog is labeled "Fire Garden".  More about that another time.

The Long Way Home

We returned from our trip to Kelowna, BC Canada today and decided to go straight south to the US/Canada border near Osoyoos and then take Hwy 20 across the mountains. Whew!  It was a bit of a drive.  There is still snow up there and the evidence of several snow slides/avalanches that clearly closed the road and took tremendous effort to clear.  There were a couple of spots that had snow still 12 - 15 feet deep as well.  Then, once we had summitted and started on our way down the west side we encountered, of course, rain!  Such rain too!  Waves of hard rain, then light rain, then dry and back to downpour all within a mile or two. Crazy!

Our conclusion is that this is a longer way to go, slowed by many small towns, low speed limits and many warnings of deer on the road (though we did not see any, alive or dead, during our trip today - there was a sign that indicated an average of 260 deer killed on Hwy 20 each year with 91 already killed this year!).  I think we will be using the Canadian route should we take more trips to the BC interior.

Snow... still deep in June!  Wild.

Hello?

Hello world.  Since this is my first posting I want to greet you... hey!   Now that's out of the way I guess I have to admit right off that I am not super sure where this is going to go or even where I want it to go.  My sense is that there is no way to know and that is the most interesting part of this journey.  I am joining the blogosphere because other members of my family have led the way and I have enjoyed the whole process of reading their writing and thinking.  So welcome and enjoy the journey.  It should be an interesting experience.

This weekend we have been in Canada visiting family.  My DIL graduated from nursing school and we were there to celebrate the event.  An interesting spot was early in the ceremony where a 'moment of silence' was held for those who wanted to thank (either spiritually or temporally) whoever or whatever.  It was a kind of "To Whom it May Concern" prayer time.  It reminded me of a BC comic strip where Curly was told by BC that he was having some trouble praying.  Curly said "Let me hear you pray".  So BC starts off "Dear Gosh" and Curly says, "I think I've spotted your problem".

Otherwise it was a grad as grads have been down through the ages... speeches, good speeches, weird speeches and the same old speech of '... the world is now yours, blah blah blah.'  Still, it was the culmination of lots of work and we were proud of her just as it should be.

So there you go... pedantic, pedestrian, and plain.  I am hoping for more.