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.

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.

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.

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.