Death be not proud

Sorry for the ominous heading but it sprang to mind after what I learned this week.

On the first day of my last shift I read an e-mail from a fellow Captain in our department.  In the e-mail he announced that he had been diagnosed with a form of pancreatic cancer.  He assured all of us that it was not the kind that usually kills in 6 months or less.  Still his only optimistic line was that he may have 10 years if his aggresive treatment regimen was successful.  Now, this fellow Firefighter is 45 years old.  He has a young daughter.  He is facing a grim outcome with an open ended date.

Oh how this hit me!  I sat and quietly cried for a minute or two as the horror of it all sank in.  So sad.

As firefighters we see death almost every cycle we work.  Very often it is an older person who died after long years of life.  Sometimes it is a young person in a car wreck or perhaps some trauma like GSW or stabbing.  Occasionally it is a middle age person who, like my firefighter friend, received a life altering diagnosis some months or years before.  But the truth of the matter is that we will all see death because it is an inescapable part of life.  It isn't a welcome part of our culture and that is why we try to hide it away whenever possible.  Our elderly are neatly tucked into "Assisted Living" or "Long term care" or "Adult Family Home".  All of these are clean euphemisms for a very ugly process... because getting old and dying is so very often ugly and filled with body fluids and disfiguring events.  I understand it.  I get it.

So what am I trying to say?  There is comfort and courage to be found in the way faith faces this certainty of life.  I can't imagine life without it.

Meanwhile... I will pray for my fellow Captain and his family.  God grant him the strength and the grace to face what will surely confront us all.

Oh Dear!

I see that it has been well over a month since I last posted anything to this blog.  That is almost a guarantee that anyone who was reading it will give up on me!  But I find it very hard to write about the mundane events of everyday life as if it were something to write about!  Call me 'old fashioned' if you want to but it is very difficult for me to write something about nothing.

Beginning December 20th my youngest son and his wife have been traveling the world.  They have begun in South America, Peru to be specific and now, one month into their travels they are about to visit Quito, Ecuador.  I have really enjoyed their blog as they post regular pictures and events of their trip.  Combine that with a bit of Google Earth and viola!  I get to travel vicariously and don't even have to leave home to do it! 

Of course this past month found us putting up all the Christmas things, celebrating Christmas and New Years and now we are putting away the Christmas things.  Wait 'til next year!  So far this winter we have not had any measurable snow here in the Puget Sound and I hope sincerely to keep it that way.  Saw on the news yesterday that Chicago Fire had a big warehouse fire and with the temps at or below zero the water was freezing quickly!  What a mess!  Those poor guys and gals!  That was the kind of fire where you are not going to risk anyone by going inside but you know that you can't put the fire out from the outside so all you can do is pour tons of water on it.  Only in this case the tons of water quickly becomes tons of ice!  It encases everything and changes the weight of the building... ugh.

My own firefighting experience this past six weeks or so has been mostly taking care of flu patients.  Why is it that some people just immediately call 911 when they are throwing up?  You're sick!  Put on your stetson and man up!  Going to the hospital won't make it better and you will be miserable at the hospital just like you were miserable at home!  I guess some people just can't properly enjoy their misery unless they spread it around to others!  'nuf said.

No promises now about more frequent posting.  I'll just do my best.

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.