Oh, Sweet Nothing - MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
81

Yay for me! Class was a blast last night!
They finally brought the aerial ladder for us to climb. There are several different aerials in the county, from 90 feet to 110 feet. We got one that was 105 feet and I climbed it all the way to the top!
Two girls in the class couldn’t make it - they both got less than halfway and had to quit.

Not me, baby! I went all the way up!

In full gear, too. No air bottle, thankfully, but the rest of the gear weighs about 35 pounds or so. It was quite a workout.
When you get to the top, you have to hook in and lean back. That was a little scary, but I did it.
It was really cool at the top. We have classes at the Fire Academy near the steel mill, and it’s really neat at night - you can see it all lit up. It was a hell of a view.

82

Bibs, you familiar with the phrase ‘Left for Life’?

Get your <snerk>ers ready, because I’m gonna tell y’all about another night of pulling hose. Last night, we set everything up once again in the parking lot behind the courthouse, and pumped more water. Your’s truly finally got to handle a live hose.

First was the inch and a half, and I got to spray foam on an embankment. That guy takes 2 people to handle. Then we moved up to the traditional two and a half, which needs three people to handle, and is a bear (N. O. S.) to handle with that many. Once all the newbies had their turn, the chief then said, “You now know why the two and a half needs 3 to handle. The fact of life is that we’re a rural department, and we don’t always have the luxury of showing up on a scene with a minimum crew of 4. This is how you handle it by yourself…”

The hose was depressurized, and we put a wide loop in it with the nozzle end passing underneath. Then the guy or gal (yup, Mayberry VFD has 2) SITS on the hose to hold it down and sprays with the nozzle between your legs. I had to kneel instead of sit, because with my arthritis and all the gear, I wasn’t flexible enough toget on and off my ass easily. :frowning:

Then we heard lots of war stories about other guys bigger than me trying to handle a two and a half while standing, and having the snot beat out of them in the process. Funny and scary all at the same time…

Some tricks we learned. Left for life is a reference to the spray pattern on the nozzle. Turn it left and it gets wider; if the fire is overtaking you, turn it left to make a wall of water, and beat feet. We also were shown how to breathe from the spray if the air packs run out, and how to use the two and a half to make a wall while the inch and a half sprays foam through the wall.

It was cool, and I overslept today after the workout.

In other news, I had my talk with George Mac last night, and we’re square. I think I’ll take him a bucket of apples tonight as a further peace offering.

I also have feral cat problems. One of the little bastiges has figured out how to get into my workshop through the ceiling. I really need to put up drywall to fix it, but there’s no way I can do that solo, so I bought some heavy netting to tack up in the meantime. I’ll be doing that soon because he’s really pissing me off. Two are marked for capture and adoption, and I hope the hawks get the rest…

83

Uh oh, someone broke Nava. Anyone know where there’s a reset button? :dubious:

I actually managed to get up early today, 8:30 am. I’m hoping this will be the start of a trend. Something maybe perhaps resembling a normal sleep/work schedule, hmm? We shall see. Plans for today include homework like whoa. Here’s the basic plan for the rest of my week:

Today: Start and finish the homework for my Math Methods class.
Tomorrow: Take 2nd test in my Mechanics Class. Finish 3 out of the 5 problems in the next Mechanics homework.
Thursday: Finish the remaining 2 problems.
Friday: Explode.

Seems reasonable, I think. Here’s a pun.

Bobbio, coolness! You’re shaping up to be one heckuva fireman, it seems. When do you actually become a full-fledged member of the department?

84

Uh-oh, someone has set Spat’s self-destruct sequence! Quick, someone find his reset button! Oh, and since none of us is James Bond, it can be before the counter reaches 007 - thanks.

You firefighting people just want an excuse to play with the foam, hmmmm?

85

Yawn. Morning. I’m sorry your mom broke your brain, Nava.

Congrats to Biblio and Bob!

Time to do the laundry. I think tomorrow I’ll maybe make pupusas. Hmm. Filled with mozzarella and shredded pork. And do some black bean soup in the pork broth.

86

Well, I fit right in here. Last night I dreamed that I went into this really big office buiding and then couldn’t remember which door to go out to find the parking lot where I’d parked my car. It was exhausting. :stuck_out_tongue:

I was so tired last night that I barely made it to 9:00 pm to watch Heros. It was worth it though.

mbg, I must have missed the part where you hurt your head. What happened?

Tupug

87

Nope.

Yes, we’ve learned that, too. We’re a rural company, too, with no municipal water supply, meaning no hydrants. We have two tankers, one with 1,500 gallons and one with 2,000 gallons. Then we draft from ponds and streams and even homeowners pools and such. I’ve heard stories of them drafting from neighbor’s pools to put out a fire, with the neighbors asking, “Uh, you’re gonna come back and fill my pool up, right?”
Sorry, no.

I’ve never heard it called that, but we have played with the fog patterns. It’s fun, but I’m just a little girl (okay, I’m nearing middle age) and when I turn on the hose, the damn thing will nearly knock me on my ass, it has so much pressure. I need someone behind me, backing me up (er, holding me up) so I can stay upright.

88

If it’s any consolation, Nava, my hubby’s big boss yesterday demanded with great emphasis when they would fix X program so that would perform Y function as it was supposed to, and they had to tell him that X program was never designed to perform Y function, isn’t broke, and is working perfectly just the way it’s supposed to. I suspect that ignorance of what actually happens in their organization is, to some extent, a characteristic of all bosses above a certain level. Which makes it pretty scary to think about how the world manages to function that way.

And speaking of functioning that way, is there a mom on the face of this earth who doesn’t continue to treat her grown children as if they’re still 10 or 12 for all eternity? Yes, there are shocking moments when they remember we’re actually far older than they were when they had us, but then they revert to type again rapidly. It’s far more comfortable that way, for all concerned. :smiley:

So it sounds like the most important part of firefighting is all the really cool toys you get to play with at all your practices. Climbing the aerial ladder sounds great!

FCM, you probably want to check those desserts for tread marks. :smiley:

I slept like a log last night for the first time in far too long. Woke up at 7:00, opened the back door for the dogs, and went back to sleep for another couple of hours. It was lovely. Now I’m back to work on a transcript with a witness who’s lost all his pronouns. Think mine are going to start disappearing, too. Scary, that.

89

Good morning everyone. Well, not so good for me.

Anyway, to answer your question Spats,…well, I can’t really. I guess they were putting their arms in cement to be able to stay there and not be easily hauled away. I forgot to mention yesterday that when they pulled up, they flattened all the tires on the bus. :rolleyes: I watched the news to see if there was any mention of the protest, but I didn’t see anything. There was bigger news anyway; a cop was killed on her way to work and the weather. That was mainly all they talked about.

The reason my morning isn’t so good is that I have a big yellow engine check light on my rig and it’s staying on. It just popped on while I was driving on the interstate. So, being a good girl, I checked my owner’s manual and, of course, it’s telling me that this means something wrong has been detected. I am full of grrrrr. I only have 21,000 miles on this rig. It shouldn’t be coming on like this. To be honest, my stomach sort of dropped and I felt sort of sick the rest of the drive. I don’t need this hassle right now. Needless to say, I’ll be contacting the dealership to see when I can bring it in.

MBG, I really hope your head starts feeling better and the neurologist can help you.

90

Is it possible your gas cap isn’t on tight enough? Happens to me all the time, and I freak out as soon as the light comes on.

91

My mother used to make fun of the 6th floor neighbor whenever the neighbor gushed about “her baby” coming to visit. The baby’s daughters were in college at the time.

Now when Mom calls me baby the Bros and myself kid her mercilessly (I’m the eldest but the only female).

92

Freaking out as soon as the light comes on may be overreacting but it’s better than doing nothing.
I had an '80 Jetta, and after a bad accident (which while not totalling the car, did require major front end rebuild) I had a series of problems with the fuse box - the fire wall had a small crack which developed into a small leak, so whenever it rained, the fuse box got wet. Two days after a routine tune up, the oil light came on. I’d just had a tune up (at the dealer) so I chalked it up to the fuse box. The car ran fine - no problems.
The oil light stayed on all the time, but I ignored it: “Hey, I just had a tune up. If there were a problem, they would have told me about it”. Three months later, the engine seized. The moral of the story is, a little freaking can go a long way to keeping your car healthy.

93

I’m full-fledged right now, but I can be likened to a 3rd string player; if there’s enough 1st stringers around, I’m going to be twiddling my thumbs. However, if they’re shorthanded and a lot to do, I’ll be in the thick of it and paired with an old hand. I can probably expect tanker duty anyway, because I’ve done and proven myself there.

January is the county-wide fire academy, and I’ll be moved up in the hierarchy once I’ve been through that.

94

Well, by “freak out,” I mean “Why did the light come on? Did I do something? Did that moron at the gas station not tighten the cap? Is the entire engine going to fall out? No, the moron at the gas station didn’t do the requisite three clicks. My life would be so much easier if I could pump my own gas. In the rain, and the snow, and the summer, and … okay, yeah, I’m glad I live in New Jersey.”

:smiley:

95

<snerk>The bad part about spraying foam all over the place is that after you’re done, you have to wash the equipment <snerk>

96

And since no one asked, I’ll be done December 9th. Woo hoo!
Then I need to take my EMT refresher and then I want to take IV Tech.

We also did speed drills last night. We have to get all our gear on, including SCBA (the air bottle, meaning getting it on our back, and being ‘on air’) in 2 minutes. It was killer. I can do it in about 2 minutes and 20 seconds. We have to do it in 2 minutes for our practical final. I really need to practice more.
There is a very specific order in which everything has to go on, too.
We did it over and over (and over) for about 45 minutes last night.

97

<snerk> And the bad part about humping hose is that when you’re done, you have to roll it all up </snerk>

:stuck_out_tongue:

98

I am guilty of skimming, because I am deep into sampiro’s saga of the Passing of His Mother, but I did glean this much:
Nava -may I suggest you take your car with you to Switzerland?
Spats needs a good whap up side of the head; his pun generator is stuck on.

MBG -if I were your wife (and I’m not–jeesh, what a memory loss you’ve suffered!), I would play cruel, mean tricks on you, like hiding your keys.
Bwahahahahaah.

Need to do some work today, and have no motivation. Yesterday at work kicked my butt–I didn’t even leave until 8:45…
taxi -centerpiece sounds lovely, and craft and hobby stores usually have mirrors in different shapes and sizes. They also have fake snow that glitters nicely.

99

Why, thank you, rigs, the thought had never occurred to me! What would I do without you guys, I wonder?

My biggest problem with reading Sampiro’s writings is that if I ever list him as one of my favourite writers I’ll have to do too much explaining.

100

Drae, here in the Evergreen state we pump our own gas. I last filled up last week, so if it was that, well the light would have come on sooner.

I’ve kept up on the requisite oil changes, so it can’t be that. I do have a slow leak in one of my tires and I have a sensing device that lets me know when the air is low. I had been meaning to go in and get that tire fixed anyway. At any rate, any time that damn light came on, I’d fill the tire with air.

I called my husband to let him know and the first thing he asked me was if I’d checked the oil level. :rolleyes: Okay, I didn’t check the oil, but the oil pressure gauge is reading just fine. I promised the hubby that I’d go out during lunch to check my oil. I’m sure it’s not the oil though. If it’s not the oil level (and I’m sure it’s not), then I’ll call the service department. I have a big assed service warranty that we paid extra for, for the first time ever. I’m so glad we did.

I’ve already warned my boss that I may need to take time off and the reason for it. I told him what my husband told me to do and he just laughed. He said the same thing I’m thinking. This something way more serious. Sigh…