Ahhh.... Refreshing Water?

I have a feeling if I can sell these I might be able to sell a bridge or two also!

The Infamous Pot of Tea

Len Delorenzi was famous for his facial expressions and impersonations of the less fortunate. He could contort his countenance in a certain manner and you would swear that you were in the very presence of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. You even had a sneaking suspicion that there was a Gypsy woman named Esmeralda lurking somewhere in the building. What surprised us most about Len was that he was also a very good practical joker.

One story comes to mind. I don’t remember the day of the week but it was definitely supper time at headquarters and most of us enjoyed what we called “Sergeant Major Tea” (I still have no idea who named it that and why). The pecking order was in full mode with the senior guys at one end of the table with those with less seniority waning off towards the other end of the table. It was now that Len hatched his perfect joke.

I have no idea who was at the table that day but Len left the table and filled the tea pot with the boiling water from the kettle and returned to the table standing over us as he joined in the conversation while slowly shaking the tea pot in a circular motion in order to let the tea steep. He did this for at least five minutes. Then the unbelievable happened!

HE DROPPED THE TEA POT ON THE TABLE!!!!!

We all screamed like school girls and made a mad dash to avoid the imminent 3^rd degree scalding burns that we knew some of us were about to receive. The pot hit the table with a loud crash….the lid flew off and…..

Only then did we realize that the damned tea pot was EMPTY!!!!!!!!!!

I think I saw Len’s tonsils when he laughed.

Blasts From The Past

Okay…. I’ve been thinking of how much fun it was just to show up at the hall way back “in the day”. I have a very strong suspicion that those days may be a thing of the past. I’m not really saying that the new folks don’t have fun any more but I feel it just may be a little different today. It’s too bad that the OH&S act ruined our good times :) You can’t even have an old fashioned water fight without the fear that some one is going to lose an eye or break a nail!

Having said that I’m inviting those older folks to let their minds drift back and recapture some of the old stories that were hilarious at the time. I realize this may be quite a task for some. Some minds often drift back involuntarily! In the next post I’ll relate a great story involving Len Delorenzi and his famous “pot of tea”. Just email me at the email address at the top of the Blog or make a comment in this post. In any event; stay tuned.

PS> as an added bonus; who are the "old guys" in the photo?

GPS for the Firetrucks

Hummmm… A GPS for every fire apparatus. What a novel idea and just imagine; no more pesky street drill training. I wonder how this is going to turn out. Here’s a little scenario.

Sound of alarm

Captain: Oh oh.. Here we go. Everyone know where we’re going?

Crew: NO and it doesn’t matter either because the taxpayers bought us one of those nifty GPS thingys.

Captain: Ok; I’ll take a look at the screen here; Hummm… geeeeez the writing is really little isn’t it?

Driver: Put your glasses on!

Captain: Oh yeah.. Ok, that’s better. Wow the writing is still kind of small. Which way is north?

Driver: North is that way (pointing)

Crew: (in separate voices) NOOOO… it’s that way (pointing in separate directions)

Captain: The streets are still too small to read anything.

Driver: Well, I can’t see the darned thing, I have to keep my eyes on traffic. We’re going to have to figure out how to get the traffic to pay attention to us.

Captain: Try using the air horn!

Crew: That’s your job, Cap.

Captain: Hey I can’t do every thing around here. I’m still trying to read the little map.

Crew: We’ll have to demand an automatic air horn puller from the taxpayers then.

Captain: Great idea, guys. Ok, how close are we now? Anyone got any idea?

Driver: I think we’re getting close.

Captain: How do you know?

Driver: I live next door to the house on fire.

Crew: Do you know the name of the family whose house is on fire?

Driver: Nope, never looked in the phone book.

Captain: Wow, we got here. Good work everyone… lucky we had this GPS thingy.

Hey, We're Still Here

We haven't left the building.. just kind of busy for the last few weeks. We've been rather active with a new "adventure" that we're working on. Keep checking this site for an announcement coming soon.