A Man With No Country

Many have asked why I haven’t attended the Pig Roasts lately. My reason is legit even though it sounds more like a situation comedy rather than the truth. Let’s do a little background first, shall we. Some of you may know while others may not that I was born in England around the time of the crusades. My parents loaded me onto a rather large boat and we left the island for Canada. Growing up in this country I was allowed to obtain an education, work and I felt special that I was permitted to pay taxes. What was really special is that someone in government felt it necessary to collect even more taxes after they extracted them from my pay checks. This usually took place around the end of April. What is amazing is that I could do all this without anyone asking if I was a Canadian! It’s incredible that I could vote and no one asked me to prove my citizenship at the polling stations.

Back in the “day” I had very little difficulty crossing the border into the USA. All I had to do was show my badge at the border and the nice folks in the official uniforms would kindly smile and whisk me on my way where I supported the American economy and paid taxes there also. Life was wonderful.

Long story short. The American customs folks changed their minds about me and no longer smile. Now all they do is snarl; send me into a detention center where I’m questioned for an hour and then sent back home. I never realized that my last name of Lodge sounded like it derived out of the Middle East. The closest that I’ve gotten to the Middle East was watching the movie Lawrence Of Arabia. All of this treatment because I don’t have my papers. I’m starting to feel like I’m in one of those movies in the ‘40’s where the guards at the border are always demanding to see your papers and the victims shiver in fear.

It gets better! In order to leave the country to get to the Pig Roast I now need to apply for my Canadian citizenship. That will take me a year and a half. Wow, how special is this? I saw on the net that there was an 800 number to call if you were having problems getting your citizenship. Aha!!! Finally someone had seen my plight. I made the call and the gentleman kindly told me that I didn’t qualify because the assistance was for those immigrants who were WAITING to get into Canada!!! I mentioned that I had been here since I was 4, had worked in the fire service for 32 years and had been able to vote since I was 18. I loved his answer even though it was hard for me to understand with his accent, “Sorry, it seems that you have fallen through the cracks”. How nice!

Many nice people have tried to help me namely Ron Jones, Brian Masse and the MPP in my area Mike Wallace and for them I am truly grateful. In conclusion it will be easier to apply for a British passport that will take me only 6 weeks to obtain. The ironic part is that I will have to apply for a Permanent Resident Card from Ottawa. This will stop me from voting now as they have proven that indeed I’m not a citizen of this country. I would love to vote for those folks who helped me but I’m afraid that I can’t. Maybe in a year and a half I will be able to. Let’s hope they don’t hold another election until then.

So, until that time I say “cheerio” to everyone as I munch on my crumpet and take a sip of my cup of tea. : )

Gladwin '08

Thanks to Art Caza for these photos. I have a ton of them but the blog can only host so many. I thought the captions on the bottom of the photos explained the pictures perfectly. If you're that old that you can't read the print just "click" on it and it will appear in another window. At least that's what I have to do : )

Celebrating

Hey... this has been a time of celebration...

• Jeannie and I have been married one year on the 7th of July
• The littlest granddaughter graduated from Kindergarten
• Gord graduated from O.P.P as an Auxiliary constable
• As most of you know George's house was completed
  
• and last but not LEAST.. the blog just passed 25,000 "hits" because of YOU! THANKS!!!
  

A Story About "Rotten Ralph"

Some stories are funny... this one is hilarious and touches the heart at the same time. For those that have never experienced "the good old days" this is a typical day at the hall. Thanks go to Tom White for this story about a guy we all loved and respected. This was "Rotten Ralph" at his best. Enjoy.

Hi Jack

Thanks for the heads up on '' Ralph's '' passing. Imagine Barney , Ale and Ralph back together again.

I've often wondered who hung the name rotten ralph on Derush.......

Personally, I remember meeting Bob in the summer of 69..... It was a Thursday and being the redass I got shipped to headquarters on pit street.

It was window day and we were doing the windows upstairs. Bob stopped me and said what are you doing, Stupid, you don't wash the whole window , you pull the shade half way down and just do what shows. After I had done a few like that, Bob and Ron Lemay went and told Lt. Jack Hillis the redass was only doing half the job.

Later that day I thought I was going to get even;Lemay and Derush and Smitty were playing pool and this was my game..... I was good and too stupid not to show off. I went to my car and brought in my own cue. After letting me in to the game, I proceeded to show off. Bob asked to see my stick and proceeded to brake it over his knee and throw it out the third floor window. Ralph knew when to be rotten ,when a lesson in humility was needed and believe it or not had a big heart. Bob and Ron took a shine to this little alley rat of a kid named Phillip and they would hose him down in the hose tower and clean him up regularly and feed him and give him money.

God those were good times. Once Bob was on my side in a water fight. I was waiting at the foot of the stairs out front to throw a pail of water on Fenton who was driving the chief. Bob yelled let it go and I threw the whole damn bucket on Ray Berthiaume who was the meanest man I ever met. How could I have trusted Rotten Ralph.....? We all have our memories and those old pit street ones are special........

Retiree Tom White

An Apparatus Door Injures Chief 2's Vehicle

“Hey, it wasn’t my fault!” That’s what I proclaimed that night at Station 2 and I’ve held onto that belief ever since. Here’s what happened:

It was a dark and scary night when Chief 2 left the building to do his nightly rounds on the east end and points beyond. Bob Cooper and his driver had been known to traverse the city’s both East and West sides just in case Chief 1 had missed something. Bob was like that; he accomplished stuff.

Looking for a quiet place in the station in order to read my book I found that the watch booth was empty and so took a seat and began my read. A couple of hours passed by without much interruption. The only person that visited me was Ron Trofin who asked me what the meaning of “being Trofed” meant. Other than that it was rather quiet unless you consider the fact that the only other disturbance occurred when Dave Stroud came in to reminisce about some repetitive stories that took place during the 1950’s that he remembered as though they actually happened yesterday.

When Chief 2 returned from his “cross country” ride it was quite dark inside as the apparatus lights had not been turned on and the apparatus door had been closed. Or so I thought at the time. Apparently I was mistaken. Being always diligent about helping out the Chief I promptly pushed the button on the console to open the apparatus door so the Chief could enter the building. Not aware that the door was still open it started to descend the same time Chief 2’s driver started to reverse the command car inside the apparatus floor. My timing was exquisite.

The apparatus door made contact with the command car’s light bar perfectly and if I remember correctly landed square on the hood of the car. I would be remiss to not mention that Chief 2 and his driver nearly suffered dual heart attacks at that moment. It would have been OK though as I had just recently been trained in CPR. As the Boy Scout motto declares; I was prepared.

15^th ANNUAL RETIREMENT

PIG ROAST

“RAY SEGUIN MEMORIAL”

WEDNESDAY, JULY 9/2008

GLADWIN, MICHIGAN

CONTACTS

DOUG HORSTEAD (989) 426-7425

WHITE STAR (989) 426-8940

ALL SEASONS (989) 426-5600

(SORRY…GUYS ONLY) P.S. BRING LAWN CHAIRS

I.C.E

Has everyone heard of "I.C.E"? That's the contact name in your cell phone that EMS personnel search for when they are trying to contact your next of kin in the event that you have an auto accident or other traumatic event. "I.C.E" stands for "In Case of Emergency". When the EMS person searches your cell they automatically search for "ICE" in your contacts and then contact someone designated to that number. It's a pretty simple thing to do and would do you well to enter a phone number in case you haven't done it yet. All you have to do is choose the number and then label it ICE. Pretty simple.

A recent story of a friend in Michigan shows how the "ICE" was used. Our friend was in a health store reading the label on a product when he suddenly lost consciousness. The clerk at the store immediately called 911 and waited for the EMS to arrive. When they did they asked if anyone knew the patient to no avail. One of the EMS folks found the patient's cell phone and did a search for ICE and found it. When her cell rang his wife thought it was her husband but soon found out otherwise. Because of the ICE entry she was actually able to get to the hospital before her husband and was waiting for him when the ambulance arrived.
Check your cell phone and make sure you have ICE in your contacts.

The Farmer

John, the farmer, was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young layers (hens), called 'pullets', and ten roosters, whose job it was to fertilize the eggs.

The farmer kept records and any rooster that didn't perform went into the soup pot and was replaced. That took an awful lot of his time, so he bought a set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone so John could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing. Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report simply by listening to the bells.

The farmer's favorite rooster was old Al, a very fine specimen he was too, but
on this particular morning John noticed old Al's bell hadn't rung at all! John
went to investigate. The other roosters were chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing.
The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover.

But to Farmer John's amazement, old Al had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one. John was so proud of old Al, he entered him in the Renfrew County Fair and he became an overnight sensation among the judges.

The result...The judges not only awarded old Al the No Bell Piece Prize but they awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well. Clearly old Al was a politician in the making: who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention.

Vote carefully this year...the bells are not always audible.

What The Heck; Another Mike Anderson Joke

Hey, we havent seen or heard from Mike for quite some time now. Just recently I found this online. what a coincidence, huh? : )

REMEMBER THIS POST???

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

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.

NOW the announcement

We not only have our own complete travel site such as ,say Expedia, BUT we can also offer the same deal to you if you live in Canada, United States, Bahamas, Bermuda. Currently you can book your travel from anywhere in the world but only the above countries may be a part of YTB. However; there are plans for many more countries in the near future, YTB’s goal is to be the biggest travel network in the world by 2010 and we are on target.

If you want commissions on your travel and want the industry perks.

Check us out at www.logicquest.ca

Is It Cheaper To Fly Or Drive?

It was always strange to watch Dennis Axford and Alex Lyder have a conversation at number seven station. Alex was always right and Dennis was continuously wrong. Even if you were in the front of the fire hall you could always hear Alex’s booming voice as he finished the conversation by loudly yelling in his baritone voice, “You’re wrong!!!” Most of the time this was delivered to Dennis who would become very defensive but had a hard time matching a certain degree of loudness with Alex. Needless to say, Alex won most of the arguments “back in the day”.

One particular incident comes to mind one Sunday morning as Alex was reading the Detroit Free Press newspaper. To put this all into the proper context we will have to go “back” somewhat to see what had occurred before this “famous” meeting of the “minds”.

Dennis had decided to take his family to Florida but couldn’t decide whether to take a plane down to Florida or drive the distance to the deep south. Alex was trying to advise Dennis that taking a plane was far cheaper than driving as you had to book motels, food, etc during your travel down I75. He had also forcibly pointed out that there was also the “wear and tear” on the car that had to be factored into the trip. Dennis totally disagreed and maintained that it was by far much cheaper to drive than to spend all that money on air fare.

Dennis had calculated that if should cost the average family of four approximately $320.00 to drive south while the cheapest flight that he could find came to a grand total of $375.00

Now that we all have the facts we can continue the story of the famous coup by Alex on Dennis.

While Dennis was in the washroom combing his hair (as was his normal behavior upon arrival in the morning) Alex had found an ad in the travel section for an airline flight for four to Orlando Florida for $300.00! Now, if you ever worked with Alex you would know that he loved this kind of inside information which he used to bait his prey : )

Alex smiled at everyone around the table and said, “Ok, watch this”. He then placed the page with the ad in front of the chair which Dennis would soon be sitting in. He knew that Dennis would not focus on the newspaper right away. We all chuckled as we knew what was about to occur.

Dennis entered the room and sat at the table. He looked rather dapper with his freshly combed hair, I must say. It was then that Alex started his routine. Looking at Dennis squarely he stated, “I bet you can still travel to Florida cheaper by air than by car!”. Dennis, in his wisdom, knew that he now had Alex exactly where he wanted him this time. He could smell the victory firmly within his grasp. Dennis was not famous for parting with his hard earned cash but this looked like fools play to him. We could all imagine what was going on in his mind at that moment which was, “How much cash can I take off this guy?” Dennis smiled slyly and said, “You’re on… let’s make it $5.00 shall we?” Alex quickly agreed to the bet. Alex deftly asked Dennis how much it would be to travel by car to which Dennis replied, “$320.00 and that’s a steal! The lowest price I could find by air was $375.00. Aha… pay up, You Loser…hahaha…” he laughed. At last, for what surely seemed a sure thing for Dennis, was to be short-lived. I believe he was even about to do a "victory dance" at Alex's expense. He was ecstatic for approximately 10 seconds while Alex patiently waited. Old Alex resembled a fox that was surveying his next meal.

All at once, pointing to the air line ad that Dennis had not noticed, the booming voice of Alex Lyder raised at least 10 decibels as he stood and leaned over and yelled, “YOU'RE WRONG!!!. You can fly for a measly $300.00. Take a look at the ad har har har!!!”, he laughed. It was priceless to see the look on Dennis’ face go from victory to defeat in 4 seconds.

When Dennis went to extract $5.00 from his wallet I could swear that I saw moths fly out of it.

A Computer's Gender

A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine. 'House' for instance, is feminine: 'la casa.' 'Pencil,' however, is masculine: 'el lapiz.'

A student asked, 'What gender is 'computer'?'

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether 'computer' should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men's group decided that 'computer' should definitely be of the feminine gender ('la computadora'), because:

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic.

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else.

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for possible later retrieval.

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine ('el computador'), because:

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on.

2. They have a lot of data, but still can't think for themselves.

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem.

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

The women won.

Station 2 And The “Garlic” Attack

This took place around 1975 or so at Station 2 located at the corner of Walker & Richmond. This was the “old” #2 that resembled a real fire hall rather than the updated version that stands on the same location today and resembles somewhat of a bus station. Our “chef” at the time was Greg Reitzel and he had just finished cooking up a massive amount of spaghetti and garlic bread. That may be surprising as Greg’s last name is clearly that of Germanic descent and you would have expected more of a schnitzel recipe to appear on a plate than that of an Italian dish. Anyway, Chef Greg LOVED garlic and obviously must have held major stock options in the local garlic industry by the profuse amounts of garlic that he used during this type of feast. Most of us had at least three helpings of this stuff and consumed at least six loaves of garlic bread amongst the twelve of us around the table.

What I find remarkable about garlic is that if everyone eats it you cannot detect the odor of garlic on each others breath. Having said that can you imagine how much garlic fumes were hovering around station 2 after dinner? No one in the room was aware of how much “garlic breath” we all had.

We hadn’t even began to have our tea when the alarm came in for an emergency in our area. We were the first arriving crew when we got to this little two bedroom war time house. When we saw the nice pretty lady who owned the house standing on the front porch informing us that everything was alright we all “ratcheted” down somewhat and all the firefighters traipsed into the house including the vehicle drivers. This was the usual custom whenever a really pretty lady lived in the house.

I believe it took her about thirty seconds to become aware of the unpleasant smell that was now permeating the small living room area where we we’re all congregating. One thing you might not know about garlic breath is that it doubles its volume every ninety seconds. The twelve of us started to make small conversations with her. At that point she quickly excused herself and went to the washroom for about a minute or so and then returned. She politely told us that everything was alright and that we could all leave. But the Cap had to take a report. It seemed at the time that she was getting a little impatient with us but we had no idea why. It appeared as though she was trying to breathe through her mouth rather than her nose while at the same time she was trying to hold her breath. I found that really strange. She wasn’t smiling any longer either.

It was then that we realized what the problem was! We all glanced sideways at each other with a sheepish grin; you could see when the next guy realized what was going on. After the Cap’s report we all said, “good bye” to the nice pretty lady who ushered us out the door with no formalities whatsoever.

I should have had my first clue about this problem when I noticed her eyes rolling back in her head and I saw the whites of her eyes. It would appear that the old wives' tale regarding garlic keeping vampires at bay is a very true superstition. We didn't see any!

The Benefits Of Methane

Did you know that agricultural animals such as cows, sheep and goats, etc burp and fart methane? This is really interesting as methane traps 21 times more heat than carbon dioxide. Wait!! It gets better! Were you aware that New Zealand has 10 times more sheep than persons?? Think about the consequences; that’s why New Zealand taxed every cow 58 cents and each sheep has been taxed 8 cents. This is the interesting part; they’ve named the new tax the “fart tax”!

Having learned all this wealth of knowledge it brought up some fond memories of a guy in the fire hall named “Wilf”. Now, I won’t reveal his last name because it may be embarrassing to him. Whenever Wilf drank copious amounts of Pepsi he would release enough amounts of methane into the atmosphere that maybe, instead of complaining, we should have either taxed him or somehow harnessed the potential power of his results.

Can you imagine the benefits of methane storage and the potential savings for the hall??

Just imagine:

· You could fuel the barbecue for an entire summer. Although the burgers may have a "smoky" flavor

· With a convertor setup you could replace the diesel fuel in the trucks. Watch out for the "backfires"

· Imagine filling the vehicles’ tires with methane! Stand back when overfilling!

· No more natural gas heating; we can use real “natural” gas to heat the halls.

· With a little imagination we could even replace the hydro in the buildings for a colossal savings. I would be a little leery in the event of faulty switches that could spark.

· Remember the 21 times more heat than carbon dioxide statement? We could replace the hot water heaters with a simple hose device. Turn on the valve for the hose; let the gas into the water holding tank. Presto; instant hot water! Neat, huh?

Let’s think progress, shall we? Why don’t we provide Wilf with a never ending supply of Pepsi!!! Wow, all that free energy. We might even have an answer to the global warming issue.

I think there’s a Nobel Prize looming in our future!

Mongo Learns How To Do The Riverdance

Wow, I never even realized that Mongo was Irish... and that he was also an accomplished dancer as well... I guess you just always never know : )

l

Kind Of Reminds Me Of .....

Doesn't this kind of remind you of Tommy Serbu?

Visit Boblo

Here's a blast from the past... click on the link to see a great site about Boblo Island...

http://boblosteamers.com/

What Does A Firefighter Wear Under His Bunker Gear?

Ahhhh… I remember the adventurous nights working the shift at # 6 station with Bob Carroll. Picture this scenario. It’s around 3:45 AM on a summer night as the tones come in and the bedroom lights blind you as you get dressed. I climbed into the cab of Rescue Six and I wait for Bob, my officer, to climb on board. Numerous thoughts run through my mind. Where exactly is the fire? What is the best and fastest route to get there? How do I look? (Dennis Axford taught me that question).The apparatus doors open and we’re on our way to fight fires and save lives. It’s what we do. (I always wanted to use that line).

So, Tecumseh road is so empty that you could fire a cannon ball down the center line and not hit a thing.

Now this is where it starts to get strange. Bob looks at me and says, “Hey, guess what?”; so I reply, “I don’t know; what?”. Bob winks at me and makes a bold statement by stating, ”I’m naked under my bunker gear”. Then he breaks into a rather long belly laugh at my expense. I moved a little closer to my door during the run. It was a good thing that Tecumseh road was clear. It was when we returned to the station that I began to have visuals of his statement. I didn’t sleep well after that

Photo Op

Another blast from the past. Pictured left to right are: Ed Romanko, Father Mike Graham, a chief, I believe from Tecumseh and Jimmy Meyer.

Thanks to Freddie Meyer for this pic.

A Story About Marine One

Way back in the day, Windsor Fire used to own a boat that was used primarily for cruising up and down the Detroit River during the Freedom Festival fireworks. I remember everyone looking forward to see who was going to get the much desired role of "boat duty" that night on Marine One. Can you imagine the responsibility and the intense danger of cruising the Detroit River after dinner during the July holiday? "Networking" was also a dangerous endeavor! In some cases we had to use the boat to actually rescue or go retrieve victims from the river itself. This is one such story.

Our captain was Jack Gallagher; the driver Don Hall with Greg Senay and I on the back of the squad out of # four station. It was a Friday around 11:30 PM when the call came in and we had to pick up Marine One at the dock located at the corner of George and Wyandotte (I believe). We cruised down to the foot of Lauzon Road and Riverside Drive where two boats had collided and a report of four folks in the water with one presumably drowned.

I was on the job for about eight or nine months at the time and this was my first time on the vessel and Greg was showing me how to set up the grappling hooks to drag the river. I was a little nervous but pretty excited at the same time as we slowly cruised the water in the blackness of the night. It was one of those nights where it seemed much darker than usual. The constant “tug” of the ropes was startling at first as you think that every resistance you felt could be a victim in the water.

It was then that Greg told the Cap that he thought that he had something! The boat screeched to a stop (Well, it didn't really "screech") and Greg continued pulling on the rope. He said that it didn’t feel “right” because there wasn’t much resistance but he knew had had something on the hooks.

He slowly brought the contents to the surface and swung the object in front of me. Greg said, “Wow, take a look at this!!!”. My eyes slowly got used to the darkness and then I realized what Greg was holding about 10 inches away from my eyes. It was a bag of cats!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I screamed like a school girl. I could hear Greg and the rest of the crew laughing as I tried to compose myself and struggling to stop from falling out of the boat.

Things were never the same after that : )

To this day I am still afraid of cats and plastic bags!

A Tough Game Of Risk

Remember the game Risk? The board game where you shook the dice and whoever had the highest number got the chance to wipe out the enemy. There were these strange countries named Kamchatka, Irkutsk and Yakutsk, etc. One thing that you would have to remember at this point is that the players had their own colored pieces that represented their armies spread over the map in several of their own countries. It was a hard fought war dealing with strengths and defenses. Knowing when to attack was crucial to world domination..

Well, we were heavily involved in the game one afternoon at Station 2. I don’t remember all the players but I think one of them was Dave Stroud, myself and definitely Don Vernes. I have no idea who the fourth player was.

We were all just about equal in wins and defeats and while two players were “battling” it out Don came over to my side of the table and decided to share his prowess and knowledge of the manly game of Risk. It was at that time that he decided to share the strategy of the game. He leaned into me and quietly said, “You know…if the Blue team and the Green team make an alliance they can wipe out the Red guy."I thought about this piece of military genius and then I saw how clear this could happen. It was then that I whispered in Don’s ear, “Don, the Red team is YOU.”

There was a pregnant pause as Don looked more closely at the board and whispered back, “Bad plan.”

Awwwww.. A New Puppy

What a cutie... until....... : )

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.

Neat Magic Trick

Ok...YOU figure out he did this... I'm at my wit's end : )

A Firefighter's Life

Thanks to the Heikkinen's for this one

You stay up for 16 hours He's been up for 48 straight You take a warm shower to help you wake up. The rain in the middle of the interstate keeps him awake. You complain of a "headache", and call in sick. He's chilled to the bone, hasn't eaten all day, has the flu, and then runs into a burning building You drink your coffee on your way to the mall. He pumps on a five years olds chest on the way to the hospital. You make sure you're cell phone is in your pocket. He makes sure the pass device on his pack is working. You talk trash about your "buddies" that aren't with you. He watches his buddy fall through four floors. You walk down the beach, staring at all the pretty girls. He walks down the highway looking for the motorcyclists missing limb. You complain about how hot it is. He wears fifty pounds of gear in the middle of July and drags a body out of 1600 degree flames. You go out to lunch, and complain because the restaurant got your order wrong. He hasn't seen a mea l since last shift ate breakfast. Your maid makes your bed and washes your clothes. He's worn the same stinking, wet, grungy clothes for the past 24 hours....no time for a shower. You go to the mall and get your hair redone. He holds the hair of some college girl while she's puking in the back of the ambulance. You're angry because your class ran 5 minutes over. His shift ended 2 hours ago and he on for another 24 hours at a station thirty miles away. You call your girlfriend and set a date for tonight. He calls his girlfriend to tell her he made it back alive....then leaves abruptly for another fire. You YELL and SCREAM at the engine that just past you because they SLOWED you down. He's in the back of the engine, going to cut somebody out of their car only to find out that their dead and their daughter is barely alive. You roll your eyes as a baby cries. He cries as he hears his new born cry in the hospital.... but he was taking a drunk teenager in when his boy was born. You criticize your FIRE DEPT. and say their never there quick enough anyway. He blows the air horn while the person in front of them REFUSES to MOVE while talking on their cell phone and doing their makeup . You hear the JOKES about fallen firefighters and say they should have KNOWN BETTER. He feels the floor give way while he's carrying an old lady from her bedroom and tosses on to the hard floor and falls into the unknown. You see the bright lights when you go by. He sees the broken bodies lying around the car. You are asked to go to the store by your parents. You don't. He looks into buying a bullet proof vest because he has been shot at trying to save the shooting victims life. You stay at home and watch TV. He takes his spare time to wash the wagon, restock the ambulance and maybe call his mother to tell her not to worry, he'll be home the next night Y ou crawl into your soft bed, with down pillows, and get comfortable. He tries to sleep on his spring board bed but keeps getting woken up by the gong and bell, ah, one hour of sleep, it should do till tomorrow night. You sit there and judge him, saying that its a waste of money to have them around. Garbage truck workers make more than he does, but its NOT for the MONEY, its for the people who DON'T appreciate what he does.