Coming up for air soon

There are many many things going on in my world at the moment. Some good, some excrementous. Among the good - I switched stations. Now I run at Sterling Fire where I'm having a great time with some good friends. We've put out fires, saved some lives, lost some and been generally busy. MUCH better than the other place I was at. The organization is super professional as well.

Meanwhile, I've landed a very short term contract (a few weeks) wherein I have to do a detailed technical architecture for all of Health and Human Services (includes NIH, CDC and many other gov't orgs) for their Identity Management solution. It's an interesting problem because a) the prime on the contract provided an architecture with no information, b) each of the organizations within HHS do their own thing, and c) the rough draft is due friday and the final submission is next week. I've been working every day solid. Last night, for example, I went to bed this morning around 6am. Got enough sleep to be vaguely coherent for my 830 conference call where I got to explain my midnight ramblings.

fun stuff. more of the same today.

more on life later.

bald in the news

well there is much to report in my world, and i'll update this once i'm done all my homework which is due on sunday.

but here's a clip of me in the news fighting a big outside fire. the best part of the fires was putting out fires in my former first due. that was tasty.

apparently the fire marshall who is investigating this fire wants everyone there to fill out an 'exposure form' - though details as to what precisely i was exposed to is not forthcoming.

i do suspect that it was not a pair of random scantily clad lindsey lohan clones.

I'm back.

and I wish i wasn't. Hate to say it - but I love and miss the UK terribly. I want to move back.

had a fun trips - lots of neat pics. I'll post an update with pics later in the next day or two.

Farewell cruel world!

So it's time to go to London.

(not my home town, but the original one)

Back next week.

I can just taste the real ale and fish n chips now!

*drool*

Allergies

In addition to being one of the most accident prone people in the history of man, I also have allergies.

This season my head, sinuses and ears are all swollen and feeling like i've been beaten by a deificus phallus suppolitor sanctifico (sacred rubber dildo of the gods).

I was supposed to have my ER (emergency room) rotation today for my EMT class. My last one was fun (but pretty uneventful). Instead, i'm home with a headache and my nose is running more than a lone altar boy at a remote monastery.

Today life sucks.

I hate tree sperm.

Teeth update

so last night i go the dentist - time to finally get my veneer installed and stop looking like an organic can opener.

i arrive, sit in the chair, the dentist gets the tooth...

'oh dear,' he says.

'?,' i inquire.

'the tooth is the wrong colour. we'll have to reorder it.'

so in 3 more weeks this saga will hopefully be over. meanwhile, the dentist at least gave me 'something' to fill in the area where i only have a small portion of my top front tooth. it's similar to a piece of chewing gum that is wedged in place, but is enamel hard. not as obvious.

maybe now my friends will stop making banjo noises when i walk in the room.

Drama at the station....

So on Sunday, April 29 - duty crew started out to be ideal. good weather, good briefing at the beginning of the shift, as some fun yet tiring training. we all returned to the station (after training) tired, hungry yet quite happy.

that's when the excrement collided with the rotary oscillator.

i can't (won't) do into all the details - as there is still a possibility i might press criminal charges, and the internal investigation is underway. meanwhile, i've taken leave until the end of the investigation and/or my emt class finishes - whichever is the latter.

meanwhile - my redhats - who knows who is training them and working with them. i hate that they are the collateral damage.

in the last week or so - i've learned some things:

1) you can write a complaint against someone, yet because you choose (at the time) not to press criminal charges- the 'defendant' (if you will) is still active operationally.
2) we have no by-laws / SOPs for situations like this - this is bad.
3) i've been assured that an investigation will happen, but i might not be told of the conclusions / actions taken (if indeed any are taken).
4) when you write a complaint against someone, you're lucky that you're not under discinplinary action yourself
5) i'm privileged to work with the redhat program, even though (on my own initiave, without any formal direction from anyone) i started it, manage it, run it, and once it was operational - it was 'officially' blessed like it was someone else's brainchild.
6) i had to threaten to quit in order to get time off.
7) i have no news as to what is happening regarding the investigation - again - if indeed something is happening
8) the feeling of sheer betrayal by an organization i have devoted so much time / energy to is very profound and is affecting me in unexpected ways.
9) if the station doesn't go public with a strong statement along the lines of "the actions/behaviours of ________ are not tolerated and have done ______ to ensure that such things do not occur in the future.' - they are in fact complicit in the actions. it's kinda like sexual harassment - if something happens in your organization, and you do nothing - you're open to a whole world of legal shit.

so after learning these things - these are my options...

1) continue to try to be the adult and have some faith that the station will do 'the right thing' (whatever that ends of being). Downside of this is it requires time and a lot of faith in our leadership that right now i do not have.

2) press criminal charges. shitty for the person who would be on the receiving end, but then they did the things they did, not me. also shitty as both the county and the press will hear of this and it would be very ugly. plus i don't want to be the guy who grasses on people. the theory is in the fire service we take care of shit internally. of course, this implies that we will actually take care of shit.

3) do nothing. this means that the behaviours/actions of ___________ will continue to go unchecked, and someone else will be the victim. and i do very strongly believe that this behaviour will continue - there is a long history of it.

4) leave the fire service. while this would give me ample free time, i would get bored and frankly i love it far too much.

5) go to another station. i'm seriously considering this one. given my confidence/trust for my station leadership is at a (justifiable) all time low, it might be the best option. i like to think i'll be man enough to wait for option 1 to play itself out prior to making any decisions.

6) civil action. this depends on the outcome of option 1, but sometimes you need the threat of lawyers to get organizations to change. heck - look at corporate america.

i swear, there is more drama in the fire service than with a group of jr high 90210 girls.

Done!

So despite having to start our group project from scratch and redoing it in 10 days, and the 3rd (yet highly useless) guy in the group dropping out just under 28 hours before the final presentation - fire instructor ii is finished.

the exam has to be the worst written exam in the history of my history. the exam focused on two areas that were not covered in the class - in fact, one was budgeting (an instructor iii level topic) and the other was on a chart in the corner of one of the pages. the class marks were from 76-82% (50 question exam). I got my lowest score ever at 76. but, of the 17 ppl who started the journey, i was among the 5 who passed.

ugh.

My left foot.

All my friends are correct - i am indeed the most accident prone person on this damned planet.

while walking (yes walking) down the stairs from the bunk room at the fire station to the engine bay (still walking, not rushing to a call or anything like that), I managed to twist my left foot clockwise such that my left ankle landed on the ground.

Went to the doctor, filled out yet another "brown form" (workman's comp form), had xrays and apparently i tore some tendons or ligaments (i don't remember which - and it hurts too much to go to my car to get the doctor's report) in my left foot. I'm on light duty until i get released by the specialist (appointment later this week).

So yeah, apparently i can't walk down a flight of stairs without hurting myself.

good thing i wasn't chewing gum.

Injury update

Alrighty... so my most recent visit to my evil satanic^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hevil dentist happened on thursday. Apparently my liver is very effective and kept processing the novocaine while the basta^H^H^H^H^Hdentist was preparing my tooth for the veneer. This was hopefully my penultimate visit. I *really* did not like this visit. in addition to the cutting the bottom half of my tooth off entirely, cutting away some of the gum around it and removing front and back enamel - i could actually feel most of what he was doing. he claimed i couldn't. but apparently my casting aspersions on the sexual preferences of his ancestors and himself, the very real threat of imminent physical danger and the way my body clenched and contracted as he did his stuff - he (the evil bastard dentist) decided to give me more novocaine.

So now i look like someone from west virginia. i almost whistle/lisp when i speak (that whole missing most of a large front tooth thing) and i have to eat / drink things through a straw for a few days.

the veneer is supposed to be in sometime in the next week to two weeks. i can't wait...

saying that, i'd rather lay naked and have an army of big furry spiders crawl over me than go back.

i hate spiders.

Vrooooom!

So my upload speed sucks... but still... :)

Phew

Well we passed our presentation. We didn't do too badly - it was over all much better then we or the evaluating captains expected (that whole losing a partner thing).

Now there is the final a week from monday which we're told will be the hardest test so far in our fire careers.

The Rule of Thirds

As some/many/few of you know, I'm trying to complete my Fire Instructor II class. This particular class has been a bit of a charlie foxtrot (i think i mentioned it in my last post).

Anyway, our final presentation is tonight. Almost done. Yes we're cutting it fine, but the third guy in our group bailed on us yesterday. While his contribution has been rather... sub-standard... his timing is pretty crap.

It's not a great loss - this is someone who still doesn't understand the basic precepts that they were trying to teach us in this class. The class is more about teaching theory than fire science. Things like the 3 learning domains - cognitive, psychomotor and affective...

While it's not a loss - it's still annoying as i had to stay up and get up rather early to make sure that we covered his stuff.

The not-so fun part is he called the lead instructor and blamed my partner and i for his leaving. i think he left out all the bits about his 'working 12 hour days' 'don't have much time to put into this' and the fact that most of the stuff he did was very shoddily cut and paste from other sources.

fortunately almost all of this is documented - and we're bringing it to class tonight to ensure our reputations (and grades) aren't going to be affected.

On a side note - the class is about technical rescue awareness. it might even be interesting. heck - i think it is.

but then i am a dork.

Latest update

So here's an update in the world of chris:

Injury: still healing. Had another root canal and still have a few more dentist visits. each time i go i think it's the last one, but alas - it isn't.

Humour: after my last dental visit, the dentist put me on some meds that didn't agree with me. so i spent the weekend whimpering while in a fetal ball. Reminded me of a visit to the Death Van oh so many years ago.

Anyway, the guys from Station 19 showed up on my duty night (i was home sick) to train with us. They apparently got of the engine with all sorts of facial protection - hockey masks etc. Shame i missed it. Sort of.

Wankers. :)

Work: work is somewhat busy. discovered the project lead hasn't been forwarding any of my work, results, questions or whatnot to the boss boss. This led to some ass chewing until i produced my email documentation trail. note to everyeone - save all your emails (unless you're a congressmen for a penchant for underage pages).

Fire Stuff: my fire instructor II class is a total charlie foxtrot. the lead instructor has been giving us all conflicting information regarding just what he wants us to do project wise. of course it conflicted not only with himself, but the various captains who were to evaluate us. bleh.

I'm currently taking the next level of EMS classes. Good stuff, but very demanding on my time.

The redhat program seems to be working. amazing.

i'm having fun teaching the fire I class, but with all the other classes (ems, instructor ii, officer ii (coming up), command school and all that) - i'm having a hard time finding time.

Viv: things are going well. we're worried about her cats though cause they had some of that tainted food - and one of them was ill. they went to the vet today and we're waiting for some bloodwork to come back. they either have some minor bacterial stuff going on - or somethign more serious. this is very much a bad thing.

Fun: looking at mountain bikes - need to get outside and do fun things. i have a lot of friends who i never see enough who ride - so this might be a good escape, some good cardio and a good excuse to see some old friends. viv is also interested in biking - but wants to rent one the first few times before committing.

cats: mine are well. Baal is going to get a lion cut this summer. he's just too big and furry. i think he'll enjoy life more with less fur. Anat is her usual happy spastic self.

There's been a lot going on in my world, but nothing that i've really had time to write down, or that i thought might actually be worth documenting.

oh- finished the latest ghost recon for the 360. decent enough game. good graphics - i like the some of the new feature. AI for the team mates still needs some work, and the campaign was far too short. but it was a good play. i hope to play smith and co online sometime. maybe this weekend. looks like i will have the house entirely to myself (as well as that huge list of things to do that i've been ignoring). being an adult sucks sometimes.

Losing Face at a House Fire

So last night, while driving Rescue Engine 9 - we were dispatched to a house fire in Brambleton. Turned out to just be an oven mitt fire (the lady of the house caught her oven mitt on fire, put it in a drawer, denied anything happened and waited for her husband to see the smoke and call 911 - I think Darwin is pissed at us now).

I digress.

While showing a redhat how to pull the supply line off the engine while another one was taking it forward to a hydrant (engine and truck weren't there - needed to keep room for them), I pulled a little hard, wasn't paying enough attention to what I was doing and ended up with a Storz coupling to the face.

I did manage to finish my driver / pump operator duties on the scene despite valiant attempts by our EMS crew to treat me. They just taped a few 4x4 gauze pads to my face while I made sure we had good water supply and such.

Final tally for the evening:

1 swollen and bruised face
3-4 1 to 2 inch lacerations
1 vertical laceration to my upper lip with 2 stitches (it split)
1/3 of my right top front tooth missing (going to the dentist in a few mins to fix that)

the worst injury was to my pride.

but the good news is i might have scar a la Joaquin Phoenix in Ladder 49



Of course, my girlfriend is still much hotter.


UPDATE: 5:05PM
I just returned from the Dentist. Seems several of my teeth have fractures below the gumline. fortunately they should heal. if not - root canal time.

In fact, I just had a root canal. Funfunfun. Good news is, i might need up to 9 more.

This is me lying down in the hospital.

and this is me at the oven mitt fire just before i went to the hospital. notice the dazed look (yes, a different than normal dazed look).

New Years

It's been awhile since I've posted anything, so i'm going to just say hello. The pictures from the New Year's Eve Gala Vivien and I went to arrived today. So I just wanted to post it cause it (well she) looks pretty damned fine.

While I didn't do a new year's resolution list like my friend Andy, I do have a few things I'd like to do this year:

1) Take Viv to Scotland
2) Spend more time with Viv and less time doing fire stuff
3) Redo my Mum's living room
4) Lose though annoying last couple of inches around my middle
5) More weekend getaways
6) Rock climbing
7) get a mountain bike and actually ride it

so that's my world. it will be interesting to see how it all pans out.