Let's try this again...

Hi. 

I didn't actually time the upload, it felt like every bit of 78 minutes.  While I was away I...  

finished my laundry

answered several emails

wrote several emails

updated the contacts list on my phone with people I've met out here

added pictures to a draft of a post for use at a later date

You get the idea.

So, let's try and get caught up, shall we?

Let's try this video and then I'd suggest this video from last weekend and last Monday.  And, as long as I'm linking video I'll throw this video in again by the young news crew from 365Barrington.com because they really were a lot of fun to work with.

And, finally, this...

The reason for the delay was the video of John singing "Amazing Grace" for his sister that passed away from cancer.  Without further adieu, here it is. There's a little background noise, the bus generator was running, but it's well worth the listen.

OK then.  On to the updates.

Today is... Friday?  I've completely lost track of days.  the routine of shift usually keeps me on track, but touring throws that off pretty quickly.  I really have to stop and think about it.  So, today being Friday (it IS Friday, right?) means that on Wednesday we went to Evanston, IL home of; holy crap, I don't think I've ever written about a tour stop in a town with it's own Wikipedia entry of notable people but Evanston's got one.  I'll refrain from comment about them.  

Most of them.

Many of them.

OK, I can't help myself, it looks like a really nice town (city?) but c'mon; Charlton Heston, Donald Rumsfeld AND John Cusack?  All from the same town?  Throw in Jim Belushi and you may as well... OK, never mind.  But Geez what's in the water there?

We met some great people there and had, by my estimation, the BEST food I've had on tour in quite some time, Jamaican chicken, red beans and rice and fried plantains from a place called "Kingston Grille" and it was just phenomenal   Good Lord, yes.  I'm getting hungry again just thinking about it.  Great stuff.  And after talking to one of their aldermen and a couple guys from the FD (side note, GREAT job Jay!) I'm adding Evanston to the list of towns that might (read should) be adding a chapter in the next year.  And the director of Public Health for the city was a wonderful woman, wish I could remember her name... I really should've asked for a card...

Yesterday took us to Bedford Park/Oak Lawn and the longest single day on tour so far.  We left the hotel at 5:45 Am and didn't make it back until almost 10:00 last night.  That, my friends, qualifies as a long day.

But it was a good one.  Due to my close proximity to Good Sam (right across the street every third day) I've got a pretty good relationship with a bunch of people there and a couple at Advocate, their parent group.  In fact, we've kind of done a mini-Advocate tour here visiting three of their facilities this week.  Yesterday, it was Advocate Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, and it was a really nice little event.  Cancer-centric but not solely based on it, it was definitely a focus on women's health which was a cool way to bring us in.  Plus on a personal basis, I was able to make some solid contacts with OLFD guys (interested in a chapter) Christ Hospital (wants to grow the event for next year and do more with Pink Heals) and Gilda's Club of Chicago (this seems like a natural fit to me) so in my mind it was pure win.  

The day started in Bedford Park.  Technically, the day started months ago when Jack Holloway got hold of me after he requested a tour stop.  Jack busted his tail to make yesterday happen and to make it happen well and to make it a huge success.  This was not an easy thing.  I was skeptical right from the start, because Bedford is roughly 99,9997% commercial/industrial with the remaining amount residential.  And that's only a slight exaggeration.  Very slight.  The residential area is literally 4 blocks by 3 blocks.  That's it.  500 people approximately.  See I'm not even joking.  So, to do what Jack did was to me, pretty remarkable and I think if he wants to make a Bedford Park chapter or a county chapter or go in with Oak Lawn (or bring them in with him) or whatever he chooses to do, it'll work.  Also, since I'm pretty sure he'll see this, let me just add something else.

I'm 6'4" more or less.  At any rate, I'm kind of a tall guy.  I'm used to seeing the tops of most people's heads.  When I talk to Jack, I feel like I'm back in the 8th grade.  He's 6"11"  no joke. He's also a great guy and I'll be proud to work with him in any way I can to help him with future Pink Heals projects.

So despite the small population, Bedford produced some great home visits, like this one...

We stopped by to see Helen and the really cool thing about this visit is, Helen's son Al is a BPFD guy and we dressed him up in pink gear.  That was a pretty emotional stop.

After we did the home visits, we went to the firehouse.  Again, keep in mind, the town has a population of around 500 people.  

This is what greeted us.

And the picture doesn't do the crowd justice.  It was a really nice little event.

From there we went to one of the local chemical plants were they fed us a huge lunch and provided us with 10 gallons of emergency fuel.  Eddie Mac called me about halfway through lunch.  He ran in to Oak Lawn to start home visits there while we went to BPFD.  Leslie's fuel gauge is tough to interpret (note to self- Leslie's fuel gauge is tough to read) and even though it read 1/4 tank, she ran out of fuel.  All ended well though.  The Oak Lawn FD guys got the village maintenance guys came out, got her started and took her to their shop to fill up the tank, much thanks to all of you!

We then all met up at Christ Hospital for their event, as I mentioned, kind of a guinea pig for all of Advocate.  We met a bunch of great people, had a lot or people sign our trucks and sold a few shirts to keep us rolling.

Here we see Chuck, Jack and our new guy, Seth from Arkansas posing with a survivor.

We left Christ and went back out to the firehouse in Bedford where we finally cleaned the vehicles again (which means we'll get rain in about 19 hours) and then were treated to pizza, compliments of the BPFD.  

These guys are going to be pizza aficionados by the time they leave Chicago...

It seems like I'm forgetting something (shocking, I know) but I've been at this off and on for about three hours now and I've got to tie up some tour related loose ends before we head out today.  

Pink Heals!

Peace