Partners, friends, and un-indicted co-conspirators

Well, I alluded to this post yesterday and here it is.  The Great One's birthday.

No, not Gretzky, at least I don't think (frankly I don't care enough about Wayne's birthday to hit the Google machine) it is.

The Great One, if you don't know, is the Great Vincenzo, Vinnie, the Chick Magnet, the Croatian Sensation aka Bryan.  We were partners at the firehouse for eight years uninterrupted and that, class, ranks as the longest I ever worked with anyone over the course of my career.

Now, before I dive into this particular group of further fables from the firehouse, I'm going to use a quick segue into an endorsement of my favorite podcast "Firehouse Problems Kitchen Table Solutions" starring Seth Rainwater and Kyle Jones, both from El Dorado, Arkansas.  Seth and I attended the IAFF Political Training Academy in February 2015 and in addition to a great education, we had more fun than you're probably supposed to in a class.  So click on the link and check out their podcasts, they do a great job and obviously enjoy doing it. My personal favorite is Episode 23 featuring everyone's (?) favorite blogger.  One of their regular bits is called Nicknames and Mustaches and there you have a high quality segue.  Because Vin has more nicknames than any other single person I know.

Vinnie came on the job about six months after I did, at a different station and a different shift.  So we never really had much interaction for the first few years.  He takes great pleasure in telling anyone that will listen that when he first saw me he thought I was gay.  I don't know why he thought that, getting a straight (see what I did there?) answer out of him is never easy.  But regardless, that's what he thought.  We started working together around 1997 or 98 and, miraculously, never got written up for anything.  Now that the statute of limitations has expired, and pretty much anyone else that might be offended by our on duty hijinks has retired, I'll try and put a couple out for the general public.

Vin and I both got along really well with our Lieutenant back then, though he had a reputation for being... crusty.  And we were fortunate in that the other members of our crew tended toward... unique.  So, basically had we chosen to, we could have run naked up and down Main Street and it would've been fine because the boss was busy corralling knuckleheads.

We didn't, btw.  And sorry for any visuals that might have caused.

We did, however, tend to disappear for long periods of time.  Vin did most of the cooking at the firehouse so, of course, shopping for said cooking fell on us.  And Fightin' Medic 2 would head off to the local Dominicks (pour some out for a departed grocery store chain) to take care of business.

Business, in this case, included making the rounds of pretty much every department at the store.  The ladies in the bakery almost always had snacks for us so we'd start there.  Then backtrack to the deli counter where one or both of us would chat up whoever happened to be there that day.  From the deli we'd make our way over to the meat counter to see if we could get a hookup from the butchers.  We usually did, btw.  Not free, but a nice discount or at the very least they'd point us in the direction of the best sales.  A quick stop by the service counter for more chattery with the ladies working there and, in due time, we'd make our way through the rest of the store to finish shopping.  It wasn't unusual for this little expedition to last for well over an hour, which is about 45 minutes longer than it should have taken.

If we weren't tied up on one of our shopping trips, we were very likely prolonging our time in the Emergency Room after dropping off a patient.  The regular routine would be to deliver a patient to whichever room they were assigned to, wait to give a verbal report to the nurse, and while one medic wrote up the paper (later electronic) report, the other would clean and restock the ambulance.  All of this would generally take 30 or 40 minutes, depending on how in-depth the report needed to be.  I don't think we ever made it out of there in under an hour, certainly not once we got transferred to Station 3, conveniently located across the street from the hospital.  We had doctors to chat with, nurses to flirt with, many important things to do there, you know?  It actually had certain fringe benefits, relationship building like that.  Feeling a sore throat or sinus infection coming on?  Ask one of the docs for a "Z-pack" and voilà; no office visit, no wait, no fuss, no muss.  No joke, that alone was awesome.  Of course, that was back in the good old days.  You can't get away with that stuff now.

I think, however, my all-time favorite Vinnie story, one I've told dozens of times to a variety of audiences is this one-

It starts with Engine 3 and Medic 3 going out to do fire inspections, a regular part of our job.  Vin and I were on M-3 but we were, for whatever reason all doing the inspections together.  If I remember right, our Lt. for the day was an actor.  That is to say, he was on the list to be promoted to Lt. but hadn't made it just yet.  On this particular day, one of the businesses on our list was a beauty school.  Is that the right name?  A place where cosmetologists are trained?  At any rate, it was, as you might imagine, populated by young, attractive women.  With five firefighters doing the inspection.  What could go wrong?  As we wandered through the business, checking fire extinguishers, emergency lights, exit lights and the like we would chat up the students, all in good fun, of course.

When we were finished, as the Lt. was going over what we'd found with the manager, I did a quick head count and came up one short.

"Where's Vinnie?"

"I don't know, not my day to watch him" was the reply.

Now, since he was my partner on M-3 I couldn't very well leave without him, so I decided I'd better investigate further.  As I walked through from room to room he was nowhere to be found and he's not an easy guy to overlook, you know?

But, as I walked past one of the salon stations with the curtains drawn, I heard a high-pitched giggle.  I stopped, backed up and looked under the curtain.  I saw two pair of feet, neither of them his.  But then, I heard a lower pitch giggle and, throwing open the curtain I saw...

Vin.  On his back on a salon table.  Getting his eyebrows waxed.

"Really dude?"  I said, laughing.

"What?  They said they just learned how and wanted to practice.  I needed it done.  Perfect timing!"

That's the Vinnie I know and love, always looking to help out someone else.

Happy birthday friend.  I hope you have a great day.

Love ya!

Peace

The telephone game played out in real life

Well, that month just flew by.

Apparently whatever secret muse it is that controls the writing portion of my brain left town, cause I really haven't had much to consider sharing here.  Meh, it happens, you know?

In the mean time, not much has gone on for the last month.  A family birthday (s/o to the Quiet Child), some softball games for the Reigning Princess, a new crop of new guys at work (there's promise for future material there) and, tomorrow, another birthday, this one for the Great Vincenzo and there's DEFINITE potential for material there.

Just sayin...

So, if you come by here regularly you may recall my retelling of the last in-ambulance birth I was a part of (brief editorial note: When did people become incapable of telling the difference between "a part" and "apart"?  They are distinctly different, people! C'mon, pick up your social media game would ya?) and I referenced how, often times the information gets lost between what happened, the caller, dispatch and us.  And again, I'm not throwing stones at anyone in that chain, stuff happens, adrenaline gets pumping or there's some minute miscommunication that throws the whole thing off kilter.

Sometimes, however, it's easy to identify the weak link in the telecommunication flowchart that is inherent in one of our emergency responses.

Like, for instance, yesterday.

In the typical swirl of activity that takes place between lunch and dinner at the firehouse, we had a brief calm yesterday afternoon.  Our Lieutenant was going over some things with our current new guy, the guys on Fightin' Medic 3 had just gotten back from another life-or-death emergency and I was left to my own devices.

The tones went off and we were dispatched to a "partial roof collapse of a building with a person trapped under debris."  The dispatch included our Station, Truck 2, the Battalion Chief and the Safety Officer, a typical response for this type of incident.  Now, this is not a common call for us to respond to.  But as we rolled into action (conjures up a very heroic image, no?) all the thoughts were going through our heads of what we might possibly encounter.  I knew the building we were being sent to, it once housed a motorcycle dealership, and has been vacant for quite some time.  I hadn't driven past it for a while, but the thought that some construction or renovation for potential new tenants was going on made sense to me, so in that respect nothing seemed out of the ordinary.  When we were around two blocks away our Safety guy requested PD to block off the street in front of the address.  This also made sense to me since it could quickly escalate into a big deal, a large scale incident and quite frankly, it wouldn't have surprised me if someone had activated a Technical Rescue response.  I anticipated also some type of update from our PD once they got on scene since they always beat us to larger incidents.  They are, after all, already out on the street and they get the information almost simultaneously to us.  But I didn't hear anything from the coppers.  We were directed however to enter through the overhead doors and as we pulled onto the scene I saw an open overhead door on the west side of the building and drove to it.  I also saw marker ribbon around the perimeter of the roof, indicating some type of work on the roof of the building and squaring, in my brain at least, the increased potential for collapse.  We looked in from the cab of the engine and saw nothing to suggest a collapse had occurred.  This immediately kicked in the "what did we miss?" response in our collective brains and we agreed to check the next building down since that business was mentioned in the dispatch.  I backed away from the building and as I pulled past it the three of us looked through the front windows trying to see some indication of collapse.  We saw none and I drove around the corner to check the next building.

The occupants there were looking back at us, probably wondering what the commotion was all about.

I drove back to our original position by the overhead door and we went in to investigate.  The Lt. and our new guy went straight in and I peeled off to the right.  I noticed several interior walls were still in place, so I thought the collapse must have happened somewhere that was shielded from our view by those walls.

As I made my way toward the front of the building I heard a voice calling out feebly "I'm over here" and started heading in the direction of the voice.  I was looking for some sign of collapse the whole time, since I would've done no good for anyone if I got trapped too.  As I walked to the front there was a row of small offices on my right, formerly sales offices I think.  And, as I got to the last one I heard the voice say "they're here now, ok, thanks" and as I looked in to the last office I saw our patient lying on the floor with one leg bent underneath him.

And four acoustic ceiling tiles on top of him.

Yes, that's right.

You know them.  Two feet by two feet square and about a half inch thick.  Each one weighs roughly twelve ounces.  You may have them in your home or place of business.

Acoustic.  Ceiling.  Tiles.

And, as I looked up to the ceiling I saw the underside of a completely intact roof about three feet above the dropped ceiling he had been trying to remove when the ceiling tiles let loose and landed on him.

All four of them.

I pulled the tiles off him and asked where he hurt.  His response?

"I've got dust in my eyes."

Now, I have to admit right here that, in the past, I haven't always been as sensitive to what others might find offensive and have used terms that I'm not particularly proud of when describing certain individuals.  But, I think I've made great strides in this attempt at self-improvement.  I am, however, still exercising great restraint when it comes to what I desperately want to say in describing my feelings toward this individual.  Let's just say that, in my personal opinion, this was perhaps the single-most inappropriate use of emergency resources in quite some time.  Possibly in my entire career.

And there have been some doozies.

So, as it turns out, our "patient" was using a piece of the aluminum framing or track that the tiles rest in to pull the ceiling tiles down.  And this action caused them to, of course, fall down.  And gravity being what it is, they fell straight down on top of our plucky little survivor.

You've got to watch out for gravity, it'll get you every time.

There you have it, a perfect example of the single weak-link in the communication chain that leads up to a 9-1-1 dispatch.  And the difference between what is perception and what is reality.  Kinda helps illustrate why we try to take our dispatches with a grain of salt.  And why we sometimes don't, even when we should, lol.

Oh, I almost forgot my favorite part.  As the guys on the ambulance started assessing his "injuries" I heard him mention to them that he was (or *shudder* is) a firefighter.

Sigh.

Peace

This is how Rock Falls

How is your weekend going?

Well, I hope.  Let me tell you about mine...

I got off shift Friday morning, grabbed Leslie and headed out to the greater Rock Falls area.

The Tour has been out in town for the last two years.  But, logistics being what they are, won't be in the Midwest this year.  I'd be willing to bet (figuratively, not literally) a paycheck (cause that's out of my control) we'll be back out in this part of the country next year.  But this year?  Not so much.

Now, we've gotten a GREAT response every time we've been out here.  So when I got an email last winter from  Dave that said the good people in Rock Falls wanted another Tour stop and asking if I'd handle it, well, it was kind of a no-brainer.  Of course.  Gladly.  That got me in contact with Janell Loos, the Director of Tourism for Rock Falls.  I lost track of how many emails were exchanged between us.  Let me just say there were a lot.  No.  That doesn't quite convey it right.  Dozens is probably correct but it doesn't have the "zing" that you, my faithful readers, deserve.  Both of you.

Brief confession here (it IS Sunday morning, after all) I checked Thesaurus.com (what? You thought all this just floats around in my brain looking for an outlet? Sometimes I check resources too) and I'll give you; oodles, gobs or scads.  You choose.  Interactive blogging!  I may be onto something here...

Back to the matter at hand...

Janell hit one out of the park.

Actually, she hit everything she saw this weekend out of the park.

In brief, something I rarely am btw, between Friday and Saturday we visited nineteen women in four towns and two counties.

Now THAT'S a great weekend.

And speaking of great, no mention of this weekend can take place without mentioning The Great Vincenzo.  Vin came out to give me a hand on Friday and was his usual suave, charming, wonderful self.  Chicks do, in fact, dig him.  And he's quite good at Pink Healsing.  We had multiple laughs and put many smiles on faces.  Ours included.

See here's kind of the thing.  We can't fix anything.  We hold no answers.  We carry no cure.  The best we (and by "we" I mean "me") can hope (actually I probably mean "I") to do is put a smile on someone's face, at least for a little while.

So that's exactly what we set out to do.  And in the greater Rock Falls area, it's pretty easy.  Like i said before, Janell was great.  For example, here's the view from my hotel room...

A balcony overlooking the Rock River.  Before you go casting aspersions on the empty factory across the river, it's actually a pretty cool looking building.  And this is, in my many travels with the PHT, my first river-front balcony.

Quick side story here...

The Oldest One came out Saturday evening to help me with T-shirt sales at the wrap-up event.  She met me at the hotel where dinner was being provided.  As I sat there, eating my dinner, chatting with the Mayor and his wife, my lovely, thoughtful, tactful daughter walked up and said, and I quote

"Geez Dad, you've got to do something about the hotels you're staying in.  This one doesn't even have a hot tub by the pool."

To which I replied

"Mr. Mayor, meet my daughter."

Yes, smart alecky runs in the family.

I explained to her that the facility was only about 3 months old and that my room was very graciously comped and we all had a good laugh about it.

One of the nice things about returning to an area for multiple years is that you'll often run in to people you've met in previous years.  Audrey and her Mom, for instance.

We met Audrey last year, just before she started chemo.  At the time Mike was with us and he had just been declared free from disease.  We declared him many other unprintable things but that's a story for another time.  Audrey's Mom set up a home visit for her this year and they also came by last night to visit us.

She's doing great, as you can see.

As I steer this thing to it's conclusion, let me once again sing some praises.

I've done probably well over a thousand home visits in my time doing this.  And many times a gift basket of sorts is presented to those we visit.  Janell beat them all.  With this -

For every. woman. we. visited.

Now to be honest, I didn't go digging into one of the baskets to see what specifically was in there, but they were packed and everyone was thrilled with them.  You may also note a bag of sweet corn in the picture.  My first reaction was "really?  sweet corn?"  But if you think about it, what could be more perfect especially this time of year, in northern Illinois, than a half dozen ears of fresh, locally grown sweet corn?

Lastly (I think) I want to take a minute or two and thank the aforementioned Mayor.  Without throwing stones at any other municipality, this is just one example of how well he "gets" what we do for, and with, a community...

That's him, helping us wash Leslie at the local firehouse.  I can't think of too many other Mayors that would do that.  If any of you Rock Fallers (Rock Fallians?) read this, you people (yes, I said you people) could really use a pink fire truck to call your own.  This area has shown me time and again that you support what we're all about. 

Peace 

Bartlett is a wonderful town

Ok, Yesterday was kind of a weak effort on my part.  It was late, nothing great happened and I hadn't posted the day before so I figured I'd better throw some kind of slop out there.

And that's exactly what I produced...

So let's kick this one off with a bang.

I put my boxers on backwards Monday.

That got your attention, didn't it?

I'm rarely shy about poking fun at stupid things other people do, so it's only fair that I take shots at myself when I qualify.  And I did just that with my own personal wardrobe malfunction.

Also?  That's not the first time I've done that...  I didn't realize it (duh, nobody intentionally wears their boxers backwards) at the time, and the only way you discover something like that comes about when you have to, well, uhhh, you know... use the facilities.  This results in, for the uninitiated, in an awkward moment standing at the urinal.  Your reach in for something that you know is there and should be within easy reach and... there's no there there, so to speak.  I mean, the fly portion of the boxers is supposed to be right there in the front for easy access to your business.  And when the boxers are in an other than optimum position, well, you end up grabbing fabric.  This complicates things, at least momentarily, and results in a lot more finagling than a man usually has to go through at your standard urinal (why on earth does "urinal" autocorrect to "unreal"?) and the extra maneuvering involved in a situation like this occasionally draws sideways glances from one's neighbors. 

Well then.

Today was the third year in a row we made a stop in Bartlett and my guy, Stevie B. and his guys put together a really stellar day for us.  They made us out to be kind of a big deal and did a great job spreading the word around town.  We had maybe eight or ten people come up to say hi and /or take pictures with us because they'd seen us in the years past and wanted to see us again.  

This, btw, is awesome.

Dave and I talked about how great it was to see so many members of the FD there helping out and I can only attribute it to a strong working relationship between the firefighters union and the FD administration (looking in your general direction DG) because the Chiefs were all there too.  And they fully support what the guys in the local are trying to build in the community.  I don't know if Steve picked up on what Dave is trying to evolve Pink Heals into, but he's got the town headed in that direction, whether he realizes it or not.  Getting the local merchants on board with supporting their goal of helping the community is a big part of what Bartlett is doing and it showed today.  

Plus today was good because it had a little taste of the "Joel's Pink Heals Homecoming Portion of the Tour" too.  I've known the Chief, Mike Falese, for almost 25 years and I have a lot of respect for him, one of the company officers I've known since high school (Jesus that was a long time ago Jeff) and I saw the husband of one of my nieces (Morgan, I warned him he'd better know your size...) so that's always nice.

The not so nice part came when one of the afore mentioned return visitors told me she had just had a biopsy done this morning and was waiting to hear the results.  

Please keep a positive thought for her if you're so inclined.  Or even if you're not.  Send her a little positivity anyway because it's the right thing to do.

We added two drivers today, Sean from AZ and Ray from IN, so I'm only going to say nice things (snark alert) about those two states from here on out.  

Probably. 

But they both seem like good guys.

Oh bonus!!!  I had been telling Dave a few days ago I had hoped one of our events would have a massage chair booth because my back and neck have been bothering me lately.  Mid event he walked up to me and told me to come with him.  We walked about 50 feet, stopped, and he told me to turn to my right...

A MASSAGE CHAIR!!!

One of the local chiropractors had set up shop at the event for the day and he hooked me up.  Thanks Doc, you were awesome.  You too Dave.

Uhhhhhhh what else???

Oh yeah, I talked to Tommy P. today and I promised him one last Vinnie story.  So here goes.

One of the guys we met while he was out with us had, shall we say, a penchant for going in to great detail as he gave us a tour of the area where we met him.  It wasn't so much that he had a fondness for big words (that would be me) but more that he would take, for example, 15 minutes to describe something that most would find needed no more than two of three minutes.  

This does not generally go with with the Great Vincenzo.  Although I had to admit the guy, while very nice and completely genuine, kind of got on my nerves a little too.  

So because of this man's ability to irritate Vin, I did everything I could to make sure he rode with Vinnie if we went somewhere and that he sat very near to him if we went out to eat.

Hey somebody's got to keep him in check, right?

Ok, I feel a little bit better about this one.

And always remember, Chicks still dig Vin.

Peace

Nice day for a drive

We had no stops today, we traveled from Aurora, OH (IO) to South Bend, IN and tomorrow we head to the greater Joliet, IL area for a few days.  

That doesn't mean we didn't do anything, quite the contrary.  We inventoried half of the bus, the second half will get done in the morning.  

Woohoo!

It's actually not that hard to do (especially since Rodney did it and not me) but it is time consuming.  

The drive itself was only (only?) 230 miles or so but it did feel like it was longer than that.  We got in to our hotel a couple hours ago, took the vehicles over to the local firehouse (hat tip to Dave Cherrone veteran tour driver for the hook up!) and the fellas there helped us wash all three.

So how do I fill the space here when we do relatively little?

Just you wait...

Let me start by saying congrats and I'm so very happy for two of my favorite people on. the. planet.  Courtney and Kevin.  They finally, after four years of dealing with the headaches and bureaucracy of a governmental body (DCFS) announced the adoption of a child they fostered for four years.  Welcoming Gabby to their clan, even though she was a part of it from day one, gave such joy to them, and the people that love them, that there really are no words other than YES!!!  

I often tell Court that I love her like one of my own, to the extent that her ring and text tones are the same ones I use for all of the kids.  The fact that she often times sends baked goods has absolutely no bearing (well, it doesn't hurt but, you know...) on my feelings for Court and Kevin.  They've had a lot to deal with over the last four years and I'm glad they finally got a little good news.

Which brings me to the converse.  I need to choose my words very carefully here and I won't (obviously) use any names or anything to identify anyone because all I have to go on is speculation, mine and others, and my gut feelings (which often are spot on) for this.  Over the course of the last week we had the opportunity to interact with a family with a profoundly disabled child.  They were connected to an event we attended by a third party, an event for another person, but they were asked to be a part of it as well.  They exhibited very demanding behavior the entire time, as though the child's disability entitled them to treatment above and beyond the kindnesses that were shown to them.  As an example, they were provided with a hotel room for a night, gratis.  They asked for a second night.  Since they drove for three hours to attend the event, the organizer thought it was a fair request and made it happen.  They then asked for third night.  Just because.  The entire time we interacted with them, their attitude was "where is ours?".  I don't suspect there's any abuse going on, but they never seemed interested in what was best for the child, only what they could get.  Now, let me just say here that I have never had to walk in their shoes, and I can't imagine what types of hardships dealing with the child's disabilities on a daily basis would present, but I'd like to think I would be more concerned with my child's best interests than my own.

*climbs down off soapbox*

Now about Vinnie.

We stopped at the hotel bar for an adult beverage when we got back to the hotel and he started whining because I hadn't written about him lately so consider this your Vinnie update.  Actually, in typical Vinnie fashion, we were walking back out to the vehicles after stopping for a super-mega global Pacific Northwest based, coffee based beverage conglomerate (sponsorship opportunities still available) when an OH(IO) Highway Patrol car pulled up.  With a female officer.  

Guess who started chatting her up???

She got out and posed for a picture with Vin and Rodman, check out the Pink Heals Tour Facebook page for the pic.

This evening promises to be interesting.  The place we're staying has, apparently, a local youth sports tournament of some sort to thank for the majority of it's bookings.  There are a bunch of young kids running around the property and there was a cluster of about 30 adults enjoying adult beverages not too far from my room.  Soundproofing is, also apparently, not one of the things this fine establishment is known for.  Just sayin...  However they comped us for three rooms, so I'm not going to bitch about it (anymore) because it was very cool of them to do that on short notice.  

Ahem.  Downers Grove, I'm looking in your general direction here...

Lastly (I think) what can I say about Indiana that hasn't already been said?

How about this... when we hit the border, the sign proclaimed it to be the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln and I said to myself "Self" I said "isn't Indiana also the birthplace of the Klan?"

I wonder why they don't have that on the sign?

Also Indiana is now the home to the First Church of Cannabis, thanks to their obviously well though out, lucid, Religious Freedom Law (because, you know, Murica!!!)

I didn't see that on the sign either.

Peace

Near Miss...

Excuse the cheap literary ploy, but it IS sort of true.  Last night I realized I had no more clean shorts.  I went down to the front desk to ask if there was a guest laundry on the property.  There was not, I was told.  The desk clerk did, however, say that if I called housekeeping, they could make arrangements to get my laundry done.  So I went back to my room, called housekeeping (via the front desk I might add) and found out all I needed to do was bring my clothes to the front desk (theme alert!) and they'd handle it.  The turnaround time would be about an hour, but he didn't know the cost.  So, I dutifully packed up my dirty laundry, went BACK down to the front desk and left what, I'm fairly certain, was the foulest little bundle the young lady at the front desk had handled in quite some time.  

"How much does this cost?" I asked.

"I'm not sure, but my supervisor comes in at 9:00 AM (this was about 10:00 last night) and she can let you know."

Golly gee this was so easy!

I got up early this morning, and was sitting downstairs having a cup of coffee with Vinnie and I told him about my laundry adventure.  I decided to go ask the lady now at the front desk if she knew the cost.

She pulled out a binder from behind the desk (apparently last night's clerk couldn't be bothered) flipped through a couple pages and told me it would be about $35.00

For my laundry.

I asked for my bag of nasty, found a laundromat five miles away and $5.50 later I had clean clothes.

Moving right along...

I really felt bad for Tawny, Chrissy and Jessica today.  They were the ones primarily responsible for setting up yesterday and today's events.  And after spending ten years working on W5kfC, I have an appreciation for how hard it is to pull off a successful fundraiser.  These girls worked their butts off, Tawny working from 1,000 miles (shameless self-promotion alert!) away in LA.  Yes, Tawny now lives in Orange Beach, AL having moved there from OH (IO) a few years ago.  Regular readers of this wonderful piece of literary gymnastics may recall a tour driver named (shameless self-promotion in 3...2...1...) Eddie Mac who also hails from LA and, of course, they know each other.  Shout out to my guy Eddie!!!  I love you buddy, hope to see you soon.

Now, where was I?

Oh yeah, the weather the last two days sucked.  That's a little known meteorological term btw.  Sucked.  For real.  As in "The isobars are packed tight and that will create conditions that, tomorrow we'll look back and say 'well, THAT weather certainly sucked'" followed closely by a short "vacation" for the weather person that uttered the line.

It rained almost nonstop today, a day that included two home visits and what was intended to be a fun day of outdoor activities at a small private park for Amy and her family and friends and anyone that wanted to come out and support her.  The weather really suppressed attendance.  But a good time was still had by all.  It even featured an emotional Vincenzo as he presented flowers to Amy.  He likes to play the big tough guy, but he's an old softie and I, for one, am only too happy to show that side of him.

Love you, my friend!

As of now, tomorrow (Friday, I may time this to publish in the morning vs tonight) looks to be a pretty easy travel day.  When I came upstairs, Dave was trying to make plans for a stay in South Bend, IN (home of an institution of higher learning that holds no particular charm for me) but if that falls through we'll drive to Joliet.  Either way a pretty laid back day.  Our next event isn't until Saturday evening, so hijinks may ensue.

Stay tuned faithful readers...

Peace

Catching up.

I hope my legions of casual readers will forgive missing out on yesterday's deadline.  By the time we got back to the firehouse it was almost midnight (I'm still semi-giddy over shutting off the tones) and I just didn't have it in me to sit down and try and hammer something out.  Especially since I knew we were getting up at 5:30 so we could get to today's business.  I've noticed, as I've gotten older, that some days I feel like I'm around 40, some days I feel like I'm around 70.  See the 2013 post from the mobile home park in Florida for details on that...

This morning I felt like I was about 90...

Well then.

To briefly recap yesterday, we took part in an interview with the local (well, localish) TV station, Mallory was great btw.  She "gets it" far better than most of the major market media people we've dealt with over the years.  I wish her much luck in her career moving forward.

Later, Vinnie and I (along with a reporter from Firehouse.com) traveled across the Mason-Dixon line (literally) to southern Pennsylvania for a home visit with Stacy.  The visit was set up by her friend and neighbor, Jenny, who, coincidentally, used to (how's that for a string of commas?) live and work in Downers Grove.  Half way across the country and we meet a woman that wants to give a shout out to the Omega Restaurant.  

Not sure that would've been my first choice for a DG landmark, but hey, who am I to judge?

After the home visit we drove back through Emmitsburg down to Thurmont for another carnival.  These are, apparently, big deals around here and they're major fundraisers for the local volly FD's.  

The crowd was... interesting.  I've been told in the past that western Maryland was really, ummm, rural and I would say, based on my people watching the last two days, that is an accurate statement.  

Extremely accurate.  

Ridiculously accurate, like laser precise.  

Like atomic clock accurate.  I felt like I walked into an episode of The Waltons.  

I don't mean that as a wistful "gee wiz I miss the good old days" either.  More like "Hey!  You know we have indoor plumbing now, right?"

Don't get me wrong, we met many wonderful, warm, welcoming people.

We also met people that I swear were a cross between the Kathy Bates character in Misery and the Billy Bob Thornton character in Slingblade 

Let that image sink in for a bit...

We started today with a 300 mile drive to our next stop, Aurora, OH where we made the first of two stops for a woman named Amy who has a brain tumor.  As I understand the story, her friends contacted Dave to do a visit as we passed through Ohio.  Dave told them to contact the Mayor, Fire Chief, Police Chief, etc. and set up an event.  Ultimately, the Mayor and Police Chief told the friends that they would be violating city ordinance if the pink fire trucks came in to town...

A little bad PR can go a long way.

Once this started to go public, in addition to numerous emails telling the Mayor how his priorities needed re-alignment if he couldn't see fit to allow friends to help a family in need, they received numerous emails and phone calls in support including today's event at a water park on the opposite side of suburban Cleveland from where Amy lives.  Our event tomorrow is also for Amy, though I'm not sure at this point what, exactly it is.

Laundry alert!!!  "Somebody" didn't pack as many pairs of dark shorts as he thought.  I'd really like to say here that I'm talking about Vinnie, but no, it's me.  Of course there's no guest laundry at the place we're staying (I'm not complaining either, it's a really nice place) but the good news is they do have laundry service here.  

The bad news is it won't be done in time for our event.

And I kind of need pants for that.

I believe I'll be doing a little emergency shopping tomorrow...

Peace 

Back in Pink (apologies to AC/DC)

I wrestled with this post for a long time.  Like, a really long time.  It’s funny, a lot of what I put up here over the last several years has been intensely personal.  And it’s never bothered me.

But there’s a line that I have never crossed.  I’m not exactly sure where the line exists, or in what form, but it’s there, somewhere, and I’ve been very careful not to cross it.  At least in my mind.  

I went back and forth in the last day or two about if I even wanted to do this.  It’s something I’ve always enjoyed to this point, although I think with where my life is currently, and where it may well be going in the not-too-distant future, this may be my last rodeo for a while.  Maybe ever.  

And that’s kind of what got me to this moment in time and the above thoughts.  As I type this out I’m 35,000 feet over, I don’t know, Ohio? Pennsylvania?  I’m between Chicago and Washington DC.  The Great Vincenzo and I are traveling to DC to meet up with Dave and the Pink Heals tour.  

Regular readers know I’ve documented my time on tour here for the last several years.  I’ve had a lot of fun on tour and I’ve had at least as much fun at whatever keyboards were at my disposal putting my thoughts, such as they are, onto the Interwebz for my dedicated followers.

Both of you.

But things are different this time.  I’ve struggled with a reality that I heretofore had never faced.  And it’s been, I think, a contributing factor in my less than normal enthusiasm for this time out on tour.  

The pirate and I divorced last year.

Let me just go on the record here and say, I own this one.  

Sure, I know, it takes two to tango and whatever other cliché you want to use, but, in retrospect, I did a terrible job at being a good husband.  This caused me to do a fair bit of self-assessment in the last year or so.  I thought about many of the things we talked about in the time leading up to the end of our marriage.  And I thought about my response (or lack of same) to those talks.  And how I failed to make our life together a success.

I feel like one of the reasons was I had a really hard time going all in on marriage.  All of them.  I found it easy to be on tour, because we had many short, almost hit and run like relationships with the people we met rather than one long in-depth relationship.  So I could get a warm fuzzy moment and not be around for any of the hard stuff.  The stuff the people we meet are forced to deal with.  

The stuff I was unable to deal with in real life.  And no, she’s not sick.  At least not to my knowledge.  I’m talking about the stuff most married couples deal with and figure out on a daily basis.  The late, great Red Smith once said about writing (I’ll paraphrase here) that it was easy, all you had to do was sit down at the typewriter and open up a vein.  I’ve occasionally been able to do that here.

I was never able to do that in, really, any of my marriages…

I will not say a bad word about the pirate.  Ever.  She will remain one of the most thoughtful people I’ve ever known and my time with her made me a better person.  

But not good enough.

I think I’m also often not a very good friend.  To many different people, and in many different ways, I’ve looked at my relationships over the years and found myself lacking in a few things friendwise.  I think I’ve made a little progress on that front, but I still have a long ways to go.  

Baby steps.

Geez Louise do I know how to bring a room down or what?

So let me tell you about the Great Vincenzo.  Chicks dig him.

Just ask him.  Vin and I were partners at the firehouse for 8 years.  In fact, he’s probably my most successful relationship. 

But I digress…

At any rate, We’re now in DC (well, Alexandria, VA if you want to pick nits) and we have not much to do today.  Jaime left for Jacksonville this morning and Dave is taking Lisa to the airport this afternoon.  I think we have to get the bus today, but that’s about it.  Sounds like the next two days will be in Emmitsburg, MD then two stops in OH (IO) before we head (if you don’t get that, you needn’t ask) to Illinois for a couple weeks.  Jaime gave us the lowdown on the fleet and now we’re left to our own devices…

The Great One was still asleep when I got up so I wandered a few blocks away to a lovely little coffee shop- Misha’s -for a little free Wifi and some nectar of the Gods (yay coffee!) to finish up this little gem of a post.

A few words now about Vinnie, cause he saw me working on this on the plane last night and asked if it was all about him and if there’s nothing about him I’ll never hear the end of it and we’re going to be traveling together for the next little bit and I don’t want to continue listening to, well, you get the picture, right?  

btw that last paragraph is meant to be read progressively faster as you go.  

Try it.  

Go on, it’s ok.

I can wait…

…

…

Any way, I’ll wrap up and introduce The Great Vincenzo this way.  I have so many stories about working with Vin, but most I choose to keep out of this forum cause if you’re not familiar with us or what we do, they can easily get taken out of context and I don’t want that to happen.  So I’ll try this one-

We were leaving an assisted living high-rise residence one day, we had gone to pick up a little old lady that had fallen.  She wasn’t hurt; she didn’t need or want to go to the hospital, so we helped her regain verticality and went on our merry way.  As we were leaving we saw one of the other residents, a woman in her late 70’s, making her way to the lobby in her motorized scooter.  We said “hi” to her (she was a semi-regular of ours) and Vin, not being one to leave well enough alone, proceeded to make a flirty comment to her.  Her reply was something along the lines of-

“C’mon upstairs with me honey, I’ll teach you a thing or two.”

I thought I was going to lose bladder control.  It was then, and remains to this day, one of the few times I’ve seen him flustered to the point he had no come back.

Peace.

Wait, one more thing- Can anyone tell me if caffeine causes an infatuation with the hyphen?

I'm asking for a friend-