Yesterday I took off work two hrs early. I needed to get home in time to take my fire department's boat to the shop for some routine maintenance.
Shortly before I was going to leave work, the alerts went off for a structure fire. As I understand it, the call first came in as a smoke investigation. The first on scene reported a house fully involved. Being the middle of the day, the units that did get out were largely understaffed, as were units from surrounding jurisdictions that were called.
As I'm driving home, I'm listening to the radio traffic via a scanner app. A brush fire was reported in another part of the county, stretching even thinner the thin resources. Fortunately that sounded like a pretty small situation and was brought under control quickly.
I got home minutes before my station (we already had an engine on the structure fire) was alerted for mutual aid for another brush fire. A farmer's brush pile fire had gotten away from him. Ultimately it burned about 10-15 acres of field and woods. The farmer also lost about a dozen of the big hay bale rolls. Those are a pain when the fire gets in those.
I was on scene for only a few hours, but it was long enough that my opportunity to take the boat to the shop had passed.
Maybe I can try again today.....
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Friday, February 19, 2016
Friday funny
Haven't done one of these in a while.
Sorry about the jpeg merging onto the sidebar, but it was too small to read at original downloaded size.
Sorry about the jpeg merging onto the sidebar, but it was too small to read at original downloaded size.
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Happy Monday on Tues.
The weather system that is passing through made for an interesting commute this morning. If I didn't have so much work that needed to be done by Friday, I would have stayed home today. I haven't seen roads this slick in quite some time. I hate freezing rain. The areas where the roads had not been plowed were navigable, as the frozen crust gave some traction. Where the roads had been plowed, all bets were off, because then the surface was simply wet ice.
My typical route out to the main roads has a steep hill with a stop sign and sharp right turn thru a one lane underpass at the bottom. Of course, this being a "primary secondary" road, it had been plowed. I decided near the top not to chance it and to turn around and go a different route. As soon as my forward movement stopped, sideways movement began as I slid to the side of the road. I managed to get turned around, thankful for 4 wheel drive and good tires. Didn't have any issues after that, but caution was still needed.
As I got closer to work and traffic volume started to increase, I had a few moments of second guessing my decision to go to work. The dichotomy of cautions/ fearful drivers and the aggressive, not-aware-of-anything-more-than-20'-in-front-of-them drivers don't mix well. I'll take an empty, ice slicked road any day over that. Regardless, made it to work successfully, albeit with an extra 45 minute drive time. Glad I won't be out there later when the volume really picks up. One of the main reasons I go to work at zero-dark-thirty.
We'll get to see what kind of flooding there will be this afternoon with mid 40's temps, predicted heavy rain and melting snow.
Getting old sucks. I've been noticing the last year or so that I don't recover from a disrupted sleep schedule like I used to.
My wife and I went to a Christian concert Sunday evening with a bunch of friends. It's called "Winterjam" and features 10 different bands. It was enjoyable and they had just about every genre of music; rap, pop, bluegrass, headbanger/thrasher and rock. Walking out of the arena, we were greeted with about 2 inches of snow and coming down heavy, so the trip home was a bit slow. We got home around 2 a.m. On a typical work day, I get up at 3:15. I was pretty much wiped out most of the day Monday. I'm thankful it was a holiday.
I've notice the same effect responding on fire dept. calls. If I'm out a good portion of the night on a call, I'm toast most of the next day. I used to be able to spend the night at the station, responding to calls throughout the night, get up and go to work and never have a problem. Like I said, sucks getting old.
My typical route out to the main roads has a steep hill with a stop sign and sharp right turn thru a one lane underpass at the bottom. Of course, this being a "primary secondary" road, it had been plowed. I decided near the top not to chance it and to turn around and go a different route. As soon as my forward movement stopped, sideways movement began as I slid to the side of the road. I managed to get turned around, thankful for 4 wheel drive and good tires. Didn't have any issues after that, but caution was still needed.
As I got closer to work and traffic volume started to increase, I had a few moments of second guessing my decision to go to work. The dichotomy of cautions/ fearful drivers and the aggressive, not-aware-of-anything-more-than-20'-in-front-of-them drivers don't mix well. I'll take an empty, ice slicked road any day over that. Regardless, made it to work successfully, albeit with an extra 45 minute drive time. Glad I won't be out there later when the volume really picks up. One of the main reasons I go to work at zero-dark-thirty.
We'll get to see what kind of flooding there will be this afternoon with mid 40's temps, predicted heavy rain and melting snow.
Getting old sucks. I've been noticing the last year or so that I don't recover from a disrupted sleep schedule like I used to.
My wife and I went to a Christian concert Sunday evening with a bunch of friends. It's called "Winterjam" and features 10 different bands. It was enjoyable and they had just about every genre of music; rap, pop, bluegrass, headbanger/thrasher and rock. Walking out of the arena, we were greeted with about 2 inches of snow and coming down heavy, so the trip home was a bit slow. We got home around 2 a.m. On a typical work day, I get up at 3:15. I was pretty much wiped out most of the day Monday. I'm thankful it was a holiday.
I've notice the same effect responding on fire dept. calls. If I'm out a good portion of the night on a call, I'm toast most of the next day. I used to be able to spend the night at the station, responding to calls throughout the night, get up and go to work and never have a problem. Like I said, sucks getting old.
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Wow. Just. Wow.
I have an awesome wood furnace in my basement that was put in by the original owner of the house. It's ducted to the whole house and that's what I've primarily used for heating the house in the winter, as opposed to the alternative electric baseboard.
I replaced the thermostat that controls the firebox fan about 4 years ago with the simplest, least expensive thermostat I could find; a Honywell "Round". It worked fine up until about a week ago when it no longer activated at the turn of the dial.
I called Honywell customer service this morning. I didn't get the warm fuzzies for a successful outcome to the call with the barely English speaking rep as she asked me for my name, phone number, email address and zip code.
As I started to try and explain to her what the issue was, I could tell she would have none of it as she had a checklist, doggone it. She wanted to know what the temperature in the room was and what the thermostat read. When I told her I was holding it in my hand, she wanted me to put it back on the wall. I didn't, and told her that was a pointless exercise. Then she wanted me to reset the breaker to the system, which otherwise has been running flawlessly. When I've needed the firebox fan, I simply used a jumper wire on the low voltage transformer.
It was at that point I knew without a doubt that to continue the conversation was going to be very painful and and an exercise in patience. So I thanked her for her time and promptly hung up.
I did manage to get some information out of her, which was one of the reasons I called; It appears that there is a small battery inside. When I asked about it, she said there was, but it was not replaceable.
I guess no one makes a simple mercury switch thermostat anymore. Sigh.....
I replaced the thermostat that controls the firebox fan about 4 years ago with the simplest, least expensive thermostat I could find; a Honywell "Round". It worked fine up until about a week ago when it no longer activated at the turn of the dial.
I called Honywell customer service this morning. I didn't get the warm fuzzies for a successful outcome to the call with the barely English speaking rep as she asked me for my name, phone number, email address and zip code.
As I started to try and explain to her what the issue was, I could tell she would have none of it as she had a checklist, doggone it. She wanted to know what the temperature in the room was and what the thermostat read. When I told her I was holding it in my hand, she wanted me to put it back on the wall. I didn't, and told her that was a pointless exercise. Then she wanted me to reset the breaker to the system, which otherwise has been running flawlessly. When I've needed the firebox fan, I simply used a jumper wire on the low voltage transformer.
It was at that point I knew without a doubt that to continue the conversation was going to be very painful and and an exercise in patience. So I thanked her for her time and promptly hung up.
I did manage to get some information out of her, which was one of the reasons I called; It appears that there is a small battery inside. When I asked about it, she said there was, but it was not replaceable.
I guess no one makes a simple mercury switch thermostat anymore. Sigh.....
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Post storm report
What a mess. Most emergency units were getting stuck. Our utility truck was running all over the county assisting with a lot of the medical calls. A number of the the other departments had placed tractors in service, but they can only go so fast or be in so many places at one time.
Fortunately for us, a couple of calls for the 6x brush truck and the utility were the only pieces to be on the street.
I had heard that the state was having issues with the fuel pumps at their their refueling depot. If true, that certainly didn't help with their task of keeping the roads plowed. I know in my area, the only plowing of the roads was done by my neighbor with his big 4x tractor. I have yet to see a state truck.
Fortunately for us, a couple of calls for the 6x brush truck and the utility were the only pieces to be on the street.
I had heard that the state was having issues with the fuel pumps at their their refueling depot. If true, that certainly didn't help with their task of keeping the roads plowed. I know in my area, the only plowing of the roads was done by my neighbor with his big 4x tractor. I have yet to see a state truck.
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