A lttie something for the rough times

Day Five, Six, Seven, and Eight

Day Five, Six, Seven, and Eight

We did fire steams on day five, and the rest are a blur. I finally got permission to go off campus to get some medicine. I don't know what I've been doing but somehow I got special recognition.

I guess the instructors knew I was sick as a dying dog but I still kept up with the class making sure I kept pushing until I came seconds away from passing out. Had it not been for my captain making me stop I would have. I had no water in me, I puked but nothing came out. My body was hot but my skin running cool. No sweat....all bad signs. But I finished. I know that if feces hits the thermal osculator I'm able to pull my weight under some pretty gnarly conditions.

So for the entire day I was treated with honors. I know they meant well but I didn't feel great getting recognized for almost not finishing. But I just need to accept how they wanted to credit my commitment and not my performance.

But seriously, the rest of the days are a blur. I didn't write in my blog those days and I was so doped up that I remember bits and pieces. I *KNOW* I had Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast one day. After that....... all a blur

Day Four

Day Four

Holy crap I feel like crap! Craptasitc! Heading is pounding, snot running out my nose, tired as hell..... mold. It's been raining like a mother at the academy and it stopped today. To add to my fun we did hose loads all day.

First we loaded the bed and then the cross-lays (the side hoses). Then we practiced deployments which means loading back into the beds. Not bitching much but geeeez.

Everyone is telling me I look like shit. They ain't much better, they look like Canadians. :P

Day four

Day Four

We got our rookie ropes and PPE today! A rookie rope is a symbol, a responsibility, and a tool. It must be around our waist at all times (expect for showering and when in *PPE). It shows a fire fighters commitment to preparedness and readiness. It also means we have to keep track of it. If it is lost then we have to earn it back. Either as a class or as an individual.

It didn't take long for us to learn the importance of having the rope available at all times. We had several "60 Seconds", a drill on which you have to don your PPE in ...you guessed it, 60 seconds. A few of us left the ropes around our waist and thus unable to get the rope when our PPE is on.

Push-ups!


*PPE: Personal Protective Equipment, aka Bunker gear, aka turn out gear, aka the hot smelly suit, aka what fire fighters wear

Day Three

Day Three

Haz-mat...............haz-mat

Wow....talk about a dry subject. Eight hours of facts, facts, and more facts. We had a great instructor that was funny and helpful. He is also about as old as g-d, probably could pass for his younger brother. Talks and looks just like Sam Elliot... kid you not!

We also picked our class Captains and Lieutenants. Freaking last thing I want to do is be a baby sitter in the academy. A few people nominated me and I got a chance to quickly decline the nomination. My attitute of it is that I have been leading people for a long time. Its something I know better than fire fighting. I am in the fire academy to learn fire fighting, not leadership. So..... I'd rather just be a regular Joe. Nothing snobby about it, just a time and place for it and now is not it.

On another note, our cook is a strange dude. He sounds like that creepy old man off of Family guy. He keeps walking into the commons and talking to us. We have no clue what he is saying and I fear that we just agreed to come over to his house to watch "Rainman".

Day two

Day Two

Aced this mornings test! Yay

Today, in class, we are going over response and size-up, incident command, and building structures. Interesting stuff and I am picking up a lot of details. Still, overall, eight hours of class is pretty rough on my back side.

I am still getting used to this dorm type sleeping arrangement. At the fire house its just me and the guys. Here is me and 20 ~ 30 people sleeping in a dorm. There has been some pranks but mostly just amateur stuff. Stacking someones stuff on them while they sleep and taking pictures. Shaving cream on the hand, etc.

The computers here are a bit of a challnage. The connection is slow and the web browser keeps crashing. Its frustrating but I am still thankful for what we have.

Day One

Day One

Uuurg, almost no sleep.

We are going to have a test every morning that covers 2~4 chapter of the basic fire instructional book. Its one of those "Prove what you know" type of things. I can already tell that all my free time of going to be studying for the test the next day.

aced the test by the way

Tomorrow I have fire communication, basic safety, and some other introductory level testing

Pre Day One

Pre Day One

I left my home in the Texas Hill Country so that I can arrive an hour before the Fire Academy starts in Crowley, Texas. Home of Training Divisions two week boot camp. Something that TD does that no other fire school does (to my knowledge) is the dorm living for two solid weeks. You leave, eat, breath, and sleep "Fire House". From 6am (most often earlier) to 8pm (most often later) you are full on Fire House mode. Even when we sleep we have to be ready for fire drills.

So anyways, I made a quick introduction with the fire instructors and then slipped up to the dorm room to pick out a kick arse bunk. Which I did, thanks to the advice of previous students. I got setup and then came the Canadians....wow, holy crap! My class is 3/4 Canuk!

They look normal enough... no 6th finger or webbed toes. Although they did dress like they just finished a Hollywood western marathon. But every freaking word out of their mouth is "Eh" or pronounced "A". I worked with Canadians before and they never said "Eh" this much.

The instructors got us gathered up and assembled in the class room. Gave us our orientation, and then dismissed us for dinner. This is were I met Mr. Glenn, the food preparer. The poor guy is pushing 60, can't understand a damn word he says, and cooks everything in the microwave on the nuclear hot setting for 30 minutes. I swear he actually made green beans hard and turned our dinner rolls into solid state ammunition for the Army's new mass rail gun. He tries and that's what matters I suppose. I like him but not the food so much, two weeks to go!

Later that night..... k, no one has done their chores. I proceed to mop, scrub the toilets, wipe the mirrors and counters, etc etc. Its about 11:30 pm now I am all geared up. Can't sleep.

1:20 am - Just finish my third episode of DEA enforcement on TruTV. I am going to try and sleep

*All academy posts have been published after the academy due to technical problems with the academy computers.

By the way

Hey, by the way, I will get back to my normal insightful posting and ground breaking research into matters of no measurable significance here soon. I am SO very close to finishing the fire academy and it has all my time at the moment. Give me about another week and I'll be back to talking with you folks again

Rain, Rain, please stay!

Well shoot! We went about two years under a heavy drought down here in Texas. Its a dry heat so its bearable but dang! I haven't been able to burn any brush for just about two years straight now. So long that I totally forgot that I have brush to burn. It just sits there at the back of my property breeding mosquitoes and what not.

Its been so dry that I hear lakes like Lake Travis, Inks Lake, and the such are so low that boat ramps are being closed and houses there were once lake front property are now distant lake view houses. Freaky.

Well, now for just about the last three weeks or so its been rain just about every other day. Grass that I never knew I had is growing so fast that its knee high now. My dead garden is popping out tomatoes, zucchini, chard, beans, peas, etc. Also found out that my shed has a major leak in the roof.

Plus my entire district is lighting up like crazy. It was a slow summer with maybe one or two tones a day. Now its like seven or eight. Its fun! I love the rain!