Knit & Play with Fire

Does It Matter?

This is this month's editorial cartoon from Firehouse.com and it says the truth. When you call 9-1-1, you don't care who comes to your house so long as we come.

Look I Really Do Knit

I promise, I really do not spent all of my time hanging out at fire halls. I do still collect yarn and knit with it.

Back when Bron told me that she was going to get serious about losing some weight I promised her that I would send her yarn if she lost weight. So here is a photo of the box of yarn that she is getting. But she can only take out some of the yarn for the 13 pounds that she has lost so far. I am trying to encourage her by sending her yarn for 3 sweaters and the pattern for 2 sweaters in this box. See I am trying to provide her some encouragement with this box. And Bron, if you hit the 20 pound mark, I have some special yarn for you.

Okay, and in fairness, here is a photo of some of the yarn that Bron send me awhile ago. I haven't figured out what I am going to make out of it yet. I have this slight little problem with clothes right now. I don't what freakin' size I wear anymore! Okay, I realize that there are some people who would love to have this problem but it is a pain in the rear. I just bought new jeans less than 3 weeks ago. And they are are little too loose. When I bought them, I did fit into the next smaller size but they were a little tight. You know the feeling, you would be afraid to sit down. And now these are a bit too loose. And my tops are a bit too loose. And I need to go out and get fitted for new bras again.

So I have several tops that I want to knot for wearing this summer but I am not sure what size to make. I am actually afraid to knit anything for myself simply because by the time I am done it will be to big. But I am thinking of starting the Ribbon X-back from the current issue of Knitty. I will have some else take my measurements and see where I fall on the sizing. I already have the yarn. Plus it should knit up pretty fast so that I can wear it for my carnival on July 4.

There has been one slight change to my weekend plans. I am going to be tutoring one of the junior members at the fire company in English. He is finally waking up that passing English is necessary. So I will be having to remember what Lord of the Flies is all about. The kid is smart but he just hasn't seen that you need to know more than fire science to ride the engine or band aid wagon. I had the chance to talk to him last night and he realizes that he is going to have to go to summer school this summer in order to graduate on time. But my offer to tutor him has been there all year and is free with no strings attached other than passing school. So that he feels better about accepting my help, our chief is letting him "help" me with throwing ladders and nozzle work. (I do need practice with nozzles work though. So my new guy will just have to accept that my responsibilities to my fire company are deeper than his. I still do have a life. I think this kid has a chance and I am willing to give him a few hours of time to help him. It makes me feel good when a kid gets hooked on books.

I will try and post over the weekend and I promise to take some sock knitting with me tomorrow to the fire house.

(I forgot to add the photos earlier so they are now here!!!)

I Am Going to Be Evil

Regarding the guy situation, I am going to be so evil. I was at my fire house last night waiting to meet one of my guys. Okay, I was also just hanging out. While I was there, he called me. I wasn't in the mind frame to talk to him so I pushed the ignore button on my cell. The guys wanted to know who it was, so I told them it was a fire fighter from anther house. The look I got was so funny; it was like I had two heads.

So I had to explain the story. The first thing out of one guy's mouth was that I should know better than to date fire fighters because I am one plus I am around them enough. I am supposed to know that they are nuts. I fired right back that this guy would never fit in at our house because he was crazier than we were.

So I got the whole song and dance on a fire fighter is not a good bet. And on how to get my head out of my rear. And the language it was given it was rather salty, Shanti would have felt right at home. From there, our conversation turned to the classes I am taking for the fall.

So Bron, would you like to join me in the gym for the next 4 months? I promise that you will lose weight working out with me. I can guarantee that you will lose 15 pounds by September. I was told to get my a** to they gym now because that is the only way I will pass the one class. And this was from one of my friends. Can't you tell they love me?

Than the tones went out. We had a box. I ran to get my gear out of the back of my truck. I was third in the engine. The line officer assigned to me was telling me to bottle up and I am being told to not bottle up by my buddy because I am not going in. I listen to my buddy. My line officer decides that I am going to stay with the driver who is our past chief. Now get this, the rules state that you are to be buckles in but where we? No. We were only going 3 blocks and we never went over 30 miles with lights and sirens. The other companies weren't happy when we put them back into service. The extent of what I did on my first real box with my own company was to keep an eye on who was on the roof and making sure the driver knew when they needed him or the incident commander. I also got to climb the ladder to the roof to carry up a screw driver to the roof. And I packed hose. Lots and lots of LDH hose or large diameter hose on a moving engine. Thankfully there were two other guys up on the hose bed with me packing it. One of the guys was on the back step feeding it up to me with an other guiding the driver who was backing it. And the whole time, I have one of the other guys yelling at me. Yes, yelling at me. Don't worry nothing more than to hurry up and other simple things like that. The guys only do that if they love you. (You would really hate to see what thy do if they don't like you. Plus he hates to pack hose. LDH is the yellow hose.)

When we got back to the station, we all picked our cell phones and started calling. And I called this guy back. Now, it is a little strange to be calling some one back when you are standing in a room with a 6 guys who know you really well, (They have seen me with no make up and with black eyes and crawling out of bed at 2 am and drunk okay?) I started to string him out. And the guys were having a hard time not laughing. I told him that I had fire company obligation tonight, tomorrow night, Saturday, and Sunday. But that I would give him a call Sunday afternoon after I got back from the house burning. When I hung up, I had to remind the guys that I had learned from them. Thankfully, my chief wasn't there or it would have been worse.

The truth is that I do have a fire company obligation tonight. I work bingo every week. Tomorrow night I am shopping for Saturday. I ride the engine at my other company on Saturday. And I have a house burning on Sunday. So I really was telling the truth but just stretching it some. Like I said, I have watched and learned from the best. Or as I was told last night, I am evil.

The funniest thing of the whole evening was that the t-shirt I had on had a nice deep scoop neckline. And when I bent over to put my street shoes back on of course the top fall forward. And yes, half of the guys were staring down my top. And the one guy from my own company that I would actually go out was one of the guys. But like I have said, they have seen me at my worst and I have seen then at their worst. So maybe I will end up with a decent fire fighter who is also a decent guy and is closer to me in age. But that may or may not every happen. But I can and will be evil for a little while long.

And yes, I will listen to the guys and my instincts. I was up talking to the guy from the other station earlier today and he got a big laugh out of me stringing this guy out.  It is nice to know that I can provide some entertainment. And now I am off to program my new toy which is my iPod mini in pink.

I will post photos and knitting tomorrow.

Rain, Rain Go Away

Rain, rain, please go away! I love the rain because it really does wash away the pollen. But please three days in a row of gray skies is enough! At least my yarn is is bright. I amusing a color called Fiery Sunset that I bought from Ellen's Half Pint Farm at Maryland Sheep and Wool. It has oranges, yellows, and pinks in it. It is nice and bright. I was definitely channeling a certain person when I was buying it. I am just playing with it right now so there isn't much to show yet. I will aim for photos tomorrow.

Right now, I am trying to decide if I really want to go out with this guy I just met. Okay, ladies and any guys who are reading this. Is 10 years that big of an age difference when you are dating? I am the older one okay. And yes, he is over 21. He is some one I met at a fire house but there are some things that I have learned about him that are making me question whether or not I want to go out with him. My big brothers at the station I met this guy at are telling me to be careful. And I know that my real big brothers at my own station would tear him to pieces. But than keep in  mid that they tend to think that no one is good enough for me. So let me know what you think.

I have been busy lately though with helping a friend out. My buddy from fire class is applying to be a career fire fighter. I have been helping her out by proofing her resumes and applications. She has tailored her resume to each county that she is applying to and I have read and proofed each and every application and version of the resume. The one county that she really want to get into is the one that we will be working on tonight. I have also been training with her on the physical conditioning. At least I like exercise. And it sure bets going to the gym right now. But I really do need to get my butt into the gym. Although I did hear about a kick boxing class right down the street. Has anyone ever tried it?

Well, time to get back to work. Have fun and I am hoping that some one out there is seeing the sun. And I am taking photos tomorrow with or out the sun. And if the sun is out, you may get some photos of my garden after I weed it. Yeah, I get to work on my garden at work.

Do We Really Need Sleep?

Does the human body really need sleep? Apparently, I don't think so, but right now my body is trying to tell me otherwise since all of a sudden I want to take a nap. This weekend was busy, busy, busy.

Friday night I had to bake for my open house. Plus I was busy at my sewing machine working on a secret project. I was also making a princess t-shirt for my chief's little girl. She is a sweet heart. It is her in the one picture next to the lieutenant's oldest boy. She will be our first female chief.

Up early Saturday morning and pick out the door to pick up one of the junior members. Now this is strange but I had to pass by the fire house and go to Starbucks before I went to the open house. But I needed coffee. And since I was getting coffee for myself, I knew that I had better bring back coffee for the other addict at the station. But here is where it gets really funny, the manager and the assistant manager both know not only my order but his. And yeah, the other addict is my chief. The only disagreement was how many shots he got. And this is where it gets even funny. See, I almost always call him by his nickname but they know him by his real name but they knew exactly who I meant.

Okay, coffees in hand and head back to the fire house. I was there all day. We really didn't have that many people but every one who came down had fun. And there was quite a bit of socializing going on and a good deal of positive public relations.

Saturday evening, I stopped by one of the city fire houses where I ran when I was getting my EMT-B certification to hang out with the volunteer crew. What was supposed to be an hour turned into 3 hours. It was a nice relaxing end to the day. I always have fun hanging out with the crew at that house. But I still had two cakes to make when I got home so it was rather late when I got to bed and no knitting on Saturday.

Sunday I was up early to meet up with a friend to head up to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for a fire expo. To give you an idea of what a fire expo is like just think a fiber festival but instead of fiber, it is fire trucks, tools, t-shirts, more fire trucks, and anything and everything the grown man could want that has to do with the fire service. And yes, the fire service is still male dominant. And yes,some of the t-shirts can be a little bit offensive if you let them get to you.

The original plan was for her to drive but she had been out on a house fire until about 3 in the morning, so I drove instead. She slept while I drove the hour north to the convention center. And yes, she and I were blitz shoppers. Her original plan was to spend no more $50 and mine was to spend no more than $75. I think that together we spend less than $200. Not bad for staying on budget. We found some bargains on some things that had planned on buying in July at another expo. Plus we found some really cool rockers for our helmets that really glow in the dark. (Rockers are the stickers that we place on our helmets that say either fire fighter or EMT and ours say Firefighter/EMT since she and I are both. Our county issues one or the other on the stickers not both.)

We than headed back towards her house to change clothes. We needed to head towards our favorite station in the next county. I know that it sounds strange to drive 45 minutes ti ride for only a few hours but we love the crew down there. And we are loved right back. Plus we learn something every time we go down there even if we don't get a call.

So we finally get down to the station. (She drove from her house to the station.) And we changed into duty clothes down there. Duty clothes are dark blues pants, dark blue t-shirt, and black safety shoes which means steel toes. We all got up on the day's events and the schedule for the rest of the day and settle in.  As is when my friend and I ride together down there, she rides the medic unit and I end up on the engine or squad. We ended up going out for dinner instead of cooking for a change. We had just finished paying for dinner when the squad got hit out for a fire call. Thankfully, we had taken the squad out with us to dinner. We were a block from the alleged house fire when we were put back in service. It turns out that someone was burning trash illegally. Bummer for us because we where all ready to go and bummer for them. They will be getting a nice large fine from the county. (Check your local ordinances before burning stuff to avoid a visit from the fire department.)

I got home late. Actually I was on my cell almost home talking to someone when my pager goes off. Thankfully he has his radio on so he was able to tell me what the call was so I didn't have to do 3 things at once. I almost made that call. I was just pulling my gear bag out of the truck when the engine pulled out. And this was at 10:45 pm. I hung around until they got back from the call and helped clean everything up. So by the time I finally got home, it was after midnight. And still no knitting. I swear one of these days, I will get to bed before midnight!

All of the photos in today's post are from the open house on Saturday and the blue engines are my companies and the one big pieces that say 24 on the front is also a company that I belong to. Can you tell that I like blue>.

meme time

Okay, Bron has had this up and said that if like it to take it. So I will take. So if you like it, take it.

Choose 5 and complete the sentence

If I could be a scientist . . .
If I could be a farmer . . . please I know too many
If I could be a musician . . . they pay me not to sing at karaoke
If I could be a doctor . . .
If I could be a painter . . . I am paid to not paint
If I could be a gardener . . .
If I could be a missionary . . .
If I could be a chef . . . I am a fire house cook. But I would be a pastry chef. I love to bake and actually have thought of going back to school and have looked at New England Culinary Institute but I love the fire service too much
If I could be an architect . . .
If I could be a linguist . . . I would love to learn Tagalo (a Filipino dialect), Arabic and Chinese. I already speak Spanish. I want to relearn the Neapolitan that I spoke as a young child and brush up on my French.
If I could be a psychologist . . .
If I could be a librarian . . .
If I could be an athlete . . . I would be a class 5 white water kayaker. I currently stick to easy class 3 stuff
If I could be a lawyer . . . I would push to protect basic human rights and help to educate in the developing world while respecting traditional values
If I could be an inn-keeper . . .
If I could be a professor . . . I would teach literacy. Reading is knowledge and power. Too many people do not enjoy reading and do not realize the power and joy that it can deliver
If I could be a writer . . .
If I could be a llama-rider . . .
If I could be a bonnie pirate . . .
If I could be an astronaut . . .
If I could be a world famous blogger . . .
If I could be a justice on any one court in the world . . .

My Weekend Plans

I bet you can probably guess that my weekend plans involve a firehouse or two. Well yeah! (Consider this post a lesson in general knowledge about the Maryland EMS system.)

We have open house at my firehouse on Saturday and I have to be there all day. I really do not have much choice in that one. I will take the camera and try to take pictures. We are hoping to have Trooper 3 there for awhile or until they get a call. Plus our little chiefs are supposed to be there. And lots of fun and toys to play with for the kids of all ages.

And I will explain about Trooper 3. In the state of Maryland, if you are injured in an accident and need to be transported by helicopter to the nearest shock trauma center or appropriate medical facility, the state police are responsible for doing it. In other words, let's say for example, you fall a cliff rock climbing or accidental run over your foot mowing grass or forget to wear your seat belt and are in a car accident and you need to flown to a medical facility in the Baltimore or Washington area, the Maryland State Police will come and pick you up and fly you there. The one really neat thing about our system is that you will never see a bill for your transport. First of all I hope that you never have to see the inside of a Trooper but for those of us who do EMS and fire, we love the Troopers. (We do get excited really easily. And I will admit to being a little biased towards the MSP.)

The fire service is generally a family business which does not explain how I have ended up in the service. But my family has a history of military service so maybe that explains it. My brother went into law enforcement and I have gone into the fire service. (While none of our first cousins have entered either the military or law enforcement or the fire service, we do have second cousins in both the fire service and in law enforcement.) But in my fire company, we already have the next 2 generations of chiefs.  The oldest one will be graduated from high school and headed off to college here in the next few weeks. But the youngest ones are the ones to watch out for because they are funny.First of all, they are all under the age of 5 and there is only 1 female among 5 boys. Can you guess who the ring leader is? Yes, the girl! And her daddy is the current chief! She is not quite 3 yet but she can tell you how to lay out hose line and the boys are afraid of her. The boys like to wear the white hats but they will not her daddy's because it is hers. But I am making all 6 kids t-shirts with the company initials on the front for our open house. But the three little chiefs will have their call signs on the back of the shirts. Their daddies know about the shirts just not about the back of the shirt. And that is what is going to make the shirts so much fun. Because the kids will love them. There will be 3 little chiefs and 3 fire fighters running around Saturday.

And Sunday, I am going to something that will be just as much fun as Maryland Sheep and Wool. Can you imagine something just as fun as a fiber festival but no fiber involved? Okay, I know that as a knitter, it will be hard, but just think back to being single and being surrounded by a bunch of guys. Okay, for me all you have to do is add in some fire equipment to the guys and I am set. A friend and I are going up to a fire expo just outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Sunday morning and than heading back down towards DC to ride the engine at one of our favorite stations. We are very lucky that it only takes us about an hour to get to many different place.

Gee, a weekend surrounded by guys I like and who like me back and big toys. And no, I do not date these guys. They are like my brother. Except worse. They tease me worse than my own brother. Although there is one but half the tie he acts interested and the other half well let's just say he acts like a total jerk. But that is typical fire house behavior. But look for photos next week of lots of fire apparatus.

Only in Montgomery County

Okay, these are the type of calls that I want to run. Yesterday, down in Rockville, Maryland, there was a cement factory that some how caught on fire. Don't know how yet and I am not sure I even want to know how some one managed to burn a building made of steel and cement but they did. But Montgomery County Fire & Rescue determined that the building was not safe to enter so they did what we call a surround and drown.

The photo that I am posting is courtesy of the Rockville Volunteer Fire Deparrtment #3 website. There are more details about this fire and more photos there in case you are curious about how we all look the same when we are geared up. These are the guys I want to hang with because they are the bad boys of Montgomery County.

My First Fire

I got to put out my first real fire last night. Okay, it was not a big fire. Actually it was not even much of a fire at all but a smoldering fire but still I got to do it all by myself. And the funny part was that it was at the fire house!

We had a service call for a helicopter landing zone but the brush truck was full with our usual suspects. (yeah, we have them too. You know the glory hogs who always seem to live there and have no other life.) So I wasn't able to get on the piece. But that's okay. I went back to the kitchen to help out with bingo.

Well, one of the younger kids came in and said that the cigarette container was smoking pretty badly. And since this particular kid is a junior member and walking a fine line right now with the board of directors, he wanted me to go out with him to check the fire scene. Actually, our safety office was there and he told me to go out and supervise which is funny since I just got We took a large container of water with us just in case. And yes, it was definitely smoking.

Being the smart of the two, I approached from the upwind direction. I mean why breath smoke when you don't have to? You can probably guess which direction he approached from, yes downwind. I had him take the container apart while I did a surround and drown. And all that means is that I poured all of the water on it until I had water flowing out of the container.

Since I need to have the container cool before it could be emptied, I went back into the building to let our safety office know it was out and that the container would be emptied. The catering company that we use is responsible for emptying this container and our board of directors will be taking this little fire up with them since it is not the first one we have had to extinguish over the last several months. But still it was my first fire!

And I have a real house burn coming up next weekend. I have been told that I may not be able to get any interior time because the house is such bad shape but I will get to play with hose line and it will be hotter than the fires I have had so far.

No photos today because it is pouring down rain and a little bit gloomy outside. Check back later this evening to see what my weekend plans involve.

 

Ever Fly By the Seat of Your Pants?

Okay, I had planned to knit to knit last night. Well, at least that was the plan after going and getting my nails done. But I had just finished getting my nails done when my fire buddy called me up and wanted to know what my plans were for the evening and if I had had dinner yet. The answer was knit and no. This was at 6 pm. Well, she was in the mood for some seafood. And was I willing to come along with her since she didn't want to drive alone? And you can probably guess my answer which was why not!

So, I drove out to her firehouse since it is the best to meet and leave my truck. I mean were else can you leave a car or truck and leave the keys in it and know that nothing will happen to it. Okay, I leave my keys in the engine bay but still how many places can you safely leave your car unlocked with the keys in it and know that it will be moved if needed. I have left my wallet and id in it when we have gone running before. (I normally try to leave it in the station but some days I get there a little bit late.)

Okay, so we head down towards Annapolis and over the Bay Bridge. And I will say that we hit the bridge at the perfect time, slightly before sunset. And wouldn't you know it, my camera was back at home. But there were a few boats out on the bay and the water was nice. There was a slight chop but I would go out on it in a sea kayak. (Note to all I do turn a little green with out the help of a little pill on a boat with a motor but that doesn't stop me.) I do promise to take my camera with me from now on.

We were seated right away on the top deck over looking the bay. And that is the Chesapeake Bay for those of you not from the Maryland area. The cream of crab soup was super thick and filled with crab. The shrimp was delicious. My only complaint was that they did not have sweet tea but than I know that I have to go down to the Richmond area to get decent sweet tea. And I have to go even further south to get decent hush puppies. But those of you from the South know what I am talking about. But hey, I was on the water eating good seafood and having fun.

We did get lost coming home. Those of you who have come back from Ocean City know how good the Maryland State Highway Administration is about signage or rather how bad they can be in certain areas. But that is okay. We took a nice trip down Route 50 through Prince George's county. We did see at least 2 fire rescue vehicles so we were happy. I knew that we had missed our turn but my friend wanted to find her own way so I was quiet. Plus I knew that if we ended up in DC we were okay.

And yes, we did end up in DC. And that is a good thing. See, I know how DC is laid out and I can find my way around DC. And we did did manage to end up in Shanti's neighborhood. Because of the security concerns around certain buildings, we had to go a few extra blocks but we ended up where we needed to end up. My friend had never been to Georgetown before so that was entertaining. She also learned why having an automatic transmission is great when you drive in the city. But we had fun. We also managed to pick up 2 college guys who wanted to take us out for drinks but we told them we had to get back to the fire house which actually seemed to encourage them.

Thankfully I know that area and know where the fire houses and these guys were from the area as well. They wanted to know what fire house we were headed back to so we told them Station # which is one of the busier stations. They seemed to respect that and left us alone after that. I never knew that have fire tags on your car and union stickers was a magnet for picking up guys.

We got home late so we I only hung around her fir house for about half an hour before I headed home to get some sleep. I will try and get some knitting done today. I also need to remember to copy a study guide for one of the teenagers getting ready to take his EMT class. Life is never dull for me and I like it that way. (I will try to get you all some photos tomorrow plus I still owe SP4 reveals!)