Where to begin, work for the last two years has had no stability no sense of permanence if you know what I mean.  I know I will have a job, but I do not know where I will be stationed or what I will be doing each and every day.  For two years I have done this running from station to station driving rigs as part of a promotional process.  Now we have been working for the city for the last 5 years without a contract everything is set by the courts and one of the things we lost in the courts was staffing minimums.  In our old contract, we had it spelled out that there would be a set number of Battalion Chiefs, Captains, FAE's (Fire Apparaturs Engineers - what I tested for 2 years ago) and a set number of firefighters.  So if someone retired there would be a corresponding promotion to fill the vacancy.  Well that is now gone and its much cheaper to pay someone a bit more to act in that position rather then promote someone and pay them that next pay grade salary.  So I have ran and ran and ran and watched guys with 6 and 7 years less seniority sit still and relax.  I am tired of running, it would be nice to ride my motorcycle to work now that gas is getting up there.  It would be nice to know where I am going to be each day ahead of schedule.  It would be nice to get into a rhythm once again.  So the test came around again and I took it cold, no studying no carrying.  I did not even stick around to go over the questions to see how I did.  I just found out, several weeks later from an email, that I passed.... barely.. Now do I start it all over again and run for 4 years in hopes that I might get promoted or do I just say screw it and relax back into my station in my spot and hang out and try to get motivated again.  

Up and coming events, for my birthday, if I do not get chosen to go to the police academy for the arson investigator training, oh yeah I interviewed for that also.. yeah 6 months of police training.. oh joy.. anyway.. for my birthday this year Nej and I are planning on riding BRAN..it should be fun.  Nej and I have not been training.. so that is NOT a good thing... oh well, best laid plans and all that.  

On an up note, we have been taking alot of yoga and well I am truly enjoying it.  If you have a bad back then yoga is amazing.  It truly has helped.  I know longer walk up to pain, which is always nice.  It is calming and a nice workout.  We will be doing this for quite some time to come.  Not sure how that will effect our retirement plans since you do not find yoga studios in the middle of no where. .. .. bummer.

all in all, life does not suck so that is all win.

Live long and prosper.. unless your a starwars person then,,, may the force be with you.

its a yoga morning.

swell for the last several months, Nej and I have been taking yoga classes at Sound Method Yoga in Omaha.  Its a really nice studio with outstanding people.  For me, its all about the back, since I started feebly doing yoga my back has stopped hurting, I feel better and I am noticeably more flexible.   Now I am not into the whole religious aspect or the artsy fartsy feel you body slough away yoga, but the here lets bend you in new and totally bizarre ways that will appear to be amazingly painful.  All in all though, its kind of addictive.  I had a new instructor today, it was the first morning class at the new studio and it was very small, there was the instructor Suzanne, myself the feeble newbie, and David an instructor at a different studio.. not to make yoga intimidating but come on.  Thankfully both instructors were every helpful and encouraging but still its intimidating to say the least.
So here I sit in Starbucks drinking a giant massively caffeinated coffee getting ready to study for the Fire Apparatus Engineer exam that I have in the morning.  Basically, its a test to see if I can be promoted to drive the pumps and ladder trucks full time.  They give the test every two years and build an eligibility list off of those that pass both the written and the practicals... now I have been on that list for the last two years being bounced around the city from one rig to the next and no one was promoted from the last list.  I have not decided what I am going to do on this one.  Today is my day to study, 2 years ago I put in about 3 months of studying, this time I am putting in 1 day.  To say I am discouraged is an understatement.  I am ready to have a home.  So if I do well, great I will spend another two years bouncing around the city, never seeing the station I bid into, if I do poorly or rank poorly, well I will call it good and take my name off the list and finally go home.  As you can tell, I am writing instead of studying.. so far so good way to procrastinate.
Anyway, I am off to read the very dry, very boring, very job specific in theory but virtually inapplicable to the real world of a fire ground standard operating procedures.  Now you know why I have a huge mocha in front of me.
Off to the land of brain damaged.

Hasta La Bye Bye

X-mas at our house.

Yes its that time of year, the time when ducks are flying, the lab is freaking out since the ducks are flying, I am driving out to my brothers to take the dog that is freaking out hunting for the ducks that are flying and somewhere in there I have to work, buy presents, figure out some way to surprise the wife with her unknown present, not become broke, cook, plan a xmas dinner for my parents, her parents and some friends and oh yeah work 24 hours before and after the dinner day.  Oh I forgot I also need to go hunting to put bambi in the freezer so that we can eat for the next year.  So in other words, its a mildly relaxing time of year.
Well this season Sam did very well on her retrieves.  She got a live duck that was diving on her, she stayed with it and brought it in perfectly, even though you could almost hear her sigh when the duck dove underwater, she had this kinda pained, "hey that's cheating" look on her face.  Later she pulled another live duck out of 7 foot tall cat tails, that was a duck we would of lost with out her.  So not to shabby for a 2 yr old she is getting the hang of it thats for sure.  The time out with my bro and his family was fun I really should head out that way more often just to spend time with them.  My niece is growing up so fast, I am not sure how much longer she will want to go hunting with her uncle.  I will take what time I can get though.
Now tomorrow, since I am working today, I get to build a monster lasagna for xmas dinner.  It was the wifes request.  I wanted to go easy and make a prime rib but no I was vetoed, by the dreaded wifely comment of, "I was so looking forward to your lasagna."  Heart gone, easy day of relaxing gone, hours of making a red sauce and building up a monster 6 layer lasagna scheduled.  Ah well, if you know me at all you know I am only bitching to make noise, I love to cook.  I love to cook large food.  I really enjoy making a monster lasagna, but I do not get to all that often since 2 people really have a hard time finishing 7 lbs of lasagna.

On a side note:  High speed tree trimming can be done by driving an Aerial down a narrow overhung street.  Now this is what I am driving today.  Not this particular truck its in Aurora, but I am driving an identical apparatus here, and yes I just trimmed a pine tree right next to an entrance to a school.  Now this is not my favorite rig to drive, they are big, they don't stop quickly, they don't accelerate really at all, when you turn the tail board swings out 4 feet beyond your tires, and lastly you have this ladder sticking out above your head and its kinda hard to judge where it is at times.  On the up side, this is the job to have.  While the captain and senior firefighter goes into the fire to search, I get to take the second firefighter up on the roof to cut a ventilation hole.  It will take me a few runs to get the rig down, since its been more then a year since I was assigned to drive one of these.  A pump is like a sports car to one of these but as the saying goes, we may not be the first to the ball but when we arrive we always get to dance.

I will post pics of the dinner creation tomorrow as a make it.  should be interesting

Hunting

Why yes, I hunt.  Why do I hunt?  Well, to be honest getting up 3 hours before sunrise kinda sucks, but when your in the duck blind or the tree stand and the world wakes up around you its really amazing.  I am out by the river or in the timber there are no trucks going by, no alarm clocks, none of the noises of the city.  What you do hear are coyotes singing as the sun comes up, you hear turkeys calling each other, you hear the ducks waking up.  You feel the temp drop as the sun clears the horizon.  You get to watch the colors change in the sky as it goes from moonlight to dawn.  This last week I took Sam duck hunting down on the river.  Sunrise was 7:54 and we were down on the river bottoms at 6 am.  It was 26 degrees out nice and cool.  No snow yet but frost everywhere.  So here we are hauling out deocys and gear to the duck blind which in this case is a bunch of cedar trunks stuck between steel  T posts next to a pine tree about 20 foot off a channel.  Breath is fogging its dark as sin out and everything is quiet.  I throw the decoys into the water and set up my spread.  Back into the blind we go.  Sam sits next to the edge to watch and we wait.  The sky begins to change becomes a deep purple blue the clouds begin to glow a dark red.  As you sit there the critters begin to wake up and announce to the world that they live another day.  As dawn approaches you watch the colors change in the sky and begin to see the birds flying.  As we sit there a flight of ducks buzz us out of the darkness.  You just hear the whistle of their wings as they fly bye.  Sam sits there with her ears perked up and shivers.  Not from cold but from pent up excitement.  This is only her second hunting season, and when the ducks start talking she gets more and more excited.   We watch the ducks flying by the rivers main channel several hundred yards away when finally a young mallard bombs into our decoys and becomes dinner.  Sam makes a great retrieve and the day is done by 9 am.  Its now sunny and clear and warm.  The ducks have no reason to move and well they don't.  Yes I spent more time waiting for sunrise then I did hunting but the sounds the sights hell even the smells are so intense so sharp so clean its worth it.  Even if the hunt is unsuccessful, like the next day where I missed several easy shots, its well worth the time to be out there.  When things go right, those are moments you will talk about with friends for years, the hunting brag stories are few and far between in reality its more about being outdoors then it is about hunting.

the journal and back to work

So I have been trying to journal and have been keeping up with writing things down.  I figured it would be a way to get me to be more consistant on writing a blog.  Well what it has done is made me a like writing on paper.  I am enjoying using a fountain pen and feeling the way it moves on paper.  Now my brother stated that one the perfect pen is the 10 cent bike disposable pen, and for my job he is right.  You do not want to give a fountain pen to a drunk or to a drug addict to sign a release form.  You really do not want to handle a nice pen with bloody gloves and lastly fountain pens really do not write on the gloves we wear.
     The last few weeks we have been laid up with a bruised spine.  I feel coming out of the back of the squad during a code.  I did a Charley Brown my feet went above my head and my back struck the steel edge of the squad bed.  Talk about pain.  It was pretty much instant and persistent over the next couple of months.  I know I am getting older because I just could not shake this one off.  Physical therapy and a epidural shot and well I am back to work on shift after two months of light duty which is all office work.  Its good to be back on shift, it gives Nej time on her own without me so that she can decompress.  I get to drive firetrucks and go into fires.  Life is getting better.

Master Chef and Me

Well Nej and I have been watching Master Chef on Fox and well its kind of fun.  What it does do is inspire me to try something completely different.  A few weeks ago I made my first pasta from scratch to make home made ravioli.  It was alright for a first attempt and I will improve but its nice to try something new.  Today, they make souffles so I made my first ever chocolate souffle.  It is out of the oven and cooling.. smells good we shall see.
Tonight I think it will be desert before dinner.  After all how can you pass up trying your first souffle?
I mean come on.

off to taste hopefully it will be good... or at least not horrid.

Well, they look good and as they cooled they fell in the center.. not a lot but noticeably.. They are very rich and we have no ice cream.. damn.  Attempt one was not a complete failure but there is room for improvement.. now to throw a party so that I can try again...

The results are in

Well, in the continuing saga of back issues, they finally sent me to get an MRI of my lower spine.  Anyone that knows me knows that I do not sit still ever.. EVER.  So MRI's are a new found torture device for those of us that are hyperactive.  I will see about posting some of the images if I can figure out how but the long and the short of it is "Multiple stress fractures in the mid to upper lumbar region."  LOVELY.  So I am going on light duty for the next few weeks and off to see a spine specialist.  Not a happy camper but at least they know why I hurt and what is causing it. So that is the up side.