How Far to Take It ....

Have you ever been snubbed?

Ever been overlooked for a task that you were capable of handling, and handling well?

Ever initiate a conversation on the subject and had the person that overlooked you for the task explain why you were not invited to participate?

Did that explanation make you feel better or feel worse?

It made me extremely angry.

Now, what am I going to do about it?

I am developing a plan that hopefully will prevent this oversight from happening ever again, and I hope I have the patience to complete the plan in a way that is not too aggressive and avoids animosity between everyone involved, but still gets the point across.

It's been keeping me up nights, several nights in a row, and I'm tired of that, literally and figuratively.

So, I'm initiating the plan. I've setup a demonstration, I've made the necessary invitations, including to the person mentioned above, to be a part of the solution.

I hope we can come to an understanding. 

Maybe more on this later, maybe some specifics, we'll see about that.

Obsessing over the layout

I am pulling out my hair over the layout of my blog.  Okay, not literally pulling my hair out, but it seems like it.

I need a weekend break to think things over and see what direction I might take next week.

Problem is that I look around at other blogs and see how cool they look, nice backgrounds, designs and layouts, then I try to figure something out that looks the way I want it to.

I haven't succeeded yet.

Several different attempts and the longest any of them lasted was 2 days, I think, or was it less ....

I got so frustrated with it today that I moved back to a 2 column template and put a simple little shadow edge around the columns.

I will have to regroup and decide if it's about the design, or more about what I might have to say.  I would like it to be both reasons that people want to visit and read my articles, but maybe I'll just have to work on writing interesting things that make the dull layout okay.

Hmmmm.

Maybe I should just not look at other peoples blogs, just stick to reading their posts through Outlook 2007's awesome RSS feature.

Time to eat pizza and do something other than fret over all of this.

Then again, I am programmed to fret, worry, ponder, obsess.  It's in my genes.

Sigh.

Cool Photoshop Technique I Just Learned

I was anxiously awaiting the return of Confessions of a Pioneer Woman and was definitely glad to see just how nice the new site is.

I picked up a valuable tip today, in the Photoshop section of the site.

I've been dabbling in web design for many years, and I love to take photos, especially of firefighting subjects, but I haven't really spent the time necessary to learn the Photoshop Elements program that I use.

Not so any longer! Thanks to my visit to Pioneer Woman today I have picked up two techniques that I can use to make my photos look better.

Thanks again, Pioneer Woman!

Here is my first attempt at one of the techniques, the SOOC photo:

Pretty good, but needs a bit of touch-up, so I tried one of the tips and came up with this:

I'm excited to start using this tip and the others I'm going to find as I use the Photoshop section to learn more about the fun things you can do with this program.

Fallen Firefighter

Firefighting is a brotherhood.

Today we mourn the loss of another firefighter in a line-of-duty incident that occurred in Los Angeles, yesterday, March 26th.

From the LAFD Media and Public Relations Blog:

Los Angeles Firefighter Killed in the Line of Duty

Our hearts go out to the family and all across the nation fire companies will reflect on the loss of this firefighter.

Firefighting News Flash

Mainly because I'm not able to put together a real post, I'll just link to a couple of large fire incidents out of California for this entry.

Both incidents are from the LA area of California and were found on my daily visit to Firehouse.com:

Anaheim Tank Farm Blaze

San Fernando Condominium Complex

Let's all be careful out there!

Easter Traditions

Originally posted March 21, 2008.  With Easter upon us I decided to repost.

When I was young, one of our observances for Easter was to plan a hike for the Saturday before.  We would pack a lunch and head out on foot to hike to a little cave on Little Mountain (NE of Newton), or if we were really lucky a parent would take us a little closer to the mountain via car.

We would hike up to the top of Little Mountain and across the ridge until we were right above the cave, then down to the cave for our lunch break.  While there it was common to crawl back into the cave to the end, because we had the notion that it was the Easter Bunny's cave.

About the only thing we ever found was evidence that coyotes had been in the cave, nothing resembling the evidence of rabbits was found by me or others I was with.

After lunch and exploring the cave was done, a parent would show up at the appointed time and take us back to town.

I remember one specific year where a friend and myself were planning the traditional hike to the Easter Bunny cave.  We decided to invite a friend from school who was from another town and had never had the experience before.

In this particular case, I think we were dropped off close to the base of the hill and arranged to meet our ride back at Newton Dam at the appointed time.

We had a great time.  Up the hill, along the ridge, down to the cave, eat lunch, explore the cave then head back to our meeting spot.

This day the meeting spot required us to hike back up to the top, then down the West side of the hill to the reservoir.

All was going splendidly until we started down the West side (much steeper back then, if you ask me) and I implemented the improvised toboggan slide-roll maneuver down the hill.

I have performed that maneuver many times in my life, but probably never with as much grace as I did that particular time.  The problem I faced was that towards the bottom of the hill was a barbed wire fence.

I am glad to report that I did not maintain my speedy descent all the way to the fence, and was able to avoid injury.

All's well that ends well, I guess.  I walked out the pain and we caught our ride back home to relax the rest of our weekend.

Another successful Easter weekend hike was under our belts, even though we never met up with the Easter Bunny.

Genealogy Lesson

I found this joke in my email inbox and wanted to share, because it just made me laugh off a bit of the pain of the local Aggies close-but-no-cigar loss last night.

I quote:

"A little girl asked her mother, How did the human race appear? The mother answered, God made Adam and Eve and they had children and so mankind was  made.

Two days later the girl asked her father the same question. The father answered, Many years ago there were monkeys from which the human race evolved.

The confused girl returned to her mother and said, Mom, how is it
possible that you told me the human race was created by God, and Papa said they developed from monkeys?

The mother answered, Well dear, it is very simple. I told you about my side of the family and your father told you about his."

I hope you enjoyed it (even if you've heard it before).

Life Repeats Itself

When I was younger a group of friends would gather on a Friday night at one of our houses and we would play games, well into the night.

Board games were the most usual pass time during these sessions, often it was The Farming Game (yes, a real game, I still have it) but most of the time we would play Risk.

This was back in the old days before all the different versions (Star Wars, etc.) came out or before the "army" pieces looked more military like instead of odd shaped blobs of plastic.

We would play for hours.  I think it was an obsession of some sort, a competitive obsession probably - beat your buddy up consistently - but an obsession nonetheless ...

Well it's a generation later, and I found myself on the front room floor with my boy playing Risk tonight.

He is obsessed with it just as we were, but it's not a competitive obsession with him, he just loves to pretend battle his way across the board and would go for hours if we let him.

The funny thing is that he plays it by himself a lot more than with me or anyone else.  Hours on end if we let him, and we don't, but it's a self-stim that we have to really watch and it's hard to get him to buy into the logic we use to keep him away from it for a few days.

Tonight was the first night in a long time that we had played it together.  I had a great time and he did as well.  It's a lot of fun, I could get used to playing it again like this, for fun instead of for domination.

I was reminded of the old days when we played weekend nights as a group of friends, and hope that between everything else that takes up our time in the evenings I can work in chances to play it from time to time with my boy, keep up the circle of life, so to speak.

Sunday Afternoon Call

At church yesterday I was having a reminiscent moment talking with a young man who had spoken in our worship service.  He had served his mission in California, the same mission I was called to 20 years ago.  We were talking about how the mission had changed it's boundaries since I was there, etc., when among the sound of conversation from us and many others in the chapel, I keyed into the too familiar sound of my pager.

I have two alert sounds programmed into my pager.  If it's a fire it alerts me with one pattern, if it's a medical call it alerts with a different sounding pattern.  I've commented before on how I still get a bit of an adrenalin rush when the tones for fire sound from my pager, yesterday was no different.

After the tone alert is finished, it transmits the voice information from dispatch - what units respond, address, type of call, etc.  While I was walking out of the chapel trying to hear what voice information was being received and not having much luck, it did nothing to settle my anticipation of what we would face in a few minutes time.

I was finally outside and was able to play back the recorded message from my pager.  "Tender call for a structure fire", just down the road in Petersboro.  I responded to the station and we prepared a crew to send in one of our tenders for the water supply needs at this fire in a a non-hydrant area of Cache County.

After managing a bit of a mechanical issue, our tender pulled out and I followed along behind  the tender crew as the department officer responding.

It's always a grim feeling when a house is involved.  We had about 6 miles of road to travel before arriving on scene, and being in a wide open space of Cache Valley, we were able to see the structure miles in advance.  It was good to see less smoke coming up than what was visible when I was driving to the station, but it can be a hollow victory.

It really doesn't matter who's home it is, a fire in a a home is a terrible thing, but I believe it's a bit harder to take as a firefighter if you  know the owners.

To realize who's home it was, and that they had within the last 4-5 months finished it's construction and went from living a couple of blocks away from us in Newton to this new home in Petersboro, was one of those moments in firefighting that you don't want to experience.

Our part of the response was short lived.  Discovering a fire before it is too far advanced is always helpful, and coupled with the automatic aid agreements between the valley fire departments, the quick response saved a lot of the house and hopefully it will be as easy as possible to return it to its former condition as quick as possible.

Is This Alzheimers?

I'm sitting here intending to describe thoughts and events of the last 4 days.  My hands are hovering over the keyboard waiting for that sweet recollection.  I'm still waiting ....  still waiting ....

I honestly can't remember too much about what has happened until today.  Man, this is bad, but maybe it will come back to me.

Today was good though, as far as I can remember ....  The Aggies won in Las Cruces, another game tomorrow.  Work was okay today, lots to do to keep busy - but not too much.  I didn't mind the rain too much, it didn't affect what I did.

It's our daughters birthday today, we had family over to celebrate with her.  Presents and cake and ice cream.  She is 8 years old today.  Now I do feel old and maybe that explains my lack of memory function.  Okay, I'm not that old but it feels like it.

Oh, some good news, the hydrant I've mentioned before, it's not frozen anymore!  No more using hoses to water the cows, no more draining hoses after each use.  It's the best thing since sliced bread!

Last night was fire training meeting.  I teach, so I spend time that day cramming for the topic I want to instruct.  Because of the recent earthquake in Nevada I chose earthquake response as my topic.  Reading up on the situation in Wells and imagining the potential for injury and damage in a much more populated as Northern Utah does not create warm fuzzy feelings.  I just hope we don't have a significant earthquake occur in our area.

There was a moment of stress today.  Our new engine needed to be in Salt Lake City today for final inspection at the dealer who spec'd and ordered it from the factory for us.  I got a call about 12:30, from the firefighters who had taken in down, telling me that there were several things to be done and it was not going to come home tonight, so can you get someone to come take us home ....?

Luck was on our side and the dealer finally freed up someone to bring them back, because my attempts to find someone from our end to make the trip was not going too well and I wasn't going to be able to leave work until about 2:00, and then I would have missed my daughter's birthday party, so yeah for the dealer solving the problem for me!

I still don't remember much about Tuesday or Monday, except that I lived through it because I'm still here, so maybe that's all I need to know.

I guess that means I should take the time each day to log something somewhere or at least re-cap the day in my head so I don't loose chunks of time like this anymore.

Sunday, A Day of Rest

I have been feeling sick since after the funeral Friday.  I have had an extremely painful sore throat.  I have had a headache most of the time.  No other troubling symptoms, but the throat has worried me a bit so I went into Instacare to have it checked.

No strep!  Yeah!  But the sore throat is still a problem.  I decided to stay home from church today, except for an interview I had to attend with wife and daughter and Bishop.

My treatment has been lots of water, sometimes water and a bit of apple cider vinegar mixed in, and ibuprofen for the headache.

Yesterday was a pretty good day, we were low-key as a weekend should be, with good food (a trip with the fam to Sizzler) followed by a very painful (not as bad as the sore throat) stop at a couple of stores.  I hate to shop, by the way.

I logged on to the local radio station to listen online to the Aggie game, was pleased to hear them playing well again, finishing off the season with a 2 win road trip to the land of the potato.

Later today we were scheduled to be at a grandma's across the mountain for a birthday visit.  It was a nice time, conversation and cake and ice cream.  She is 89 years old today.  We hope she is with us a lot longer.

Nothing really heavy to comment on after these last two days, just a chance to rest and try to gear up for the coming week.

Final Call-out

What a beautiful day.  A clear blue sky, and a chance to honor a person that made a difference.

I would hope that everyone could be spoken of in that way -he/she made a difference.

Today friends and family gathered together to honor and remember one person who was a strength to those around him.

There were stories told that many hadn't heard before, and many others remembered their experiences with this friend privately.

There's something about the sound of the siren that sits on top of our station and is activated every time we are asked to respond.

In my younger years it was an ominous feeling when it's tones cut through the stillness of the night, or interrupted your thoughts mid-day to ponder what was requiring action from the fire department.

The lonesome tones cycling up and down in pitch would send chills through me, and now that I am one of those who set life aside to answer it's beckoning call, it has no less of a hold on my emotions.

A final call-out was issued over the counties fire department radios at 1:50 PM, March 7, 2008.

As the pager finished it's alert sequence, and the dispatcher finished his requested words, all was silent except for the lonesome rise and fall of the town's siren reaching the hearts of everyone in attendance at the service.

Those who had pondered the life presented to them over the last hour and three quarters felt emotions rise up anew during the short tribute to our former chief of department.

It was our privilege as a fire department to carry our former chief to his final resting place on the back of our fire engine.  Joined by our brothers of the ATK Fire Department, we placed the casket on the engine and drove under an arch prepared by the valley's truck companies, on the way to the cemetery.

Yes it was a sad day too, but it was a beautiful day to remember a life who made others feel better by knowing him.

Glad it's Not That Cold

I might be complaining about the cold, but I guess it's not too bad here, compared to this photo.

Taken in New York in the 70's after a fire, this engine company now has to figure out how to de-frost to get back to their house.

There have been some really cold days and nights to be on a fire in Cache County, but luckily no vehicles were frozen up this bad.

There was a moment of concern on a fire in Clarkston back in my younger days, when my breathing air regulator froze up while inside the house and left me scrambling to get outside and get my mask off. And that was in the daytime .... The pump on our engine needed some time to thaw out in the station, as did the firefighters.

Then there was that middle-of-the-winter, middle-of-the-night in Amalga at a haystack fire; or that middle-of-the-winter, middle-of-the-night in Petersboro at a house fire; or that other time .....

Working Together to Make Things Better

After work tonight I was able to be at the cemetery to help prepare for the digging of a grave and the arrival of family and friends for the graveside ceremony.

For the time of year it is, there's still an amazing amount of snow on the ground.  With shovels and snow blowers it was pretty easy to find the hidden headstones and make enough room for the backhoe to get to the right plot.

It's a great thing when you can make a few phone calls and have a group of people come together to make things better and get the job done in as short an amount of time possible.

 

Obituary of Former Chief Goodsell

NEWTON, Utah — Darrell Victor Goodsell, 76, left this life on March 3, 2008, after a courageous battle with cancer, surrounded by his family in his home.

He was born in Newton, May 21, 1931, to Alfred W. and Edna May Henriksen Goodsell. Darrell grew up in Newton and attended school there in a little two room schoolhouse. He later graduated from North Cache High School. He married his sweetheart, Sarah Jensen from Collinston, on March 30, 1951, in the Logan LDS Temple. Shortly afterwards he enlisted in the Air Corp and was stationed in Olathe Kansas from 1951 to 1952. After the service, he worked 10 years for the railroad and later retired after 30 years from Thiokol Fire Department as one of their crew chiefs. He started his own business, Cache Valley Fire Extinguisher, and operated it for over 30 years. Many business owners will remember his cheerful and friendly disposition.

The community of Newton appreciates all that Darrell has done for their small town. He has served and worked over the years in many capacities. He was honored as their Outstanding Citizen of the Year for 2007. He served on the Newton Volunteer Fire Deptartment for 50 years and was the fire chief for 30. He was known for having a beautiful garden and took great pride in it, always sharing home grown fruits and vegetables with everyone. Darrell will be most remembered for his love of life and the outdoors. He was an avid sportsman and enjoyed baseball, softball, water-skiing and snowmobiling. He loved to hunt and fish. He was a loyal Aggie basketball fan and attended whenever he could.

Darrell has been an active member of the LDS Church all his life. He served and contributed in a variety of ways. He loved his calling as a temple ordinance worker and made many dear friends there.

Darrell is survived by his dear wife Sarah of 57 years; his sons, Jerry (Leona) Goodsell and Lynn (Darlene) Goodsell; his daughters, Jeanette (Brent) Jorgensen and Joanne (Mark) Peterson; 11 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren; and four sisters, Viola Johnson, Fern Greene, Avis McBride and Gwen Dahle. He was preceded in death by his parents and three brothers, Roger, Mervin and Reed.

Many lives have been touched. Many hearts will remember.

Funeral services will be held at 12 p.m. on Friday, March 7, in the Newton Ward Chapel, 90 S. 100 West in Newton. Friends may call from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 6, at the Allen-Hall Mortuary, 34 E. Center in Logan, and prior to the funeral services from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Friday in Newton. Burial will be in the Newton Cemetery. Condolences and thoughts may be expressed to the family online at www.allenmortuaries.net.

We want to give special thanks to family and friends for their love and support, and to Dr. Ali Ben-Jacob and his nursing staff.

The Cows in the Backyard

Of Course this picture is not of the current situation, but it's the best I had of a cow and the backyard in the same photo, so I'll use this one.

My brother raises Red Angus cattle.  This winter and last I have fed out some of the yearlings of the herd.

This winter has been quite a challenge, simply because it's winter, nothing more than that.  The cows are quite well behaved, don't cause trouble, don't try anything fishy - just eat, drink and sleep like good cows should.

The problem this time is that the hydrant at the corral, 100 yards plus from the house, has frozen or otherwise become inoperable.  Reasonable attempts to correct the situation have been fruitless at solving the problem.  Therefore, we resulted to "Plan B".

Plan B has been to run hose from the faucet at the back of the house to the watering trough and fill it once a day.  Problem is, it's cold outside.  Draining the hose is a must, and then for a month or more I would have to take a torch to the faucet because the section sticking out of the house into the cold winter air would freeze up.

This added a lot of time to the nightly efforts of watering , and a bit of aggravation when something wouldn't go right and the hose wasn't drained well enough, and it froze.  That meant a trip to the house with the offending hose for a soak in a warm tub, then back out to the yard to connect and finish the job.

So on it goes.  It's been a bit better this last few weeks because I don't have to use the torch to un-freeze the tap, the warmer afternoons take care of that for me.  It will be really nice when the hydrant out at the corral thaws or is fixed, saving the extra time.

There are some other challenges to the job that I will likely discuss in another post.

There is a bright side to every challenge, my son just loves having the cows with us, he comes out as often as he can and helps me feed them.  I really enjoy the times when he comes out, and that makes it all worthwhile.

Passing of a Former Chief Announced

Earlier this morning the pagers sounded for a medical in the community we protect.

With sadness in our hearts we announce the passing of a retired Chief of Department.

This long-time member, then long time Chief had retired before I joined the fire service in my home town, but his years of service carry on with his sons - one who is a member of a career department as well as a member of our department.

Our badges are covered, we will not forget his many years of service to the community.

Additional information will be posted as appropriate.

A Tale of Two Crashes

It's high time that the snow melted. Personally, I'm tired of it. I am tending part of my brother's yearling aged additions to his Red Angus herd this winter, and it's starting to get old with the weather related hardships. Thats not really what I intend to address in this post, however, so I'll move on.

Notable traffic crashes are on my mind today. I'll tell you why this popped to the front of the line in a paragraph or so, but now I'll take a few minutes to describe one event that this current memory trigger reminded me of. I don't remember the year, but you'll see from the photo below that it was a day somewhere close in calendar proximity to the months we have just lived through.



You may be saying to yourself, that's a pretty handy extrication job those firefighters performed to get that car open and get the patient out, but that's not how it happened.

One morning, as folks often do, they get in their cars and head to work. One individual - afterwards identified as "Person A" traveling to such a destination crossed paths with another person having the same goal of meeting the day at the office on time. Person A was the driver of the car in the photo. Person B and Person A met - quite literally - on the roads of northwestern Cache County that particular morning, in a pretty violent manner. You see, the rip in the car above was not the handy work of the jaws of life, it was the result of a violent collision.

The next thought would be how many died in the crash. Even stranger is the outcome because on arrival both Person A and Person B were walking it off, so to speak, without obvious sign of injury to either. In emergency response lingo the likelihood of injury - based on the type of damage present on the vehicle carrying the patients - is called mechanism of injury. The patients in this crash were transported for a closer evaluation based solely on the type of damage clearly visible here.

All's well that ends well, basically. The insurance companies were left to sort it all out and everyone went on their way just slightly worse for the wear.

Flash forward to February 28, 2008. A differnt "Person A" is stopped on a highway in Cache County, watching the rear flashers of a school bus mark the time. Person B is travelling rapidly along the same road. A third player is present, related to the wintry weather being suffered through by such cow caretakers as myself - fog.

"Person B" doesn't have enough reaction time to apply much if any pressure to the braking device and impacts the rear of Person A's vehicle at a nice clip. Person A's vehicle reacts to the sudden application of physics and travels the 15 or so feet required to reach the rear end of the bus. The bus reacts to the sudden application of physics and becomes an object in motion as well, until the last bit of applied force is used up.

What happens next? An accident report is initiated; law enforcement responds; the school district brings out another bus and takes the children on to school; an engine company from the closest city comes to clean up the spilt fluids. Wait a minute, what about the patients? Well, no ambulance comes to the scene, but both are taken to the hospital privately to deal with the possible results of that pesky mechanism of injury business. Oh, and the other difference is that Person A in this crash is a relative to me.

All's well that ends well, basically. The insurance companies were left to sort it all out and everyone went on their way just slightly worse for the wear. Below are a front and rear end view of Vehicle A.