quote of the day

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.
--Omar N. Bradley, General of the Army, U.S., 1893-1981

Here comes Marley 

Hunter loves the snow 

down he goes 

at the mailbox 

This is what we woke up to this morning. 18 degrees with a wind chill factor of 3. 

The snow doesn't seem to bother the mule. 

retirement quote

Dorothy's reading a book by Fannie Flagg called Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!, and she read me a paragraph or two that she thought I might like. I thought it was blogworthy so I'm quoting it here: --- 'As they walked Dena asked what it was like for him now that he was retired. He laughed. "Each morning I wake up so stiff and arthritic I can hardly get out of bed. I go into the bathroom and look in the mirror at what used to be a pretty passable mug and what stares back at me is this gray-haired, old, turkey-necked, geezer and it's pretty depressing. But then I think, Howard, old boy, today you can say any damn thing you want...and that puts a spring back in my step, I'll tell you. That's what I wish for everybody, that they get old enough not to have to please anyone, and ornery enough to thumb their noses at all the idiots in the world. It's worth getting old. I recommend it to everybody."
"You look about ten years younger."
"I don't know about that but I can tell you this, I feel better than I have for a long time."
"Do you ever miss it at all?"
"No, strangely enough, I don't. Not a minute of it. As a matter of fact, I wish I had stopped years ago. I'm just beginning to realize how much of life I missed."

i long for the porch swing

Every time I go out the door I look over at the porch swing and remember the plans I made to spend a lot of time there watching the cars go by after my retirement. There's a hammock in the front yard that goes unused. I spent some precious time in it in the days following my escape from the work world, but I seem to be getting busier as time goes by.
I thought it would be fun to join the volunteer fire department. You know, go to a fire once in awhile, red lights and siren, adrenaline flowing. Great fun. Well, I was elected secretary for the department. (someone told them about my expertise, such as it is, with the computer) And now I have a job again. The department is building an office for me and buying a computer for me to use. My job is to compile run reports for each incident we respond to, bill insurance companies, keep records of training, and get us compliant with the fire incident reporting system by September of this year. I designed a website for the department and I'm keeping it current. So I think about the porch swing, and then I think about the workload I just took on. Well, I do get to ride in a fire truck, and wear a great looking helmet. (We were just issued lights to attach to them, neato!)

Firemen get to wear cool hats. 

hogwild review

My daughter Rachel emailed me this link to the review given the Hogwild Pizzeria by LunchTour.com. It's an amusing read. Fortunately they liked the pizza. Read: http://www.lunchtour.com/wp/

quote of the day

It is only by following your deepest instinct that you can lead a rich life, and if you let your fear of consequence prevent you from following your deepest instinct, then your life will be safe, expedient and thin.
-- Katharine Butler Hathaway

worn out

I'm still tired from the fire Monday night. We were called to the same location this morning to apply some water to some still smouldering ashes. This is the crew I respond with.

another fire call

At 2:30 yesterday afternoon I was paged to a structure fire about 5 miles away. I grabbed my gear and drove to the fire station. I arrived just as two firemen were pulling away in a truck. They motioned for me to get the other truck. I raised the vertical door and started to get into the truck and the door came down. I repeated that several times until the door finally stayed up. (It was beginning to resemble an episode from the Keystone Cops) By that time another firefighter arrived; I let him drive. When we arrived at the fire the back of the house was fully involved in flames. Eight fire trucks responded from three communities. I took a turn with a hose until I was relieved. I kept the hoses pulled around so the hose man didn't have to expend too much energy pulling the hose himself. It's a real work out just to move around in those fire suits. We kept the fire contained but just couldn't suppress it totally. We were still on the scene at 7:00 when Dorothy showed up with sandwiches, coffee, and bottled water. That was a lifesaver. I finally got home at 9:15. I'm exhausted today, not only from the exertion, but probably from the presence of carbon monoxide in the blood. I hung my suit on the fence to wash it, not only because it was dirty, but I had left the pants on the porch over night and the cats peed on it.

I had to give this suit a good scrubbing