Siftings
Mar
27
Couldn’t Not
I was once not embarrassed by something I wrote. There is a sentence in the Prairie Crossing Charter School chartering document -- dated July 4, 1998 -- that ends, “Prairie Crossing students will subtly but profoundly come to appreciate a very special place; the natural landscape of their youth.” ...
Mar
16
Loopy
Something’s been bugging me, so I did some spelunking. Not the traditional caving, because confined spaces and bats creep me out and I can never remember which ones are stalactites and which ones are stalagmites.
If spelunking is, “exploring wild, non-commercial caves, often involving...
Mar
10
IDLH
The Chief asks a question as we pass in the yard on his way to the house. I take the question to be rhetorical in nature but, just to be sure, I give him my best “I dunno” look. Not a great look, for a quite excellent question – how was there fire on both floors?
There’s a longer answer above...
Feb
05
Ink
I don’t hunt.
I don’t have a pickup truck.
I don’t have a mustache.
I don’t have a tattoo. Or several.
How I am a Wisconsin firefighter is anyone’s guess.
Some of my failures to conform are philosophical. Some practical. Some merely convenience.
Because I was put on Team Mammal,...
Jan
27
Slippery Slopes
Of all the icy slopes I have ascended, this one hardly registers as a slope. No crampons or ice axe needed. No pickets, no jumar, no rope. This is just a driveway.
But it is a long, sloping driveway at night, with ice and snow, running down to a house on the lake. A man in the lake house...
Jan
04
O Six Hundred
Six in the morning, Sunday. There are 180 gradations on the Fahrenheit O’meter between water being a solid, liquid or vapor. Apparently, it takes only one of the water is a solid degrees for a collection of state and local officials to muster for a firefighting rite of passage.
Firefighter One...
Dec
29
None Too Slick
Schroeckenthal (sp?). “Shrek”, for short. Captain 2 Zach’s nickname. But Schroeckenthal, in full, on the “butt tag”. Butt tags are the last name tag that hangs off the bottom of the back of a firefighter’s jacket. In theory, they are there so you know who is in front of you at a fire. So you...
Dec
09
Beasts of Burden
Uh-oh. I just had a negative thought about the fire department. Let me sit down and try to figure this out. Is it about somebody at the fire department? No. Is it about something at the fire department? Well, no (the radio thing seems to be moving in the right direction). Is it about the...
Dec
02
One Year, One Gross
The messes I make just pile atop each other. First winter storm warning of the year arrived on Saturday. Knew it was heading our way the day before so I stuffed a Christmas tree sized somewhere between reasonable and ridiculous into the back of the Jeep and lugged it onto the back porch to keep...
Nov
29
Winter Storm Watch Viewing
Viewing recommendation for staying inside on a snowy day:
#1 - This guy's Lake Superior Youtube channel.
Which reminds me, Maiden is a great documentary about the first all women crew in the Whitbread race.
Also ... just go outside and have fun in the snow.
