Siftings
Sep
14
Blessings Large and Small
“Ready Buddy?”, Chief Cam asks. Quick nod and a smile comes the reply. But we’re not on a fireground, or about to deliver a budget presentation. It is predator vs. leather orb prey in our native habitat; a ball diamond. So the nod and smile comes right before the infield pre-pitch ritual of...
Sep
10
By Dawn’s Early Light
I do not know how many funerals are happening in Milwaukee today, but I know there is one. I’ll get to that one in just a bit, but let me tell you how I know, first.
Poynette is not a big village, and we don’t have a big staff. So everyone’s bucket of things to do overflows from time to time...
Sep
08
Dappled
I write some of these things so I don’t forget them. I write some of these things to get stuff straight in my head. I write all of this stuff for my own bemusement or solace, to keep it handy in one place, and to clear space in my head for other stuff to straighten out.
There’s been a bunch...
Aug
26
Linus at the Tablesaw
The house burned down. The previous house, that is. On the lot where our new house is becoming a home, an old house caught fire. I’ve expended some effort to learn the cause and find a picture of the old home, to no success. Some things get lost to history, I suppose.
What was not lost to...
Aug
08
Marine Biology
This ain’t so bad.
Last time I was standing on top of a ladder, it was forty feet in the air, rescuing a kitten who was fifty something feet up a tree blowing around in the wind. Not a math major, but fifty something minus forty equals something more than my height. So there was some … um …...
Jul
17
Guess I Must Be Having Fun
Write with a smile. Somewhere close by in this tangled garden of narrative those four words are strung together as a guidepost. In “53 Things I’ve Learned”, “Write with a smile” lives one drifting thought before “Life is too short for light beer, lame cars or hard feelings” and four after...
Jul
13
Ride of the Velcroed
If it’s winter toss the jacket, if it’s summer drop the pants after you kick the shoes off. Drop keys wallet and phone in rescue helmet on locker. If winter, add sock layer and maybe vest. Grab boots pants suspender combo from bottom of locker and place on floor. Insert legs. Don’t fall. Pull...
Jun
23
The Narrowing
Facing backwards like a real firefighter, I ask Captain 2 Brandon, “So, where do you see yourself in ten years?”. It was a small joke and he said something about normally being asked about five years into the future, or something like that. I’m not really sure of his exact response because the...
Jun
22
Cooling Off
My pants are a terrarium. It is ninety-something degrees outside and the pager goes off. Barefoot, shorts and t-shirt at the house and there’s no point in wasting time with haberdashery on the way to the Jeep. Drop the shorts at my locker, toss some socks on and jump into the boots/pants...
May
22
Easy Question
Putting out fires is corporate speak for devoting time to problems that need to be dealt with quickly, instead of working in a calm, planned way. So says Google.
How much of my life is a metaphor is open to speculation, but I did spend nearly fourteen years at a time bomb factory. Problem...
