Siftings
Apr
21
No Mosh
The Balcony. An architectural device to elevate views, a capitalist trick to squeeze more money out of a performance venue and the name of Catfish and the Bottlemen’s first album. Also, an organizing principle, hammered into our heads at the Kennedy School. “Get off the dance floor. Get on the...
Apr
11
Dennis Goes For A Ride
Big feet = big boots. Sometimes, too big.
The air horn for Engine 33 is controlled by a foot switch on the officers’ side of the rig. There is a whole bevy of foot switches to make different sirens do different things. As is typical, there is a reason for what is basically a piano of really...
Apr
05
the f word, quietly
Well, that careened into the ditch faster than Harry Nelson yanking the wheel.
Remember in “Part 1” where I was working on a Firefighter of the Quarter Nomination for (great guy) Troy in my head and then figured out something while driving through Gilroy and (another great guy) Alan won...
Mar
25
t’ = t / √(1 - (v²/c²))
I missed a thousand dinners with the family while working for Davenport. Or, thereabouts, as I did not precisely keep count. Nobody kept count, in a counting sort of way. But I was gone, doing something for the City, and there were conversations, and jokes and things to work through at the...
Feb
25
Slipping?
So I had this idea to make the stairs into the basement open on one side because, um, architecture is cool. Building Inspector Ken put the kibosh on such coolness because, um, building code. Or some such thing. So I went with a dazzlingly beautiful hand-crafted handrail instead.
Drive to up to...
Feb
14
Swoonage
sideways Renaults, tossable Toyotas, flying Puegots, (cheating) Audi Quattros and unspeakably sexy Lancia 037s ...
with some sultry 80s Blondie (Rest in Rhythm Clem Burke)
the greatest four minutes of video I have ever seen - or you will ever see
Feb
11
Seaside In The Rearview
Week before last, I’m at Poynette Village Hall after dinner, doing some work. The fire pager goes off and the run begins. The old Public Works pickup truck which sits in the Village Hall parking lot for just this purpose awaits my arrival. It is below zero so the summertime tearing the work...
Dec
20
Part II
“Is that illegal?”, my newest friend asks. “No”, I reply, “it’s just ridiculous and unprecedented”. My newest friend is several rows ahead of me at the moment as we bounce along at 500+ knots over the Rockies, on our way to SJC. I’ll never see my newest friend again, but he was standing next to...
Dec
06
Part I
Wisdom creeps up on you. Or, more likely, it’s apparent to everyone but me. We (Troy, Jason, James and me) are heading back to the station in Engine 33 from a nighttime Med Flight LZ. Troy’s at the wheel, Jason’s in the officer seat and me and James are in back. It’s dark and cold and Troy and...
Nov
14
The Things We Carry
with homage to Tim O’Brien
“Anybody see anything they didn’t want to see?”, Captain 2 asks on the cold ride back to the station. It’s an opening for discussion, but there’s not much offered. A dozen or so firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, doctors and a helo pilot did all we could for a man...
