Awards and Rewards

As some of you have noticed I have not posted in quite some time....been really busy. One of my projects have finally paid off. I got a congressional call last week congratulating me for the successful award of $208,000 minus our 5% match for a new firetruck at Central City. Some don't know that I am the fire chief at this small town and I don't advertise a lot. It was a weight lifted off my shoulders knowing after delivery this apparatus the dept. can better protect the citizens of the area. Central currently runs a 1974 Hahn pumper that was worn out when they acquired it in 1989. This truck is the worst piece of machinery I have even driven and I have driven some real crap!! Our new truck will be a 2008 Freightliner M2 4 door built by Rosenberg America. It will tote 1,000 gallons of water along with a Class A foam system which greatly enhances waters extinguishing abilities. It will have scene light for night operations along with 911 seats that allow us to dismount the apparatus with air tanks already on our backs. Full LED emergency lighting, air conditioning, numerous safety features, and an electronic pump control. A real nice piece!! The ability to bring this to the city for a price of $10,400 is remarkable at minimum.
Also to note is that we will soon also be funded for eight new Scott AP50 self contained breathing apparatus(SCBA), 8 spare bottles, and a RIT (rapid intervention team) pack for rescuing our own downed(pray this doesn't happen)personnel. These SCBA's provide us clean breathing air while in a fire or other environmentally hazardous environment. We specified 4500 lb 45-minute composite bottles for less weight and longer working times. At the current time we have a mixture of two different types of SCBA that operate differently...not something that's great when you need to be working off muscle memory in high stress situations. This grant was in the neighborhood of $55,000 dollars minus the 5% match also.
The dept will be beating on doors asking for donations in the future so don't shut us down!! Our begging directly protects you....the citizen.
Stress slightly off and gearing up for our Vegas vacation the first week of December....hope the chips fall in my direction once again.

Stocked Up

I know its been a while since we have posted, but we've been quite busy as usual. The aquarium is going well. I'll give a list of our livestock. Yellow tang, clownfish, scooter bleeny, flame angel, tuxedo urchin, snails, crabs, fire blood shrimp, serpent stars, and a new anemone. I had a seabae anemone at first but I failed to protect him from my heater. I didn't konw at that point anemones dont have pain receptors. Needless to say, he got cooked. A twenty dollar mistake! I'll post a few pics.....its hard to get quality aquarium pics. The next step is to add a few mushroom and polyp corals and see what happens. Stay tuned.....

Chaffee Sucks

As many of you know starting last Saturday Ft Chaffee was used to house evacuees from Hurricane Gustav. I believe a little over 2,000 people were housed and fed. Word on the street is that Ike is on the way and hes pissed!!! We were told to prepare for round 2 next week. Our EMS resources are taxed and staff is worn out! Ya see there are14 medics and we still have our regular 40 hour shift and most of us have part time jobs also. Ft Smith EMS has helped some but not to a great extent. It got bad enough were Central EMS from Washington county was sent for assistance. Lets not forget that I also reserve for Sebastian County Sheriffs Office and worked that scene also. I think I had close to 40 hours in at Chaffee not to mention regular hours.
Most of you know I have helped strangers most of my adult life in one form or another. I'm gonna lay it out and say I hope I never have to see another evacuee from New Orleans for the rest of my life. Now I have stereotypes as much as the next guy but this is the truth. The majority of the folks out there were trash. They complained from the time they stepped off the buses and planes till they were sent home. These were the rudest, most expecting people I have ever seen. Wal-Mart was plagued with shoplifters that expected FEMA to pay for anything they wanted. Folks were trying to walk out holding items that were unpaid for saying, "Charge it to FEMA". The barracks were trashed with litter and occasional human feces. I guess the bathroom was too far away? They tried to steal food from the mess halls and then complained of the menu. I had a lady tell me she was being treated like she was in jail, I responded with, "We can make that happen." Then I reminded her she could have stayed home and swam up here. I just don't understand the mentality. I don't just expect someone to provide for me after I have chosen to return to a part of the world that not even supposed to be above the water line on a normal day. Did these folks not remember Katrina? I feel like everyone from the community should have experienced the folks that were sent in and been able to judge for their selves. Now just as three years ago our community will be laden with those that didn't want to go back that in turn expect handouts as we sit back and see an increase in crime! I urge anyone that experienced what they feel was a bad thing to contact the governors office and demand action. Why is it that FL or a number of other coastal states have never had to be evacuated with FEMA's help or caused chaos?? Hum....

Don't get me wrong I met some very nice folks. Most were appreciative too. Bad apples make for a bad group!!

Up, up and hopefully going well....

Well, the tank is up and running and as of today seems to almost be done with its cycle. No not like a woman....ha ha ha. When a tank is set up new it must have time to establish the bacteria that break down fish waste. This is usually accomplished by the addition of live rock or a chap fish that one could care less if it dies. I used live rock and today added a clown fish. So far so good, its even eating on day one!! Sometimes fish can be finicky about eating first off so this is a good sign. I will re-check levels tomorrow and then if everything is going well I may take a trip to Worlds of Water in Johnson and stock up on the livestock. I just don't want to spend a Franklin to find my colorful fish tits up in the morn'. I'm already looking at adding a sump to clean up the look overall and adding water capacity. As water capacity increases the ability of water chemistry to swing either way diminishes. That's good. We added some crabs and snails a few weeks ago and even scored a Turbo Snail that has some Feather dusters on its shell. Feather dusters are a tube worm that uses its fan-like fingers to filter food from the water. We haven't really sat down and established a list of what livestock we want but I know it will take a while to find out who can live with who and who wont eat who. Part of the fun.

Gotta love the UPS man

I looked like a kid on Christmas morning yesterday afternoon. UPS showed up with a large quantity of my equipment needed for the saltwater setup. I'm convinced that the UPS mechanics make the brakes squeal on the trucks so that people come running to the door. I can tell when the UPS guy is a block away, but I'm an impatient person. Adding the tracking feature to packages was the worst thing for me. I have a hard time leaving the living room for fear I will miss the delivery when the computer shows my items out for delivery.

Anyways, I will be working on the rest of the canopy and assembling all the pumps and filter today. No work all day today!!!! This is a first in a while for me!

Saltwater Trials

A good friend of ours gave us a 55 gallon aquarium due to Amy's interest in doing a saltwater aquarium. I'm convinced at this point Jeff gave us a large tank that would be better named the money pit. I bet I could fill this thing with loose change and come out cheaper than the overall cost of our "project". Lucky me, I possess some woodworking skills and took on the task of building my own tanks stand and canopy. Not only am I saving a lot of money but there's a little satisfaction when you build something yourself. I am having to hire out the process of building the doors for the cabinet due to the fact that I don't have a shaper. If anyone wants Christmas ideas.....there ya go. A shaper and set of raised panel door bits. At this point I have ordered just about everything we need minus livestock and liverock. Liverock will be the next large investment and the turning point where the tank comes alive! I'll post a few pictures from the beginning to the end.