Yesterday I encountered that feared vision known throughout all computerdom, the Blue Screen of Death. I will not be posting blogs as regularly for a few days while I decipher the needs of my "ruggedized" Task Force-issued Panasonic Toughbook CF-29, which is the third I have been through. These are neither rugged nor tough and to be honest, for the amount of money we spent on them, we would have been better off buying three or four cheaper laptops that are not ruggedized and just replacing…

As popular as the Firefighter Nation has become, it is still only around 14,000 people out of the million plus firefighters in the United States, not to mention the rest of our brothers across the globe. The 12k who have signed on here are but a scratch on the surface of a bigger universe; they are the responders who have access to computers and choose to spend some time looking around to see what they can see, logging in daily or weekly (or every ten minutes) to share some insight on their…

I took some time off this week to head to Atlanta with the family; my wife had work to do and I got to spend some time with my daughters. While there, I got a chance to go to the new World of Coke museum, the Georgia Aquarium, and the Children's Museum which were all within walking distance of where we were staying, downtown right off of Centennial Park.

With so much in the way of excellent venues being so close together, I had the opportunity to realize that this area in downtown…

In a departure from my normal blog where I make observations on leadership, the human condition (?), or just the things I find amusing, I wanted to share a news article about a group of which I am very proud, our regional US&R response team. Some members of the team are also loyal Nation participants and I wanted to publicly declare my congratualtions for a job well done.

In South Carolina we have one…

Although I have been the Deputy Director of our state US&R task force and had chief's rank in different capacities before, today I donned the Christmas gift from my wife and children, a brand-new white N6A, marking my new career as a Chief Fire Officer. Last night, a bunch of us gathered at Reilly's, a little pub on the Island's north end, to talk about our future and celebrate our past. Jeff, who has been my friend and brother firefighter for over 24 years, was one of the groomsmen at…

In these days between Christmas and New Years, nothing ever seems to get done. The day after Christmas in Canada (and Ireland and England, I think) is St. Stephen's Day or Boxing Day and I have heard it's the day on which everyone boxes up the stuff they got and tries to find a home for it somewhere among the already cluttered existence they already enjoy. I had to work on St. Stephen's/Boxing Day this year, and in anticipation of the changes coming up for me in a shift transfer associated…

Just wanted to wish everyone on the Nation a Merry Christmas and hope your holiday is blessed and peaceful. Although I worked the Christmas shift each year for the first part of my career, thanks to the grace of good planning and seniority, I get to spend the holidays with my favorite Christmas presents these days: my beautiful wife and daughters.…

In a moment of weakness, a non-firefighting blog entry, or at least it's not pure firefighting stuff in the sense of the word. But I digress- I'm standing in my kitchen, watching Caroline and Honora share Shepherd's Pie back and forth across the table (definitely not desired behavior) and glaring at the Christmas lights I have strung from the kitchen to the dining room and across to the living room.

I'm not one to ascribe to conspiracy theories, but it definitely seems as if each of…

Or at least that's what I'm hoping for. It is, after all, the off-season around these parts and subject to the occasional night with no calls. I chose to work a double for the last minute overtime, because there's nothing like 24 more hours of time-and-a-half on a Captain/Paramedic salary to make Christmas bill paying that much more cheery this year. And since this now officially appears to be my last year of OT eligibility, it's a little bittersweet. Because, for those of you who actually…

Well, after several weeks of testing and being assessed and held under a magnifying glass, I await the results of our Battalion Chief's promotional list, which will identify who our next two BCs will be, as two of ours retire after the first of the year.

I have been a Captain in our department for 18 years, having not taken the option to do some other things because I loved the job so much. I mean, how many guys you know get to run around with dedicated "steely eyed killers" from…

I spent a great deal of time constructing an intelligent post to a forum thread to find it had been closed to discussion, so I decided to post it on my blog. The whole vollie vs. career thing has just got to end. The fire service in this nation will continue to spin on its collective axis forever and there will never be resolution to this question, so why even ask it? In regard to the thread in question, I haven't seen any post regarding South Carolina and getting rid of vollies, so I don't…

Especially after FirefighterNation picked up 5K, it seems like there are all kinds of interesting people on here. It won't be long before we are celebrating 10K. I mean, there's a ton of people who haven't found there way here yet and the whole network provides a way to share ideas and stuff in ways never possible when I first became a firefighter. The hard part is balancing the act of checking in on the Nation vs. making sure I check my e-mails (and answering them), finishing that paper I…

Anyone who has ever had to do a research paper for the Executive Fire Officer program knows the feeling (or any paper with a strict time limit, for that matter). You EFOites know the drill: Month 1- leave class with all intentions of saving the world; Month 2- finished lit review, all is well!; Month 3- stuff came up at work, need to get the budget finished, I've got some time left...Month 4- more stuff, I can get this done in a few days; Month 5- okay, I need to buckle down. Then, several…

Two of my three daughters started back to school yesterday, which leaves me alone for at least the morning hours with the youngest, Honora (she's 15 months old). Emma, my oldest, said to me that I must be sad because I don't go back to school anymore. Of course I told her, I go to school now just as much as I used to, but I didn't want to say, not everyone I work with does though. When you get to be the chief, do you keep going back to school? When you're the Director of the Task Force, have…

...I figured it's time to fan the old flames of apathy again. Here we sit, years again after another disaster, and have we learned our lessons? All of the complaining about how the fire service isn't taken seriously enough and where am I gonna get funding and all that. How much has changed since the last little fit thrown by Mother Nature and what have we learned? We got a great best-seller in Hurricane Katrina Lessons…

I took the week off from work (both the department and the task force) just to spend some time at home and take the kids to the beach. Going to the beach from my house involves loading up my folding cart and a half-ton of crap (my needs are in the cooler, but I have a wife and three girls, so picture the load), and walking about two blocks. Our home has been here at the beach for over ten years now and yet my only visit to the ocean's edge would be on Memorial Day Weekend and on Labor Day…

This whole FirefighterNation thing is pretty intriguing. The network forming already is phenomenal. I was early to the party but late for the initial opening of the whole Firehouse Forums and couldn't believe the unbelievable response to that. I think Dave may have hit another homer here with the numbers of people coming in already. The whole social side was really what seemed to drive the forums, even though there were quite a number of us that were really in it from the beginning to get…

We just got back from another activated alarm. My tillerman tells me it is too hot back in the box, but I would have no idea as the rest of us are sitting in the relative comfort of our poooorly air conditioned cab (like all those o's?). Of course, I have my turnouts on, but at least I had the foresight to leave my gear under the HVAC vent in the station, so it stays cool for about 20 minutes, which is what it should take to go out, get staged, and get turned around (AGAIN).…