I knew we were doing a live burn training at the Tower last night, but my participation (and that of my other fellow probies) was in question until our Chief reviewed our SCBA hours....



Close, but no cigar. Red Tag City.



Anticipating an evening of basically sitting on my can at the side of the truck and watching the rest of the guys have all the fun, I took a shower and got ready to head out . My friend said before I left "Why are you taking a shower before drill? "… Continue

I don't consider myself a particularly "girly" girl.....If you see me at a party, nine times out of ten, you'll find me with the guys, shooting pool or playing darts, and telling stories and jokes. You will NOT find me in the kitchen with the catty chicks, who seem to derive some form of pleasure from ripping other women to shreds behind their backs. I've never understood how that's supposed to be "fun".



I don't particularly like to shop, unless I need something specific. If I need… Continue

It hasn't been a good day for some of our patients and survivors...



One of my fellow board members on the Board of Directors for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has a young son named Ben.



Ben's been fighting the good fight for over a year, and seemed to be doing better. but we found out today that his osteosarcoma (essentially bone cancer) has metastasized--meaning it's spreading. Osteosarcoma has one of the lowest survival rates for pediatric cancer. The news is worse… Continue

New Living Will Form







I, __________________________, being of sound mind and body, do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means. Under no circumstances should my fate be put in the hands of pinhead partisan politicians who couldn't pass ninth-grade biology if their lives depended on it or lawyers/doctors/hospitals interested in simply running up the bills.

If a reasonable amount of time passes and I fail to ask for at least one of the… Continue

This isn't going to be one of my longer ramblings......not that I COULDN'T bore you to tears with 20 paragraphs about what I had for breakfast today... and one of these days I just might, but this is just an equipment quickie today. (However.....I was contemplating some grapefruit and a bowl of---oh never mind. )



In a stunning turn of events, I was selected, along with nine other members of my department, to be fitted for brand-spankin new turnout gear!! I'm not sure how or why I… Continue

We had drill this week that I knew was coming down the pike from our disgruntled Chief (if someone's disgruntled, then why isn't "gruntled" a word too?) . We had a drill two weeks ago with an outdoor live burn that didn't go as hoped. The hydrant tapping process was, for lack of a better word, complete and utter chaos. As our chief stated at the end of the training drill..."If this had been an actual fire, we'd be doing nothing but raking up ashes, and I'd be turning in my white helmet out of… Continue

We had our group run yesterday (Saturday)10 miles, which is the second to longest run in the prep for the half marathon. After next weekend (which I have to run by myself again because I have to work yet another Saturday for FASNY) we start the "taper" process; meaning that we start scaling back the mileage so that everyone is rested, uninjured (with me? You never know....four years ago I almost knocked myself out of my first half-marathon after I fell down a flight of stairs at work. I know… Continue