I've been thinking about starting a Blog for several years now. I don't know how much I have to say, or if what I say will interest anyone who tries to read it. Anyhow, what the heck, here I go. I know that many of you (see, I really think that “many” of you out there will read this) may find my words a bit contrary to the Rah-Rah attitude of several if not a lot of the people who frequent Firefighter Nation (more on that in a later entry). For a time, I used to check in at Firehouse.com and read the message boards there. What a disappointment that was. So far here on FFN, I'm not as disappointed as I was with FH. Let me explain. I had a hard time coping with all of the self proclaimed experts on FH. People would spout their opinion there and pretty much expect others to take their word as Gospel. I don't know those people, they seemed to me to be arrogant, self absorbed, “Adam Henry's”. So after several months of checking in there, I stopped. I deal with enough people like that in my day to day life to want to add more of it each day.


Here for example, I haven't seen that yet. My impression so far is that there are quite a few people who come here to find new friends with common interests, or to ask questions of a widening member base. What I find a bit disappointing here is that the FFN website is a bit clunky. Maybe it's me, maybe it the software they use, but I'm having a heck of a time navigating my way around here. I'm not a Computer Geek by any stretch, but I do know my way around computers and software. I have built numerous computers for myself and many friends. At my Department, I am one of the go to guys if you are having difficulty with your personal or Dept. computers. I can usually fix most problems that crop up on my computer, including but not limited to removal of viruses, trojan horses, adware and malware. I guess to explain it, I like to tinker.



Now for the meaty stuff... For the time being, I'm going to stay sort of incognito, meaning that I'm not quite ready to divulge who I am or who I work for. Don't know if this little experiment is going to pan out. What I will tell you is that what I write here is the truth as far as I know it and may well be either informative or exciting. If you want to know more about me, read my profile on FFN, that is what you get for now. I'm not really trying to get people to flame me, go ahead if you must, I just don't know how this will play out.



My name, alias, ID or whatever you want to call it is Almost Gone. It thoroughly explains me. I have over 30 years on my Department. I am seriously considering retirement in just over one year from now. I may stay for up to three more, but I'm leaning towards the year. I work for a medium/large sized Department, about 350 full time (Union) employees. I started my Career in a training type of position, very little pay, but great experience. I gave myself a year to get a job or just take the experience and keep on trying because the pay didn't pay the bills.
I was lucky enough to get offered a FT job about 11 ½ months later. I was extremely happy and a bit surprised since right at that time, the dreaded Proposition 13 came into effect in California. There were prophecies of doom and gloom, of layoffs and hiring freezes all over the state. But through it all, I along with several other guys got hired. I was a Firefighter for about 3 ½ years and was able to promote to Engineer. About 18 months later, I promoted to Captain.

I've been a Captain for 23+ years now. I've been involved in the past with our Local Fire Academy. Taught Auto X, Ventilation, RIC, Fire Control 3, Fire Control 4, Search and Rescue and Salvage & Overhaul. I've sat on numerous Oral Boards for different ranks, developed an Engineer Exam that was used for several years, taught at our Department based academy. I've taken just about every State Fire Marshall class that they offer. I've sat on several Departmental Committee's over the years too.


About two years ago, I pretty much stopped the extra curricular activities. You see, my wife and I raised 6 kids. The first four grew up with me being at work a lot of the time. Although I have good relationships with them all, I wish I would have spent more time being with them as they grew up. With the two younger ones I've been around a lot more and feel like I know them better than my older kids.
My wife and I have 6 grandkids too.


For now, I think that is about as much as I can say since my head hurts trying to think so much. In the future I'm not sure exactly what I'll write about, maybe some old war stories, that might be the ticket.



AG