Kids these days...

 If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their
tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were
growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every
morning.... Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH ways… yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no
way I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about
how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!
But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but
look around and notice the youth of today.  You've got it soooo
easy!  I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a  Utopia!
And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good
you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet.  If we
wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it
up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!!  We had to actually write somebody a letter -
with a pen!   Then you had to walk all the way across the street
and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get
there!  Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us.  As
a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had
permission to kick my butt! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes!  If you wanted to steal
music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it
yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and
the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and mess it all up!
There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car..  We'd
play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the
tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's
how we rolled, Baby!  Dig?

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting!  If you were on the
phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the
house, you just didn't make a call or receive one. You actually
had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOSH !!!  Think
of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!!  And then
there's TEXTING.  Yeah, right.  Please!  You kids have no idea how
annoying you are.

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang,
you had no idea who it was!  It could be your school, your
parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection
agent... you just didn't know!!!  You had to pick it up and take
your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-
resolution 3-D graphics!  We had the Atari 2600!  With games like
'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'.  Your screen guy was a little
square!  You actually had to use your imagination!!!  And there
were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen...
Forever!  And you could never win.  The game just kept getting
harder and harder and faster and faster until you died!  Just like
LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what
was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing!  You had
to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the
channel!!!  NO REMOTES!!!  Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons
on Saturday Morning.  Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait
ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!

And we didn't have microwaves.  If we wanted to heat something up,
we had to use the stove!  Imagine that!
And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long.
Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort.  And if you came
back inside... you were doing chores!
And car seats - oh, please!   Mom threw you in the back seat and
you hung on.  If you were luckily, you got the "safety arm" across
the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if
your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling
"shot gun" in the first place!
See!  That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have
got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten!  You guys wouldn't have
lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!

Happy New What?

Wow, another year bytes the dust and we are off to a rapid start to this new odd year. 2009 should be an interesting year for me. It will be the year of the professional exams as I plan to take both of my professional engineering exams, a feat that I am not really looking forward to but a hurdle that I am looking forward to sailing over. It will be nice to add, or change, some letters at the end of my name this year so that will be good to have the official title to go along with all my hard work in past years. Outside the professional accomplishments, I am planning on spending some time away from the house and enjoying life a little more than I have in the past couple of years with the nose stuck between the pages of text books.

I would like to announce that I plan on blogging as much in 2009 as I did in 2008 but I am not sure if the busy schedule will allow such luxuries, but I will do my best to attempt such feats. Along with the grand visions of professional certification I am going to attempt to push my range of comfortable precision shooting out an additional 200 yards, perfect my ability to sound like a wounded rabbit, communicate with the howling creatures that hunt at night and enjoy large quantities of the fresh glacial air caused by global warming, all before socialism becomes the new order of the oval office. This is the year of the Annual Guy trip, so planning is underway for where, when and how long; check back in the late spring to see where we went and to enjoy the pictures of the trip.

I have not really made any New Years Resolutions for 2009, since my ability to maintain NYR only exists during even years. But I do have grand illusions of what I would like to accomplish in 2009 so hopefully that will happen and I will have the endurance required.

All in all, this odd year should make for an interesting year and should appear to be one of the shortest years of my life to date. Hope you all survived the ol' year and welcome to the New...

Is it that time already?

Wow, I know completely slacking over here.

First off, Merry Christmas to all my blog readers, especially those who have kept checking back hoping for a new post.I have been real busy lately working and have lost the free time that I once had to pound away at this lonely keyboard and send such interesting tidbits everyone's way. I can't promise things will get much better in the immediate future, but once I get this computer network upgrade finished I do hope to have some additional spare time to get back to blogging.

What? You don't believe work is the only thing that has kept me busy? But you know I am a workaholic, right? Alright, alright I give... While out stargazing one night last fall a particularly interesting woman stumbled into my life. So while I was out searching the dark night sky for shooting stars I never imagined that I would meet a lovely lady. Four months later, she has managed to survive my mood swings, my busy schedules, my late working hours, random departures to play fireman and my cooking; so when I haven't been slaving away at work, re-certificating my medical skills, saving damsels from flaming houses (Okay so maybe not quite that heroic), upgrading computers and network architecture, I have been enjoying her company and getting to know more about her and her family.

So there you have it, a quick update and a few tidbits on what has been happening in my life... Hope the Holiday Season finds you all well, may you and your company's travels be safe and wish you all a Happy New... Awh, wait I still have a week to get that done...

On Hot Dates and Sharing Showers

My weekend started out with a hot date.
Bright and early Saturday morning I awoke to my pager rattling around and was greeted by a nice female voice telling me I was needed. We were requested to provide Mutual Aid to a fire department three districts away that was actively fighting a structure fire that involved three buildings. I knew it had to be bad, since we had at least a 40 minute response time to the address. I wasn't able to take any pictures when we arrived on scene since there was a lot of work to be done.
The long story short, we saved the attached garage of the one house. After the work was done I got this picture of our structure engine nosed into the driveway. After a cold decontamination shower with the guys (definitely not the kind of shower most of us think a hot date should end with), we were quickly back in service and heading home.
Along the way, the sunrise was a welcoming sight and a beautiful reminder that the day had already begun and sleep was suddenly a luxury. Enjoying a sunrise with a stout cup of coffee and a high calorie breakfast burrito all mixed with the aroma of dirty gear, made me forget the cold water down the back of my neck during decon. Of course, the bragging rights during training this week when the fire house still smells of smoke and my gear still wears the grime of the morning will be enjoyed.

Sunday found me sleeping in till the early afternoon hours and than just taking it easy all day long. Ended the fine weekend with some quality time and a little pumpkin carving. Have you ever wondered how many pumpkins get carved up and throw away? How many pumpkin pies are aborted because of this tradition? Even if I have to say so myself, I thought mine turned out quite well...

My Weekend

Well, a change of plans left me with a free weekend; so what better thing to do than head for the hills to enjoy the great outdoors. I thought I should share a couple of pictures from the weekend.

We had a great time on our little hike and got to see this little furry friend as he rushed back home with his nutritious treasure.
Here are a couple of unlikely friends that we spotted from the road...
An old building up at Fort Logan, now just a wide spot in the road missing the hustle and bustle of a true Fort.
As the day turned into night, someone painted this lovely picture...
Hope you enjoyed the highlights of our weekend, and had a few of your own...

Just goofing around...

I took a little time last night to get out and enjoy the evening, the only problem...I was forced to drive the car. Would have been so much better had I been able to ride the motorcycle while searching for the perfect angle...

What a Day!

Can a day really be all that bad when it ends like this?

Water Pressure...

The utility work has finally been completed so the water pressure in my area has reached an acceptable level. Now if the City would just get all the holes patched that they created when they dug up the water mains. I was completely amazed what it felt like to take a hot shower with a little something behind it. The water used to barely spray out of the shower head and any additional water demand in the house would cause a significant change in shower flow, but not any more. Heck, I can even run a sprinkler(not that I would need to in the middle of winter) and still be able to shower. :)

The best part of the whole upgrade of the utility service, a water main was ruptured! And of course since it is a weekend, the city will just let that flow water until Monday. Should be some decent ice skating as well!

Here goes...

As part of my 2008 New Years Resolutions I am starting a blog of the highlights of my life. Well, maybe I shouldn't call it the highlights since I am sure that it is bound to include some of the dirt as well.

In nine days I leave for my winter vacation and I am looking forward to the trip. This year I am going out to North Dakota to try my hand at upland bird hunting, pheasant and sharp-tail. I have never done any sort of bird hunting so it will be an interesting learning experience. I will be staying with my sister and her family, her husband is going to be providing the hunting experience. I don't think I will be able to post anything when I am out there, but will post the highlights of the trip when I get back.