Scratch!

Before I went to work on Tuesday I got a page to respond to a large animal rescue up in Bonnie Doon; the page came in when I was at a pre-school with several other firefighters showing kids one of our fire engines and letting them squirt water. After wrapping up at the school we headed up to Bonnie Doon where a horse was trapped in a narrow ravine.

One of the tasks that we had to do when on scene was to clear out a patch of overgrown poison oak as soon as possible. The job was done, and now, 48 hours later, I have little dots of poison oak popping up on my arms The funny thing is that once we pulled the horse out of the ravine, the animal took a different path bypassing the clearing that we made - lol!

Work Before Work

Shortly before heading off to work at the University my fire department pager went off for a medical call. So, I jumped into my turnouts and went to the station. The first engine had already left with two firefighters. So, I decided to stay at the station until the engine arrived back from the incident in case another page was sent out. Sure enough, another page was sent out requesting additional assistance at the previous medical call per request by the paramedics on scene. By this time, there were six of us at the station. We all piled into an engine and went to the scene code 2.

The look on the faces of the paramedics was priceless as one, two, three Four, FIVE, !!SIX!! firefighters/EMTs climbed out of the engine; sort of like a circus car that defies logic and the rules of physics with a bunch of circus performers climbing out of it. The paramedics certainly had enough enough help as they grinned from ear to ear (this particular paramedic team is great to work with).

We quickly assisted and went back to the station as the patient was brought to Dominican via ambulance. I showered and now I'm at work.

Guinness

Ahh, it’s moments like this that put a smile on my face at work. Today, a colleague at UCSC gave me a four-pack of Guinness to say “thanks” for my help on a technical security project. A rare moment, indeed, and much appreciated! Cheers!!

Back by Popular Demand

I had Lasik done on both my eyes back in 2002 to correct nearsightedness. Do you have gross morbid curiosity? Maybe you’re interested in having Lasik done on your own eyes? Possibly you get pleasure in seeing me squirm! For your viewing pleasure I’ve put my Lasik video back online [watch video]

Ho Ho Ho

On Christmas Eve I had the opportunity to dress up as Santa and sit on top of a fire engine while driving through the Felton area. We'd stop the engine whenever we came across a group of adults and kids waiting outside for our arrival. Once parked, we’d let people climb up on the engine, with assistance, so that they could say "hi" to jolly ‘ol Saint Nick — which was just about every block or so.

There was a particular house that we stopped at where a bed-ridden boy lived. I got off the engine and walked inside his house to share some holiday cheer. Being Santa with a busy night ahead, the visit was short. We were soon back on the road.

During the week I had family visiting and I promised them that I was going to have the engine drive by my house Christmas Eve. Comically, about 200 yards from my house, we got paged for a medical call.

The Santa magic briefly stopped…we were ready to roll out…with Santa Steve sitting on top of the engine. Fortunately, other Felton Firefighters that were not on the fire engine with us acknowledged the page and responded to the incident. Yes! We continued on our way down my street where we stopped in front of my house.

To humor all of you, I have a video in Windows Media Format (WMV) of the fire truck rolling up in front of my house [watch video]

Happy New Year!