Pluggin' Along

So school has been going well. We have been doing evolutions Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Also we have had two tests in Fire 101. So far I have scored a 100% and a 96%. The second one might change to 100% because one of the questions we had said one thing while the book said another. So we will see. Either way I'm doing well. We had a contest today for our 1 minute and 2 minute PPE/SCBA drills today. I didn't win the PPE 1 minute drill, but managed to don (put-on) the gear in 43 seconds. I got third place in the SCBA 2 minute drill with a time if 1 minute 43 seconds. It would have been faster but people kept talking to me and tugging on my gear. So that was a bit distracting. But for my hard earned efforts I won five dollars. Over the past few weeks I have been making some friends in my department (classmates). I mean I don't see them outside of school but I have a few I hang/talk to during class.

So classes are going well. I talked to one of the instructors of Fire 101 to see if I could get on a volunteer crew. I told him that I am EMT-B certified and that my state license was on its way. He said that was good because the company was very selective about who they hired on. So I have an in. Other than that, not much is going on. We are going to be down at the smoke house on Wednesday to try out Offensive Fire Tactics and what not. Then friday we are going Butte to do the smoke/fire maze and feel what a house fire feels like. I'm pretty excited about that. Then this weekend I will probably stay here and start on my second Costumer Service (Fire 120) Project. That seems fun, we are to make S.O.P.'s for the fake fire department we made in the first project.

Other than that not much is going on. Spent the weekend in Bozeman. I went to get new tires for my bravada but turns out the size of tire for my car is rare and that makes them more expensive. But now that I have them, they make my car look beastly. Speaking of my car, I have decided to name it after the late Patrick Swayze being that he was a movie bad ass. My car which had been nameless for 10 months will now be called.... (pause for dramatic effect) The Dirty Dancer. It just sounds epic.

So yeah, school is school. Life is life. I'm plugging down the 91 more days until I go to Japan!!!!!!!! I can't wait. New culture, warm place during Christmas, seeing my lady. It's going to be good. But stay tuned until next time for another dramatic episode of Smoke Before Fire.

Physical Training

So I was awake this morning at five a.m. That was fun. I arrived at the school this morning, to find a few people waiting for Physical Training. I was kind of out of it, and while I am not the most happy of morning people, I was doing alright. The one kid in our class who talks all the time anyway, was chatting up a storm. A few people were hung over I was not. Our instructor was late, so we all thought about leaving but then he showed up. The first thing we did was figure out what we wanted to do for our six tests. See we have six areas that he will take a baseline on then after that he will measure on if we improve our times and reps. I thought we were going to do the baselines today but we didn't. We started off after that with a mile run. A mile run when it's 43 degrees in the dark is a wee bit chilly. I pulled that off in about 10 minutes. Which is fine because I will improve on that.We were then set to see how many push ups and sit ups we could do in 2 minutes time. I did 60 and 50 respectively. I could have done more but I'll get there. By that time, the hung over boys were starting to get sick to their stomachs. The next thing we did, was drag a tire 150ft. Which let me tell you, was no easy task. It was a standard fire engine tire and unless you get a momentum it get's to be a struggle. The hung over boys ended up puking after that.

By that time everyone was dead tired and some people had to get back to their kids, so we cut out early. So now I'm just sitting here watching Back to the Future:III debating on starting my homework.

Side Note - On a side note as I was starting my laundry this morning I looked out the living room window to see six deer, just grazing outside. It was crazy to see. I have two photos here that show just how close they are. It was like how I explained in a previous post about how the deer are rampant here. They don't mind people and mostly keep to themselves. As you can see in the pictures They looked right at me. They didn't spook at all and just went back to eating, hell one went to relieving itself. Deer have no shame.

So yeah. So far it's been an interesting Saturday. I think I may go for a hike, or I may rest today and go for a hike tomorrow. There is a huge fire up near Holter Lake which has been blowing into Helena and causing the air to be somewhat harder to breathe. I mean the smell of the logs and stuff remind me of camp fires, but the implications of the fire don't help. You can read about it by clicking here.

Other than that, it's a homework, tv and studying day. I have a job interview on Monday for Home Depot which i hope will let me get some physical work in but we will see. Stay tuned to Smoke Before Fire as these late breaking stories develop.

Something To It

So yeah, I write to you guys today, Wednesday the 9th, to tell you of all that has happened since our last installment of Smoke Before Fire. There hasn't been much excitement since I last wrote here. Well that isn't true, a lot has happened since then. But I will get to that shortly.

School is good. We've started going over the books we bought so they aren't a waste of money. Not that they aren't if we don't read them, but getting some class use out of them is nice. Today I dropped a few hundred bucks on my PPE (Personal Protective Equipment.) The boots, Nomex hood, and gloves are mine to keep because the chance for leaving body fluid in them is higher than the turnouts. We watched a movie on PPE gear and what not, then we did drills for the rest of class. The goal is to get the turn outs on in under a minute (state and national time.) Everytime we didn't get it on in under a minute after a few practice drills resulted in 15 push ups. I had 30. Then we did it as a group and the first time we tried to do it, for anyone that did not get it in under a minute we all had to go again. Then the last time was if everyone did it in under a minute we wouldn't have to do 20 push ups. Let's just say I did 50 push ups total. Which isn't hard but doing it in full PPE gear gets to be warm, and rather tiring. To the Left and Right here are pictures of me in just my turnout pants, and one in my full outfit. I have to get new pants because as you can see in the one in my suspenders the latch is broken. But I am doing that tomorrow.

Other than that school seems pretty straight forward. Technical Writing is good. They are teaching us how to write to the point and not write in essay format. Which I prefer because I hate writing so many word essays or so many paged essays.  I ordered for my passport and I'm looking forward to Japan, it'll be warm in the Helena December cold. I can't wait.

Other than that not much is going on. Helena is plugging along, and so am I. Stay tuned for your next dose of Smoke Before Fire.

Getting there...

So I started school this past Tuesday. It'll be my third attempt at school, but this time it's what I want and feels right. Helena is slowly starting to warm up on me, I've found my way around and even the malfunction junctions it has can't make me get lost. I've figured out that the easiest way to get to and from places is usually to take the interstate. Everything seems to be coming together.

So school started this past Tuesday and I've been plugging along. My first class was Customer Service. Our homework was to read the book for the class, which I have started but haven't finished. I'll probably read it when I am done with this. Our professor gave us two assignments for the class. One is to act as a Fire or EMS chief and figure out how our pretend department would handle Customer Service. Our second assignment will be to write out S.O.P.' s (Standard Operating Procedures) for a detailed account of how we want Customer Service handled. They are due on the 25th of September and the 22nd of October respectively. Shouldn't be too bad. That was my one class of the day.

Wednesday was not bad either, I have Fire 101 first at 9am and it's a 3 hour class. We spent the first day going over the syllabus and watching a documentary called "9/11." It isn't a Micheal Moore America is lame documentary but one that started out with a rookie fire fighter getting on the New York Fire Dept. Well, the rookie got on with the crew that was first into Tower 1 after the plane crashed into the tower on September 11th. It was kind of shocking to watch and see what happened in there, but it was good. Friday we are going to work on the engine we have which I'm really excited about because it'll be my first shot at getting to know what's all in a fire engine.

I then had Technical Writing, which is pretty self explanatory. It'll be a very involved course with a lot of writing but I'm not too worried about it. The text isn't hard reading and the assignments seem more busy work than they do hard work. I'm supposed to have Physical Training on Saturdays at six in the morning but this week being the labor day weekend we won't be having it. But I've been running a mile in a little under 8 minutes, about 9 minutes consistently. I can do the 25 push ups and 50 sit ups in about 23-25 seconds for the push ups and a minute thirty or so. So I'm where I need to be starting out. When we work out we're going to do the baseline test first so we know where we sit officially and can get better from there. Again a lot of work, but none unexpected.

My uniform for August/September weather is really toasty. I didn't realize that Nomex was so warm. It's comfortable. I get my turn out gear Wednesday September 9th. I can't wait, you'll get a picture of that when I get it. To the left here is a picture of me in my uniform. Notice that the shirt is just a standard navy blue T-shirt. We ordered our shirts today. I ordered 2 t-shirts, 1 long sleeve, and a ball cap. I don't know when we get those, but that is okay.

So all in all, classes are going well so far and they will be time consuming, but I have a goal in mind and I plan on accomplishing it and I have my celebratory vacation to Japan for winter break planned. I got the ticket and put in for my passport today. The gentleman helping me said it would probably be about four weeks. Once I get that, I'll be officially set for Japan! I can't wait, I have somebody very special and important there waiting for me.

Helena seems to be warming up to me. I have places that I go to, landmarks if you well that have grown on me. Rileys Pub is one of those places. This place has great bread bowls with Irish Stew. Another is the Staggering Ox. They have a good philly steak there. The deer here are ridiculous. I almost hit one last night coming home from Rileys. Well, almost 4, it was a doe and her three fawns. Every where you look they are just hanging out. All the gardens and plants in peoples yards have mesh or wire to protect them from the deer. I guess they are a real problem.

Other than that not much is going on. School, homework and life. Oh! Actually a sequel to one of my most favorite movies is finally coming out. The Boondock Saints: All Saint's Day after years of being rumored is finally coming out October 30th! The trailer can be seen here. Go there and enjoy. I'm so excited I could pee! Which reminds me...

Birthdays, School and the End of Summer

So this past Sunday was my birthday. I turned 24. Not the most exciting of birthdays as say, 21 but thanks to my friends it was still a good time. We went to Old Chicago in Bozeman and had food then the waitress said that if I wanted to I could have a birthday shot on the bar. I thought this at first meant that the shot would be free, so I accepted. Turns out that when they meant on the bar, you had to be on top of the bar in front of everyone. I had to do the shot with some random Old Chicago worker because our waitress wore a skirt and didn't want to get up on the bar.

What happens after that folks (thanks to the reenactment of the dinner party) could be taken out of a Whitesnake Video. Shawn, was the guys name that I did the shot with, he asked me if I had ever done my shot of choice before. An

Irish car bomb, I know my way around them. But he went on to explain a little on how to do them. Afterwards everyone sang happy birthday to me in the restaurant then it happened. It was epic, a purple fog machine was in the background, I was surrounded by unicorns, and naked babes on 1950's muscle cars. The smoke from the fog machine hit the ceiling and condensed and became purple rain. I had my shot down in about a second and a half. Defeated Shawn the Old Chicago worker left defeated. After about an hour of a pyrotechnics show I came out victorious. I got on the magical unicorn and went off into the sunset.

Okay so it really didn't happen that way, I downed the shot in a second and a half, beat Shawn, people cheered. I went back to my table and got my stuff and left. As you can see, the other way sounds more epic, so we'll stick with that story.

After that we went to a buddy of mine's house and played beer pong and sat around a fire. I got a homemade clock, gift card for Subway and a pretty sweet laptop case/cooler (got this in June but it was a birthday present). I almost for got though probably the most awesome present of the actual birthday, a beer mug with a bike bell attached. In fact, here it is in all it's glory. After that I passed out because I had to get up early on my actual birthday to help a friend move to a town three hours away. That went well, however I hate driving u-hauls.

Fire and Rescue starts a week from today on September 1st. I went in today to see where my school refund check was but they said it was mailed yesterday so I should get today or tomorrow. Hopefully that is, because I need to get my books. I'm getting excited for it, mostly because I don't enjoy sitting on my ass and doing not much of anything. But I'm fully moved in and I am starting to go out to explore Helena. It's crazy so much wildlife around. I have a squirrel that just chills outside my bedroom window, I have named him nutsie and if it weren't for the fact that I would probably get rabies I would go pet him. Also it's crazy, the deer here just hang out and graze. They don't spook as easy as other deer. I may try to ride one.

Anyway, as the summer is winding down I'm kind of sad. It's been a good summer except for the fact that it rained for a good percentage of it, but there are less fires to contend with which makes it nice. I plan on just doing my workouts until school starts then and keeping in shape. Maybe do all the stuff I never got around to doing. Stay tuned.

Home Sweet Home?

So the move to Helena was uneventful at best. My buddy Jake helped me move. Itwas an early day. I had to pick up the u-haul trailer around 8 am. Took about an hour an a half to to load the trailer. 3 cups of coffee later I had to pee like every fifteen seconds. On top of this I was wired beyond belief. We dealt with a lot of Washington folks driving like morons. I know, I know that is a generalization but one that hit the mark usually. We got up to Helena and it overcast with a hint of sun and then we unpacked everything. Took about an hour. We spent the night unpacking and hanging out and then drove over to Bozeman Sunday to drop off my U-haul. I drove back after that.

I was kind of sad to realize that I missed everybody back home, and was hating being alone, but I've since then got over it. I've been spending my time getting everything situated and unpacked. I discovered my new roommate keith's awesome tv, and the x-box 360 has never looked so beautiful.

I spent most of today driving around seeing the sights, the capital, Carroll College, etc. I got really lost but I somehow managed to make it back to my house. Anyway, dinner time, off to cause trouble. :D

A Few Hiccups

Alrighty, well here we go, round two. It's been an interesting week so far. First I sent my girlfriend off to Japan for a year and I hope nothing but the best for her. Second, she's not even gone for four hours and I'm almost arrested.

Here is how it went down. I was out for a walk listening to my ipod and this cop drives by. I cross the street towards the apartment im staying at and the same cop parks his car behind me flashing his lights blocking the entrance way towards the apartment so cars cant get in and out. Here is the dialog from my best recollection of how it went down.

Officer: Hi I am officer so and so (forgot his name) and you look like a suspect we're looking for.

Me: Huh, well I don't think I'm the guy you're looking for but I'll do what I can to help.

Officer: Can I see your license please, you don't have a criminal record do you.

Me: No officer, not that I am aware of. So what happened?

Officer: We'll get to that in a second. Where were you friday night?

Me: Um, okay. well sir i was over at my girlfriend's cousin's house for a family dinner.

Officer: Well we're looking for a guy that approached a Dominos employee and tried to steal his car.

Me: Well i assure you it wasn't me officer I haven't been in a Dominos in years.

Officer: You didn't have to be it happened in the parking lot.

Me: You mean the suspect and not me right.

Officer: I'm still on the fence like that, do you mind if i take some photos?

Me: Um, sure I guess.

*this is the point where he made me stand profile views, and front, walk towards him, he then flashed his flash light on my shoes and my pants, give him the place that I am living and give him two alibis as to where I was friday evening*

Officer: Alright sir, I'll just make sure these alibis stand up. I'm sorry for the inconvienence I just have to eliminate everyone.

Me: Well I thought it was my boyish good looks.

Officer: It's definitely something, have a good night.

After that I continued walking into my apartment all shocked like. I so far have not heard anything back. I saw the police blotter thanks to my friend Ali and here is the description of what happened.

* On West Mendenhall Street at 3 a.m., a pizza restaurant employee said they were approached by an assailant who demanded the employee’s car. The suspect told the employee that he had a handgun and might use it. The employee got away and flagged down a police officer. The man remains at large and the investigation is continuing.

So yeah the guy threatened to use a handgun. I don't like guns. In fact I loathe guns. So that was that hiccup.

*This just in, a picture of the guy is there, I look nothing like this.*

So unless I am picnocio and have bad hair like that one corrupt illinois governor I think I'm the wrong guy.

Other than that, I am just gearing up for some moving here in 4 days. My little sister is going to come with me. Pictures will be soon to follow. I recently received my nomex pants so my legs will be fire free, and people can't call me liar liar pants on fire.

That's about it for now. Stay tuned for some more zany excitement.