July 12, 2009 Web Cast blog

July 2, 2009

July 1, 2009

"You mean to tell me that as good as that thing gets on gas, you ran out"

Hello everyone,

Today has been a good day with some rest and some work that I enjoyed getting done.

I got to sleep about 11 last night after forcing myself to get off the computer. Amy introduced me to "Stumble" and I am addicted to seeing what I will stumble onto next. For those that do not know what it is, like I did not. Stumble is a web browsing bar that you add to your web bar. It has buttons on it to do different things, but the main button is the "Stumble" button. Every time you click it, it takes you to a new site on the web from a list of subjects you set up. It is neat to see what site you will get to. I have found several that I have marked as return to.

I woke up this morning to run Hunter to school due to Amy being sick. She has had a bad weekend with a bad UTI and now a cough with Fever. Anyway, I ran him to school and came back and went back to sleep. I slept till 1:30 p when I woke on my own. I had an alarm set for 2 anyway, but was up and ready by then. Hunter had a eye doctor appointment ASAP after school, so I picked him up and we headed straight there. He is getting contacts this time but they just did the exam today and will fit the contacts next week. We did some errands and got dinner and headed home. I was supposed to work this evening at 7:30p. Hunter had been driving us up till they dilated his eyes. He had already asked me if we needed to get gas and I told him I would on the way to work. Well, you guessed it. I got in a hurry and was just a driving to work when the car shut off. Yup I ran the SMART out of gas. So here I stood on the side of 280 thinking of who I knew locally to get some help from. A Police officer drove by and I guess he saw that I was amazed that he just drove by cause he quickly turned around and came back. But then he got out of his vehicle to say "you mean to tell me that as good as that thing gets on gas, you ran out". But he agreed to take me to get some gas up the road and brought me back. But while I was doing this, I called TCC to tell them that I would be late. That is when I found out that a mistake had been made and I did not work tonight. I was glad to turn around and head home. I will burn some PT for the missed shift.
When i got home, I went and checked on Amy and went to the shed to check on Hunter and his drumming. He had set up the stereo I had gotten from a friend for him to use and was messing around. For those that do not know. His drum set is set up in my shop right where I would set up saws and work benches to work with. I has drove me crazy not having my area. So I asked Hunter if he would help me move some boxes out of the other end of the shed to make him a space for his set out of my way. So we moved the boxes out into a storage trailer and I will move them to a storage area from there. But he now has some more room and I have my area back. I think that I will try and continue to work tomorrow on the shed and maybe get the old shed cleaned out and tore down. Now that would make me happy. We will have to see how the day goes. Just having a full day off will be something awesome.

Well, Now I am doing this blog while waiting on my alive to kick in and get to were I can go to sleep. I will let you know how it goes tomorrow another day.

JEFF

Along time since last blog

Hello everyone,

It has been a long time since I did a blog post, but I feel like I might could use my blog better to talk on a more personal level to those that want to listen. I like Facebook and have been enjoying finding friends . But I was using my blog as my way of talking things out and letting everyone know what was going on in my life. It was a place of freedom that had gotten taken over by a since of intrusion that I imposed on myself due to worrying about saying something that would be interpreted wrong or was personal and would be held against me. Well, I have decided that if you are reading this, you want to listen. So I will go back to writing for me and not others here and let it link back to Facebook so that all can read if they want or not if they don't.

I will not even try to catch up since my last post.

This week has been a week form hell that I imposed on myself. If I try to do a schedule like this again, you guys have my permission to beat my ass. I have not even tried to figure out the ratio of awake time to sleep time. It would be scary, I know that. Maybe later tonight when bored i will work on that formula. I have worked or had obligations more than sleep, I do know that. I am sitting at ATCC tonight, Friday the 24th, after a long day with about 2.5 hours sleep. A friend and fellow Paramedic was buried today with a great service. Then had dinner with Amy and actually had some talk time. But then it was to here for the night shift. Tomorrow brings a 24 hour shift on the ambulance. With it being race week here in Alabama and me working near the track, I figure that we will have busy shift. Who know, maybe it will be a freak day with little to no action.

I look forward to Sunday being a sleep and rest day before another full, but not crammed week.

As far as what going on with me this week, it has been one of those weeks that has stressed me to my end. Work has been hard. Then some problems with Hunter that resulted in advancement of punishment. I know he does not believe me, but I do not enjoy having to strip him of his identity and personal choices. But if that is what the set punishments that were agreed to were and he went past the point of no return, then the punishment stands. For those that do not know Hunter, he is a great kid that prefers the goth / hard rock look. Long hair, black clothing, black finger nails. Well, those things are gone for now till he can earn the freedom to have those things again.

We have had a bad week of experiences at the school with about every aspect that we are involved with. I am truly worried about the school and what is going on there. I do not like the path it is on and do not feel that Hunter is getting the education or experience that he needs. So what to do is the big question for us. I don't know the answer, but will pray and think on it seriously and have to make a decision that i can live with long term. Amy and I will have to work as a team to decide what is best for our family and make sure Hunter is taken care of.

If you are a new visitor to my blog, I want to thank you for following the path that brought you here and ask that you look around at the links that I have included down the right hand side of the post to things that i enjoy. I hope you learn something about me that you did not know and return often to see what is going on with me.

JEFF

OK, I went back and calculated my hours for this week. I did it from Monday morning at midnight to Sunday night midnight. A full week, which is 168 hours in length.

My week is like this:

At work = 96 hours

Sleeping = 56 hours (13.5 of that was Monday morning till I got up to go to the school before work and then I project 8 hours sleep Sunday)

Doing other activities = 29 hours (mostly at the school or talking to hunter / 6 was for funeral)

Driving = 9.5 hours


I calculate a "normal" work week as follows

At work = 40 hours
Sleeping = 56 hours
Other stuff = 72
Driving will depend on person

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

Hello everyone,

I had a great day on Saturday. I finally bagged a Gobbler after a 8 year wait. I will tell you the story, so bear with me.

Charlie and I started before sunup by getting the truck threw the gate and getting into the woods. It started as a great day of pleasures for the senses. Just at day break we started trying to locate a bird as usual with a owl hoot. Now for those that do not know Charlie or have not heard someone that owl calls with his throat, it is impressive and always has been since I started hunting with Charlie. Anyway, his owl call is unbelievable in how real it sounds. Well, the first time he hooted, 2 owls called back to him very close to us. Then one of them came threw the trees and flew just over our heads. He hooted again and again an owl answered from somewhere over us. We finally found him straight up from us about 30 feet in the top of a pine tree. He was so beautiful sitting up there. So Charlie got the video camera out and we played with him for a few minutes. He would call to it and he would look down at us as if to say "where is that owl, let her go". IT was some site.

The first crow finally called at 6:30. after a few crows calling, we heard the first Turkey of the day. It was a long way off and over a couple ridges. Charlie had been in the area a few days before and said that he knew that there was a bird in this valley we were overlooking somewhere. We walked a little ways down the road and still only heard the same bird. We continued down the road and down into the valley more and more. The crows were yelling, the wood pickers were squealing and there were more sound in the woods than I have ever heard. We went threw a green field and over to a firebreak road to see what we could hear. As we did this, two wood picker were on a hollow tree that we passed and it sounded like a big bass drum as they hammer on it and courted each other. We heard a turkey that sounded like it was a few hundred yard to our right, so we decide too sit down on the fire break road and see if we could call it onto the road and get it to come to us. I headed down the road about 30 yards and found a good oak to sit against and Charlie went a little piece up the road after sitting out a hen decoy. After a few minutes, Charlie did a fly down of a hen call and started a few hen clucks here and there. Just after, I heard a bird fly down from a tree to my right and hit the ground. A bird a long way off gobbled at then the bird on the other side of the hill gobbled again. This happened several times before another bird gobbled off to my right about 300 yards. I could hear a hen or Jake bird clucking to my right, but that one gobble sent a thrill down the spine. We continued to do a little calling and the bird on the other side kept hard gobbling, but he was just pacing on the other side of the hill and not moving much. He was not going to come around or over the hill to us. Just as Charlie stood up and I had gotten up, Charlie walked down to me. On his way to me, the longest loudest gobble I had ever heard happened just over the hill. I had to have lasted 10-15 seconds. Charlie stooped and listened as I was shaking from the sound. Charlie made it to just as as another long , loud call happened again. The only thing we could come up with is that the bird that gobbled to my right earlier and the other bird had gotten together and were gobbling together. We decided that the bird that we were hearing was off the boundary of the property and it was not going to come to us. We started waling the fire break boundary road to see if we could find another gobbling bird on into the property. We crossed a creek and walked on up a step hill about 300-400 yards. We could hear a bird along way off but the bird on the other side of the hill was silent. Charlie gave a hen call with his mouth call with no response. He made the comment that that bird does m=not like the mouth call cause he had yet to answer to it. As we continued to walk the hill, Charlie had gotten box call out and hit it a couple times when a bird gobbled right behind us. We turned around and made the comment that that had to be that bird across the hill now in top of the hill. He called again and it was even closer that time when it gobbed. Charlie said "he thinks we are leaving" (us being the hens as we were calling). He told me to sit quickly on the road and watch to see if it would come up the road, he started to walk slowly up the hill calling lightly as he walked away. I got set down and ready when I heard the bird flop across the creek and I could hear it walking as if it were next to me. I had the gun a t ready pointing down into the woods were I could hear the walking expecting to see his white head at any point. I listened while he went right by me to the point I had no shot anymore if I could have scene him. I was trying to figure out how to get turned around and communicate with Charlie to look over the hill top, cause I thought it was going around the hill . I had drooped my gun to my lap and was going to roll out into the road on my belly so that I could point up the road to Charlie. As i was doing this, Charlie shot. I looked up the hill to see Charlie with gun extended and swinging the gun over my position. I looked up to see a gobbler fly into the tree I was sitting in and land. I could not get my gun around to him and he pitched out of the tree when I got the shot on him. I'm thinking the whole time that Charlie had shot the bird and it flew up and I just knocked him down for Charlie. The bird fell to the ground just a few yards in front of me. I jumped up to grab it. As I did, I saw Charlie running down the other side of the hill like he was hunting the bird. I was yelling at him that I had the bird right here, but he kept running. I made it to the bird I shot and he was sitting there like nothing was wrong looking at me. I have always saw on video and when I had scene others shoot a bird, the turkey would flop around until you got to them and held them down. So when this one was sitting there, like on a nest, it was weird. I kept telling Charlie that I had the bird but he was way down the hill side around from me. As I saw him lift up a Turkey, I realized that I had shot a second bird and my first. I debated for a second how to kill the bird. Do I shot it again, do I grab it and risk it flogging me or what. So i decide that if I could get to it I would hit it with my gun and try to hit its neck, which is what I did. It knocked him out and I got my foot on its neck and was able to grab its feet when it rolled over. i was so happy, I can not tell you. I made my way back out of the woods to the road to find Charlie holding a bigger bird and I holding a bird. I could not believe it, a 2 in 1 deal. How great is that.

Charlie started telling me that he had his gun on his should standing on the top of the hill when he had decided to pull his gun down and was looking for a place to sit down. He said he had the gun about half way off his shoulder when the turkeys head popped up over the dirt clump in front of him at 10 yards away and then the second. He got the gun around and hit the first bird that he said was in half strut. The the other one flew off and he was trying to keep up with it ad watch were his bird went when I fired and he saw it falling out of the sky. We rejoiced for a few and then hung out shells with a feather in them were each of us were when we fired. We then headed out to the green fiend down the hill to get some pictures in the sun of the birds. That was the best walkout of the woods ever for me.

To see all the pictures click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/everyoneknowsjeff/TurkeyHunting#

We went back to his home and got the meat out of the birds and got the tail and beard off them for mounts. I went ahead and took the head off mine to freeze so that I can send it to be bronzed. I headed home and washed the meat and vacuum sealed it and the head up and put in the freezer. I guess i should have told Amy that there was a head in the freezer, but as I was getting cleaned up, I heard her open the freezer and yell. It was quite funny for me.

I caught a small nap before I had to leave for work. That is were I am now, ATCC. We have had a bust night and it has flown by. Another hour and I will be headed home for a day of rest. I plan on not moving and sleeping as much as possible. Next week brings Jury duty for me. I hope to get dismissed and then I can hunt a couple days due to me already taking off a shift at the ambulance and ATCC for jury duty. I guess we will see. I know I need to get a hair cut and check on what ALFA has done with my car insurance with this new system they have, But other than that, I am going to try and let things just happen as they will. I will let you know later in the week.

C'ya later,

JEFF

A giger counter could have found me.

Hello Everyone,

This week has been a full week of all sorts of adventures for me. It started with another busy shift at RPS in St Clair County. Let me tell you, that is a busy county on an ambulance. I got off Monday and ran home to get cleaned up to head to UAB for a Dr appointment. It was my first Endocrinologist appointment. I liked him. HE took me off the hormones and is going to start over with my evaluation. He thinks that I am sleep deprived and not having hormone problems. IMAGINE THAT, SLEEP DEPRIVED. Anyway, I got to do all the hormone testing again. Then Tuesday, I got up at 4 and headed to work for a day shift. When I got there, I found that the schedule had changed and I was scheduled for a night shift. So back home I went and boy did I sleep the day away. Then back to TCC for the night. It was a slow night and I enjoyed working by myself.
Wednesday morning brought on the fun. I got off at 7:30 a and headed to wal-mart to get some shorts and some walking shoes. You see, I had to have a stress test and Amy did not think it a good idea for me to wear my work boots to do the test in. I did not own a pair of non work shoes or boots. Well, I got to the hospital at about 10 am and checked in for the test that all three doctors had scheduled. I knew I was in for along day when the clerk had to register me twice cause all the test would not fit on one registration. So the fun began. Back to have 3 tubes of blood drawn. Then to another room to be stuck again for an IV. When the guy broke out the metal tube and unscrewed the top is when I got worried. He injected some sort of nuclear dye into me and immediately put me in a big machine that started taking x-rays of my heart. So Ive been shot up with radiation and now am being submitted to more radiation to see the first. Then into the stress test room where a nurse friend (Leslie) was awaiting me. She is rather good looking and I have thought so for years. So I really did not want to pull my shirt up and expose my overweight body to her, but oh well. Then she has to shave my chest. Yes, shaved it. Then put all the wires on me and put me on the tread mill. I did good with no problems. Then during the last minute of that, they shot me with more nuclear crap and then back to the machine to get more radiation. I felt like I was glowing by this time (and I don't mean with embarrassment). After that, another lady was awaiting me to take about 30 minutes of regular X-rays of everything from my chest up. And the I was taken to the MRI room. I was told that I would be in it about an hour and a half for more radiation. Now I am not a small guy, so I would have liked to see what it looked like for me to be squeezed into this tube. I know It was tight from where I was laying. The only problem is that I fell asleep and they had to redo one of the test because I jumped when I awoke in the machine. The lady ended up singing to me to keep me awake in there. During the MRI is where I was glad I had followed Amy's advice and gotten some shoes. I would have been stuck to the machine with my steel toed boots, and that would have been funny to see. A fat guy in a tube with his feet planted to the outside of the machine. Imagine that if you dare. So by 2:30 that afternoon, I figure that they could have tracked me with a Geiger counter.

Hunter, Charlie and I did some shooting on the firing range late that afternoon getting ready for Turkey season . Hunter had wanted to shoot for weeks. Its a shame that we have a firing range in the back yard and it takes weeks for us to get out there and use it. That Hunter is a natural shot like I was at a younger age. He was dead on with his shotgun and then fired a box of 270 rounds at 100 yards with about a 90% hit rate. I could not hit the broad side of the barn, but I blame it on the radiation poisoning from the day.

I actually slept in on Thursday then got out and just messed around for the afternoon. I got the weather center installed in the Tv studio at the school for Hunter. I helped dad clean some limbs up at the Sycamore parsonage and had dinner with the family before relaxing and watching TV. A rare day for me.

Friday was back to TCC and then Saturday a busy RPS day. And now to today. It is Sunday and I am here at TCC for a 10:30 am - 10:30 pm shift. I am on for the next 3 night shift from here. So the first part of the week is busy.

I hope to get a day of Turkey hunting in toward the end of the week and Hunter and I are going to Gadsden Music to goof off an do some pricing of a mixer board and microphones for the TV studio. Who knows what else we will get into. The back to TCC on Saturday night.

I will get back to you sometime next week or follow me on facebook daily.

C'ya

JEFF

Little Guys first snow and Hunter's second

Hello everyone,

We had a decent snowfall here in the south on Sunday morning. I was at ATCC when it started and by the time to go home, we had a couple inches on the ground. It snowed hard all the way home and was a pretty site on the farm when I pulled in. The little car did good in the snow. I got home and was so tired from my 4 night straight at ATCC that I went to bed and did not awaken till 7:30 that night and it was mostly gone. Hunter got out and walked around in the woods to look around. I have to remind myself that this is only Hunter's 2nd snow event of his life. He seems to enjoy them. I put a few pictures on the Picasa link under weather pictures if you care to see. Here is one of my favorites I took.Anyway, this week has not started off well for me. We had a awful shift on the ambulance Monday with little to no sleep. The had to be in a paperwork class during the day Tuesday. Got back to home with just enough time to shower and get to the school for a meeting with a teacher and the principal. I don't feel like it went far enough, but did get some feelings out in the open. I did learn that for all the work done, it really does not matter. I kinda bummed out about it. Then we had Band Boosters, I guess it went OK but it made me look like a fool to have talked about how unhappy other parents were just an hour before and then none of them to even say a word about being unhappy also. I do not know what I want to do, but I sure am going to cut back my efforts except for what Hunter needs. Like I said, I am bummed out today from lack of sleep due to laying up all night thinking about the situation.

Maybe the rest of the week will shape up and be OK. I work today at ATCC and then tomorrow on the ambulance. I hope to get to go fishing Friday with Kelly and Charlie. It would be good to do something that does not require thinking hard for a few hours.

For those of you who knew I was going to the cardiologist, I got good news so far that he does not think there is a problem with my heart but rather a pinched nerve in my neck causing my unique pain when I sneeze. I go for a few test to make sure during the month and will let you know. I also go to the endocrinologist next week for the first time to see about helping regulate the hormone imbalance we found during my physical. Get this, they think that them being out of wake is why I am grouchy. I keep telling them that I am grouchy cause I am tired and work to much, but they say that I will feel a lot better when they get me fixed. We'll see!!

I hope all of you have a good week and I will talk to you later.

JEFF

Tornadic week for me

Hello everyone,

Yes, it has been a long time since I have posted. Sorry, just have not had time to do anything or have not felt like doing one.

It has been Tornadic around our place this last week with so much going on. But it was literally tornadic on Wednesday of last week here. The picture above is one of a funnel cloud just west of Oxford Alabama from the Home Depot store. My friend Les took the picture while he was at the store. He is a manager for HD and was at that store when the storms broke out. He and I were online together during the storms and I forwarded his reports to James and Jason at ABC 33/40.

It has not been a easy week for Amy and I, but we are making it threw. The Mercury had to have brakes - tires - and other work. And work on top of all that.

The good news was that Winterboro Blue Knight Band brought back superior ratings from District competition on Friday. If you want to see the performance go to - http://www.mogulus.com/whsweb360 . This is the schools news web cast site that Hunter is mostly heading up. Give it a look every few days for updates of news from the school and events that will be on a loop on this site. Hunter is working on a competition piece for state in video production now then will turn to concentrating on the news cast development.

As for this week, it should be an OK week. Not much extra going on. Lots of work as usual.

I will try to be better at posting, NO PROMISES.

JEFF

Tired and frustrated

Hello everyone,

Have you ever just wanted to throw a computer out the window to make you feel better? I did yesterday and may still in the days to come. Mom's computer crashed a while back and ever since, I have been trying to restore her financial files. I do not think it can be done. I will say, my happiness with Quicken is very low right now. I was under the impression that you reinstalled the program then restored the data file and it was done. NOT!! I had at least 8 versions of data going at one point yesterday. and got all them so intertwined that it was not even funny. The 2 service reps that tried to help me made since, but as soon as I would get off line with them, I would do something and get myself right back in the same mess. After 6+ hours yesterday, I gave up with a partially restored file that has a balance in the negatives of thousands. So I guess if any of you a re Quicken experts, I need help.

Anyway, I was so tired and frustrated last night, I had a headache to kill a person. So when I hit the bed with a sleeping pill and 500 of Alive, I was out of here.

Not much exciting has happened around me other than I am working halfway steady on a shift for RPS on the side now. I hope that being on a steady shift will allow me to better regulate my sleep and have more usable off time. I will let you know. I know I am going to work A shift in Pell City threw April as of right now. I think I will like working there. I have a good partner currently and a decent station.

I am loving my little car. The Alabama SMARTIES club is a lot of fun. We are going to do a car show in April that I think will be fun. For those that do not know, the caar i got was not the car i ordered. It is just like the car I ordered but was acually an "orphan" that I accecpted. My car came in a couple weeks ago and I orphaned it out. I did get by to actually see it. So I parked my LiL Guy next to it and here is a picture of them together below. I understand that a young man adopted it last Saturday. I sure wish I could have gotten it for Amy. Maybe later we can get Amy and Hunter one.
So, as you can see, they were twins.

Have a good night and several days till I talk to you again.

JEFF

Alabma Smarties and the Mad Drummer

Hello to everyone,

I am at ATCC tonight after working the Ambulance last night. Tomorrow brings the 2nd BAMA SMARTIES club meeting. We are meeting then having a cruise around town and then going to eat. It should be a great time. I will let you know.

Let me tell you, my son is a "Mad Drummer". The reason I say that is demonstrated in the picture below.As you can tell, he gathered every drum he could get a hold of to make his set "BIG". I think he is off his rocker brain. But he enjoys it. I just wish he would be serious and play some good stuff instead of just playing around. I guess he is just having fun.

Well I will let you know when you can come listen to a concert from him. Until then, I will keep letting you know how he progresses.

Talk to you later.

JEFF

One more till the big 40

Hello everyone,

Yes, Another year has gone by. I can not believe that in another, I will be 40. It has been a good day for me. I got off from RPS this morning and rested most of the day. I watched the inauguration for a while and then took a nap. The nap was just not long enough. I guess I should have turned Obama off and slept, but I wanted to watch and listen. Then mom cooked a birthday dinner to die for and we ate before I had to head to work for the night. It was awesome, MOM. THANKS. Then, of course, there was the Savage's cake that is a tradition in my family. Again, it was awesome.

Now, as for next year. We are going to have a 40 year throw down. So consider this your warning or invitatation. But we will be having a birthday bash. I will have to figure outt the details, but you must put it on your calendar now so that you can be there. And be saving up for the cover charge for the band.

I have not done much but work since the last post. I am loving my little car. It is so much fun. We are having a BAMA SMARTIES meet and greet this Saturday and it should be a lot of fun. You can go to the BAMA SMARTIES web site if you want at: http://www.smartusainsider.com/group/bamasmarties

So I work tonight, then go to Still Waters for a day shift tommorow. RPS in Odenville on Thursday and TCC Friday night. So as you can see, I am going to be busy for the next few days. I will update you soon.

JEFF

Hello everyone,

I went and got my tag for the SMART today. I went last week and the lady told me that new tags were coming today, so I waited. It looks good on my blue car.

I am on a 3 night straight at ATCC then a day off and 3 straight days at ATCC. Not much to tell you about. Hunter left on his hiking trip today threw Monday. Amy rode in with me and has gone to do some shopping that she wanted to do and just generally have time to walk around an look at what she wants to. She likes doing that by herself when she can. We stopped and had a great meal at Bella's on the way in and she is going to hang till I get off and we care going to get the Honda and head home in the morning. She is out in the LiL Guy right now. I knwo she will enjoy it once she relaxes about driving it. Se loved her Focus cause it was small and easy to park. So she will be in heaven with my car.
I will talk to everyone later,

JEFF