It's gone, it's finally gone !!

Hello everyone,

Yes, I sold the u-haul truck. I am so glad. We have already purchased the trailer to replace it. I will get some pics up soon of the trailer for your viewing.

Anyway, let me catch you up from my last post.

I left you as I was getting if work at TCC. We had a staff meeting at TCC after my shift. Not much to update there, a possibility of more part time and full time positions coming as we expand and we went over new Trauma Plans for North Alabama region. I headed home about 9:45. I stopped at Hancock fabrics to see if they had a square that Amy needed with no success. I then had to go on into Sylacauga and pick up Hunter's uniform at the cleaners. So I got home about noon. I had to be at the school to load the band at 2:00 (you do the math, that's not much sleep). Anyway, We got the truck loaded and headed tho Pleasant Valley for the game. It did not take long before Amy and I realized the truck had an fuel leak and a exhaust leak. We were flying high by the time we got there. The game did not go well. We lost about 5 or 6 players to injury and lost after a great start. The band did GREAT. Dad rode back with me due to I would not let Amy ride in the fumes.

The next day was a SAS day, We had a great day. it was relaxing and smooth. On the way back from a Brookwood trip, we stopped and I got to look at the SMART car. It is so cool, I want a silver or red one bad. Chris worked for Preston and he is the "MASTER' of ribs, so he did us several slabs up and we were in heaven. Amy came over and got her hair cut. We had a steady night but not to bad.

I went home the next morning and took a 3 hour nap before heading to Work at TCC. I did stop at the SMART car exhibit again so that I could drive one. It just made me want one worse. They are so much fun to drive. At TCC, we had a busy afternoon with several long flights for LifeSaver.

On Monday, Amy and Hunter headed to school and I was going to sleep just a little but awoke at noon. I went to the school to take the u-haul truck to the shop. it has a major fuel leak and we found that the exhaust system was completely shut down and collapsed. I got a great offer for the truck for parts from the shop mechanic. At the Band Booster meeting, we decided to sell the truck and go ahead and buy the trailer. We did other band stuff to but nothing really to tell you about except to be ready to purchase cookie dough and pizza kits soon.

Then it was back to SAS. We had a busy day till I got off at 5:30 to go to a Foundation meeting at the school. The foundation meeting went real well with the foundation giving $1231.00 to the band for help in the purchase of instruments. Back at SAS, we had a slow night and got some decent rest.

On Wednesday, I went home when I got off from SAS and cleaned up, then headed to the school to help Amy move some computers and go sell the truck. Of course, if it can happen, it did. We found out we had no title for the truck. I still sold it to the guy fro parts but lost $750.00 due to him not being able to turn around and sell the chassis without a title. But it is gone and I do not have to worry with it no more. I spent the rest of the day either at the school working or running to the bank for the band to make deposits and get a check to purchase the trailer. I picked the trailer up in the afternoon and then when Hunter and I got home, started cleaning stickers off of it and getting it in tip top shape for the band. It is going to be so much better to use than the truck was. The family actually ate at home last night which was a great treat. Amy and I watched some TV and went to bed.

I now am at TCC for the 6:30 to 2:30 shift. It has not been to bad today here. I have done a lot of organization of things in my binders and worked on next months schedule. I did realize I had a brake problem on the Sable, so I will be doing a brake job on Saturday with Rex's help.

I am looking forward to this weekend. I get off from SAS tomorrow afternoon to work the ball game and don't have to work till Monday again. Beside doing the brake job, I hope to just do things with Amy and Hunter and relax.

I'll let you know how it goes. Bye for now

Jeff

Slow night at TCC with EMERGENCY DVD's

Good morning everyone,

I have been here at TCC all night on a 12 hour shift. It was a good quite night. I got 6 episodes of EMERGENCY watched. I am almost done with season 3.

I have had a good couple of days. Wednesday was at SAS. We only did like 5 or 6 calls (i know I only did 3) we did not run a call after we got back from Montgomery at about 6:30 pm. I stayed up all night to make it so I could sleep during the day Thursday cause I had to work the 7:30 p - 7:30 a shift here at TCC. So of course that is what I did during the day Yesterday till time to get up, get ready go get Hunter from Band and make it in to work. We have staff meeting at 7:30 this morning so I am doing this blog before everyone gets here. I will then go home and take a nap before having to be at the school around 2 to get ready to go to the football game tonight. We go to Pleasant Valley (close to Jacksonville). I am driving the old u-haul truck. It should be fun. LOL.

Ill talk to you guys later and let you know how the band did and I guess how the team did also.

Jeff

Friends and Faith feedback

Hello all,

I got a little feedback on my post about both friends and faith that I would like to share with you. A co-worker at TCC had some great comments that he shared with me. He told me that I needed to look at how I define friendship before I make a statement that I did not feel like I had friends. He asked me if I considered him a friend. I told him no, that I considered him a co-worker or acquaintance. He asked me why. He told me that he thought of me as a friend but not as a buddy. This really got me to thinking about what he was saying to me. He defined a friend as someone that you can go to and ask for help or talk to. It does not mean that you have to do things together or talk a lot. He gave the example of us like this - he said that if I was to call him and ask him if he wanted to go fishing for the day, he would find an excuse to say no because he does not like to fish. But if I was to call him and ask if he would come help me build a shed or house or do something like that, he would gladly come help cause he likes to do this type of thing. I have always defined a friendship by how much I put out verses how much I receive. I have figured out that that is the wrong way to approach being a friend. As most of you know, I am a giver and a doer. I don't know how to say no. Well that is what I have to change in order for me to find the JOY of friendship. I thought all the way home about the words that were said to me and then got to thinking of all the FRIENDS I have. I have more than I can count when I change my thinking of the people that I can call on if I need something. I got to thinking about the different friendships I have. For a few examples; David and I have a cigar friendship, Chris and I have a rib friendship, Patsy and I have a partner friendship, Marc and I have an old and lasting friendship, Charlie and I have a hunting friendship, and the list goes on and on. I am so sorry to those of you that I doubted our friendship because of my definition and way of thinking. I was wrong to have expectations of you that you did not even know about. And it is my choice to be the giver and not yours.

As far as a little inside into faith that I was given; it was pointed out to me that faith can be measured in the JOY you receive from anything you do that is a gift or ministry to others. You do not have to be in a church to minister or have faith. It is a good thing to have a good church home, to be able to give and receive joy in relationships between yourself and other believers. But if you believe that you have been saved and have FAITH, your soul belongs to GOD and all the non joy is the devil's work. Find joy in what you do and you will find peace. If you don't have joy in it, don't do it.

Thanks to you all for being my FRIENDS, for if you are reading this blog you probably care for me in some way, and that means a lot.

Jeff

Faith, Family and Friends

"It's just a normality of life that I've been searching for. I'm just tired of being gone."
Michael "Fatback" McSwain
http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/08/28/mmcswain.stepping.back.belliott/index.html

Hello everyone,

As you can tell from the header, I'm want to talk about how we all should look at how we are living our lives and slow down some.

As I was sitting at work Sunday, watching Speed channel prior to the NASCAR race, I saw a interview with Micheal "Fatback" McSwain that really caught me off guard. I really wish I had a recording of the interview to share with you, but I could not find it anywhere. As soon as the interview started, it caught my attention and made me start thinking about how what he was saying was how I felt almost entirely. He was telling the reporter that he has made the decision to step down from his crew chief duties at the end of this season due to his desire to work on his "Faith, Family and Friends". He reiterated that he had given everything he had for the last 15 years to gain in his career, but had sacrificed the relationships with his faith, family and friends. But now has figured out that this sacrifice he gave was not worth it in the end and he has decided to make the change in his life to regain some of what he has lost. I quote a comment from him," If I can lead one person over to celebrating life, I will have succeeded". He goes on to say that "I love life".

Well, this is the same type action that I have been trying to figure out how to make for several years now. Unfortunately, I am not as well off as Micheal and just can't stop working; which I don't think he is stopping, just slowing down. But his words of leading his life for his faith, family and friends really hit me hard and has given me a slogan to use in order to set my life to the way it needs to be. I am going to call it ''the three F's of life". I encourage all of you that read this to think about these words and make the decision with me to live your life by these "three F's.

I know that this is not something that can happen overnight, even though it should be that simple. But I will start working on this direction. I am open to any and all help from you as to how you have found to make these changes in your lives. If you are like me, it will be very difficult to change your ways of thinking and actions. But I feel that if we could all do as Micheal and just do it for ourselves and lead one other person to a better life, we will all succeed with life to the fullest.

FAITH

I am particularly going to have a hard time with the first "F", being Faith. I have my beliefs intact, I have just lost my way of worship. I do not feel that you have to necessarily go to a church to have faith, but do feel that I am missing something by not going to church and being involved with a church. As most of you know, I am a preacher's kid. I have used this as an excuse for not going to church for along time now. You see, when I go into a church building, that is what I see and feel. I find myself looking around finding problems that need fixing or the inner politics of the church tearing it apart. This just distracts me and I end up not coming out with the feeling I feel I should have. I do enjoy going to the contemporary service and the music and fellowship there. But I still don't make it a point to go when I can. As far as my example for Hunter, I don't know how. We have never been a faithful goer to church his whole life, so I am going to have to really think about and talk to Amy about how to make sure he knows what faith is. (Amy told me that she has pointed out faith as a lifestyle, not church "membership" in his daily life since he was little. Apparently they discuss "karma" as she calls it almost every day.) I feel that I have given worship thru my work on several occasions and have attempted to have compassion and be a steward for God as I deal with the different patients I come in contact with. But this is not enough, and I will be looking to find a way to better my Faith throughout this change in my life.

FAMILY

For most this would seem to be the easy part. Well, it is not. I love my family so much, but hardly ever show them or give them what they deserve. I tell myself that all the working I do is for them, but then work takes me away from them and is what drives my stress to make me grumpy and to disrespect them when I am around them. I find that due to being tired or irritated, I am short with them and they do not deserve this. Even having a intentional way of thinking about how I am acting, I find I still am short and irritated. So I have a large obstacle to work my way over. I also struggle with how to deal with Amy's illness a lot since she feels bad a lot of the time and I don't want to push her, but at the same time life has to go on and my way is to just push thru. I have to realize that she can't do that. We think so differently about things like that. Nether of us is wrong, its just a difference that causes stress a lot of the time. So that is something else for me to work toward being better at. Hunter is a typical 13 year old. He is growing up and I find myself having to remember how I was at that age. My parents have always told me that I would understand some of what they did when I was going up, and I find myself telling myself "so that is why you do it this way". I am so proud of Hunter and I hope he will keep growing in the way he is and stay smart and interested in living to the fullest. As far as my parents, brother, and other relatives, it is a day to day basis of what to deal with and how much I can do. I give to all them as much as I can, but still feel like I disappoint them sometimes. I know that they understand, but it does not make it easier on me as one who will give everything away before I think about myself or my family. I do not think I can ever repay my parents or Amy's parents for all the help they have done for us in the past. Perhaps one day I will hit it lucky and have enough to make a dent in the amount they have given to us. We have such a great extended family network and I thank all of them for all they do and hope we all can someday just sit and relax together.

FRIENDS

I struggle with friendships a lot. Most of what I know as friends recently are more work related than actual friendships. I hope no one misunderstands this as they read this, but I just don't feel that I have many current real friends that are life long and lasting. I find myself doing all the work to make the friendship work. I have tried on several occasions to have friendships, but my phone never rings or I am never asked to do things outside of seeing these people at work or other related events. The closest friend I have Is Andrea and she and I don't even contact each other much anymore. I am working on regaining some friendships with some of my old friends from school. But they are hard to re establish due to the distance between us and all the time that has passed. I feel that good friendships are very important to have, and struggle due to the fact that I feel lacking in this area. My partner on the ambulance is probably the closest person I have apart from my family. She and I know each other well, but it is not a "friendship" but rather a working relationship that is close to a friendship. But she at least cares about what goes on in my life and I do the same for her. Like I said earlier, I have a lot of people that I have a relationship with. I just wish I had a true good friend that we did things together and it was mutual in giving and taking.

Thanks for letting me share with you and I hope that all of you can understand that the feelings I have expressed are deep in nature and may be hard to understand. I don not wish any harm or ill feelings, just an open relationship with all of you to express my feeling and look forward to your input.

Love you all,

Jeff

Football, Band and School Stuff

As you can tell, I have several posts for you today. I did not want to do just one big one, so I have broken it down by subjects.

This one is about Winterboro school and all the activities of yesterday.

Amy and I started early at the school yesterday, getting there at about 9:45 for the 10 am pep rally. The pep rally went real well. The band sounded great, the cheerleaders looked great and the spirit was high. After the rally, Amy and I headed home to finish a lanyard ID for the new band director and get the bags for student of the week done. We went back to the school shortly after lunch. We picked up the student of the week snacks on the way back. At the school, Amy and I separated to do different tasks. She had student of the week to deliver and then went to work on the school's wiki site (see the new link on the right side panel for the school). I went to the concession stand to help clean it up from where some jerk had broken into it and stole about $1500 worth of drinks and stuff from us along with breaking the glass out to get in. I found several other band boosters already there and done with the clean up and were restocking what they were able to get on short notice from Coke and local stores. I headed back up to the school and found Amy working on the web site in Mrs. Knight's room. I went out to the band room and hung out till the end of school and I could catch Hunter before he got on the bus. We all went to town and got dinner then back home to let Hunter change into his band uniform and then straight back to the school. Amy and I had volunteered to work the concession stand for the night and of course Hunter had to march. We worked the stand till it was time for Hunter to march, then went out to watch his first performance. They did a great job. I will get some pics posted soon along with the video of the performance. We then headed back to the sauna, otherwise known as the concession stand. It was a lot of work, but we ended up doing real well in profits for the night. This money will go to make the uniform payment that is due. I hate that the football team had not so good of a night as the band. They ended up loosing the game 6-0 to Fayetteville. They fought hard and did not let Fayetteville score till late in the game, but need to step up their game considerably. I know it has to be hard adjusting to the new coach just like the band is adjusting to a new band director. They will both be fine, we just have to be patient for the programs to grow. We finally made it home about 10 pm. We sent Hunter to the shower first since, well he just smelt the worse of us. Amy and I also could not wait for showers since we both felt like french fries and hamburgers. After that, it was time for a pain pill and some sleep.

I am now here at TCC working. I am pulling a 10:30 a - 10:30 p shift. I will fill you in if something exciting happens. For now, I just am flight following helicopters and waiting for Amy to call me and let me know how much its going to be to fix our air conditioner that went out sometime during the night.

Update you guys later,

Jeff

Weather Watching

For you that do not know, I am a weather watcher for ABC 33/40 along with a Skywatcher for them also. I have a weather station here at my home and try to report the daily statistics every night. Hunter and Amy help me a lot when I am at the ambulance service. I look forward to one day being able to put my weather center up online and have a link here on my blog, but that is some time off.

As I said, we try to report every evening about 9:30 pm to the weather center at ABC 33/40 so that they can use the numbers if they wish. Sometimes they use rainfall, other times it is temperature readings. So as you watch ABC 33/40 and you see Sycamore , you know where it comes from.

Here is the link to the weather watcher reports that are submitted daily by all the Online Weather Watchers: http://beta.abc3340.com/weather/watcherreports.hrb

I wanted to give you my totals for August from the center:

Total rainfall recorded was 5.24 inches

Average High Temp: 97.7 degrees

Average Low Temp: 71.2 degrees

We had 12 day of 100 + degree heat

Congratulations to Dave

I received an e-mail from my friend Dave Sibley stating that a video he submitted to a contest had won. I have included the link he sent, so that you can view the winning video;

(http://www.firecamera.com/index.cfm?Section=4&pagenum=219&titles=0).

For those who have not checked out the link to the right side column of this blog that takes you to Dave's 911 site, you need to. He does a great job compiling pictures and video from all over of all the hard working men and women of the field.

I congratulate Dave for his video receiving some recognition and I know he will put the helmet cam that he won to great use around the area and get us some great video to see later.