Friday night bliss and a Beautiful Saturday

I left you as I was leaving work Friday headed to the game. As normal, the band looked good, but the team did not. I am not a football person, so I can not tell you what is going on with them. It looks like they just can't get together. As I said, the Blue Knights looked good. They performed the entire show for the first time and I thought did a good job. The video for the performance is in the right side area under a new link place to videos. Just click the video you want to see and it will start showing at the top of this column. Then you can click on the link under the video to go to a larger screen size viewing. I will attempt to keep the videos from the games posted. Other videos I post to Google will also show up here, so look for the band picture for band video. I have already posted two videos, one is of our band. The other is of the TCCHS band performance at the County wide exhibition at Childersburg on Tuesday. It is a show to see. I will get our performance from the exhibition uploaded soon. I upload from my computer at work due to the very high speed connection we have verses at home.

Let me cover the last couple of days for you. Friday night went well. We made a decent amount from the concession stand. It actually got chilly during the game. Amy worked a table to sign up PTSA members and I think got 5 members signed up. I slept good that night. Saturday, I headed to SAS with concerns due to the events of last shift. To my surprise, the day went pretty smooth. We only ran 8 calls total with my unit transporting two and a public assist and a PRT. We got some good sleep. during the day and night. My partner and I rode out to the Sycamore Fire Fighter appreciation day at Chief's house. It looked like they had a good time. We only stayed a short time.

Today, I got home about 8:15. I laid down with Amy to watch some TV before getting ready for work. I of course fell asleep. I got up at noon, got ready and left for TCC. Picked up lunch and take out for supper at Hooters. Made it in to work on time. A co-worked at TCC brought me his trencher so I can cut the conduit trench to my shop tomorrow. I think I will go ahead and trench in a line from the water line to the shop while I have it and put in a spigot at the concrete pad for so we can wash the tractor or whatever. I'll let you know how it goes next time I post.

I work tell 10:30 tonight and then have plans to work outside tomorrow till time to go to Band Boosters, Scouts and a Foundation meeting tomorrow night.

Till next time,

Jeff

Rough end week of Sept 07

Hello everyone,

I have had a rough week this week. I sure hope you have had better. My works have both been very stressful this week with conflicts between fellow employees and my worrying on how to solve the problems. If you know anything about me, you know that I do not like conflict and am a saver of the world and its problems. Well, this week has been one that I have gotten into messes trying to do just that, solve the problems and reduce conflict. But as always, it has just made it worse.

I ended the last blog at work on Saturday, it ended without much incident.

Sunday was at SAS, the day was slow but of course we were up all night.

Monday, I went home and slept till noon. Got up to get ready for work and headed to TCC. I barley made it in time. We had a busy shift but during the shift I did try and solve some of the problems with the pool personnel shift schedule that a co worker and I are trying to get started at the request of Joe. We are getting some resistance to the change and a couple of people are real mad, but Joe approved the plan, so I guess I will just have to put up with the complaining and being mad at me till it all blows over. I did not get out of there till after 11 pm. That meant getting home after midnight. Amy needed help with a couple things so I did not lay down till after 2 am.

Tuesday, I got up with Amy at 6 am. I worked on getting the trailer ready to go get painted on Wednesday. I also worked on checking grants and doing some fund raising calls for the band. I went to town to check on Amy, who was a chaperon for the pool party at school. I then had lunch and headed home to complete getting the trailer done and to be at the school at 3 pm to get loaded for the band exhibition. The band did a great show. Then it went downhill. We had several kids decided to wonder off and be where they were not supposed to be. Myself and another parent went to retrieve them. One of the students decided to be trouble and resist the command to go back to where he was supposed to be, He was verbally abusive toward us and to Ms. Street ( the band director). this just made the rest of the night tense and unenjoyable. When we got back to the band room and were unloading, Amy called and said she was coming to meet us but the car would not start. We finally got all the students gone about 10 pm and Hunter and I headed home. We have not eaten supper even at this late of an hour. I got home and found that indeed the car would not turn over. It jumped right off, so we headed to town to get a bite to eat. The funny thing that happened during this was that Amy (known for going slow everywhere) got pulled over for going 40 in a 25. The officer knew me and did not give her a ticket, but it was funny to Hunter and I. We ate at McDonalds and Kelly came by and visited with us there. When we got ready to leave, the car would not crank again, Kelly couldn't jump us with the patrol car so as I was hunting for someone to help us, he pulled back up with a fellow Sycamore FD member that he had come across down the road who jumped us off. So once again, I got in bed about 2 in the morning.

Wednesday, I got up at 5:30 so that I could take the band trailer to the body shop and get the truck back home so that I can jump the car off and leave it for Amy to use. I then headed back to town to get a the battery checked and replaced. I made it in to work at SAS just a few minutes late. That is when everything went wrong. Of course I was grumpy and tired. I was in the supply room and was gripping about the lack of some supplies and not knowing who my partner was today since David had school again and Patsy would not be with me. Patsy heard my gripping and for some reason got upset with me and yelled about several issues and stomped off. I got with Preston and we left to run some errands. we got a call and then the other unit had to go to Montgomery. While they were gone, we ran our tails off. Then when they got back, we again had a small conflict with the other crew about a call. It took a four page report to Barry to explain all the events of that day and night, so I will not bore you with all the details. Lets just say that it did not get better but worse, to the point that Patsy left in the middle of the night.

Thursday, I was awoke by Barry to ask me to write a incident report on the events of the night. I had to work over till 6 pm today. I got up and wrote the report. The mood around the service was awful for the whole day and of course I was tired since I had all of 2 hours of sleep and not good sleep at that. We had a decent day with not to many calls. I got off work at 6 pm and made my way to the PTS meeting at the school. we than went to dinner and I got to bed a little before 10. Finally some decent sleep.

And now it is Friday. I am at TCC working the 6:30am - 2;30 pm shift. I left the house at 5:30 and made it in fine. We have had a very slow day. I got about 30 minutes before I get to head home to change clothes and go to the school to work the concession stand. Then to SAS tomorrow ( I am worried about what the mood will be).

I will update you on Sunday when I am back at TCC.

Tell Then,

Jeff

Trailer for Band taking shape

I can not believe I have not put on a blog all week. It has been a busy week.

I don't even think I can start to tell you about the whole week, but I will give you a quick snapshot.

Monday was a SAS day, We had a pretty good day till that evening. About dark (we were headed to dinner), the other unit got a call to a possible death of unknown type. We went as backup for them. We arrived to find a young man (22 yo) ,that we all knew due to the fact that he worked at the hospital, dead on the couch. No apparent reason for death. As I did a survey of the home for possible medication bottles or other facts, I came across some explosive devices and what looked like a bag of nails. We evacuated the home immediately. The ABI came and cleared the home before we could remove the body. it made for a long few hours. I fell for our acquaintance, but we all knew he had some problems going on and was not right when it came to firearms and explosives. It scared all of us that he had the devices we found. The ABI confirmed that the devices were triggers for hand grenades and the bag of what looked like nails were something he called fasets. He explained that these were projectiles from the Korean and Vietnam war that are basically nails with fins on them so that they fly straight. He told us they are rare to see and mostly use to load shotgun shells with to fire like a bunch of arrows. Like I said before, it was not a good feeling to know these things are out there much less that a person you knew and someone that talked about weapons all the time had them and was doing something with them. We finished the night pretty quietly.

Tuesday, Got off and got ready to head to B'ham for an afternoon shift. I ran a bunch of errands on the way in. I had to go to the cleaners, to Home Depot for stuff to work on the trailer on Wednesday. I then went to the Rogers to pick up the new band director podium that Mr. Rogers built so that the new director would not fall threw the old one. It looks great. He helped me round off the edges for the boards for the new trailer floor dividers also. Mr. Rogers had also called a friend of his and arranged for some railing to go in the trailer, so I left there and went to pick it up. I made it in to work a little early. It was an interesting day with a charge from my director to figure out how to get all the "pool" staff on a path to doing our schedule differently. A co-worker and I figured out that the only way to make it work with the staff never being in one place at a time and it hard to communicate between us, was to do it online. So I set up a new Blogspot for tccpool and than linked a calendar program to it so that we can input our days and communicated from where ever we are. It is not exciting or anything, but you are welcome to look at it.

On Wednesday, I spent all day stripping put the inside of the trailer and rebuilding a system for the instruments and equipment to be secured. Check out all the pictures of the trailer by clicking on the Picasa link to the Right side of this and go to the band album. It looks great inside. Oh and by the way, I got a my friend who owns Watson Paint and Body to agree to paint the trailer for the band and he got Dupont to donate the paint for it. I also painted the podium base and put the carpet on it. The podium was delivered that afternoon when we picked Hunter up from practice. We relaxed the rest of the evening after dinner. I guess it was the first time I had sat and watched the new TV. It is amazing to me how clear the picture is, even without the HD tuner yet.

Thursday came, I went to SAS and Any to the school. She called me shortly after 9 am and said she was having trouble with her vision and had blacked out a couple of times. I went ahead and took the day off so that I could watch her and be there if she needed anything. It actually gave me a restful day that I probably needed anyway. She is doing fine now, i think it was just the sinus infection she has that has been going around these parts. I picked Hunter up from practice and we went to town and ran a couple of errands and picked up dinner then relaxed some more.

Friday was of course a busy day for us. I finished a few things that needed doing to the trailer for use for the game. Did some chores around the house, then headed to town to get my radio programed and get some lunch. I got to the school at 2 pm to hang a curtain rod for Amy and then load the band trailer. If you looked at the pictures, you saw that everything fit great and it went well. The game went well tell the rain came than it all fell apart. We rushed to get instruments in the trailer and out of the rain and during this, one of the football players got hurt and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. At the same time, we had a band member having chest pains and shortness of breath. We ended up calling a ambulance for her also and she went to the hospital. we left a parent with her and headed back to Winterboro. As soon as I got back to the school, Amy picked me up and we headed back to Wedowee to pick up the parent and check on the students. My mom came and picked Hunter up and took him home with her for the night. We got back to Wedowee a little after midnight to find that everyone was already gone home. I sure wish I had had phone signal threw the woods so that we could have not made that trip. We got back to the school about 1:45 and picked up the truck and got home right after 2am. I don't even remember laying down.

And now it is Saturday. I am at work at TCC. So far it has been a good day, But it is a Saturday, so there is no telling what will happen later.

I will fill you in next time. Check out the pictures on the Picasa link to the Right for pictures from the week in the Band and school albums. I also put a vidio below of the band as thay prepair and play thae fight song as the team comes to the field at Woodland.

Jeff

What a beutiful Weekend

I don't know how your weekend was, but mine was great. Could not ask for better.

Friday, started at SAS a had a good day. Got off from there and went to the ballgame to volunteer in the concession stand. We had a decent night as far a fund raising goes. the team did not have such a good night, but the band did well. Came home and got to sleep in my bed.

Got up Saturday morning and headed to town to get the parts to fix the car. Rex hand I knocked the job right out and I learned a little about brake work. Rex then took me on a tour of the river down stream from his place. It was so beautiful out there and the temp was awesome with a cool breeze. Got home to find Amy and Hunter up and we got ready and went on to Birmingham to do some shopping. I did not find the Crocs I was looking for nut we did find a good deal on a 42 inch LCD monitor that Amy wanted to buy the family for both TV watching and for the computer to work on her web sights. Like I'm going to argue with that. We also got a DVD player that expands the current DVD's to 1080p format and records DVD's so Amy can record some of her shows she keeps on the DVR. Hunter and I got it hooked up and watching fast when we got home. We took the Sony 32 inch up to grandmom's so that she would have a bigger set so it would be easier for her to see.

I got to sleep in this morning which I needed badly. When I got up, Hunter was on the phone and Amy was still asleep so I went out and pulled the vinyl stickers off the trailer for the band. Hunter and I then did some more work on getting the trailer cleaned up and ready for new carpet and to be cleaned up good. We straighten up the shop and fixed a bar on the 3 point hitch of the tractor. Since then I have just relaxed, ate dinner and done this blog. I look forward to a busy week, but it should be a good week.

Talk to you later,

Jeff

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