Ever notice the brown spots on the leaves in the fall? if you notice BIG brown or black spots, you should destroy the leaf. It is actually a bad fungus which will re-infect the tree next year if the leaf is allowed to lay on the ground near the tree. 
So I have been with the department now for almost 3 months now. Elections are coming up soon for the officers to shuffle their positions. So the hall has been busy with a lot of politics lately, which is not surprising – but for someone like me who is trying to learn new stuff at drills, and not stand around while the others talk politics – that is kind of irritating. That being said, I have been informed that I can request drills outside of the regular weekly drills if I want the extra time and training. All I have to do is ask an officer if they have time to come out and drill with me.
Lately I have been doing a lot of driver training. Honestly, driving the truck is just like driving Studio 1010 when I used to work for CFRB in Toronto. Therefore I am completely comfortable driving it. It does not intimidate me. While yes it is heavier then Studio 1010, and it has air breaks which are completely new to me – these are things I have quickly adapted to. Heck, I have piloted a twin engine prop plane for upwards of 2 hours straight (a real plane), have driven a subway and streetcar, and operated some heavy equipment. A firetruck is really pretty easy.
Gettin’ the handline ready…
Wednesday at regular drill I was shown how the pump works, and then took the truck onto the I-190 for a mile or so – got it up to about 60. Then drove around for a bit. Thursday, my Captain took me out for some more driver training. I wanted to play with the pump some more and see the deck gun in action. So I took the truck to a parking lot and proceeded to apply a LOT of water to a small park. I also wanted to get some more experience with a hand line in, so I pulled a hand line off the truck and charged it up. I then went and sat on it (being it was only me on the line) and we pushed the pressure up fairly high. I opened the nozzle all the way and tried to compete with the deck gun in a kind of gigantic version of a piss sword fight… LOL
Not quite sure how much pressure I was handling right there, but the nozzle was fully opened and Bernie was sending me a lot of water.
Afterward we went for coffee and then returned to the station. I was told that I am quite skilled as a driver so far and that we should hurry up and work me towards my firefighter 1 classification. So that was very cool. Honestly, a lot of people tend to think being a driver is boring because you stand around by the pumper at fires. But to me, that is more interesting then going in and seeing / fighting a fire. I love working with machines or systems. I challenge myself to try to get the most out of a system as possible within normal operating boundries. So the challenge for me as a driver / pump operator is really what attracts me to that position – being able to tweak the system to get enough water out of it for a extra hand line for example would be awesome – and also a very useful talent at a fire scene. I have photos of Thursdays action, as both my Captain and my friend were there taking photos. So I should have some posted in the next few days.
I think in the next few driver training drills I do, I would like to focus on accident avoidance and various other similar type stuff. I know how the truck handles normally, but what if I had to slam on the breaks at 45mph… I need to feel the truck and learn how it will respond in such circumstances. That way when I do need to stop or whatever, I know what to expect. I would like to be able to avert a scenario where a car pulls out about 100 or so feet in front of me while I am doing 45. I have an idea how we could set up that scenario with cones too in a large parking lot. I also want to test the truck on ice when things start to get cold. A nice big parking lot would be good for that as well.
Rollin’ up the hose…
As far as pumping stuff I would like to learn – I want to be able to run a pumper with a monitor, deck gun, and as many hand lines as possible. I want to see how much I can squeeze out of one pumper. Of course something like that would likely have to take place on a normal drill night when enough people are around to man all those hoses…. Sadly knowing how things work, only 4 or so people would actually be on a hose at a drill… So I guess I would be limited to maybe 2 or 3 hand lines – 4 If I am lucky. Any more then that, and I wont have enough people to man them.
All in all, I am enjoying the gig. It will be interesting to see how the elections are going to go. I have decided that I am only going to be voting for people who have taken the time to help me as a probie and answer my questions – or at least direct me to people who can. People who just shrug whenever I ask them something, are likely not getting my vote for anything.
That being said – Apparently I am Sergeant at Arms. Sergeant at Arms is a ’social’ Officer position which is basically responsible for keeping order at meetings. The position is also responsible for bringing each meeting to session. I was mainly appointed this position in jest in order for me to learn the Pledge of Allegiance (since I am Canadian). But apparently the position is mine… So gee… I wonder what they would say if I try to claim to want to be part of the ‘officer’ meetings now? (not that I would want to be). Anyhow, yeah, good old politics. I mainly just want to learn… I am TRYING to stay out of that political stuff, but sometimes it is very hard to keep my mouth shut when I have an opinion on something.
In an unrelated note, things have been going well lately. I have made a few bucks here and there lately – mainly selling things – so things have been alright. But I still do need to find a job. Obviously something that does not interfere with the firehall at all would be excellent. Finally got the jeep into the garage, and passed my inspection. I had been putting it off for a while based on my wheel bearings, but I was told that they are apparently alright. Its my differental which is making all the noise. But apparently that is not as serious.
Free Enterprise is a very addictive old game from 1996. I recently found some files for it from some abandonware website. I have uploaded it on my site as well.
Basically the premise of the game is to build an industry / company and produce things / make money. It is a challenge and is quite fun. The old CD ROM version I had always seemed to crash in Windows XP, but this downloaded copy seems to work perfectly.
Download it, check it out, and enjoy
This Axixtech Torrent Lightbar is a lightbar which keeps on catching my eye time after time. From reviewing the documentation on this lightbar (found here: http://www.lightningxproducts.com/pdfs/TORRENT.pdf) one can easily see that this lightbar is very adaptable and customizable.
I hope to soon be able to showcase and write a first hand review on this lightbar, but from doing my homework on it, I really like what I see. First of all, is the price. Sure $1000 is a bit steep for a Volunteer like myself, but compared to other lightbars, and taking into account the many options this bar has, which many other bars do not have, this is a very reasonable price indeed.
From the look of some of the close up photos I have seen on a specific retailers website, I have noticed that the LED modules are all XL6’s XL9’s, and/or DXL9’s – which is laymans terms, are Axixtech’s Linear LED Light modules (and Dual Color Light Modules). These modules are very bright and have become the standard LED light which everyone tries to copy. Even Whelen, Code 3 and Federal Signal are left in the dust with these lights.
The Torrent features the option for up to 6 forward facing Halogen Take Down lights at 35watts each. These are the MR-11 style lamps. They are also used for the Alley lights on each side (limit 1 per side). Being that I am personally trying to cut back on power draw, I am really considering either ordering the bar with White LX4 LED’s in place of the Halogen modules, or somehow jerry rigging some white LX4’s into the bar in place of the take down lights. However I would like to compare the 2 setups personally. While Take Down lights are not very important to me, it would be interesting to see which one is more effective and compare that with the amount of power used.
One of the main selling points is the integrated directional capability of this bar. The rear facing colored LED modules (i.e. Blue, Red, Green…) are all dual color modules mixed with Amber, so when you activate the traffic director, the colored light turns off, and is replaced with amber light for the traffic director module. While this is a great feature, it might be too late for this implementation. Noticing a lot of police departments switching to full RED, or full BLUE or even mixed RED/BLUE traffic directors – a practice which is becoming more common place, and widely accepted.
That being said, RED/BLUE traffic directors are often more difficult to read from a distance then pure AMBER traffic directors. The only problem with amber is that on a highway, Amber lights are not seen as a ‘warning light’ anymore by most motorists. Where as Red or Blue tends to make people slow down. That being said, if Axixtech made the bar capable of having another color other then amber as the secondary traffic director color, then perhaps that would make the bar that much better!
The bar has 4 modes of operation.
Mode 1 is still a tad confusing to me. Normal operation just describes a list of flash patterns which are selectable. However another operation method describes the ability to alternate and sync the front left light head with the rear right light head, and likewise the rear left light head with the front right light head. So this makes me think that this mode is similar to your ‘Alternating lights’ mode – i.e something like this, minus all the other lights, only the topmost lights (and minus the stingray) where only 2 modules are lit up and alternate per side. Used mainly when parked at a scene and out of the way of traffic. If this is indeed the case, then that is pretty sweet.
Mode 2 is fully programmable in pairs. I.e. you start off in programming mode with the inner middle front set of lights and work your way out.
Mode 3 is also fully programmable in the same fashion, however the Take Down lights, and the Alley Lights are also programmable to flash. The Traffic Director, and Steady on Alleys / Take Downs will not override Mode 3 (but they will override Modes 1 and 2).
Cruise mode turns on the corner modules at half power in a steady state setting which keeps all the corner lights on. Some police departments are using this now to identify police cars when they are just driving around, and not on any emergency calls. In my case, I would likely use this function in combination with my parking lights for when I am sitting idling somewhere and hanging out.
The bar also has the ability to shut off the front, and rear facing lights in any mode, as well as dim all lights for night time use. One of the features I find most attractive about the bar however, is the bar itself. The clear outer lenses are very nicely molded and feature some nice diffusers at the top and bottom, which help redirect light which is directed upwards and downwards, back out towards traffic. Also with 2 modules (a total of 12 LED’s) facing on a 45 degree angle on each corner, this bar provides excellent corner protection when you compare it to other bars.
The only disadvantage of having such a bar with so many excellent features is the need for a control panel. My current setup of a single button for Primary lights and another button for Secondary lights will not do this bar justice. Sadly I will likely have to source out a used Smart Siren somewhere for this sucker. That being said, this bar does more then any other bar I have seen on the market so far, and all for about $1000 new. If you are looking for an LED bar, the Torrent should be on your list of bars to consider.
No, I am not speaking about the tons and tons of illegally dumped uranium and other radioactive wastes from the Manhattan Project. However this story does involve the Military.
I have gotten wind of a training excercise which will be happening in the area over the next few weeks. Basically the Military will be taking over many locations in the area to do a mock disaster relief / rescue operation. Several locations will be involved in this massive search and rescue operation. Some such sites will be the Spalding Fiber location, where bodies (unknown if their alive volunteers or training dummies) will be buried in piles of rubble. Search dogs and military search and rescue teams will work to find the bodies, and recover them. Other sites will range from the Tonawanda Fire Towers to various other abandoned sites located in North Tonawanda, Niagara Falls, and Lewiston.
The general storyline is that on November 1st, 2009, a earthquake will occur in the area, destroying the City of Tonawanda’s only (non existing) hospital. 1,200 Military Troops, and approximately 400 civilian responders will be called in in large convoys to preform search and rescue of other sites which were destroyed by the mock earthquake.
Sadly however, while apparently local agencies are welcomed to be involved, so far there has been no word from the military as to if such agencies will be involved or not.
The Military will be setting up a command post, and will be using military vehicles and helicopters in this drill.
I just can’t get enough of USS. An amazing duo from Toronto, which is quickly catching on all over the world. Their music is generally like nothing I have really ever heard before. I think the wikipedia article on them describes the sound best: The USS sound is a mixture of drum and bass grunge-like guitar riffs and 2-step rhythms. “We like to call what we do ‘the campfire after-party,’ ” Buchholz says. “It’s like you’re at Nirvana Unplugged but there’s a drum and bass party and glow sticks all around you.”
Their first single hit was Hollowpoint Sniper Hyperbole quickly became a hit after being played in heavy rotation on 102.1 The Edge in Toronto. The band did not expect the sudden fame, and quickly got to work recording more songs, and putting together videos.
Another song for which the music video really shows how crazy and unique these guys are, is Laces Out. A song inspired by Ace Ventura.
I would like all my American friends to give them a listen. Enjoy