New Career

So I am enjoying my time here in Vermilion, but I have recently realized that what I really want to do is be a photographer. Last week I actually dropped out and just walked around taking pictures all week. Here are a few of my favorites.

I expect you all will support me in my new career. It is what I have always wanted to do.

Finally Fire....

After weeks of building up our skills with no flames, this week I finally got to put out some fires. I have hundres of photos, but here are a couple of highlight pics.













































These are all Industry fires, the idea being there is a gas leak and we have to get close enough to shut off a valve. Got real up close and personal. Have to say, it was pretty awesome. Next week we move into structure fires.

But enough about fire fighting already...

I'm heading home this weekend. Not looking forward to the drive, but I am excited to get home and see the wife. I am doing a EMS ride along on Saturday, and I am also pretty excited for that. I won't get to get my hands on any patients, but it will be great to see some EMT's in action.

Can we believe that Tiger won the US open are a broken leg? The media is playing it up way to much, but I have to say, that guy makes it exciting to watch golf.

So what else is new... the blue Jays suck, but Riders season is right around the corner. Looking pretty good in pre-season, can't wait to see the green and white defend the cup.

It interesting how everyone around school is getting to know me... for example, I am already well known for my sports knowledge and my back seat driving, and I get bugged about being a banker quite often. Mostly I am known as the married guy. The one structure we put fires out on today (the big flames) is called the widow maker. Being the only married fellow in the group, everyone gave me a shout out when we went in to that one. Luckily I did survive.

Why aren't there more firefighter movies? There are about 1 million cop movies, but the only movies based on firefighters that I know are Backdraft and Ladder 49. Others are sort of about firefighting, like Frequency or Always, but I think there should be more. I would go watch them.

Later gang.

This and that.

What to say, I haven’t talked too many of you in such a long time.

Today me and two others from my class went into Edmonton, or more specifically Sherwood park. This is home to the Strathconna County fire department. We went to Hall #1 and got a great tour. It is an integrated service, which means that they are both fire and EMS. This is very appealing to me and they seem like a very with it department… new trucks, innovative equipment, good everything really. I still hope something works out in Regina, but if not I am at least feeling like their might be some other options for Mrs. Brody and I.

A couple weekends ago I competed in the River land Adventure Challenge. I went with 5 other students form my program and we knew it was sort of for fun but we still planned on wining it. Well it did NOT go well. Started off great, then about 20 seconds in one of our twosomes tipped their canoe. 10 minutes later they were back in but we were so far back we were pretty much the last ones out of the canoes. The 5k run was next, and that went pretty good, can’t really screw up a run, and we made up lost of time, but then the bike started and about 500m in to the 15k I blew my front tire. So then for the rest of the way we had to double one person, or one person ran while the rest biked. At that point it meant we were just having fun, so it was good times. It was less fun when we missed our last turn and instead of being about 500m from the finish we went 5k in the wrong direction, then 5 k back. I was not happy. But all in all a good day. Still glad I did it.

So what else had been going on besides fire stuff? Not much. There really isn’t much going on around here besides school. I am on a slo-pitch team, it’s actually pretty fun. The golf course here is pretty decent and I have put in a few rounds there. And with 9 holes costing only 12 bucks it is dirt cheap. Combine that with watching some Jays games, about 6 phone calls a day with the lovely wife back home and that pretty much is what is going on with me.

Later folks.

Riders are 1-0 in the preseason…nice.

Here are a couple pictures for your viewing pleasure.