All is good

Hi all, i was just thinking that any of you who check my blog might see my last post and think that I am still miserable.

So just to let you know I am good. Some things still piss me off, but some things have changed. I have cooled down.

Anywho, changing the subject. This weekend is the Brizzy's wedding in which I will be best man/MC. Should be lost of fun. Hope to see you all during my week of starting August 9th.

Take care out there.

How good have the Riders been?!?! Hope we can keep it going in spite of all in injuries.

No Discipline

I am pretty pissed off at my fellow class mates today. It isn’t just one thing, but a number of things that have really got me going. It had been building for a while, and I think I need to vent a little.

It all stems around the fact that I am highly disappointed in the discipline our class is showing as a group. I blame the administration of the school somewhat, and I will touch on that in a bit, but my fellow classmates are starting to let me down.

Not showing up for gym in the mornings…giving a half ass effort at gym… not showing up for class because of whatever reason… lying about assignments being handed in…blaming the teachers for the program for all their problems… complaining… complaining… and more complaining.

Diving a bit more into these; on Friday we have 1/3 of our class missing from gym class. Yep, only 20 of 30 people showed up. One individual also missed gym on Thursday and Monday. That just isn’t good enough to me. On Thursday our fitness instructor didn’t show because he slept in…it happens, but many students, rather than stay and do the 20k bike like we knew we were supposed to, just went home…I just expected more form people. Or there is our test today, several people didn’t study, but when they do poorly they blame the school. Or they did fine and brag about not studying and passing…well way to sneak by champ! One person in out class regularly misses Friday’s and Monday’s and I really don’t see any fallout of this…what message does that send to the rest of us.

I may sound like a bit of a hypocrite about the complaining piece, seeing as this blog is one hug complaint, but people seem to focus so much on the negative it is getting to me. Be happy about the fact that you are here; you could be doing something much, much worse.

As for the administration, I am disappointed at the discipline tactics they use…when I came into this program I was told it was going to be para-military, and I expected to have a bit of a rough go…HA! No freaking way. Did you know that our instructors are not allowed to make us do more than 10 pushups at a time…this is a OH&S guideline. This obviously doesn’t include gym class, but what a joke. I thought I would be doing pushups every time I was late, every time I misspoke or screwed something up. One person in our class missed last Friday because they were to hung-over to come, on Monday the instructor told her that he wasn’t mad, he was more feeling bad for her because he knew how bad she must have felt… FUCK OFF! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!...again, what message does that send to the rest of us.

I thought when I came here I was going to be pushed to improve myself…they told us we would become a different person, and I honesty don’t think I am any more disciplined than I was before I came. It pains me to say that, but I just expected to much more.

It’s not like I find this course super easy, it is challenging academically, physically, and emotionally… at times…but I came here to be pushed…and for the most part I have not been.

Anyway, I think I need to talk to someone at the school about this. I don’t know if it is better in person or in writing but I need to let them know what I think. And I am not alone. There are a few people in the program who are very focused, very dedicated, very disciplined….they make me look like a loser gang banger, and I can’t begin to tell you how much I respect them, how much they inspire me. I just wish there were more people like that. It’s not the course material or content that I have a problem with, it is the overall, general attitude that seems to be prevalent in the group and in the school. It’s like after years of teaching, they have lost some of there heart. I don’t want them to break us like we are in boot camp, but I would like to see consequence for behavior seems to be very clearly unacceptable.

And to my classmates… are you not hear because you want to be…are you not trying to be ready for one of the greatest and most respected professions in the world…do you not respect the sort of effort that takes…do you not respect all the firefighters that have done this before you…are you not worried about how you look and how ready you will be when school is over.

Tell me, please, am I being to hard on people? Am I just expecting to much. It is because I think what I am trying to do here is more special than it actually is. Am I going to be equally disappointed when I get a job after this and see that all firefighters are not what I thought they would be.

Can I take that kind of disappointment and still be in the profession.

Writing this has not made me feel better.

more randomness

After working out early Tuesday morning I returned home to two cop cars blocking my parking spot and two officers standing by my front door. I thought for a moment that my roommate finally flipped his lid and what up on the roof with a riffle, but it turned out there was some sort of domestic at our neighbors apartment. When I walked by I could still hear shouting. Nothing really exciting came out of it, but it’s always cool when cops are at our door.

The Mrs and I spent part of our long weekend in Edmonton. Highlights include our Polynesian themed room at the Fantasy Land Hotel at the west Ed. The room was complete with a bed that seemed like some sort of boat, and a large Jacuzzi, complete with waterfall. However the TV remote did not work to my satisfaction, so I give the room only 3 stars.

Speaking of TV, the riders won and that makes me happy. I watched that game in Edmonton and was happy to cheer out loud when watching the game in the lounge at Chilis.

Also in E-town we went to Body Worlds – which is an exhibit of actual human cadavers, preserved and placed in interesting positions to allow viewers to see how the body works. Examples were a guy playing basketball, a person sitting and playing chess, or one had two dudes playing football – one talking the other. The have holes or layers cut away to highlight different systems in different models. Very cool stuff. I would recommend this to anyone going to Edmonton before the show ends in mid October.

We all have pet peeves, and I may have more than the average guy. One that has been bugging me lately is people who swear loudly in public. Don’t get me wrong, I swear, at times I swear a lot, but I do not like to swear in the presence of children or seniors. But you get those people in public places that drop the loud f-bombs for everyone to hear and it makes me cringe. I think it is a huge display of disrespect, and by the name of this here blog you now that would not sit well with me. I think it really shows a general lack of character.

I can NOT believe the leafs signed Jeff Finger to a 4 year deal worth 3.5 million per season. Why is it the insist on overpaying players that don’t deserve to be overpaid. It would be one thing if they overpaid Marion Hossa, but they insist on overpaying players like Bryan McCabe, Jason Blake, and Jeff Finger.

I need to do two speeches this week in class. I’m not worried about them, but I am stumped on what topic to do my persuasive speech on. I am doing my informative speech on how to officially score a baseball game, but I can’t decide what to persuade people about. I have thought about sports or driving habits, but it needs to be 20 minutes and I don’t know if those two things will take up enough time.

Later gang.

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.

Selling the farm

Well not exactly, just selling all the equipment that we used on the farm.

Yep, this past weekend was a big event in the history of Brady farms, Saturday, April 5th marked the day that our family officially got out of farming. I won’t dwell on the financial part of it all, we did ok on the sale, not great, but good enough (I think – you’ll have to ask my dad I guess), but I have to tell you that I know my Grandma was rolling over in her grave – she was always concerned that this day would come. I feel like it is sort of my fault that this day did indeed come ( well, mine and the bros). With no boys in my dad’s brother family, and my Dad’s sisters family settling in Alberta about 40 years ago, it was really up to Luke and I to be the ones to keep the farm going… and we failed miserably. Fact is neither of us really wanted that for our life. For myself, I have always enjoyed farm work, but I new from a young age that I wanted to leave the farm and pursue a different life. I didn’t know exactly what, but I new that it wasn’t going to be in a tractor, combine, or pulling a calf. I’m not sure my parents wanted the farmer life for me either, as they saw many of the tough times of farming throughout the years, and thought I good live a better life doing something else. They always preached that we should find our own way, and we did, and all the power to us, but after 100+ years of farming (we even have the sign to say so), and no one to pass the rains to (no pun intended) the Brady farm is now being forced to “hang them up”, and that is sort of sad. All the hard work that my parents, their parents, and several parents before them put in, building up the livestock, the land, and everything else, is now being sold off or rented out. It’s not all bad though, I am SUPER happy for my folks, as I think they deserve a chance to do something else for their remaining working years before a well deserved retirement. And the “homestead” is not being sold, and I think that it will be a long time before that home quarter is ever vacated by our family. Mom and Dad have many years left there, plus the Uncle and Aunt, and the cousins that built a house on the farm about 10 years ago. Luke claims that he might move back there, not necessarily to farm, but to live and work, and I hope he does.

There is indeed a deep and great history on the Brady farm and I hope it continues to build memories for a long time to come, even if there aren’t any cows mooing, or tractors starting on any given day. Like the say, all good things must some to an end, its just to bad that I know that I am the one that is ending this tradition and legacy.

Here’s to Brady farms… it was a great farm, with a great history, and it will be remembered for a long time. Thanks for the memories.