the 100% directionless thread

Nothing like your brand new truck with 152 miles on it having to be towed back ti dealer because it won't start.
Apparently the frame ground was broken. Now in line at shop to get a couple of DOT violations fixed too.
 
I guess it was too much to ask to be able to just drive through the parking lot at Costco (just tryna leave) and NOT get cutoff 3 different times before I can even leave said parking lot... -_-

Apparently the frame ground was broken. Now in line at shop to get a couple of DOT violations fixed too.
Ooof that sounds $$$
 
110 outside, perfect weather to row 6500 meters in 30 minutes in the apparatus bay.
 
Ooof that sounds $$$
Nope...less than 160 miles on truck. Problem found during initial accept inspection since it wouldn't start. Better not cost me a penny.
 
Well just transported a 90 y/o who has a history of Scarlet Fever. Never expected that, or the Spanish Inquisition.
 
Well just transported a 90 y/o who has a history of Scarlet Fever. Never expected that, or the Spanish Inquisition.

Not so crazy if it was as a child — scarlet fever in the pre-penicillin era (or at least pre-sulfa drugs) was a serious risk.
 
Well just transported a 90 y/o who has a history of Scarlet Fever. Never expected that, or the Spanish Inquisition.
My oldest has had it twice with strep. Ironically her name is Scarlett.

ETA: more appropriately, she has had the scarlatina rash.
 
I’m a bit jealous of him because at 90 he still has a full head of hair, not that grey (although that could be artificial color), which is more than I’m going to have when I’m his age.
 
I’m a bit jealous of him because at 90 he still has a full head of hair, not that grey (although that could be artificial color), which is more than I’m going to have when I’m his age.
Have you ever considered Finasteride? My two brothers started balding in their teens/early 20s. Obvious family history of balding with all the the men in my family. They are only 11 months apart in age and supposedly not adopted! O_o One started using Finasteride and over the counter Rogaine in his early twenties and has better hair than me. The other one briefly used Finasteride in his late twenties when it was kinda too late to save his hair. He used it for a couple of months, said he felt like he was getting weaker at the gym, and stopped using it. He's completely bald. I don't know if he tried Rogaine too.
 
I went to order replacement work undershirts (black ovis merino wool). They used to be $45 a piece, now they're $65 each. That stung a bit so only ordered 2, fortunately my old ones are still in good shape, I just don't feel like they dry as fast as they used to.
 
8 calls tonight all back to back and two involved having to call dispatch and ODS because they were called in at the same time. Oh we’re also just starting to use Logis which is a headache within itself because of tech issues. I just want to go to bed and sleep for more than 5-6 hours.
 
Have you ever considered Finasteride? My two brothers started balding in their teens/early 20s. Obvious family history of balding with all the the men in my family. They are only 11 months apart in age and supposedly not adopted! O_o One started using Finasteride and over the counter Rogaine in his early twenties and has better hair than me. The other one briefly used Finasteride in his late twenties when it was kinda too late to save his hair. He used it for a couple of months, said he felt like he was getting weaker at the gym, and stopped using it. He's completely bald. I don't know if he tried Rogaine too.

Finasteride has been a miracle drug for my hair and pretty inexpensive - I recommend.
 
I hate this place sometimes. The only transit that’s available needs an oil change and the rear AC doesn’t work. One of the vans doesn’t even start. So we’re stuck in another van that has a check engine light on and rear AC that mostly works but doesn’t cool down the entire back due to two broken vents. They just need to scrap the vans because they always have problems, like leaks with the main O2. Hell four of them have been out of service since February.
 
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Finasteride has been a miracle drug for my hair and pretty inexpensive - I recommend.
I've got good beard ability. When my time comes, I'll just shave the dome and balance it with a solid chest length beard.
 
Today I dressed two wriggly preschoolers and an even more wriggly toddler in formal wear. So. Many. Buttons. So gosh darn cute though
 
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Nothing like a ballgame. Whole fam’s here which is awesome, but showing our son who we root for?…absolutely priceless.
 
So I had to go relieve at a different station yesterday, one of our more rural "country" stations, but along the North Shore. It's the station where the backyard ends, and the beach begins. It's awesome. Beautiful, and they're a chill crew too. Normally averages about a call a day. About the only downside to having to go here is the almost hour long drive, but hey, that was my commute to my previous inner city ambulance job so it's not all bad (and yup, the line on the transfer list to go to Sunset Beach is about a mile long lol)

I've worked there before, in fact last year I had a "Long Term Relief" where I was essentially temporarily assigned to this station for about a month (due to someone being out on injury). In that month, this 1 call a day station, we got 1 building fire, 1 multi company brush fire, a couple vehicle fires, and a few homeless camp (more of an unauthorized campfire than an actual brush fire). They half jokingly kept saying they were gonna ban me from going there in the future if that black cloud kept up 😅

Cut to yesterday I'm relieving there again. I was actually scheduled to do our annual Water Safety training (more lifeguarding rescue techniques type stuff... not at all unimportant given this stations beach location, the sheer number of cooped up tourists flooding the island resulting in rescue calls all over the place...) This crew had already done theirs, and since my normal Engine company was coming up to do theirs at a nearby beach, I would just leave, do the training, and go back. An issue was that the Captain normally assigned to the Sunset Beach engine was out with his annual physical in the morning, so it was just me, their Engineer as Acting Captain, and one other Firefighter (Acting Engineer), so we had to wait for the Capt to come back to allow me to leave without pulling the Engine out of service.

Shortly he gets back, while I got my stuff gathered up to go, sure enough we get an Alarm. Not a regular medical or Activated Fire Alarm, but an Arcing Wires call. Get to the neighborhood, and sure enough, a tree branch had fallen and was on top of the high voltage power lines, and was arcing and sparking. Ok, so we call the Power Company (they had a 1 hour ETA due to traffic) so I have my turnouts on and my job is to go to the far side and cordon off the street, so we don't get any lookiloos (or just people driving thru) end up getting electrocuted. A few minutes later, and sure enough the tree branch on the wires practically explodes and the line breaks and live wires drop into the street. Actually next to the street. On top of some dudes poor car. And yup, a Toyota Corolla is no match for high voltage and promptly catches fire. Fire we (the Firefighters) can't do much about initially because well, water and high voltage electricity don't exactly mix well together either.

But yeah, the car is catching fire, the power pole is catching fire, the bushes are starting to catch... Now we're worried about the house catching fire! So our Acting Captain pulls out a hoseline and is starting to "pencil" (short bursts of water) just to try and contain the exposure so it doesn't spread. Which means the Acting Engineer is busy running the pump and getting the foam system into operation, so it falls to me to skirt around the wires (Does the term "bunny hopping" in this context sound familiar? I was def wondering if I would have to do that!) becuase I was the only one available to drag a 4in supply to the nearest hydrant and get a water supply (normally a car fire can just be blasted with tank water, but yeah, we could only contain the exposure until the power company got here to ensure we wouldn't get zapped....)

(Side note, how do you guys where there's this "Winter" thing deal with dry barrel hydrants?? We have a small handful scattered around, and this hydrant was one of them, and it was a damn pain to open!)

So yeah, of course I go and take over the handline, we're in a defensive posture maybe 30-50 feet away (basically the max range of the line to rain some foam around to contain), and we're there for that whole damn hour till Power Company guy arrives, where he promptly ensures the power is off, and we can approach (the now smoldering) and finish putting it out.

In the meantime, one of the neighbors must be a semi-professional (or full on professional) photographer because he apparently used a really nice camera to take really nice "action" shots of us at work. Cool pictures, the kind you'd want to frame at the fire station lol.

One problem.... Acting Captain was only in turnouts, no helmet, no SCBA during his initial "Need to pull a line and get some containment on this now before it spreads" and me, well I had my helmet on but no SCBA either (from running around far side of the street to snubbing the hydrant to defensive posture a good 30 feet away).... So what happens as soon as the pictures find their way to Social Media?

We barely had time to get back to the station after everything and our Battalion Chief is calling the station saying his Boss, the Operations Chief of the whole Dept, is asking him, why on earth we weren't fully suited up in full PPEs and everything. SO our reward was writing up an official memo to the Executive Staff explaining why we weren't wearing SCBAs...... -_-
 
Currently there is a hog skull soaking in peroxide on my kitchen counter.

My wife is either ignoring it or didn't notice. I'd like to think she's used to this by now.
 
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