Autonomy

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I used to believe there were three main temptations in life. They all come from a good need, and they can all destroy your life if you succumb to them. A fourth desire was recently pointed out to me at a Christmas eve soiree...

The first big temptation is sex. Very necessary for the continuation of species. People are willing to lie, steal, cheat, excel, overcome shyness, all in the pursuit of physical attention. Properly applied it can lead to family. If you don't recognize it for what it is, it can destroy family. Alos at some point you realize you'll never have enough, and your focus turns more to--

Money. You gotta earn some to support the results of the first temptation. (Or for some to satisfy the first temptation) Also earning money is a good way to participate in society. Too much focus though will detract from family instead of supporting it. With money, too, some ealize no amount is ever enough. You tire if travel, the food tastes the same, your assets become liabilities, but it can help you attain--

Power. The old man's temptation. It stems from the need for leadership, but can get bastardized into the desire to control everyone and everything around you. Once again, no amount is enough.

Here's the new one---autonomy. In the pursuit of the other three, you give up your ability to do what you want when you want. Difficulties in marriage are in part a struggle to maintain some autonomy. You spend the early part of a relationship building trust and giving up parts of yourself to form a bond, then have to submit to the loss of autonomy. I really have my dream job, love going to it, get paid pretty well---but I have lots of bosses. I get to actually deliver the service of the department but there's an entire chain of beaurocracy telling me how to do it. My autonomy is reduced to the small amount of time I'm actually doing my job, then I have to document, review, and publicly scrutinize every little decision made. Power? Any power you have as parent, board member, elected official, tyrant, or boss cost you your ability to move freely. You have to be consistent, present, vigilant.

Autonomy applied---Art. Creativity. Annamarie gets up at 03:30 every day just to have the house to herself. I worked overtime at Hazmat and we played volleyball (We are required to do an hour of cardiovascular training so no complaining! Don't take away my autonomy!) we took a picture for the sake of the probationary fireman in the front.... Blogging is a good outlet as well

Life at work

Our copter is supposed to be the most technologically advanced medium lift copter in the world, with the NVG, IR, microwave downlink, scrolling maps, video tracking, hoist, water tank, hydraulic snorkel, etc.....(For you fellow copter geeks she's a Bell 212 HP++) Our station, though, is another matter......

First off I gotta say they've never shorted us on equipment or training time. They've provided us with everything we need to provide a safe service with up to date equipment and any flight time we need to stay on top of our game.

When we first got our copter our station was a couple beach chairs, a case of water bottles, and a clipboard. We claimed some dirt at the airport. Stu Segall studios (They make 'Veronica Mars' and some other shows) donated some Seatainers so we could make a mechanic's shed. We scrounged up a used doublewide trailer and fixed it up, again with some donated help. A casino bought our fuel truck and gave a little money towards a shelter---I built the structure over the truck, and over the seatainers (they leaked before) and built a deck for some outside space. Our water is from a fire hydrant. We just got shore power---for the first few years a daily job was getting diesel for the generators.

It's a lot like going to the desert used to be. Camp out with the fellas until it's time to go for a ride. The only real complaint though is, our copter is out in the salt air. I really wish we could get it into a hangar.

 

Obligatory Christmas pic

............................For the record, I coulda done the back bridge with my kids but someone had to take the picture. Mike joined us for Christmas which was great---he's easy company. Everyone got everything requested from Santa except for my time machine---maybe I'll have to be a little better this year.

This year's big project

Before taking on a big project like the new cabin, Annamarie insists something big gets done on our house. This year was the guest room. There were a couple things that had to be dealt with---the livingroom floor was bouncy because the joists span too far. The concrete perimeter foundation had a 3' section that water ran underneath in heavy rains, and it was free hanging...The basement would get damp. The worst thing was our trampoline---since we live on a mountainside, one side was 2' lower than the other. The kids could jump but would end up in the neighbor's yard.

So I cut a hole in the cinderblock foundation where the window would go, and spent the summer digging out 22 yards of dirt on bucket at a time. A drystack rock wall holds back the dirt where the trampoline is now level.....Then, mixed concrete and poured the walls (12" thick) carrying the same buckets, now full of concrete, one at a time. Poured concrete against the new wall up under the bad spot on the foundation. Installed a french drain that runs 200' to the street, all gravity run. Supported the livingroom floor over the new walls, so now the floor is nice and stiff.

Now it's just finish work. You'll enter the new guestroom from the basement.

NVG demonstration

This is a demonstration of our Night Vision Goggle system. We can do all the same stuff at night (Hoist rescues, water drop firefighting, longline operations, etc) that we do during the day, the one exception being the hover fill with the snorkel (too many little droplets and the pilot can't keep a good reference) so we just do a ground fill operation instead.

As far as I know Los Angeles is the only other place in the whole country that will do night firefighting. The wildland/urban interface nature of the areas make the risks with it.

Parent/Teacher night

I had to miss parent/teacher night, so I got clearence for Mckenna and Lauren's teachers to come to my work for an evening. We used them as victims for hoist practice. We're about 200' up just exiting the copter, then the second picture is hooking Scott Copeland up in the 'screamer suit' for extraction. They also got to look through the night vision goggles. The canyon we train in is pitch black at night so good practice.

In the middle of the training we got a real call so we just brought them with us. The next day at school our kids got to watch a whole powerpoint of the evening in front of their class. The report back from the kids was they had a great time and were surprised by how curt and systematic we operated. I guess you do sort of tak eon a different persona at work

Knott's Scary Farm

I think this was October of 1987. I can identify Bob, Dave's date, Dave Tersigni, Bernie Judd, Tim, Caroline, Vince Moore, (Eric??) Lori Filippini, Steve Tersigni, Shoo, Tina, and Lee's right side. I think he got cut off. I think Caroline had just returned from a deployment with the USS Virginia, judging by her hat.

Disney jurisprudence

I can understand re-writing 'Hunchback of Notre Dame' with a happy ending for the animated feature. It's an OK story in itself. Also 'Anastasia' (I know, not Disney) in the kid's version, she isn't mowed down with her entire family by the Bolsheviks. Not accurate to history, sure, but the kids can follow the fictional version.
Now for Snow White. Going just by the plot in the Disney movie, there is a serious flaw. Unless you don't care about exposing your kids to movies where rules just don't matter, better skip this one.
The queen/witch makes a spell potion and saturates an apple with it. The book of spells is very clear that 'The Sleeping Death' spell can only be broken by LOVE'S FIRST KISS.
After S.W. has a bit of a dancing fling with the seven dwarves, she calms them down with a love story. She states a young girl fell in love with a handsome prince.
Statement from one Mr. Sneezy---"Was the girl....You?"
S.W. admitted---"Uh-huh" and nodded yes.
Question from Mr. Sleepy---"Did ya (sic) steal a kiss?"
(S.W. sang her response) "He was so romantic...I could not resist"
What can we gather from this?
1) S.W. had already fallen in love with Prince C.
2) S.W. had already kissed Prince C.

S.W. of her own free will bit into the apple offered by the queen/witch, even after specific instructions from the homeowners not to let anyone in. She did in fact fall to the 'Sleeping Death'. When Prince C. sought her out and kissed her FOR THE SECOND TIME, the spell was broken. Technically the Prince should be tried for necrophilia and the dwarves charged with witch slaughter after running her off a cliff with no due process whatsoever.

Our copter made the cover of TIME magazine 'year in review'. It was taken while we were saving a part of Rancho Penasquitos. This picture has nothing to do with the Witch fire but I used it because I like it better. We hoisted a firefighter off the ridge with a broken leg just before the ridge burned up, then landed to transfer him to an ambulance (normally we'd just do the hoist rescue and fly right to the hospital, but we were kinda busy) The best thing about this picture is, I look like a yeti following the ground crew while they do all the lifting.

Bad greenhouse gas

Why is it everyone's most concerned with co2 when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions? Scientists agree there is a gas that has much, much more influence on global temperatures, and corporations spew tons of it. So do SUV's.

Dihydrogen monoxide.

Dihydrogen monoxide is responsible for many deaths every year. It is fatal if inhaled. It is so persistent that if your mother ingested any while pregnant with you, it could be found in your bloodstream for the rest of your life.

Why isn't it mentioned more often? Simple. Corporations have become so dependent on DM because it's readily available, relatively cheap, and underregulated.

Just how nasty is this stuff? Consider on the acid/base scale, which is rated from 0-14, sulfuric acid is only a 2. Dihydrogen Monoxide is a solid 7. They use it to produce styrofoam, plastics, concrete, car batteries, and in northern latitudes, in its solid form, indigenous home building. If you tumble dry synthetic clothing in your dryer it can be detected in the dryer vent.

This is a typical example of an issue so big people prefer to keep their heads in the sand about it. If we really want to keep our children safe, and save the planet for future generations, DM should be banned. Science has a responsibility to come up with a suitable alternative.

Kids

Here's the kids off to school. (Patrick, Lauren and Mckenna) All straight 'A's, which is either due to getting their Mom's brain DNA or Julian School District's not-to-challenging curriculum. The backpacks may appear full but we add bricks so they'll get more exercise. Our formula for parenting is Plenty sleep, little to no TV, healthy diet, fun consistent household mood. After that it's kind of up to them. They each have a little private space at home but it's seldom used.