Looking back at 2009

What a year! There's only 3 1/2 hours left of 2009 and I can't wait to see what 2010 brings. This past year has seen good and bad times but when the Melrose Misfits are involved, there is hardly ever a dull moment. Tonight's post will be the 239th post of the year (248 since our start)and we've had over 59,867 hits. We have evolved to uploading to "picture book" (face book) and "churp churp" (twitter). Even my typing skills have evolved in that I'm now using 3 fingers vs. the old 2 digit method. The blog was created to show a little of our lives around the station and I think we've given you a pretty good dose. Some of it has been serious while the majority has had a taste of the comical. We've seen members come and go due to transfers (and 1 "retirement")but have maintained a strong house on all 3 shifts. Plans were made and ground broken for a new station that will house us, our brothers from #5 aka The 12th Street Express the Ladder from Lucky #13, the North Battalion and a part time medic unit (in addition to our Medic unit). The station is scheduled for completion sometime in March of 2010. Before that date even gets here, we are facing the possibility of multiple transfers in and out of the house (due to upcoming promotions and the Chiefs wanting to get the "right people" in the "right places" before vacation sign ups and the new station opens). We gave a short blog tour of our house back in Feb. 2009 here. We designed and updated a station logo and even had shirts made. Challenge coins were made as well and quickly sold out. St. Patty's Day was a BLAST and our 2009 shirts turned out great. We broke a lot of bread with friends and family. Made a gallon or 20 of home made ice cream and managed to squeeze in a game or two of corn hole. We've developed a skill of scaring the crap out of Tyrone and Dixon and made it through the year with only minor injuries.
We ended up running about 1300 on the Engine and 2440 on the Medic. We've trained, worked and played hard all year while documenting most of it here. The previous post asked for our readers to vote for what you think was our "best post of 2009". We haven't gotten a lot of responses but hope you all have enjoyed following our exploits. We want to wish everyone a safe and happy new year and look forward to entertaining you in 2010.
Captain Wines