Monday Monday 1st day back for C-shift Misfits

I don't know why but it seems as though when you take a few days off and then return 9 days later, tasks which before seemed simple and routine now have become much more difficult. I usually arrive for duty first ohhh anytime between 06:30 and 06:40. My first chore is to put on a hot pot of coffee. Today... NOPE. We have a new combo lock on our food locker and guess who didn't get the memo. Result... no coffee. Next, I get my gear in shape and on the truck, do the computer work, check department e-mail then my favorite sites. As the boys arrive, they too get their gear on the trucks and begin to complete their morning checks while one of them prepares our morning egg sandwiches. This morning, 08:30 before the sandwiches were up. OK, one slow / late meal ain't so bad but we do try to maintain a schedule here..it is a firehouse you know. Lunch is at 11:30 so we catch the Price is Right showdown and the noon time local news. Dinner is at 17:30 so we don't miss Andy and then get to catch the evening news. Well tonight, as 17:30 rolled around, I was waiting for a pregnant lady to walk in. Why a pregnant lady you ask... cause this is what Wheezy had on the stove...

Enough water boiling to birth triplets but NOTHING to eat...GEEESH! I thought for a minute or two there that Wheezy has been taking lessons from the 'ol "Ninja Cook" Opie. Guess I was just a little impatient cause after throwing a weee weee weee tiny fit, tossing a few pots and pan etc. Wheezy produced a master piece... and well worth waiting for. Yard bird, stuffing with gravy, mac and cheese and a side of CROW for the Capt....lol

And, my little "I'm gonna starve" tantrum wasn't the only obstacle for Wheezy this evening. I guess the clock and my showing had him picking up the pace a little. Ok maybe turning up the heat instead of picking up the pace. The result of that... smoke. It got kinda bad at one point... so bad in fact that Coon had to take protective measures...

And again, seeing how fabtabulus the meal turned out, I guess we should have paid a little more attention to the sticker atop the Captains desk

(NO WHINING...and also note my Fire Geezer mug, I'm not sure how it manages to sneak its way into so many of our pics). So, Wheezy's cooking and riding backwards. Tyrone has been off to hunt camp since Friday and with no cell service, all we can do is pray that he has and is taking his medication. If he's not...well Highland County will never be the same. Opie is riding the box with our own little poop magnet Coon. Opie actually attended hunt camp with Tyrone Friday through Sunday. He slayed the big one from his mobile recliner, slept ON a wood stove (placed inside a tent by multiple firemen), showered outside in 30 degree weather and used a 5 gallon bucket for a toilet. Guess he had all the fun he could stand so he came on back home. A rainy / cool day here in the "NOKE", sitting on 8 runs total. Nothing too exciting, some local lumberjacks fell a tree across a service drop and didn't think enough of it to slow them from continuing their work. Downed line and all, they finished cutting the tree, loaded the wood and cleaned up debris before anyone called it in... and oh yea, the line was hot


Other news includes a HUGE date that we totally missed. Our house..station #9 located at 514 24th Street NW Roanoke, Va turned 80 years old last month. The station was completed October 2, 1929 so HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY old gal. Like a fine wine, she gets better with age. Warm in the summer, cold in winter and, the roof only leaks when it rains. No, she's a good house and we'll miss her. Here's a pic of how she looks now. I'll also add the new station. Scheduled to open in March 2010, her replacement is well under way and we managed to snap a shot from across the street today. This pic is from the front or the Orange Ave side..check it out, a "measure of progress".


I also wanted to remind everyone that our Public Safety Football team will have it's 1st official practice a week from today. I CAN'T WAIT.... PUT ME IN COACH! Check out the Roanoke Rampage site here. Thanks to Captain Todd Stone and Assistant Fire Marshall Chris Price for all their hard work and effort.
I'll close with a very special announcement. Most of you have figured it out by now but today, we (ok..more like Rhett than "we") officially completed our "RSS" feed. What that means is that whenever we post here (to this blog) we automatically feed to "Networked Blogs" which takes the post to our newly built and under construction Face Book Fan and profile pages and then on to our Twitter page. WoooHoo, now all you "picture bookers" and "Churp Churps" can follow the Melrose Misfits as well. I hope you all enjoy the ride. That's it for tonight, We've got the Monday, Wednesday, Friday tours so we'll see ya again Wednesday night. Until then, stay safe and in the house. Captain Wines

I thought Sunday's were a day of rest??

Who can make a cat forget old facts? You can't follow a horse to a pond but if he finds one, he'll swim in it. The grass is brown in Cleveland. HINTS. The grass is never mowed on my side of the gate. KETONES. If you live in a stone house, don't wash the windows. A butterfly in a bush is different than ten in your hand..... wait wait wait that aint right. It's you can't teach an old dog NEW tricks. You can lead a horse to water but, you can't make him drink. MEND. The sky is blue in Cincinnati. The grass is always greener on the other side. If you live in a glass house, don't throw stones. A bird in hand is better than 2 in the bush. You know..that Cincinnati Stroke scale thing-a-ma-jig... know what I'm talking about? Well that's what we've been doing all day. EMS continuing education.. WoooHoooo! Endocrine and stroke testing on our beloved "Moodle Room". Ugggggh! I think I may have just HAD a stroke. Check out these 2 examples of questions..after reviewing a gazillion power point slides, and reading for days on top of days..
1.) ____ stimulates calcium release from bone, calcium uptake from the GI tract, and calcium reabsorption in the kidney, all of which increase the blood calcium level.
A.) Oxytocin
B.) Thymosin
C.) Parathyroid hormone
D.) Calcitonin

2.) This syndrome is a result of a disorder of the ______. It may also be due to steroid therapy used for asthma and COPD. Long-term cortisol elevation from this syndrome causes atherosclerosis, diabetes, HTN, hypokalemia, and increased response to catecholamines and susceptibility to infection.
A.) Addison's; pituitary
B.) Cushing's; thyroid gland
C.) Cushing's; adrenal cortex
D.) Addison's; hypothalamus

Feel smarter? Remember this from EMT-B class? What's even more shocking is that we all PASSED! And you thought we were all just a bunch of misfits! ROAD SCHOLARS I tell ya. Doctors, gynecologist in the making. Einsteins! Now hand me that scalpel..STAT!
I couldn't find the video of Sid the Sloth (from Ice Age and DON'T ask how I know that) saying " I'm a geniushh" so Einstein was the next best thing. Here's a few quotes from the man himself:

"A perfection of means, and confusion of aims, seems to be our main problem."

"Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking."

"Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves."

I've always wondered why he wasn't bald cause we've been about to pull our hair out all day! If I've said it once, I've said it a million times... this stuff is NOT that complicated. With band-aids, it's ALWAYS.. STICKY SIDE DOWN. Laying sod, GREEN SIDE UP. Geesh. Ok, enough of this Einstein / training smack let's talk about what else has been going on. It seems our ride-a-long "nurse Candi" left too early last day because we ran ALL NIGHT. Up all night and all the boys had big plans for yesterday (everyone except Wheezy who pulled a tour at Ladder 7). Travel, tail gating / ball games and hunting... a full day for everyone. Some good news too. Tyrone didn't get hurt, cut, stabbed, impaled by an arrow, shot nor did he shoot anyone else. Both Va. Tech and UVA won their games! Tech KILLED Boston College and the Cavalier Man didn't fall off his horse (always a good thing) so everyone made it in to work in a happy mood this morning. Past all this training, we're sitting on 8 runs total 3 and 5 so all kidding aside, it's been a pretty pleasant day. We stopped by the new station to snap a few pics of the progress ("measure of progress" that is) and also spotted a pretty cool license plate check em out... I'll wrap it up with an old video of Tyrone. We've posted this one before in another post, but it's still funny every time you see it.


That's all for now, we'll update if need be, otherwise, we're back on Tuesday. Stay safe and in house. Capt. Wines

Slow rainy day for C-shift's return

Today has been alot better than last day. Rainy and muggy but slow as far as runs go. The morning started out normal, waiting for Larry to come down from the locker room so we could see what his t-shirt slogan for the day would be. As expected, he didn't disappoint.

We checked the rig / equipment, made a few dozen egg sandwiches, completed our household chores and headed out for some quick grocery shopping before a little hydrant maintenance. After the normal store run, we stopped by our local produce stand for fresh veggies. Here's a shot of our local cantaloupe gals working their stand. The reason I included this pic is because you may be reading more on them in the future. She use to volunteer out in Clearbrook and loves to tell us stories about the "good ol days" out at County #7 ;-)

We found a break in weather to check in on our new station aka measure of progress. The walls are getting higher every day. We also learned that the color of brick has been chosen ... WHITE.



We swung by Lucky # 13 today to put a little "go juice" in our War Wagon and got to see and visit with "Big P" or Preston Fleitz (Rhett's family..Becky and Jade were with him as well). Anyway, I always enjoy talking with Big P about his endeavors / adventures. Today he was sporting a really cool shirt and said that if I promise to wash it afterwards, he'll let me borrow it (we wear the same size LOL).


Oh yea, I almost forgot. We have a "LOST AND FOUND" announcement. Now, I'm NOT saying these items belong to any member or particular shift here at #9. The last time we made mention in a post relating to height, some folks may have caught "feelings" and we wouldn't want that to happen again. We just want whomever is missing these items to know they have been located. If you've lost this set or some similar, just give us a call @ BR549.


That's all for tonight. Stay safe, dry and in the house. Capt. Wines

Emotional roller coaster for C-shift

I wasn't sure if I was even going to mention this first topic or not. Then I remembered the intent of this blog. We wanted to share a little of "fire house" life with our readers. Now, alot of what you see and read here is firehouse pranks, practical joking etc. but you also get a small glimps of some of the incidents we run. When I say small, I mean small and you folks out there on the job know what I mean. In no way can a few pictures or short narritives begin to explain what we see or the emotions we feel when responding to these incidents. I once wrote in a much earlier post of how while on the job we have to see and do things that most people never even think about. Well, today was another one of those days and sadly, it involved Medic 101. We have been fortunate here at #9 to have a part-time medic unit staffed Mon-Sat from 9am-9pm (in addition to our Medic 9). We are also fortunate that our part-time staff is a great bunch of Medics and EMT's (both personally and professionally). Today, 101 was staffed with probably the 2 youngest part-timers we have. Neither one looks old enough to drive, much less be working here. These 2 are also really good kids. Quiet, polite, eager to help and learn, too young to shave or to have picked up any bad habbits yet..you know the type. Never the less, despite their innocence; they caught the call (along with E5, RS-1 and later E9). You hope you'll never have to, but if you stay in this profession long enough, odds are you'll catch one too. You never get use to it, but after you've been on the job a while, you learn ways to cope. The point I want to make here is how upset I am that it was these two that had to see it and that they had to see it so early in their careers. But more than that, I want to say how PROUD I am of the job these two young men did today. They handled themselves as professionals both during and after the incident and we are proud here at station #9 to have them with us. They know they have the support of each and every member here in our house and our thoughts and prayers go out to the family as well.
OK, with that little vent behind me, I'll move on to some happier news and events of the day.
It's Friday so, Wheezy was off to EMT-I school getting his learn on. With him learning and Tyrone off to the beach, we needed a body. Short staffed as always, they had to pull someone from the "South Side". Not just any ol station either, we got a body from THE BIG SHOW! Meet "Pookie" aka Rebecca Smith.

I don't think they feed her too well down at the Big Show... notice she's digging for groceries while still in the rig. We hadn't even made it home yet LOL. Just kidding Pookie, Thanks for hanging out with us today, you're welcome back anytime. Speaking of Tyrone being off to the beach and being the caring Captain that I am; I can't help but wonder what he's into. Playing and teaching Jackson and Noah how to build sand castles I hope but odds are he's showing them shark wrangling or something.

Capt. Bedwell from B-shift acquired us a new Officer's tool and A-shift took the time to mount it for us yesterday.... can't wait to try this baby out. I can't believe they would, but in an attempt to fret; my boys moved the tool to the bucket (where it will get used) and put some medical thing-a-ma-jig in it's place.


Needless to say, the tool is back in it's home! We stopped by to check on the Measure of Progress..aka our new station.

She's comming along pretty good. The Buckaroo stopped by for a vist and took the time to give Lt. Bugg a few pointers on wheeling the War Wagon.

Alex, our "full time part timer" brought in steaks today and DAMN were they good! That gave Coon the chance to break out what he brought us back from his most recent vacation... HELL IN A BOTTLE!



Now, all anyone has to do is read the label to know not to put this stuff on a perfectly cut and trimmed ribeye much less put it in your mouth. Well, anyone except for a Melrose Misfit that is...

Yea...they cried. We finished out the evening with a game or twenty of corn hole (we are Champions you know).


That about wraps it up for now. Hope tonight is quieter than the last. Everyone stay safe and keep em in the house. We're heading into a 4 day break! Captain Wines.

Busy day for the Melrose Misfits

Gotta love Mondays! The good news is that it's the last day of our cycle...COME ON 4 DAY BREAK! The morning started off as usual Monday checks, egg sandwich, and giving the 'ol War Wagon and Gut Box a bath. Off to the store for the daily grub and back to mow the grass. Out to flow a few hydrants, a forcible entry drill and back to prepare lunch. Then it was out to station #13 to get a new paper towel holder for the kitchen. Let's just say me and the old one had a little disagreement. I thought it should remain closed at all times and hold paper towels for us to dry our hands. It, on the other hand wanted to stay flopped open and keep all of the towels on the floor. May it rest in peace! While out at the running ONE THREE, we also got to wish our very own poop magnet "Coon" good luck on his 14:00 physical(he's transferred out today). Word is that our new city Doctor has hands like a logger and fingers the size of Twinkies. Now, that's just rumor and I'm sure her hands / fingers aren't that big but the look in Coon's eyes was priceless. Then the running began. A moderate damage MVA that had one vehicle atop a hydrant at 19th and Melrose. While working that one, we literally witnessed a 2nd rear ender due to the always expected "rubber necking". Here are a few pics of the initial incident.



Add in a couple commercial fire alarms along with a residential alarm and a few "wires down" calls and that carried us all the way to supper time. The medics (9 and 101) responded to a multiple stabbing that resulted in 2 "Gold Alerts" with our brothers from the 12th street express (Station #5). They seem to keep coming this evening so who knows what the night will bring. I'll add a few pics of our forcible entry drill from this morning. A typical door for our area but always a good training tool to look at and think about how you would attack it. Would you attack the bolt heads, run the saw down the jambs or attack the garage door?? Gets ya thinking..






We also stopped by to check the status of our future home.. here's another few pics of a "measure of progress".


That's about enough for now, I'll update tonight if we catch anything worth posting about. If not or until then, stay safe and keep em in the house...we'll be back on Saturday. Capt. Wines

C-shift Day in reveiw

With Wheezy "getting his learn on" again, Zach Obenchain was filling in at # 9 during EMT-I class. Zach is pictured at top. He is the son of now retired Battalion Chief Billy Obenchain and is assigned to # 2-C, which just happens to be the station and shift his father retired from. Chief Billy was assigned to # 9 for some time early in his career and was involved in making the station patch that shows the "fire kicking Ass". I'll try to get a pic up of the patch soon. We recently brought it back out and Incorporated it into our 2007 "Melrose Misfits" shirts. Another neat tie in for the Obenchains to our station is that Zach caught his first "working fire" while transferred in for the day on C-shift. We all know you never forget the 1st one and I'm proud that # 9 will be a part of that memory for Zach. Our runs for the day didn't start off so good this morning. The first run of the day was a "code 34" or DOA. Routine duties etc followed and even included a stop by the site of our future home. The middle pic shows the progress being made. This evening, #2, #3 and # 14 caught what sounded like a pretty good "job". Multiple calls, heavy fire showing etc. Well, # 9 didn't make the action on this but rather got the royal treatment. Royal treatment? you may ask... we were assigned to transfer / move to cover station # 3. I don't know about the "green" part but, WOW what a nice house. It was almost like staying in a fancy hotel until the manager finds out your planning a party and kicks you out. As soon as they figured out who had transferred in, we were quickly released and sent in the direction of home. That said, a fancy hotel is nice for a visit, but there's no place like HOME. The bottom pic is of 9's WAR WAGON sitting inside # 3 (don't cry Capt. Firebaugh...she misses you too). Another note on the fire (which has not been confirmed as of yet) is that Firefighter Rachel Winter was injured. Not too serious but a visit to the ER. We will post details when available pending her approval. Until then, we hope she is doing ok and have her and the boys at # 3 in our thoughts. Check out their site for possible further details...the link is o the left of this page.

Ground has been broken for the new station 9 and 5 combo.

Captain Bedwell was put in charge of the chairs for yesterdays ground breaking ceremony for our new station. This is the beginning of a consolidation of stations 5 and 9 and will be located at 20th / Orange Ave. NW. Our new home will have a Police sub-station and a community room for the public as well. It will reportedly house and Engine, Ladder, Medic and Battalion. Rhett has an article as well as a link to the Roanoke Times coverage over on his site http://roanokefire.com/fire/?p=1636 Pictured above is the boys from C-shift at the new site (from left to right..Coon, Tyrone, Opie, Bug and Wheezy).