It was yesterday morning that the phone call came in.  I had been expecting it any day soon, but when it came there was still a certain finality to it that has an impact.  My dear father had died earlier in the morning at age 92.

He was in the last, and darkest, phase of Alzheimer’s disease and had reached that point where the body has forgotten everything, including how to breathe in and out.  But throughout his ordeal he was always the perfect gentleman that he had been his entire life and I can honestly say that he was pleasant and happy every day despite his limitations and frustrations that come along with the degeneration that was imposed on him.

While people usually associate the death of a close relative as a time for sadness, my entire family look at this as a time of joy.  He lived a long and very productive life, always active and participating.  But for the past two years he has been suffering in gradually worsening stages and knowing that it will only get worse, not better with each day that comes along.  Finally, he has been released from his diseased body and his spirit now knows complete peace and a happiness that cannot be found down here on our earth.

Yes, we will all be grieving for a while.  But we will also be celebrating his time spent with us.

When he retired from the federal government in 1973 he moved to Tucson, Arizona, and has lived there since.  Now he will be brought back to his hometown Jacksonville, Illinois, where he was born and raised (and lived until I was 3 yrs. old), and will be laid alongside his parents and my mother, not far from his sisters and dozens of other family members.  As it should be.

Here is a sidenote that you may find interesting, since “health and fitness” is a hot topic these days.  When Dad retired after nearly 35 years of government service, he was carrying the highest sick leave balance of any civilian employee of the entire U. S. Government.  He never once used a single day of sick leave.  How about that?

I’ll go start the coffee now.  Let’s get the equipment checked out.

[photopress:buckle_up_yellow_1_2_3_4_5_6_7_8_9.jpg,full,alignleft]

I got to wondering yesterday, maybe it was triggered by reading about that firehouse burning down in Pennsylvania, about how many fire departments still have “sleepers” in their stations?  I’m talking specifically about volunteers who either spend duty nights at the station, or in some cases live in the firehouse.

All-volunteer departments often have duty rosters and require their members to take their turn at night duty if the station is active enough to warrant it.  Naturally, a fire company that only runs 3 or 4 calls a month is not likely to impose such an obligation.  And I know that there are still many volunteer departments that are doing this, maintaining full staffing for their communities.  I like to see that.

But I’m curious if that practice is starting to slip along with the declining memberships that many VFD’s (and ambulance squads) are experiencing.  I worked in a combination department and it was not at all unusual to have a couple of sleepers staying at a firehouse.  Usually it was younger volunteers who were anxious to get more experience, especially on ambulance duty, but oftentimes you’d get an older member who was going through a divorce and needed a place to stay pronto.

How about those fire departments that have their career people on daywork only?  Are they keeping a full squad on duty throughout the night?  Are officer ranks included in the mandatory night assignments?  There are a lot of additional obligations being placed on volunteer firefighters and paramedics these days, mainly along the need for upgraded certification levels.

If your department is having difficulty maintaining these levels of certification and pulling duty, what are you doing to plan for the future?  Once your sleepers are gone, they’re gone for good, you know.

On the other hand, there was that flap in October of last year (Firegeezer report HERE) up in Provincetown, Massachusetts.  A volunteer fire captain was living in the firehouse and the city wanted him thrown out, even threatening him with being evicted by the police.  Their reasoning?  They were upset because they  learned that someone was living in the city-owned fire station without paying rent.

But I think most of us can agree that the Cape Cod area has a culture all its own.  Now let’s roust out those guys who are trying to sleep in this morning and get the equipment checked out.  I need to get some more coffee going.

It appears that every month we’ll be getting a new “portable” desktop computer released by a different brand.  In August we first saw the innovative HP model that has the entire computer built into the monitor housing, much like a laptop without a lid.  We talked about it in the Morning Lineup HERE.

[photopress:HP_desktop.jpg,full,centered]
The HP machine

Then in September Dell came along with their model of the same type.  We covered it HERE.  Comparing the two, I thought that the Dell was the preferred machine only because the monitor was on a swivel making it easier to adjust.  And the Dell’s card reader accepted more different media cards, but that wasn’t any big deal-breaker.  Oh, and the Dell comes with a TV tuner built in, too.

[photopress:Dell_desktop.jpg,full,centered]
Dell’s model

Now comes along Sony with their version.  It was advertised in this week’s sales flyer for Office Depot and looks very much like the other two.  You can see that they all have the same general appearance and thus the same advantages.  Almost.  The Sony machine has plug-in keyboard and mouse, whereas the other two brands have wireless keyboards and mice.

The Sony skimps on the card reader, too.  It only accepts the SD card and Sony’s proprietary memory stick.  But Sony has always had the tendency to expect everybody to only use memory sticks for everything.

[photopress:sony_b.jpg,full,centered]
The Sony JS-series

All three of them have WiFi built in so that you can easily take it to any room in the house to use.  HP’s has a 22″ monitor, but the other two have 20″ screens.  Not that big a deal.  Sony has a built-in web cam on the monitor.  As best as I can tell, the other two don’t.  For some folks that would be important.

As far as price goes, the official websites of each company lists them around $1,100 to $1,300.  But in all three instances of advertised store prices, they’ve all been offered on sale for $900.  That seems to be the current standard price for now.

Between the three of them, I’m still leaning toward Dell as the best choice.  I just wish I needed a new computer so that I could get one.

Before that happens, though, we’d better get the equipment checked out.  I’ll make sure the coffee gets started.