Yesterday was a long day, but the travel was fine.  We were traveling on Southwest Airlines and they are always good to travel with.

GeezerSon brought along his new GPS receiver so that he could try an experiment.  It’s like most of the other new-style receivers that has the picture screen that shows you a graphic of where you are.  He had read in a newspaper column (yes, he’s one of the few remaining folks that still reads newspapers) that if you hold a GPS near the airplane cabin window, it will get a signal.

And sure enough, it worked.  In fact, it worked within 3-4 ft. of the window.  If  you’ve never tried it, it is entertaining to watch the streets literally race by on the screen.  FossilMedic would kill to be able to drive those chicanes.  There are two other benefits from it, too.  For one thing, it gives the speed of travel that the device is moving, so you can watch that as you go.  I was surprised to see that the plane reached over 470 mph within just a couple of minutes while it was still in a steep climb up to the assigned altitude.

The main advantage is to be able to identify what town you’re flying over.  You know what I mean there.  You see that settlement way down below and you can’t guess what it is.  Oftentimes you don’t even know what state you’re in.  (And no “state of confusion” jokes, ok?)  So by learning what town is below you can learn just where you are.

It’s hard to be entertained while you’re in an airplane.  But this gadget kept the three of us occupied for most of the journey.  Sometimes it doesn’t take much to do that.

Entertaining or not, we’d better get this equipment checked out.  I’m going to get some good, strong coffee going.

Posting will be sketchy today.  This morning the GeezerKids and I will head to the airport and fly out to the prairies for Dad’s funeral on Saturday.  But I will be trying out some of FossilMedic’s skills.  Namely, blogging from the air terminal and again from the hotel.  Thing is, I really don’t care much for using a laptop.  But I will press on for you!  Of course.

Speaking of laptops, I hope you saw our posting yesterday about more laptop battery fires (HERE) leading to a major recall.  It got me to thinking.  (uh, oh)  Now that laptops are really proliferating, we’re going to start seeing fires started by leaving those hot little devils on combustible places and more machines shorting out and smoking up the house. 

Just the sheer numbers of them will generate more calls.  And now that there are $200 models coming out, we will see almost every kid in the house with one of their own.  And it’s those cheap ones that will have the shoddy construction which is more apt to fail.  Just keep your eye peeled and start observing their patterns and traits so that you can identify the problem more efficiently when you get a call.

And now for something completely different:  Famed author Michael Crichton died on Tuesday at age 66 from cancer.  He was already widely known for his first major success “The Andromeda Strain,” (1969) along with many later thrillers such as “Terminal Man,” (1972) when he shot to the top of stardom by writing and directing the movie “Jurassic Park,” (1990).  I wasn’t aware until reading his obituary that he also wrote the movie “Westworld,” the spooky theme park populated with robots who are way too human starring Yul Brynner.  I always liked that movie.  The Washington Post has a good obituary on him HERE.  Go ahead and read it.  You’ll like it.  And you’ll learn things like he was 6 ft.- 9 in. tall.

And I like my coffee, so let’s get this equipment checked out while I go start a pot.

Then we can take a peek at Westworld:

This is one of those days where I’ve got more things to do than I have time to do them in.  So, what do I do?  Knuckle down and press on, or chuck it all?  I think I’ll probably do the knuckle-down routine for a few hours, and then chuck it all.  That’ll give me something to point to so I can say “Well, I got that done.”

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Did you see our posting last night about that bus fire in Germany?  It’s the next one down after this, so you’ll get to it soon if you haven’t read it already.  It was a rather bizzarre situation there, with a bus fully involved and everybody trapped in their seats. 

But something I haven’t heard of before was the decision, by the police I presume, to tow the bus away with all the bodies still inside of it.  It was so heavily burned inside that I’m guessing that the victims were pretty much melted to the seating, etc.  If that was the case, then I can understand the decision.  It will take a lot of time to remove each of the victims and then get them identified.  What a terrible scene that must have been.

(Update:  a video has just been added to the report)

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A Monday night house fire in Houston injured two FF’s, one of them, a captain, suffered critical burn injuries with 3rd-degree burns.  The FD is thinking early on that when the roof collapsed in the front of the house, the pressure blew the superheated fire gasses into the rear where the two FF’s were making entry for a primary search.  STATter911 has been following the story HERE, HERE and HERE.  So check back with Dave during the day to see what the latest is on that.  That captain is in bad shape, it looks like.

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I’d better get started on this list of projects.  Let’s get the equipment checked out.  I’ll so start the coffee and see you later in the day room.

The announcement yesterday that Circuit City will be liquidating 20% of their stores during the next month really wasn’t a surprise.  Nobody doubts that this will be just the beginning of the shutdown of the entire chain soon.  They are a textbook example of how to lead a thriving business right to a crashing end.

Personally, I quit going there many years ago because their business ethics were a tad below what I will tolerate when I spend my money.  But they didn’t have a whole lot of competition, so they were able to build a solid chain of electronics stores in good locations just as the solid-state audio/video boom came rolling in.

Then, just as they were being populated with a wrong-thinking management team, along came Best Buy setting up shop “just down the street” from the Circuit City stores and really cutting into their sales.  I’ll not take time here to go into retail history, but you have probably observed Circuit City’s meltdown over the past 4 years or so.  From what I’ve been able to see, not a whole lot of people, aside from their employees, are sad to see them go.

One of their most bone-headed moves came a couple of years ago when they decided to “cut expenses” by firing all the senior sales people who were working on a high wage scale.  Then they replaced them with new inexperienced and unknowledgable sales help at entry level wages.  It never occurred to them that the reason those salespeople were making so much money is because they were successful at selling stuff.  Store sales plummeted after that and they never even came close to turning it around.  Sheesh.

Speaking of retail bankruptcies, if you’ve got one of those Linens ‘n Things store in your area, this is a good time to do some gift shopping there.  They’ve been in bankrupcty since May and late last week they announced that they will be shutting what’s left of the entire chain down this month.  Liquidation sales have started already.

Thursday will be a travel day for me, so I’ve got a lot of hustling around to take care of today.  I’ve already voted, so that part is taken care of.  Let’s get this equipment checked out now.  I’ll go make one more pot of coffee.

Just below this posting is a nice tribute written by FossilMedic telling us of the unfortunate passing of a good man and terrific firefighter, Chief Clark Martin.  Most of you have never heard of him, but that’s because he didn’t pursue projects on a national scale that would bring his name before all the other fire and rescue departments.  But for those who knew and worked with Clark, he was the epitome of success and achievement in the department level and was a man who was truly liked by everybody who had any dealings with him, or even near to him.

I first met Clark when he was initially hired on to the department.  For a good many years, I was the instructor for pumps and hydraulics, a 4-day class which was part of the recruit training in the fire academy.  In that role I met virtually everybody who came through the doors for a long time and Clark was one of them.

But I first got to really know him when I was transferred to dispatch for nearly a year.  I was a Captain-I at the time and was put in charge of a shift that had Clark second in command as a Lieutenant.  We had the same philosophy about work, namely that we both started every day with the thought that “we are going to have a good time today.”

Not long after I got promoted out of there, he began his fast-track up the ladder and the next time we worked together he was my superior.  FossilMedic recounts his success in the fire and rescue service, so I don’t need to go over that.  But what I want to point out is his determined and courageous fight against old Demon Cancer.

When he was first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, you could hear a collective “Oh, no!!” arising from the east coast.  Such a good man, and a young man still in his 50’s (I don’t know his exact age) stricken with what is just about always a rapid decline and certain death.

But Clark was having none of that.  He aggressively challenged the demon and sought out the best and most advanced treatment that was currently offered.  After a visit to the Mayo Clinic, they proposed a new and extensive treatment program and Clark was anxious to get going with it.  It involved a lot of painful travel, mainly to Miami, and a steady dose of debilitating treatments.  But after a while he actually reached a point where the spread had been stopped and most of the cancerous cells were killed off.  It looked for a while that he was going to beat it.  Unheard of.

But it was not to be.  The broken body just couldn’t hold up to it any longer and the ugly stuff came back.  But it was not all for naught.  His courage and willingness to submit to these new treatments will go a long ways to refine them and help improve treatment for this terrible disease.  Cancer is always hovering over firefighters, more so than almost any other identity group in the country.  And Clark’s contribution to the research and treatment of it will be a direct benefit to all of you.  You just won’t see it.  But now you know it.

Now let’s get this equipment checked out, including your SCBA.  I’ll go start the coffee.

Does anybody have any idea of what time it is?  Now that we’re finally off of that stupid Daylight Savings Time scheme, it will take most of the week just to get readjusted to the real thing.

Last night you had three choices, a) stay up an hour later, b) sleep an hour longer, or c) get up an hour earlier this morning.  Since I don’t live by the clock anymore, I just did what I normally do.  I went to sleep when I got tired and woke up whenever I woke up.  Now it’s still the middle of the night.  This is screwy.

One of the advantages that the people have who live in Arizona and Hawaii, is that they don’t have to go through this ritual twice a year.  The last two remaining states to eschew the Daylight Savings stunt.  Up until about three or four years ago, the half of Indiana that is in the Eastern time zone also stayed on standard time all year.  So for a good part of the year, they were on the same time as the half that are in the Central time zone and went to DST.  But that made too much sense, I guess.  They’ve chucked it and now they also have a couple of months each year where the little kiddies are standing at the school bus stops in the dark.

All that’s left now is to wait while our inner clocks get straightened out over the next few days.  So let’s get the equipment checked out and then we can sprawl out in the day room for some rehabilitation while I fix the coffee and post this Sunday’s photo art.

Thanks to everybody who took the time to write to me yesterday through emails and comments.  It is very rewarding to hear such positive and warming words from so many people.  And because of this magical thing called “Internet,” not long ago most of us were strangers to each other but now I count you as friends.  Thank you, again.

When the world-wide-web landed in everybody’s homes with a big “thud” about 10 years ago, I remember the naysayers and grumps complaining that people were withdrawing from society into the realm of their keyboards.  Why, all of society was going to collapse.  Remember how the so-called experts warned us that our children were going to be permanently damaged?  They just knew that all this time being spent online and not being used to “interact” with other kids outside would destroy their entire personality.

They (the know-it-alls) never figured out that these kids weren’t withdrawing from society, they were expanding their society because all this time online was being spent meeting new people from all over the world.  They were getting geography lessons by learning about their new friends’ homes.  Picking up some new language skills and simple things like time zone differences.  We could spend the rest of the day making a list of these sorts of things.

For the first several months that Firegeezer was online, I’d check each morning to see what different countries the previous day’s readers had come from.  It was the most fascinating thing.  Total strangers from all over the world looking at something that I had put online.  About a year ago I quit counting.  By then I had had at least one visitor from practically every nation on earth that had an internet connection.

Granted, most of them had dropped in from following a Google search, but I counted them just the same.  Over time, many of them came back again to see more.  I think the one that was the most fun catching was the day I had a visitor from Mongolia.  I didn’t even realize that Mongolians were online.  But I don’t know if that guy ever came back.  I can’t possibly check every login, but I didn’t see him again.  I guess his laptop battery went dead and he hasn’t yet gotten his yak back home to get it recharged.

Well, we don’t want our batteries to go dead, so let’s get this equipment checked out.  I need to start the coffee.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It was announced yesterday that famed author Tony Hillerman had died on Sunday in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at age 83.

Kelly Campbell / HarperCollins photo

Hillerman is known widely for his police mysteries set on the Navajo Indian Reservation that are solved by the Tribal Policemen Lt. Joe Leaphorn and Sgt. Jim Chee.  While he has been honored consistently for his innovative plots and well-constructed stories, he achieved a lot of his popularity by weaving the Navajo culture and mores into the telling of the tales.

Even if you’ve never read one of his books, if you have ever walked through a bookstore, you couldn’t help but notice the distinctive bookcovers of his series as they were always on display.  Beginning in 1970 with The Blessing Way, Mr. Hillerman wrote 18 novels set on the Navajo lands.  His final book in the series, The Shape Shifter, was released in 2006.

The first few stories were centered around Lt. Leaphorn who was getting older and nearing retirement from the Navajo Tribal Police force whose life is complicated by his wife’s declining health and eventual death.  A few novels into the series, he brings in Jim Chee, a Tribal Police officer who is studying to become a “hathaali,” or medicine man, and later gets promoted to Sergeant.  At first, Chee is the only character that works on the inevitable murders in a few of the stories.  But in 1987 Hillerman finally brought them together in the same book in Skinwalkers and at the same time his popularity as a writer took off and he was on the fast track to fame and fortune.

Reading a Hillerman novel is rewarding in two ways.  First, as I mentioned already, is the excellent mystery-plot construction.  They are genuine who-dunnits.  The other benefit is the marvelous way that he transports you into the Navajo culture and gradually brings you around to understand why they live the way they do and believe the things they believe.  It is truly a cultural enrichment that in itself tends to make you want to buy still one more book in the series.

If you decide to try one of these classic mysteries for the first time, try to get one of the earliest novels and then read them in chronological order.  The characters and the timelines follow a definite growth and aging across the series that tends to bring you into the lead characters’ lives and psyches.

This video biography of Tony Hillerman posted by the Los Angeles Times runs about 10 minutes.  So you may want to come back later when you have the time for it.  But please be sure you check it out sometime today.  It’s a remarkable story about a real down-to-earth man who made a mark on the American culture.

Now let’s take time to check this equipment out.  I need to run another pot of coffee.

Believe it or not, the watermen are still harvesting crabs around here.  That extended summer weather that we had kept the water warm enough that they haven’t yet started burrowing into the riverbeds to hibernate.  Soooo, I dropped by the local crab shack yesterday, picked up a 1/2-bushel and put them in the refrigerator.

Today I’ll start picking them, not to eat now, but to pack into the freezer for some wintertime treats.  More specifically, baking up a delectable plate of deviled crab about once a month.  Mmmmmm.  Sometimes that’s better than ice cream.  (Not always, but sometimes.)

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The National Hockey League had a rare event on Saturday night.  Every team in the league played on the same day, 15 games.  They probably had to bring up a couple of referees from the American Hockey League to get enough zebras on the ice for that one.  The Caps beat Dallas in sudden-death overtime, so I had a good time.

The teams are starting to spread out a little bit now after getting 8 or so games behind them.  Of course, there will be a definite shuffle in the standings by the end of November once they get their weak spots identified and corrected.  But some of the stronger teams are showing their stuff.  In the Eastern Conference, Buffalo has really come storming out with a big start, going 6-0-2.  No losses, except for the 1-point overtime losses.  On the other hand, Tampa Bay has gotten off to a miserable beginning.  During the off-season they replaced almost half their team and hired a new coach.  They’re still looking for the “magic,” though with only one win and a 1-3-3 record.  That’s not good for ticket sales.

In the Western Conference, Detroit is living up to their expectations by getting through 8 games with only one loss.  A torrid pace, as they say.

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And finally, this item from this morning’s edition of the Queensland Courier-Mail in Australia:

 A man running down the street in nothing but underwear and a bike helmet adorned with exploding fire crackers caused a stir in Mt Isa last night.

(Police) Supt. Hopkins said the man had not offered an explanation as to why he had attached the fire crackers to his head.

The 22-year-old Mt Isa man was charged with being a public nuisance and having possession of fireworks.

The newspaper doesn’t say so, but rumor has it that he also had an application form for the Kentland VFD stuffed down his drawers.  Hmmm.

Well, we’d better get this equipment checked out now.  I definitely need some more coffee.