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Morning Lineup – December 29

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Saturday Morning – This and That in the News

One of our readers, Tom L. sent an interesting email last night referring to the weekend of mourning the deaths of the two firefighters who were murdered in Webster, New York, earlier this week.  The visitations/viewings are being held last night (Friday), today and tonight with the funerals performed on Sunday and Monday.  This tragedy and remembrance will be bringing literally thousands of firefighters coming and going over the four days.  Tom tells us:

The community of Webster has really pulled out all the stops. If you hook up on Face Book with "prayers and support for Webster Firefighters" you will see that they have gotten a huge number of hotel rooms donated for incoming first responders, as well as gift cards at local restaurants and food donated for buffets to feed them through the weekend. The local hotels are hosting community receptions. They are working out airfares for those who really need it from around the country. I have never seen such an outpouring. Pretty amazing effort…

Agreed, Tom.  That amount of preparation in just a couple of days is a tremendous achievement and the town's efforts are certainly to be lauded.  Somebody got to working on it early and somehow convinced the citizens that they are really going to be inundated with visitors for this.  Whoever is responsible is doing a great job of coordination and preparation.

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There are some noises coming from the National Hockey League headquarters today.  Not suprising, since we are only two weeks away from having the entire season lost because of the inability of the two sides to find an agreement.  My personal opinion is that the owners are deliberately running it up to the deadline because they have the financial upper hand in the negotiations.  Their pocketbooks can afford the relatively-smaller loss financially, but the players mostly cannot.

The league presented a written proposal, several hundred pages long (an obvious negotiating ploy in itself) to the union on Thursday.  Reporting via the Sporting News, the AP explains:

Deputy commissioner Bill Daly said Friday the league presented its proposal Thursday. The sides haven't met in person since a second round of talks with a federal mediator broke down Dec. 13. The NHL and the players' association are expected to talk via conference call on Saturday, and have tentative plans to meet Sunday in New York.

The league's comprehensive new offer, that is several hundred pages in length, was still being reviewed by the union Friday night. The players' association's executive board and negotiating committee went over the proposal during an internal conference call.

"We delivered to the union a new, comprehensive proposal for a successor CBA," Daly said in a statement Friday. "We are not prepared to discuss the details of our proposal at this time. We are hopeful that once the union's staff and negotiating committee have had an opportunity to thoroughly review and consider our new proposal, they will share it with the players. We want to be back on the ice as soon as possible."

The league would like to have a deal in place by Jan. 11, begin training camps the following day and start the regular season by Jan. 19.

Both sides have to approach this in earnest now, it's probably their last chance.  We'll see what happens this weekend.  This is day #105 of the lockout.

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One last item to cover this morning before we start the equipment check comes from Dorset, Vermont.  Apparently an ambulance wasn't called in this instance, but we can all find some relevancy in the story that was published in the New York Post on Thursday:

Vermont State Police say a man faces a drunken driving charge after driving onto the lawn of a historic home once owned by the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Police say 55-year-old Donald Blood III of Marlborough, Mass., was ordered to appear in court in Bennington on Jan. 14.

Police say Blood thought he was driving into a parking lot, but actually it was the lawn of the Wilson House, built in 1852 in Dorset, the birthplace of AA co-founder Bill Wilson.

The Wilson House's website describes it as a "place of sanctuary where people can come to give thanks to God for their new lives." It still hosts several AA meetings each week.

Ok, we're running a little late this morning, so let's get started.  I'm getting the Bunn-O-Matic going again before we meet back in the digital day room.

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Posted by on December 29, 2012 • Filed under: morning lineup • Tagged: , ,

Decision point + 25

4 comments

Keep them coming

I guzzle diet sodas. It irritates wait staff that the glass is empty by time they enter the food order.

The older guys working at an all-night diner where I am a regular have two glasses ready when I sit down.

This guzzling is a remaining behavior from a long-ago habit.

The Challenger shuttle disaster is an annual reminder of a personal crisis decision point.

White-knuckling an urge

Spent weeks attempting to reign in the uncontrollable … could never predict how much I would drink once I started.

When off-duty I often needed 3-4 drinks in order to go to sleep. Would follow the nightcap with a 20 oz sports drink/acetaminophen bolus.

I was trying to go more than two consecutive days without drinking. January 28, 1986, would have been day three. The first three-day dry spell in years. It did not happen.

The last close call

I thought I separated drinking from the job. Until an off-duty response to a greater alarm fire while hammered resulted in a terrifying realization that I could lose my job.

That started the unsuccessful effort to reign in the drinking … and then to visit the Employee Assistance Program to ask for help the day after the Challenger disaster.

I entered an outpatient rehabilitation program 25 years ago tonight. I was angry and uncertain.

Just cause you are sober does not make you “all right”

Up to 90% of alcoholics have at least one relapse in the first four years after treatment. It could be from a behavioral, cognitive or biochemical factor.

I have maintained sobriety for a quarter-century. Doing Job 1 every day.

That was the easy part.

Still have behaviors and thinking that are addictive and destructive. They remain resistant to lasting change.

So much for the “Anonymous” in AA

Alcoholics Anonymous, is the 12-step spiritual self-help program that remains a force in treating a variety of addictive behaviors. Estimate about two million members.

I don’t think Bill Wilson or Dr. Bob Smith ever envisioned a society as tolerant and open about addiction as we are now. There was a lot of shame associated with alcoholics in 1935.

Rescue Me and alcohol

Alcoholism is a frequent topic in Denis Leary’s Rescue Me series.

Season 5 (2009) ended with this cliff-hanger:

Rescue Me’s creators, Denis Leary and Peter Tolan weren’t afraid to risk it. In the waning moments of the finale, Tommy Gavin (Leary) takes two bullets to the chest, courtesy of his grieving Uncle Teddy (Lenny Clarke), who seeks revenge for the recent alcohol-fueled death of his wife. Tolan says it was a natural progression of this season’s story arc, which saw Tommy fall off the wagon and drag the entire Gavin clan with him.

“We just really got into the whole idea of Tommy starting to drink again and being the merry piper leading everybody down that road. And what the consequences would be,” Tolan tells TVGuide.com. “We’ve already established over the seasons that Tommy’s curse — which is a direct reflection of 9/11 — is that he survives. When he should be dead, he survives, and there’s death all around him, which is what he is left to deal with.”

Leary says Teddy, who murdered the drunk driver who killed Tommy’s young son in an earlier season, was the obvious choice to shoot Tommy.

Leary says the show’s success at depicting alcoholism comes from a mixture of personal experience and letting the disease speak for itself. “Our investigation of [alcoholism] comes from a real place,” Leary says.

“I know firefighters who have drank, quit, started up again, quit, and finally said, “I can’t work unless I have alcohol. I need to have some fun.” So I think we’re portraying every part of it, and I don’t think we’re preachy about it. If Tommy keeps on drinking, I don’t think we will judge him. And if he quits drinking, I don’t know how we’ll judge the characters that continue to drink.”

Adam Bryant (Sept 1, 2009) “Exclusive: Rescue Me’s Creators Dish on the Shocking Season Finale” TV Guide.

My brothers and sisters were supportive and ball-busting. I did not have to hide my recovery – that was a powerful benefit.

Thanks!

Mike “FossilMedic” Ward
February 4, 2011

Posted by on February 4, 2011 • Filed under: beer, EMS Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health • Tagged: , , , , , ,