Hunting for Firehouses!? Be Vewy Vewy Qwiet!

For two weeks I'd been training a girl at work on one of the channels used to dispatch four of our fire agencies. Since each agency has multiple fire houses and multiple engines and trucks and such they use and they all have different locations of coverage. Anyway - we took a day trip to find each fire house location for the channel.

We started around noon and it took us until about 4:30 pm to see all the houses. Some had people in them - others must have been on calls. BUT it was cool. The houses we visited had time to give us tours and show us where they sleep and work out. We saw their training centers ... here are some pictures.

this one has an awesome location and it's already on a HUGE hill over parts of the county - but the tower give an even better view of their service area! It's amazing from up there I bet.

this is me "driving" one of the burn van's - used for practice on rescuing in vehicles!

But when we went to these places we didn't want to look like this... all cheery and stuff....

so we made ourselves blend by using gear from the army navy surplus store! what do you think?

OK OK I was scared.

Stock Show!

At the stock show you see so many interesting and new things if you're not used to the live stock! It's animals everywhere - and well as the gay man I am... it is also a new sense of wonder when you see what others decide to do or wear while at the stock show... I have just a couple examples...

OK here for example... I asked these fine ladies if they would mind taking a picture with me... they were in their element and content to be part of my picture albums!

Then there were the hair styles... I found this one and how should I describe it... it's retro? It's southern... It's... well here I'll snap a picture.. Hey Stevie... would you mind acting like I'm taking your picture please... smile!

Oh dang it CARL! YOu so totally walked in front of the camera and my example of Stockshow hair! Darn it ok I'll try again.... Here we go keep smiling Stevie... harder this time!....

OH HECK! WTF? Seriously lady? You couldn't wait ONE more second! Dang! OK Let's try this one more time.. .Stevie please? ok ok thank you SMILE! ...

Mullet achieved! and yes this is a man! If you look closely his hair matches his blonde leather jacket - and his friends are secretly chatting in jealousy... "Brad ALWAYS gets the fans I wish my hair grew as fast as his does!"

Stock shows are fun! they have beef...

And this!

Stanky!

Gunther Toody's! It's a diner sort of place all dressed up in 50's style decor including the servers dressed in old fashioned attire and wearing red lipstick while snapping their gum at you and name tags with names like Gidget or Flo. Mike and I LOVE to eat there. They have Chicken Fried Chicken which is like chicken fried steak but ... chicken! LOL No bones... and covered in white gravy. Comes with shredded hash browns - which you can add stuff to like more white gravy or cheese or whatever.

Mike and I spend our time going back and forth between two different locations. This way the staff doesn't think we are there as often as we are.

One morning though as we were leaving and in the parking lot ... there was a stench of cooking onions... it was so "thick" and strong a smell I almost vomited. Since Mike likes or loves to eat onions he thought the smell was good and that my reaction... HILARIOUS! I don't like Onions in general ... most of the time!

This morning Mike and I make our trek to the diner and we get there later than normal to find we have a limited menu to choose from. It seems they have a transitional period where they don't serve EVERYTHING on the breakfast menu and they serve regular daytime or evening food like burgers and malted milkshakes.

So we found that our chicken was still an option so we were glad. Oh oh oh and our waitress... she happened to be this younger lady who seemed to be kind of goth. She always has on like dark knee high socks with like skulls or Nightmare Before Christmas or whatever so it gave her "50's" style outfit a bit of a darker twist and come to find out she was cool and sweet and quick witted. She had a comeback for stuff - she told Mike he was gross because Mike likes to put white gravy on his pancake and that's not something you see every day. It was so funny.

Well then our food arrives and there are some sort of "peasant potatoes" or shopped cubed part of potatoes and those are not my favorite in general but THEN ... they were doused in some red chili powder of sorts and covered in fried up onions and green peppers.... at first I thought this, "Oh wow this was an odd mistake I don't like ...." then my stomach cut in and I couldn't think or speak clearly... I almost projectile puked at the waitress. I couldn't complete a thought or a movement... this is what went through my head (If I can capture it)

"Hmmmm those stank... I mean they wreak! I'm gonna vomit. Breath with your mouth! Don't lose it" Scrape it off the toast! Nope! Toast is ruined and soaked in it! DANG! When did I select white bread for my toast? She didn't ask!? I'm gonna be sick! Oh gawsh... this is THAT smell from that morning when I was leaving the Gunther Toody's before and almost got sick!" THERE ARE SOME ONIONS UNDER THE GRAVY ON MY CHICKEN!!!!!!!!!!! Scrape it off. then I said to Mike... "Hey can I use this small empty plate!?" he said I could I continued Mentally ... "Um, this is horrible I want to cry! It's too early for this! I just want breakfast and now I can't! I wanna wail on the ground and scream." I began scraping it off with the potatoes onto the small plate and the toast was tossed aside onto the table for lack of anywhere else to put it. Then I saw the whole plate is covered in sauce form this potato concoction. I stopped trying to get all the potatoes to fit onto the small saucer... odd thing is.. she got me the shredded hash browns I ordered also on a side plate? WTF!?

I had to get up and leave Mike alone at the table and go outside to calm down and not get sick!!! I went outside - relaxed some I smoke a cigarette and chilled out.

I went back inside - and as I sat down the smell of those stanky things got to me again. The server came over and was like "Um here is the other order of your shredded hash browns is everything ok?" I told her I didn't think I could eat anything and I asked maybe if she had a clean plate I could use. She was glad to be able to say yes and she ran to get me one.

I cut off the part of the chicken that was contaminated by the onions and such... and I moved the rest of the chicken to the new clean plate. I Also put the small portions of hash browns all onto the clean new plate with the remnants of my chicken... I was able to eat some of the chicken and some of the hash browns.... then I asked for a box for my left overs.

I felt like such a bitch! Poor Mike was so sweet asked if I was ok. He ate his food fine. Poor guy!

But the worst part... I JUST wanted to go and have breakfast and relax and I was in fact laughing and jovial minutes before she dropped off that food... I feel like such a dork and cry baby! And now... I"M HUNGRY!!!!!!!!!! lol Oh well.... next time I'll speak up and make her take them back nicely so I won't panic and suffer! HAHAH! But you KNOW if I asked her to take them back (even though I'm not sure why they were on the plate in the first place?) They's spit in it or something!? Ya know? Ew!

Did I tell you we went to the stock show? I'll have to show you pictures soon!

Esso Si Que Es? (S O C K S)

You know how when you're dating someone you love all their little ticks and their little "twitches" that make them unique from all the other stupid people in the world!?

For example... you start dating John (which I don't know how you could the way he treated his ex is unbelievable... and that hair of his ew... so gross ... anyway) so you dated John and after a week (I still don't know how you made it that long) you noticed that every time he makes a point that he finds cool and which makes him feel superior in knowledge... he "slurps". Like he does this quick inhale using only the sides of his mouth doing in intake of air making a slight hissing sound. In sync with the slurping hissing noise he makes he also raises his eyebrows and kind of nods his head to show how superior he is.

As your friend I notice it too but since I'm not all head over heels for him I think this move and hiss feature is a defect. So I tell you about it in a nice way and my hopes are that you too will notice it and think in time his "cute"ness will ware thin and then he'll just be STUPID.....

OMG Poor john I'm sorry I shouldn't be so mean... Moving on.

So - My boyfriend has this thing that I only recently have noticed keeps growing... Sounds dirty right? ... It is!

His use for socks!

The first was on one of my visits to his home area of Washington. He took me to a Thai restaurant in Tacoma and before we headed in... he had to blow his nose... so yes... he reached under his seat in the car and looked around but only found a sock - he blew his nose in it. I of course am not good at being coy and thinking "Oh wow maybe that's just a one time thing I won't comment and make him embarrassed." Oh hell no!

I was like "Um that's sick shit! Did you just BLOW YOUR NOSE in that? Is that a SOCK?!"

He said yes and we both laughed at how gross it was.

On the drive out to move Mike from Washington to Colorado one morning our windows were fogging up and he reached into his bag of extras... grabbed a sock and wiped out the inside window of the U-Haul truck! (Different sock or that could have been messy!)

So I thought WOW this guy is amazing - he has socks not only for his feet - but for tissue - for foggy windows. Of course I gave him a hard time and joked about it.

I thought that would be the last of it because of course it's been a few months now since the socks have made their appearance as anything new. UNTIL NOW!

OK so check this out... Mike took my car in to his work on Saturday to change my oil and fix my tires for me which had one huge screw and then a staple of some kind causing two tires to have slow leaks. Little did I know until we had out family Christmas that he also installed a new face off CD stereo that hooks up to my ipod so I can completely control my ipod from my stereo controls without having the buzzing of the FM transmitter that I used to use.

So the face comes off - (Hence the name face-off right? Duh!) but it didn't come with a case... for the face I mean of course... anyway so Mike says... he says.... "And we'll get you a case to hold the face for the stereo but until then you can STICK IT IN A SOCK when you take it off! Then it won't get scratched or damaged."

He's brilliant. I love him! Did I mention he got the stereo as a complete surprise and I didn't know until I unwrapped the box he tricked me into wrapping (to me, from him?) Hmmmm.

SOCK PUPPETS! YAHHHHH!!!!

Bacon!

OK ... so my friend Meghan at work is off (when i say she's off I mean ... if you truly know her... you might look at her with a slight tilt of your head to the laft) - she's a lot like me I think (I hope that's a good thing) but we both see some odd things in similar ways! Sometimes good sometimes bad! She for example was able to share with me the idea of finding a Bacon Tuxedo that is not actually made of bacon but looks like it is - and it seems that the tuxedo actually SMELLS like bacon! I think she found it on http://www.iheartbacon.com/ but I could be wrong!?

Then we discussed today how we like our men with meat on their bones! She said she likes Billy Mays... I wasn't sure who it was by his name... then she explained he's the Oxy Clean Guy! OMG YES THE OXY CLEAN GUY! (I'm yelling here!) I've said for years how I'd love to have sex with the oxy clean guy because he's so loud on TV I could only imagine what he'd yell and the volumes he'd hit when in the throws of passion... plus... cleanup would be a snap! Maybe he'd Yell... "DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT... THAT WILL CUM RIGHT OUT OF THAT RUG!!!!!" HOT! lol

It Smells HOT!

I answer the call by saying the usual “911?!” the woman on the other end… not so calm. It’s Christmas morning I picture her frantic getting ready for the holiday guest who’re bound to be arriving in the next five hours or so… and what do her wondering EARS behold… FIRE ALARMS!!!!

Yep I could hear them too! Beeping in the background.

She is panicking and saying it smells hot – Like toward the basement I think! I don’t see smoke and I don’t see flames but something is hot I can feel it.

I have to tone out 3 fire engines and a medic unit and also the battalion chief for this – they all go in route and eventually arrive on scene – advising me of their locations for staging in case the house bursts into flames… moments later though… “Command... this will be ok, the scene is stable, we can cancel all other units responding to this call it is an overheated hair dryer!”

The sentence was spoken calmly and clearly – but you could tell he was trying not to laugh.

See what happens when people try to get the perfect Christmas Hair!? I picture the woman with only ONE hair “wing” while the rest of her hair is damp and hanging soggy against her panic stricken cheek! Flailing her arms in the air as the 3 fire engines and the medic units arrive on her block…. Only to find out her whole family evacuated the house in all different stages of undress, because she overheated the hair dryer trying to get the perfect holiday full-body hair she’d always pictured. Woops!

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Eve!

It's Christmas Eve - my friends are all gathering as I type this out - I'm at work - luckily it's calm in here - I made some new bags out of all sorts of materials for my co workers as holiday gifts. (When I say I made them I mean I made about 15 or so of them and my Mom helped me by making the rest) But I started the project - and tonight I brought them in for the co-workers to use as bags for our headsets and ear pieces and hand held phones and stuff here at work! I put in some coffee mugs and some Holiday lotions and chap sticks and bath washes and stuff so they had little gifts too!

Cool huh! But I wanna be at my friends house! My friend Carl - He's having a small group of friends over and we'll be hanging out when I get done at work!

Tomorrow I'll be working 12 hours all day long. But I wanted to say Happy Holidays to you all! Be safe and enjoy yourselves!