Photos: Firefighter Ice and Water Rescue Training

Here are some photos of ice rescue training held recently at the Albion fire station. The AFD has a variety of equipment for water rescue, including a boat and inflatable rescue boats, flotation devices, and ice rescue suits that help insulate the rescuer.

Ice and water rescue training includes classroom sessions, practice in donning and using the equipment, and finally live training outside on the ice and in the water.

Please use extreme caution if going on the ice, especially in areas of springs and flowing water, in warm weather, and other times when the ice might be thin.

In a lake area, you want to have boats. We have the big boat--it's not really all that big. On top of it for easy transport is the inflatable boat, for difficult to access areas like shallow water and swamps. We also have a "banana" boat, for ice rescues--it can go in the water or be slid across the ice, and has an opening front and back for pulling victims in.

Ice rescue suits keep the rescuer (relatively) warm and (mostly) dry while they go out onto the ice, tethered by rope to a shore crew. As with most firefighter duties, for every one who goes into harm's way there are usually a half dozen or more working backup jobs.

At least four suits are necessary for an ice rescue: Two for the rescue crew, and two for the backup crew. Off behind them you can see a wheel of our antique hose reel, which the AFD put into service around 1900. (Yes, there's a photo of it in Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights.)

Luckily, the ice rescue suits are easy to put on and very comfortable. Hah! I'm totally lying. Assisting in getting them on is as much of a skill as actually wearing them.

More of our ice and water rescue equipment. You could climb a mountain and dive on the Titanic in this stuff. 

And more equipment, of course, requires more practice.

Practice, even with the basics. 

Speak of the Devil: All Hail The Furry Prognosticating Rodent

Stupid groundhog.



I noticed a Weather Channel meteorologist in Punxsutawney, PA this Groundhog Day. Was that a good idea? He might have gotten stuck in the movie.





Speak of the Devil: All Hail The Furry Prognosticating Rodent: I usually post on Saturdays, but today being Groundhog Day, it's time to present an image blog for the occasion. I have it on good aut...

Free E-Book To Celebrate Valentine's Day!

The e-book version of My Funny Medical will be listed for free over the next several days. Wait, let me rephrase that: FREE for the next several days! That's a heck of a buy, by which I mean you don't have to buy it.

Due to complications with KDP enrollment, the ebook will be free on Amazon from today until the 5th, then reset to free from Feb 6-11, giving most of the month; so it's free until three days before the big day. Did I mention free?

And of course I have a piece in there, which is why I can call it "our" anthology. I'm the one who had to sleep in the car. There are print copies available for anyone who wants one as a gift, but you can get your free e-version over on my Amazon page:

https://www.amazon.com/Mark-R-Hunter/e/B0058CL6OO/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1517553460

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Valentine's Day gets treated by some of the funniest writers in America: the people who win the humor contests, write syndicated columns, appear on comedy stages, create the jokes you hear on TV. A fun read, and an open invitation to laugh at the jokes that make the world go around.

Some samples:
I don’t need a special day to be awkward, uncomfortable and falsely selfless. That’s what dating was for. Blythe Jewell

This is not to imply that the only men who remember Valentine’s Day are philanderers. Some of them, for example, are only thinking about cheating. Greg Podolski

We lovingly refer to it as Valentine’s Day because "Sex for Chocolate Day" was vetoed by the greeting card industry. Leigh Anne Jasheway

Valentine’s Day is about those five little words: Charge it to my Visa. Jim Shea

Inappropriate Valentine's Day Gifts include: Tickets to a ball game, box of chocolates left over from Christmas, vacuum cleaner, herpes. Jonathan Shipley

Clubbing a man over the head with a bat and dragging him into your love den has been interpreted as somehow criminal, by people who belong to fringe groups like the "police" and the "courts". What in heaven’s name is a girl to do?! Kate Heidel

GRADY HARP, Hall of Fame Reviewer, says:
"One of those `must have' books not only because it is terrific reading but also because it has a lot to say about contemporary relationships. Kudos to a crew of writers who are very in the know about love and relationships. This is a little treasure of a book with some of the most terse humor being written today!"

"Valentine's Day? You know what I love? People food."

And remember: Every time you buy one of our books, an angel gets its paper wings.

Since it's all about love, here's my two month old granddaughter when she was two days old. That's love!

Book Review: For Your Damned Love

You should never start reading in the middle of a book series. But you should also never write in multiple genres before finding your audience, and I did that too, so what the heck.

But Doc Hardesty, American living in Mexico and sort-of retired mercenary, isn’t the main focus of most of this story, at least not at first. Instead it’s about Dancy, a rich debutant visiting Mexico with her over-his-head drug dealing husband. The husband has made a deal to turn Dancy over to a Mexican drug lord, who will use her and then have her killed.

But everyone underestimates Dancy, starting with the two underling kidnappers she beats up with a tennis racket—while naked. Soon Dancy has taken over the cartel herself, leaving a trail of death and destruction behind her, while Hardesty hires on to track her down.

“For Your Damned Love” reminds me of the old James Bond style spy books: full of sex and action (in this case much of it graphic), but also lyrical descriptions of exotic settings. You get a real feel for the territory, and it’s clear Linton Robinson knows Mexico. There also philosophical discussions that slow the story down, sometimes to a crawl. But here’s the thing: All the set pieces and talks about music and communism are so entertaining, and done so well, that going through them isn’t so much of a wade as a respite from the one-woman disaster squad.

In the end Mexico becomes a character, every bit as much as Hardesty, the chaos-loving Dancy, and the doomed men who circle around her. It’s not the kind of thing that would fly in the publishing world today … and maybe that’s what’s wrong with the publishing world today.

https://www.amazon.com/Your-Damned-Love-Hardesty-Adventure-ebook/dp/B00KWUOCNY

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Surviving The Fire, But Not the Move

My wife and I, through no fault of our own, had to fill our SUV with boxes this weekend and take them to our house. (The boxes were full--otherwise, what would be the point?) Okay, it was kind of our fault, but that's another story.

This SUV, which holds more than it looks. No, that one. Or the other one. Aw, jeez.

My arms and shoulders were a little sore, because I'd spent some time a few days before trying to break into a business in a neighboring town. Really tough plywood covered window that had to be pried open.

Um, guess I should add that the building was on fire.

That window. And I was actually inside, trying to break out.

So I was kind of taking it easy, I thought. Emily would take the boxes out of the SUV and walk them through the garage. I would carry them up five steps, then throw them up into the garage attic. When we were done, I climbed a ladder into the attic and stacked the boxes up real neatly. (The attic used to be a hayloft, and has no steps going up to it. No, I don't know how the horses got up there to eat.)

Due to a cleaning spree we went through over the fall and winter, everything up there is now nicely organized. I've turned from a packrat into a neat packrat. I guess "hoarder" is the new PC term.

This is my garage, as it appeared several years ago. That car is now an ash tray.

It all went very quickly, and I didn't even worry about my chronic back pain. I'd been doing special stretches the chiropractor taught me, and have gotten to the point where I can almost touch my knees. In addition, I recently cleaned up my act a bit on the diet front, so overall the chances of me pulling a lower back pull again were low. Lower.

Then I took a nap, got up for work and took a nice hot shower, and couldn't lean over to put my socks on.

Ah, well ... just goes to show, the lower back can be sensitive if you don't take care of it for, say, fifty years. I spent the next twelve hours sitting in a chair and typing at a keyboard and yeah, it hurt, but it's not like my bottle of naproxen and I couldn't function. My coworkers thought it was a little odd, walking in with no shoes and socks on in thirty degree weather, but the dress code technically only requires pants and shirts.

It felt like a dog was jumping on my back.

Fire at the Wolf Lake, Indiana, Bar and Grill

Several area fire departments responded at around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday to a fire at the Wolf Lake Bar and Grill, along US 33 in Wolf Lake. One firefighter reportedly received minor injuries in a fall; the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Units of the Albion, Churubusco (Smith Township), Cromwell (Sparta Township), Noble Township, and Thorn Creek Fire Departments responded (let me know if I missed anyone).Other units came in to provide standby, including a Kendallville Fire crew that stood by at the Albion fire station. US 33 was shut down for some time, and some firefighters were still on scene after more than four hours.

http://wane.com/2018/01/24/fire-damages-wolflake-tavern/

 

This photo was posted on the WANE-TV website. I post it here because, if you zoom in and look very closely, I'm in it. (I'm the guy in the middle with a blue helmet, back turned to the camera.)

The rest of the photos were taken by me when my partner and I did a walk around of the building late in the fire, as part of our position as the RIT (Rapid Intervention Team). Our job, basically, was to keep an eye on things and react if any of the firefighters inside or on the roof got into trouble.

50 Authors from 50 States: Make Way for California Talent Linda Carroll-Bradd...

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The Dreaded Rejection Letter

Dear Author,
Thank you for submitting your work to us. Unfortunately, it doesn't meet our needs at the present time, but we wish you future success.
Sincerely,
The Editor

Well, that's what they write. Any professional in the business will tell you editors, agents, and publishers don't reject writers: They reject pieces of paper with words written on them. However, that's not what writers hear:

Dear Loser,
 We considered using your manuscript as a coaster, but it was stinking up the place so much we couldn't even be bothered to steam off the stamps. Hopefully we'll never hear from you again, but wish you success at a more appropriate profession, such as fish cleaner or stall mucker.
Go Away,
The Editors

And that's not fair, because in the publishing industry the gatekeepers are inundated with hundreds of--let's face it, sometimes desperate--writers every day. Sometimes a form rejection letter (more likely e-mail) is all they have time for; sometimes they don't have time even for that. There are lots of things to complain about with the publishing industry, but on an individual basis the people working there are pretty decent.


Still, writers get more rejections than a nerd at a sports bar, and I should know. (Just kidding--I never went to sports bars.) In fact, if you're doing it right you're going to get lots and lots of rejections. But sometimes, especially if you're having a down day overall, your umpteenth rejection will show up and just hit you harder than most. That's what happened to me, anyway.

When I first started out, back in the days of snail mail delivered by the Pony Express, I collected enough form rejection letters to paper my office walls ... which would have looked better than the wallpaper I actually had at the time. Later I'd get the occasional encouraging note at the end of one. Then I'd get brief, but personal, rejections. Then more detailed ones, and then, one day, an acceptance. A few times after that, I received some detailed letters describing why they were rejecting the manuscript, or even asking for some changes and a resubmission. Now it's decades since I started out: I have nine published books, and stories in three anthologies.

And I still get form rejection letters.

So yeah, it gets me down sometimes, especially this time of year when the days are short. But after all this time, I've developed a method of dealing with these bouts of sudden depression: I go to my laptop, open up a word document ...

And start working on another story.

It doesn't get me published ... well, not immediately. But it does remind me of why I'm doing this to begin with.

Sometimes the writing life just goes to the dogs.

50 Authors from 50 States: ARKANSAS TRAVEL GUIDES AND MYSTERIES AT A TWO-FOR-...

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