Rescue Week

This week at the academy, our technical rescue teams have come to teach us some basic rescue and extrication techniques. It's been a great week with the exception of the 6 hour lecture kicking it off. Our training evolutions have been really fun, and our rescue team instructors have been really cool and helpful.

So far, we've done some repelling down the side of our tower in harnesses we tied out of webbing (praying my knots hold up), torn up cars with spreaders and cutters, dove headfirst off balconies onto ladders and pivoted to feet down while 10 feet off the ground and slid down the beams to simulate an emergency bailout, simulated an elevator shaft rescue using handcuff knots, practiced the Denver drill, which is more or less a really crappy confined space rescue (only crappy because the tall guy usually ends up getting a face full of the victim's butt, and crappier if you get called to be the biggest unconscious victim of the day and you get slammed around against the walls, hung up by the helmet on the windowsill, and ultimately dropped), and so on and so forth. We also practiced disentangling ourselves, lowering occupied baskets down ladders, and carrying down firefighters down ladders. Next week we'll be doing more searches and a lot of crawling.

Eventually our class historian is going to post the pictures he's been taking. Luckily, he's been in my group all week, so I hope to be able to post a few pictures of me diving off the balcony onto our ladder, or hanging off of it sideways trying to turn around to slide down. After just a little bit of practice, we got my 'company' of 4 cadets down the ladder in 15 seconds, even with getting hung up a little on the protruding beams of the ladder (normally you don't have to worry about that, because the tip of the ladder would be slightly below the windowsill).

This week went by fairly quickly, which is good, because I'm really looking forward to spending some time with family next weekend. I haven't seen my 4 oldest kids since August and I bet I miss them more than they miss me. I can't wait to talk to them in person.

Also, we're in the process of applying for a rental home out in Seguin, a Spanish Fork sized town about half an hour outside San Antonio. It's only a 3 bedroom house, but the 3rd bedroom is a huge loft on the 2nd floor that we can probably separate into 3 or 4 separate rooms with dividers. The house sits in a quiet neighborhood on about 5 acres of land, and it's very reasonably priced for the size. We could sure use any prayers thrown our way so that we can get approved and move in.

Hiking, Donuts, and BBQ

We got Veteran's Day off from the academy. It was a little weird getting a Thursday off in the middle of a week, but the day off was well appreciated. I'd like to say thanks to all the veterans out there, not because we got the day off, but because of your contributions and sacrifices for our country.

A few of us cadets drove up to Georgetown to go hiking at Lake Georgetown. On the way, we passed through Round Rock, so we stopped at Round Rock Donuts as seen on Man V Food. A friend and I shared a Texas Sized glazed donut. It wasn't bad, but I was expecting better. There wasn't a whole lot of orange flavor in the donut or the glaze. I also had an eclaire, which was pretty tasty.



The lake wasn't too far, but it was just a place to walk really, nothing incredibly scenic. We hiked part of the way around the lake and were out for about 3 and a half hours walking, and maybe 10 minutes skipping rocks.




On the way back from hiking, we detoured over into Driftwood and went to The Salt Lick. It was good, just as good as it was the first time I went. I wish I hadn't eaten the donuts, could have squeezed in more brisket and ribs.

My wife, the angel

Yes, Jenn had a rough day at church today. Yes, she's been pretty frustrated trying to be both a mom and a dad to 5 kids. I still know she's an angel, and now I have proof. This is a still that I got from her webcam while we were chatting, you can see the pillar of light surrounding her.

I love you Jenn. This specific trial will be over soon enough, but I'm sure I'll find new ways to make you just as angry and upset as you were today :) You'll always be my angel, even without the cool artificial lighting effects.

Air show

Today there was an air show at Lackland AFB, not too far from the fire academy. There had been jets practicing for the past few days while we were out playing with hand and power tools practicing forcible entry. I think they were using our tower as a landmark for because they'd loop around it and head back to the base a lot. The stars of the show were the F-16 Thunderbirds, which are the Air Force's show team. They did some really cool stuff that my pictures and video didn't do justice to.

Anyways, we were given permission to go to the academy and sit in the bleachers and watch the show. We were also given permission to bring our families, but on short notice I couldn't get Jenn to drive out here :)

The kids would have loved it, the planes got close enough that you could actually see the pilots as they flew over us upside down. It's a free show, maybe they'll be able to join me at the airfield next year.

I wonder what might have happened to my car

Last night around 11 a pretty crazy hailstorm happened.



It was loud, the video doesn't do justice to the sound of the hailstones hitting my front door and my glass sliding door. I was just hoping I didn't end up with cracked glass.

I grabbed the camera and took the above video until the battery ran out. Then I charged it up for a few minutes to have enough juice to take a few pictures of the stones on my front landing.