The Bygone Golden Blogging Age

While trying to spin this place back up, I've been looking over my old blogroll, and found so many of them more or less abandoned. Others are still "active" but have been.... hijacked. Someone bought the domain and is making posts, but they're just trolling for referral link traffic now, clearly not the original author or content.

Removed most of these now, but it's sad, there's still a lot of good (but old) content out there on some of them.  Maybe I'll circle around and re-add the ones abandoned in place under the heading of Dead Blogs I Liked, lol.

It shows how long I've been sidelined from the blog scene that I didn't even notice them also going dark, though. The golden age of blogging has apparently passed us by.

There must be some good ones left somewhere, though.  I especially liked the fire, cop, EMS and 911 dispatch blogs that were personal in nature. I was able to look around and find a handful of candidates to add and we will see where they go.

I'm not sure how many readers I still have (surely not as many as I once had since I was gone for so long myself) but if you're still there and know of some other good ones still going, please comment below so I can check them out and we can all try to stick together.

Echoes

My mind comes back around to thinking about this blog from time to time. But most days it feels like I've already told the best stories, and then of course it also seems like the golden age of blogging came to a close in like 2014, you know?

A big part of why I stepped back was that, frankly, my new power company job that I started in 2011 just turned out to not be that interesting. Don't get me wrong, it was a great job that I enjoyed very much, but it didn't provide much the way of blog fodder. And then, after a heavy dose of personal burnout combined with incompetent leadership and growing toxic culture at my last fire job, I had to step away from that. So I really didn't have a source for fire blog fodder any more, either.

So, Three Mouse Clicks went pretty much idle.

In the intervening years, other stuff broke down. In 2018, my wife of 26 years, after too much personal stress not entirely under her control, decided she didn't want to be who she was any more. She walked away from us, her professional life, and nearly all of her family and friends, to start a new life. Three years on, it hasn't worked out so well for her, but you know, choices....consequences. I wish her well anyway.

Then, 2020.

W T F

Don't get me started.

I have spent the last 15 years in a land of predominantly liberal leadership, and closer to one of the cities renowned for 2020's senseless nonsensical violence and rioting than I'm comfortable with. I never took this blog to political places much, but suffice to say I was done living in a region lacking leadership that also couldn't seem to allow people to make choices for themselves. Between that and losing interest in my power company job there, I hit my limit.

Time to hit the reset button.

I took a new job as a dispatcher for a very large midwestern utility. This job is very similar to my first one, but with a better company. Nice, spacious control room. Chill personnel. Big map board. Lots of consoles. High security all the way around. An interesting system with lots of complexity. I like it.

I also have moved back to the small town where I got my first fire gig. The FD there runs 10 pieces out of a large central station, including three paramedic ambulances. It's been 24 years since I left there, but there's still a handful of guys there I know. Dropped in with pie and ice cream to visit the duty shift a few days ago, and all signs point to me ending my five-year hiatus from Fire as soon as things get settled in. I'm still got a few years left in me, and this time I want to go out on my own terms.

Anyway, this place has been filled with nothing but echoes of old tales for a long while. But now I'm picking up the pieces of those earliest echoes, when I was happiest. The reset button worked beautifully.

Oh and yeah.... I'm getting married again. Found a great partner, making it permanent, and no longer going to have to fight the single-parenting struggle with my youngest kids who are still at home.

Life is what you make it, right?

And maybe my new adventures will lead to new stories for this place.

If anyone is still out there reading this, drop a comment so I know this didn't just get broadcast into a black hole.

God bless and stay safe out there.

Seasons

It's been a good long time since I've been on here.

Things at my fire agency went absolutely to crap a couple of years ago after a change in leadership.  That's why the fire stories dried up.  No joy in writing about them any more.

Due to the changing tides of volunteerism, the agency ended up hiring more full time personnel several years ago. Management did not do a good job managing the culture shock.

In an established department, you've got seasoned veterans who kick the new guys in the teeth as often as necessary until they learn to respect the job and the agency's history.  Problem was, management basically established that the new paid guys were essentially "officers", even though most weren't.

Being young and full of bravado and feeling the recentism from being fresh out of school and knowing everything, they failed to respect our older volunteer personnel, who had legitimately earned their commissions.  You see, our volunteer officers were not "elected", they were always appointed after meeting fairly strict training requirements.

On paper, paid or volunteer was not supposed to matter.  Firefighters were firefighters, and officers were officers, period.

So, following fire service tradition going back centuries, our volunteer officers began kicking the new paid guys in the teeth when they were dickheads or disrespectful.  The new guys whined, and the new management backed them up, undermining our agency's entire history and culture, marginalizing our volunteer officers.  Unsurprisingly, our entire base of volunteer officers all left within a single year.

And it just went to hell from there.

Eventually I think the Chief started to figure it out, but it was far too late to repair the damage.  The new guys got their own elected officials in office over the Chief, and then the Chief was fired.  The Deputy Chief was promoted to interim Chief, with no desire to hold the job permanently.  The electeds, totally out of control by now and micromanaging everything, drove the Deputy nuts.  In June of 2015 he announced his retirement effective at the end of the year.  By October, they drove him so batshit crazy he gave his minimum two weeks notice and bailed, unable to stand them even four extra weeks.  That pretty much says it all.

Anyway, with the new management in place, volunteers are being phased out.  On paper, they still exist, but as a mere show.  They get used as abused interns, never allowed to think for themselves and never utilized in a way that promotes their growth within.  Turnover is absurdly high, by design in my opinion, to justify the inevitable ending of the program entirely.  Once upon a time the volunteers were trained to be autonomous, to be community-oriented, to know when to go grab a rig, to be trained enough to respond directly to an emergency scene and size things up or make an EMS intervention, and appropriately meld into the ICS structure when more resources arrived.  No longer, as today none of the volunteers can work without direct career member supervision.  I guess this is partly because all the volunteers who had more training than the paid guys are all gone now.

Also, now the agency only responds from two of its five stations.  They closed and sold a sixth one - without telling the residents in that area beforehand - and are using that money to buy an unnecessarily fancy new fire engine.  There are rigs sitting in the other three stations that literally have responded to zero incidents in over two years.  Zero incidents.  The buildings are abandoned, dusty, leaky ceilings unrepaired, falling apart, with trucks mostly stripped of equipment but holding ceremonial spots for fire insurance rating purposes.  Those stations are mere storage facilities now.  Just a few years ago we would turn out rigs from all of our stations for a structure fire, but those days are over.  The agency still has four tankers, but is lucky to turn out even one for a structure fire because there's no one left to drive them, instead relying on mutual aid for water.  Classy.  In fact, the last few fires, water tankers had to be called from as far as over 20 miles away.  Neighbor agencies are already tiring of carrying this one, but the long term agenda appears to be merger into the neighbor city, and liquidation, leaving the rural people hostage to the city's whims.  Because once your agency has been gutted and you have no assets, no money, and no volunteers, how do you restart from scratch if you don't like what the city is offering?

Bear in mind this isn't a tired retread of the paid vs. vollie debate.  This was the second combo fire agency I've worked at.  I've worked alongside paid guys with lots more training than me, and also alongside paid guys whose hand I needed to hold at many calls.  We're all supposed to be on the same team.  This story is one of too many 2-20 hotheads coming in and no one there to teach them respect.  When they spend their days drawing logos with phrases like "Station 54 - The Filthy Few" for a house that runs less than 300 calls a year.... give me a break.  They want to be big city jakes, and their insecurities turned too many of them into dicks,  Of course, when they did get called in to one of the bigger neighboring cities and got trampled on by busy companies that actually do stuff, their feelings were hurt, and instead of learning respect and humility, they just doubled down.  No, not paid vs. vollie, but rather a total loss of culture by flooding the roster with empowered hotheads while hamstringing the efforts from those of us who've actually done this for a few years to shape their character.

Anyway, if it wasn't already clear to you by now, I am no longer part of this agency, and retired from the fire service myself about a year ago.  I haven't ruled out a return in some sort of rehab/canteen capacity with another agency, but I'm kind of burned out by being treated like whale shit on my way out after a 21-year career.  Just not feeling it any more, and that is genuinely sad.

I still work for the power company though.  Always neat things going on there.

Maybe I'll pick this blog up again, maybe not.  But that's where things are today.

Keep the faith, and stay safe out there.

The return of the Grumpy Dispatcher, again

Following another hiatus, I have returned.  Just a touch over a year since my last post.

I have some new ideas about where to go with this blog, some personal stuff going on that I will share about, and have lost the ability to give much of a hoot about whether or not my cover is ever blown.

I say what I mean and I mean what I say.  Well, most of the time.

I see quite a few of my favorite blogs have fallen to the wayside.  Having done so myself now and then, I understand.  Maybe they'll be back some day.  In the meantime, I'll have to start doing some cleanup on my links and blogroll.

How are you guys doing out there?  Anyone still listening?

Restoration

It has begun.

34 posts reviewed and restored so far.  Still over 200 left to sift through.

Kind of amusing reading over my own stuff from when I was much more of a grump than I am these days.

Stay safe, my friends.

PAR

Still here.  Still in semi-blog-retirement but not ruling out future content that I often have promised but as yet failed to deliver.

Just in case anyone was wondering.

Hope your holidays and new year went well and your resolutions are holding up.  Stay safe out there.

The Man in the Red Bandana

Some gave all. Never forget. 9.11.01

When Trouble Finds You

The question of whether the blog should end or not isn't meaningful if it is going to be kept online for access to some of the old stuff some of you guys find of value. I never intended to delete the thing, but felt it was necessary to offer an explanation instead of just ceasing to write. But since it will stay up, I can't rule out occasionally feeling like writing something, and what better place than this?

One reason the readership has always been sort of low is that I blocked search engine access to avoid netting people who were searching for power dispatch terms like NERC and FERC, but to heck with that, I've not said anything I'm not willing to stand behind so why hide? I had always intended the audience to be fellow 911-types, but no need to keep the audience so narrow. I've disabled the search engine block.

So, I guess it will live on, now that I have explained my dearth of inspiration and no longer feel like an apology for long periods of quiet is necessary.

And of course, there's a tale to tell. Of course. Sometimes trouble finds you without you looking for it.

While driving home with my family after a weekend of camping, we were in the middle of nowhere but nearing home shortly after midnight when we drove past a family-owned commercial farm. It was a very humid and warm evening, with fog banks in the valleys. Up in one of the high windows of a barn/shop building, maybe three stories up, I was pretty sure I saw a thin curtain of steam or smoke coming out.

After the first ten or so years of my fire career, constantly being hyper-vigilant and constantly double-checking stuff that turned out to be nothing, I nearly kept going, but..... but I just gotta double check this one. Turned around and went back.

Something white is coming out, sure enough. And.... sure as hell, there is an unmistakable orange flickering visible within.

Game on.

Woke up the wife, put the phone in her hands, and told her to call the cavalry.

It took quite a while to wake the family across the street, and we're far enough out in the country that I wondered if they'd appear with two barrels pointed at me.

The guy came out, looked over my shoulder. By now, flames were easily visible from two upper windows. All he said at first was "Oh my God, my God!" in that all-too-familiar tone we've heard before. I snapped him out of it and asked if there was anything we could try to save. I suppose I could have just gone into the barn first but I'd never been in there before and hadn't a clue what was saveable or worth saving, if anything. The livestock, he said.

I always assumed the building in question was an operations thing, no clue there were critters in there. We went over and he started letting them all out. I'm not a farmer or ranch hand, and didn't have the slightest idea what gates to open or where we were going to send them, or what words to say to motivate the animals to get moving at 0-dark-thirty. But I kept track of his location while watching the glow outside get intense. I stepped out once, and it was really getting going good. This was a very old building, drying out for many decades. When worrisome-sized pieces began falling outside I told him time was up and we had to get out.

As we came out, there was a sharp BOOM from across the street. The heat or falling debris had already caused the 12kV primary tap on the power pole in front to fault, blowing the cutout. Oh, and the pole was on fire. Now I'm wearing two hats again.

I went and found Mrs. Grumpy and got the phone from her so I could call in an update, and told her to head on home before the family was hemmed in by fire engines and hose lines. Turns out she was still talking to 911 and handed me the phone.

I identified myself as a firefighter of the jurisdiction where the fire was, and advised of the new power line problem.

"OK, we've got two engines and tanker en route".

I literally chuckled. I remember hearing myself chuckle and thinking that it was amusing that I was amused.

"This is a working fire in a large commercial/industrial building with multiple exposures, I need you to upgrade this to a full structure 2nd alarm"

She didn't argue.

When Engine 56 arrived with just two aboard, I met the guys and gave my report. I didn't have my PPE with me, but there were just two of them and the Captain was about to have a very busy night. I proposed taking over as his engineer, and that's where I spent the next six hours, operating the pump of the first-arriving engine. The place burned to the ground (it was beyond saving from the get-go), but despite having no hydrants we saved all of the exposures and there were no livestock losses. Not bad.

Late in the game, after the fire marshal showed up, he was told that I had discovered the fire and we chatted. Now, it looks reallllllly bad when a fireman happens to find a major fire in its incipient stage in the middle of nowhere, but I joked with him how I was thankful my wife and kids were with me, that we had just left a friend's house prior while dropping off a camping buddy, and of course my cell phone will show my locations.

If I had been alone and this had been before the age of cell phones, I would have been screwed. And I wouldn't have had the good sense to call it in anonymously and run away. That's a shame, that there are enough dirtbag mutts doing nefarious things that being in the right place at the right time can look all wrong.

I did notice he made a point of "accidentally" meeting a reporter near enough to me later on that I could overhear their conversation, probably just to check to see if I would try to inject myself. There were several points where I could have helped with the answers. I turned my back. No thanks.

I managed to keep my name out of the press, thank goodness, with help from our PIOs after one place got my name. One media outlet mentioned the fire was found by an off-duty firefighter, but after that no further mention of how it was found or who found it was made by anyone. I don't think that even all of our own guys on the FD know it was me, and that's fine. The power company serviceman who showed up went the extra mile and put in an award recommendation for me (a non-union guy and his boss no less!), but I had to see my boss to bat that down for the same reasons, and my serviceman understood why. Let's be real here, I didn't actually do anything heroic. I woke people up, stood around in a burning building when I shouldn't really have, and ran a pump without a lid and gloves for hours. Not recommended. Now, the farmer who actually rescued livestock while I watched, he should get recognition.

It's what we do, not for the recognition, but because we're sort of nuts that way.

And we're not always thinking about how we're going to get a ride home afterwards. One of the BC's had to drive me home that morning, where my family was still sound asleep. Good.

And that's the latest tale of how trouble found me when I wasn't paying attention.

Stay safe out there.

Contemplating the End

Now that it's been three years, I am looking at what I am doing here and wondering if it is time to call it a day.

Not the Job or the other Job. The blog.

I was pretty unhappy with the absurdities of my previous power company, and needed an outlet to blow off the pressure. Since changing companies back in September, everything is better. Sure, there are annoying goofballs here that can annoy the hell out of anyone, but it is nothing like before. As such, the once abundant fount of rant material has mostly gone dry, and as it turns out this blog was mainly a rant vehicle all along.

After rants, the secondary source of material was memorable calls and experiences over the nearly 20 years in the fire service and 15 in the power company line of work that I have seen. That source, too, has dried up as the best tales have generally been told.

Unlike MotorCop and the Happy Medic, both major inspirations for me to start this blog when they appeared as rant vehicles, it doesn't appear that there is an obvious or useful path to take towards re-characterizing what this place is and will be from its humble ranting beginnings. I just feel like there isn't anything of value to offer.

There just doesn't seem to be any good stuff bubbling up and wanting to be put to words any more. As the lag between posts here increases, readership has logically dropped. We opened a Facebook page quite a while ago and so far there are less than 10 people in it. (Actually, that's kind of embarrassing.)

This is not a pity party, and I don't need the love, I get plenty of that already. This is merely an attempt to be objective about if this should continue and how many people would be put out if it ended. Objectively it looks like this might be it.

So, while this gets pondered over the next week or two and the blog faces a likely shutdown, please let me know if there are any loose ends I promised to get back to and forgot about, or any job/industry specific questions (mainly power company stuff) that you'd like addressed.

It's been fun. As one of my favorite authors often writes on his blog, thanks for reading. Really. Thanks.

Apathy

Two nameplates with the same typo at the same substation are better than one, said the engraver, and the installer.

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And hey, as long as we're posting pics, this one is due for Tuesday.... amazing to me that this is still alive after this long.

Like

Or like not.

Either way, this blog has succumbed to the Facebook monster and has been assimilated.

https://www.facebook.com/ThreeMouseClicksFromDisaster

It isn't clear to me yet if this will be useful or not, but we'll see what happens.

Truck 579 10-7

Previously: Bad News

We lost Howie last week.

Last time I wrote about him, I had not actually met him, but over the holiday he came in to visit the dispatchers and service crews. Although he was in a wheelchair, he was all smiles, wearing a Santa hat and delivering cookies. This is in line with everything I had ever heard about him.

Folks are pretty low here, but the lights must stay on, and so the show goes on.

Although the Fleet division will not go along with re-numbering Truck 579, we're retiring the call sign in Dispatch anyway. Whoever we promote to inherit Howie's old ride will be heard on the radio as Truck 584, because 579 is 10-7 and retired.

Rest in peace brother Howie. As I can see from those around me, you will be missed, and we'll take care of keeping the lights on from here.

YouTube Love

Just as I wondered if anyone ever bothered to read my ramblings, lo and behold I find some visitors arriving from.... YouTube?

Sure enough: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rd1RB6Nv1I&feature=g-all-u&context=G2685341FAAAAAAAAAAA

So, if you just stumbled in here after following Charlie's advice, the two posts he is most likely referring to are over a year old, and can be found at these links:

Why wind power is not the (only) answer

And Now, More Wind!

There's other power grid stuff mixed in here and there on the blog if that's your thing. Just click the "power company" tag at the bottom of this post to filter the rest of the clutter out.

I promised a few posts ago to talk more about this topic, I haven't forgotten. There are developments in the area of load management related to the "smart grid" (use that in Dilbert Buzzword Bingo). Conceptually rather brilliant, even practical, but expensive and slow to be implemented because power companies can move pretty slow. Stay tuned.

Thanks, Charlie.

Checking in - New Job

Sorry for the post drought.

Got the new job. Went on a two-week vacation before starting it. Been very, very busy.

I was a shift supervisor at my old job, at the monster-sized utility company.

Now I am over all of the dispatchers at my new company, a smaller and more intimate local utility company. Sometimes I will also have to watch out for the service guys on the trucks, too.

It's like going from Division Chief at a large FD where you drive a desk all the time, to Assistant Chief at a small career FD where you end up running a lot of calls simply because you need all hands sometimes.

Anyway, the training curve to get up to speed here will occupy a lot of my time for a while, but the blog is not dead. Thanks for your patience, I'll be back when I can. And now that I'll sometimes be out in the field and face-to-face with some of the excitement instead of hiding aboard the mothership, there should be some good power company tales to tell, to go with the fire department stuff.

Stay safe out there.

A Little Time Off

Getting hard to think of good stuff to write that I think anyone wants to read. Part of the ebb and flow of blogging I guess.

I just wanted to check in and verify that I am still alive.

Us and Them

Had a kid take a dip in a local lake, seems he and his brother and some friends managed to slip the childcare provider.

Engine 56, Engine 53, Engine 54, Medic 98, near-drowning at Lost Lake.....

I just happened to be at Station 53 on an unrelated chore and made the scene. We responded with purpose, anticipating someone maybe needing to be plucked from a rock in the middle of the water, with respiratory and/or thermal issues.

We didn't know it was a kid.

We also didn't know that he'd been missing for over half an hour before the call ever came out.

A not-very-cheerful recovery project followed. But, that's what we do. Can't always have fun and games and saves, right?

Damn it.

- - - - - -

Sorry for the lag in posts. Was off on a road trip family vacation. In fact, speaking of water rescue, several of my children and those of a family friend, with the other Mom, went tubing on the river. I was tasked to wait at the meeting point.

When they were almost an hour overdue, I started getting concerned. Started nosing around. Turns out they had made a massive situational awareness fail - that I also failed to catch - where they tubed down a different waterway and never passed me.

A quick check of the map showed them on a river with no realistic road access, deep in no man's land. There were perhaps three hours of daylight left, no phone coverage, and no idea in the world where they were, if they had gotten out or just went on, looking for civilization.

Drove a ways to a hill to get phone coverage and reached the Sheriff's Office. Turns out they were on a path to a couple of dicey river canyons. The Search and Rescue coordinator from the SO had a tone in his voice that induced a notable pucker factor. The SO started to scrounge up aircraft resources.

Expletive.

Long story shirt, they figured out the mistake, landed and scrabbled up a steep slope to the dirt road, where we stumbled on them by sheer dumb chance/luck, a good three miles from camp. A quick drive back to coverage and a call back to the SO to call off the help. And he didn't even taunt me for being a fireman and letting this happen. I had it coming, though.

Many lessons (re)learned which I won't burden you with, and our day blessedly did not end up like that of the family of the first bit above. A thin line separates "us" from "them" at all times, and a reminder to avoid complacency is in order once in a while.

- - - - - -

Going back to a second interview for a new power company dispatch job this week. Looks promising, but not a for-sure deal. I debated even bringing it up, but if I get the job it will likely mean a return to interesting power company stories of craziness experienced by the line and substation crews and the dispatchers, as it will place back me closer to the trenches, so to speak. Way more fun there. A pay cut, if necessary, will be worth it.

Stay tuned, and stay safe.

How Time Flies

I won't be around the internet on Sunday the 10th, the Big Day, so here's a little something up front.


Unbelievable. Thanks for the reads and the comments and the many lurkers. And please remember to not take this blog too seriously.

Odds and Ends

A bit of a writing block lately. I just don't have much to say. I could open my mouth bang away on the keyboard, but making words appear does not automatically bestow value. I've already said too much.

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I freaking love this blog: The Adaptive Curmudgeon's Blog. Absolutely outstanding.

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If you happen to figure out who I am and perhaps work with me, you'll notice some familiarity in some some tales but that you don't remember it the way I do, nor some details the way I relate them. Fact is, brother, this is a blog, not a work of historical biographical nonfiction. I blend elements of different events into single tales, sometimes I can generate multiple tales from a single event without drawing a relationship between them. What it boils down to is that I would like to keep my anonymity as long as I can, and obfuscating some unimportant facts helps maintain that. The spirit of the event, the emotion, the essential outcomes, and the people involved, is all intact.

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In looking over old posts, I realized that I have dropped the ball on the Tutorial series. Those were kind of fun. I don't know why they slipped my mind. If you're a relatively new reader and have no idea what I am talking about, you should go read this post: Tutorial 9: System Protection, Part II. If there is a specific subject in that series you want more of, let me know.

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There have been many noteworthy/newsworthy events around me lately. Some I have been involved in, and some I have merely observed. Some involving the power company, others the fire department, and a handful where both were tangled up in it. It is kind of a drag, because I have a lot I would like to say about some of these things, but bringing them up would blow my cover. Lame.

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I was deeply flattered to make this list: You Are What You Read - Fire Engineering Training Community. I have no business being in the same auditorium with those other authors, let alone singled out on stage with them. I am entirely unworthy. Putting me in that group drags the entire group's cumulative value down about 34%. Rescue them. Kick me off the stage, quick!

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As Firegeezer pointed out this morning, today is the 4th anniversary of the Charleston sofa store fire that claimed nine firefighters, the single largest loss of firefighters at a single incident since September 11, 2001. He also pointed out something lost in the noise of relatively current events, which was yesterday's anniversary of the loss of another nine firefighters at the 1972 Hotel Vendome fire in Boston.

They all went to work that day just like you did today, with various marital struggles, unfinished hobby projects, financial planning doubts, vacation plans, teenager management problems, and put-off doctor's visits, just like you, and more or less expected to make it home the next day just like you do tomorrow.

They were us. We are them.

Stay safe, think of your families first, take care of the children. Do today what you'll wish tomorrow had been done before you lost the chance. All that.

The Grumpy Dispatcher on the Road

Time for some regularly scheduled continuing education training hours to maintain my industry-required NERC power system dispatcher certification.

Numerous dispatchers from various companies will be traveling across state lines to meet in a highly secret undisclosed location to be educated. Or rather, reminded of what we're supposed to know and have partially forgotten. And I was kidding about the highly secret location thing, but you'll understand if I don't share where we actually are. It would cause an undesired stir if a horde of autograph seekers stormed our classroom sessions. Plus, the other dispatchers would be jealous and start their own blogs.

Man, I am so full of it.

Back to reality. For myself, I'm taking my family with me and making a two-week vacation out of it. As such, you won't hear from me until some time next month.

Take care, be safe.

Reawakening

The worst part of the storm has passed, but some cleanup will be around for a long, long time. Still, I said I'd be back after a while, and it has been long enough. Although we were blindsided by a trial I wouldn't wish on anyone's family, I know that we will all be stronger because of it. We are in fact already benefiting from stronger relationships. Some important lessons have been learned. Time goes forward, and so shall we.

Writing on here again will probably be good for me, so let's roll this thing back online.

Now is a good time for me to take stock and ask what my faithful and suffering readers prefer. Power grid rants? Funny pictures? Resume my editorials on future energy? Fire and EMS rants? Tutorials? What do you want more of? Less of?

To those of you still here and waiting patiently, I pass to you many thanks of appreciation of not just tolerating my arrogant self-righteous self, but coming back again and again to suffer more of it.

Roll on.....