Interview With a Firefighter

I interviewed my daughters boyfriend Mark, he is on the Pioneer Fire Department. Fire departments especially in small towns are usually made up of all volunteers. These men and women get paid very little if anything, they do this because they care about other people and want to help. They take time away from their families and their leisure time to be on the department. They not only respond to fires and accidents, they also have to have training, attend meetings and take care of the fire trucks and equipment. I have a lot of respect for firefighters, they put their lives on the line every time they respond to a fire call.

1.Why did you join the fire department?

   The biggest reason was to help people. The other reason is the adrenaline rush.

2. How long have you been on the department?

    I joined the dept in August of '02.

3. What are your responsibilities with the department?

    Being a volunteer firefighter, our responsibilities include everything that has to go with firefighting. Each

    firefighter basically does everything. In a city environment, firefighters are normally assigned with one job

    or duty.

    I am normally the first entry team on structure fires. We do a primary search of the home or structure.

   After that if we still have air we attack the fire. After we are done on scene, we have to wash trucks and

   do other clean up at the station.

   I am also a first responder for medical emergencies. We arrive on scene first to assess the patient and get

   them ready for transport with the EMS.

4. What do you like most about being on the department?

    The people, teamwork, and the satisfaction of doing a good job...knowing when it is all done, we did the

     best we could. We pride ourselves on thriving to be one of the best departments in the county.

5. What do you dislike the most about being on the department?

    The only thing that comes to mind is having to leave my family.

I would like to remind everyone, when you see those lights and hear those sirens move over and give the firefighters and rescue squads room to get by. You never know if it is your house on fire or your love one that was just in that wreck that they are headed to. Also say a little prayer for them and the families that they are on their way to help.

Thanks,
Brenda

Game Nights

We have been playing a lot of games at our house on Sat. nights (when racing starts it will have to move to Friday nights). My husbands sister and her husband usally come over and one or more of my children and their families. Sometimes we have a real big house full and have two or three games going at once. One of our favorite games is a card game called Dutch Blitz. It is an Amish card game that my husbands family has played  for years. He had ten brothers and sisters and the younger ones played this game all the time. There are four decks of ten cards each and you lay three cards down in front of you and have a pile of ten cards in your Blitz pile. You turn over three cards at a time the number 1 cards are put in the middle of the table and then you work up to the number 10 cards. You can play on anyone's piles, the object is to be the first one to get rid of your Blitz pile. You have to be quick to get your cards on the piles if not you get stuck with your cards. There are usually a lot of people playing so we often play with partners and sometimes with eight decks.  When his family gets together and plays you could get a broken arm if your not fast enough. They once broke the kitchen table playing! Other games that we play a lot are Nickle -Nickle and Sequence.
I am really excited about this Friday night because most of the older grandchildren are coming over for a game night. They are on spring break this week and so my grandson Zac that lives about three hours away will also be here. We will probably order pizzas, make milk shakes or smoothies and play games all night. It's always fun when the grandchildren come over, they all get along really well together and have a great time. The only part that I don't like is the fact that they are all getting taller than me and they let me know that grandma is short.

Antiques and Auctions

This summer I think that I am going to start going back to auctions. I only went to a couple last year, but I use to go all the time. Sometimes I can find very good deals on things and sometimes I do not find anything. Over the years my husband and I have had alot of fun going and bidding on things. It upsets me that so many antique dealers go because they often times bid the prices up higher than the average person would. I guess it would still be cheaper than going to the antique store and buying it after they have bought it at the auction.
I like watching the "Antique Roadshow" on TV too. Its amazing how many people have treasures that are worth a lot of money. I watch it thinking that one day I'll see something on there that I own. The problem with that would be even if it was worth a lot of money and it was something that was my grandmothers or mothers I probably could not bring myself to sell it anyway. I am sure after I am gone though my children will not have any problem selling the stuff.
I also am following a blogger on here Oh, Hello Friend. She likes to collect things and shows her collections and different things. It is kind of interesting to check out other bloggers, I never blogged before we did in class, but it's fun.

Workday and Did I Miss Anything?

The theme for Workday by Linda Hogan is that we ignore parts of our lives and the world around us that we do not want to face. People often think if they do not have to confront the evils in the world those evils do not really exists. The poem is a allegory form of narrative. She is telling the story of her workday and the things she does not want to know, and the things she is "seeing" for the first time. "I go to work...,I go to the university...,I ride the bus home...,When I get off the bus...," She uses visual imagery talking about the things  she sees. Linda says: "I look back at the light in the windows, and how the women are all alone, in each seat.
It's like the first time she made a connection with the other women on the bus." She also says, "then I see them walking on the Avenue, the beautiful feet, the perfect legs, even their spider veins,..., the shoulders which bend forward and forward and forward to protect the heart from pain." She is noticing others who are returning home from work. How beautiful these people are even with their crippled bodies and how they too try to ignore the things that cause them pain in their lives. She uses a free form structure in her poem. The stanza's have different amounts of lines. The lines do not rhyme, they are more like written down thoughts as she thinks about them. When she is talking to the bus driver she says: "We talk about the weather and not enough exercise. I didn't mention Victor Jara's mutilated hands or men next door in exile or my own family's grief over the lost child." It's kind of like how people know things happen but if we do not discuss it we do not have to face it.
The poem Did I Miss anything? by Tom Wayman, is saying that when we miss important things in our lives we cannot ever get that exact opportunity back. That moment is gone forever. This poem is diction, the choice of the words "everything" and "nothing" are used throughout the poem to let the reader know what you could have had and what you ended up with because you were not there.The figurative language he uses in part of the poem is hyperbole. He exaggerated things that happened because the student was not present in class. "A shaft of light descended and an angel or other heavenly being appeared and revealed to us what every women or man must do to attain divine wisdom in this life and the thereafter." The structure of this poem is also a free form. Wayman set the stanzas about everything to the right and the stanzas about nothing to the left. He separated them like on the right hand you could have had everything, but you chose the left hand and have nothing.

My Best Friend

"If I had one gift that I could give you, my friend, it would be the ability to see yourself as others see you, because only then would you know how extremely special you are."
~B.A. Billingsly~

     As most of you in class know Mickie is my Best Friend! We sort of became friends by chance, at work (thanks to someone who did not like to work). Our boss at the time put us together because he thought we would work well with each other. It did not take long until we were friends. Over the years our friendship has grown through good times, hard times, and down right bad times.

     Mickie is always there for me. Like when my Mother passed away, she was there. She went shopping with me to pick out an outfit to wear. Mickie brought food for us to eat and she sat with me at the funeral home, just to be there if I needed her. I don't know what I would have done without her, she's the BEST!
     We like to go antique shopping together, although it's more like antique dreaming because we can't afford the good stuff. Mostly we like to just talk about our families, what our children are doing and how they are. Husbands, that's always an interesting subject depending on if they made us happy or sad or angry. We can talk about things with each other that I would never tell anybody else. We try to go out to eat once in awhile but we don't get to as much as we would like to.
    She likes Indy cars, I like dirt late models and Nascar. She likes the Hampton, (so do I) but I like camping   Mickie and I also have our own opinions on a lot of subjects, politics, abortion, gay rights, etc. But we respect each others opinions and I think that is one reason we our such great friends.
     We have been through a lot over the years, losing our jobs, because the factory closed, starting school. School is something that I would not have done if it wasn't for Mickie pushing me to do it. I am really glad she did because I am enjoying it for the most part. True friendship that is there through thick and thin is hard to find, I'm so very happy that Mickie and I have that. I would love for everyone to have a friend like Mickie, but she's mine you have to go find your own!

A Boy Named Sue!

    This song is very familiar to me. My dad listened to Johnny Cash all the time when I was growing up. I think this was his favorite song.
    The song "A Boy Named Sue," is a poem. Cash uses imagery to make us feel, see, smell and hear what he is singing about in the song. "At an old saloon on a street of mud, There at a table, dealing stud, Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me "Sue." A person can picture an old western town with muddy streets, you can hear people walking on the wooden sidewalks and the swinging doors to the saloon squeaking as you swing them open. Walking into the bar you see your dad sitting there gambling. You recognized him right away. Just like a abandoned dog is filthy, you see how dirty your father is, you can smell his stench. The son is disgusted with his father for the name he bestowed upon him. Cash goes on to describe his dad further saying, "And I knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye. He was big and bent and gray and old." The scar that is a distinguished mark of identification, a dead give away of who he is. The look of pure meanness in his face. You see this enormous aged man that shows signs of having led a rough and turbulent life. Someone who probably was a fighter, gambler and a heavy drinker.  "A Boy Named Sue," is a very descriptive piece of literature.