more training

All good things must come to an end. We had a great weekend of training at the Thunder Bay and Region Protective and Emergency Services Training site (PEST for short). The students tied knots, rolled hose, cut through roofs, and ventilated buildings, along with the usual gauntlet of zero visibility, high stress, get-yourself-out-of-THIS-mess drills. A few secretly cursed us under their blacked-out masks, but I think they all went home with something worthwhile. Keep in mind that these folks aren't the hand-picked, cream-of-the-crop, crackerjack recruits that survive the elimination process to get into a career department. They're volunteers, in various degrees of physical fitness and stamina, and all but one survived the weekend. Quite impressive.

My latest article in the Canadian Fire and EMS Quarterly has been published. Click here for the web version. Speaking of technology (and I was speaking of technology if you read the article), a couple of university students put their heads together in 2007 and came up with a computerized glove that monitors CPR technique and tells if you are doing it right. Click here for the story.

I wanted to have another recipe for you tonight, but democracy got in the way. I asked the kids if they would rather have hamburgers and fries, or my original Canadian Curried Salisbury Steak. They voted for burgers and fries. I considered dissolving Parliament and establishing a dictatorship, but my reign would have been short-lived. Erinn is coming home on Wednesday, and the best I could hope for would be a Harper-version minority rule. We had burgers and fries.

I could still give you my recipe, except that it's just plain wrong to pawn an untried experiment on an innocent readership. Not that I flatter myself by thinking you actually try my recipes, but once it's in print, there's no taking it back . . . and even petty dictators don't want to be responsible for the indigestion of the proletariat. If you're really disappointed, and were counting on a dinner idea from me, you can type "recipe" into the search box and find some of my other offerings. Or there's always the take-out option.