various and sundries

For you dyed-in-the-wool firefighters that have been reading and wondering, "When is this guy going to talk about firefighting," my apologies. The fact is, we broke a record in October. We went the whole, complete 31 days without a single call out. Usually someone smucks a moose or falls asleep behind the wheel, or gets careless trying to pass . . . and ends up in the ditch needing an ambulance and a fire truck a couple times a month, sometimes more, but not this October.

Blogging is supposed to be a moment-by-moment kind of thing. I don't usually tell you about the cool experience that happened seventeen and a half years ago. People want to hear what happened today (or yesterday, at the latest), so when you get a whole month without lights and sirens, and your family is waging a life-and-death battle with the Spanish Swine Flu or the Chinese Chicken Flu or the Cambodian Cow Flu, or whatever flu it was, that's what I'm going to tell you about.

Speaking of H1N1, there are a lot of opinions out there, and even more hype. I allowed a nurse stick me with a needle last Thursday, mostly because it was an opportune moment, and I would have felt really dumb if I caught the flu later and hadn't got the shot. Now I read that some learned folks aren't even sure the vaccine works. This article looks at the H1N1 issue from one researcher's perspective. If I had read it before getting the shot . . . I still would have rolled up my sleeve.

Speaking of the flu (again), check out this short video clip on proper coughing techniques. Okay, it sounds dumb, but if the whole world had just followed this advice, swine flu would have never escaped the pig farm.

If you are interested in my amatuerish attempts at sketching, you can see a couple more cartoons on my other blog.

It's official, Phillip is as tall as me. He's been sure of it for a while now, but I've stalled the actual measurement ceremony in hopes of keeping the psychological advantage as long as possible. It just isn't fair. If he can look me in the eye at fourteen, I'll be looking up to him by the time he's sixteen. Not cool.

The girl that was run over by her nut-case dad has died. No comment, except he'd better get charged with murder.

Lastly, Halloween was somewhat of a dud this year. It might have had to do with the weather - it snowed most of the day, so the kids maybe weren't as keen about getting out. If they're intimidated by a little snow, they should at least be thankful they don't have to worry about being a polar bear's treat . . . check out this story about Halloweeners in Churchill.