Sunday, March 6, 2011

In the Beginning

My two year blog anniversary is approaching. This is when I'm supposed to get all sentimental and make the following speech:

"I want to thank the
Weather Gremlins, the Evil Anti-Volunteer Syndicates, Bloomer Bomber (and his terroristically boneheaded cohorts), our venerable bureaucrats and politicians, and the stupid cat on 1st Concession. I couldn't have written these 250 posts without you guys."

Well, maybe I could have, but it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun. Anyway, I'm not sentimental, so I won't say that. But it has been a lot of fun.

In keeping with my disorganized personality, I didn't have a plan when I began blogging. I asked a few questions, got a little advice from Gerry Arnold who writes the
Team Oakville blog, and leaped off the virtual cliff without a parachute. No soul searching about what to write, or who would read it, or what I should name it. I wish I had given a little thought to the last question, because that was the first question Blogger asked me. And no, sorry I couldn't just start writing and think up a good name later. I had to decide RIGHT NOW or I couldn't even write one word.

It was kind of like not being allowed to leave the hospital until your newborn baby has a name. Talk about pressure. No wonder there are so many Joes and Janes in the world. Fortunately for me, Erinn is a planner, and both of my kids had names before the end of the first trimester.

Unfortunately for me, Erinn was not around when I named my blog. Why hadn't I thought this through a little bit? "Tim's Blog" or "Beebe's Blog" or "Tim Beebe's Blog" were boring, not to mention that some other disorganized Tim Beebe had already claimed those domains. I finally landed on Beebewitz, which is a nickname that I shared with my brothers when we were younger. Not realizing the finality of the decision, I picked Beebewitz's Blog.

Now I'm finally ready to name my blog for real. In retrospect, it's probably a good thing they made me pick a name right off the hop, because two years is a long time to live in limbo. The only problem with changing now is that I'm an Internet klutz, and chances are I'd screw something up and lose the whole shebang. I guess I'm stuck with Beebewitz, at least until I figure out a way to change without losing two years worth of readers and blogging history.

By the way,
shebang is a real word.

On a completely different topic, I had a chat with the Wandering River Deputy Chief the other day. Actually she's the former Deputy Chief, because Wandering River Fire Department
closed down completely in February. So much for the Alberta government's short and long term solutions that were promised last summer when this all came to a head. At least now they might believe that we aren't bluffing when we say the volunteer service is in trouble.

Wandering River is at least a couple days drive from Upsala, with different geography and demographics, but it's amazing how many times I nodded my head and said, "Yeah, I know what you mean," or "Yep, we have the same issue here." I hear similar stories from other parts of Canada as well. People are becoming less inclined to give away their precious time for free, even for a good cause. Especially when their governments stand back and say, "Sorry, can't help. Fire departments are a local issue."

You can read a post that I wrote last summer about educating the government here. You can see a related cartoon here.

Now would be a good time for the federal and provincial governments to break their long cherished traditions of doing little or nothing for volunteer fire departments. And it's also time for firefighters to break our long cherished tradition of being strong and silent.

After 20 plus years of service, and hundreds of calls on the Trans Canada Highway, Upsala firefighters have helped people from every corner of the continent.

It sure seems like more than a local issue to me.

4 comments:

  1. Glad to help, in a tiny-tiny way!
    Congratulations on two years. Most bloggers never make it that far

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  2. Thanks! You gave me that last nudge that I needed to take the leap.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's too bad you have to give up the blog, since you have a real flair for it and have written so many interesting comments. I'm sure you will find another outlet for your creativity. Thanks for so many interesting comments.

    Rob Simpson

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Rob. I have ideas already, but we'll have to see where they lead . . .

      Delete

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