I bet you didn’t know there even was a sanctioned sabbatical for blogging, did you? Well, there is now because I said so.

I have been plenty busy since the last post. Not electrically busy, but still busy nonetheless.  I have discovered the whole “Facebook” phenomena. Scoff if you want, as I have always maintained that too much technology can be a bad thing, but I am a convert regarding this social networking site. I have found people from elementary, middle and high school days, past co-workers, extended family - and  I can keep in touch  with all of them in a few keystrokes. And I don’t mean by playing Farmtown or Plowville or whatever its called.

This past fall I was also tied up with organizing two electrical tech seminars for all of my company’s southern generation electrical staff. I have discovered that I have a knack for organizing, or maybe I just like ordering people around…

On a personal note I took a vacation and went to Las Vegas with a friend. She and some of her friends ran the Las Vegas Rock and Roll Marathon, which was the first time I have ever been a part of anything marathon-ish. It was really neat. There were around 40,000 people registered and those people brought their people, but it was organized chaos.  It almost inspired me to start running, ALMOST.  I met a woman there who had run a 100-mile marathon. It took her 28 hours to finish. I can’t even sleep for 28 hours. Plus it was delightful to text my friend Stephen and tell him I was standing outside on Dec. 7th at 9 am in a T-shirt with the sun shining down, and ask him what was HE was wearing. I know, I’m a monster.

When I first arrived in Grand Rapids, it was brought to my attention that there was a volunteer fire crew and I was welcome to put my name on a waiting list to one day be a part of the team. Even though the waiting list was fairly long, the idea and opportunity seemed wonderful and I couldn’t pass it up. After a few days of thought I decided to put my name down, not expecting to have the opportunity any time soon, or ever for that matter.

To my surprise the opportunity presented itself in what felt like no time at all. I immediately began training at the gym, attending our ERC meetings, received my own fire pager and the most challenging aspect was trying to find gear that came close to fitting me. It took awhile but eventually I found a jacket, pants and after robbing our rescue practice doll of his boots, I was all set.

I began training with the crew and enrolled in the level one fire fighter program that consists of several blocks and scenarios. Grand Rapids ERC tries to do one block a month. All blocks and scenarios need to be signed off and practised before you are allowed to go for your practical examination to obtain your level one.

After struggling through a few blocks in my “super-extra-large-on-me” gear, I was allowed to get sized up and get my own gear! No more grabbing the crotch of my pants at the knees just to climb a step! J

This is just another one of the many opportunities available to me by being at this location. It is a great way to gain well-needed knowledge and skills while still doing my everyday job as a welder.

A job recently brought into the shop was the gate of our compound. The inside post of the gate was bent out of shape and cracked to the point where the latch did not function properly; therefore, our compound could not be locked up. Being the end of the day, this job soon became a rush job as we could not leave the compound over night without the gate back on.

I began trying to fix it the good old-fashioned way, with a torch and a hammer, but nothing would budge. Instead, at the areas where the piping was bent, I used a zip cut to cut about half way through the pipe and take a notch out of it. I then heated it up with a torch and hammered away at the pipe until the pipe moved downward and closed up the notch I had just cut out. This allowed the pipe to go back into its original position. This needed to be done in several places. I then welded up the spots I’d cut out. On the one area where it was completely cracked, I notched and hammered it back into place the best I could but had to add a piece of larger pipe over the top to act as a cap to reinforce it.

Ideally, I would have liked to have replaced this whole piece of pipe on the gate, but we did not have the material or the time as it needed to be re-installed asap. Sadly, due to the rush I was only able to get pictures with my phone prior to the repair.