Slightly Off the Mark

I'm not as active as a volunteer firefighter as I used to be, because over the years my body has been beat down pretty good ... by doing yard work.

Other than a couple of back injuries, I've never really been hurt on that hazardous job. Firefighting, I mean. Yard work, now that's the task that leaves me moaning on the ground, and not in a good way.

You ever try to mow with this stuff on?

With firefighting, you wear tons of protective gear, which changes the most likely medical problems to heat stroke and heart attacks. With yard work, you wear shorts and a tank top, and in some cases hold a can of beer. In addition, with firefighting you tend to have the topic of safety going on in your mind:

"Say, I'm in zero visibility, crawling over a burned out floor, shoving a metal pike into the ceiling when I don't know if the electricity is still on." It's just an example. I've never pulled a ceiling while crawling on the floor, so don't sweat it.

When I'm doing yard work, I have other topics on my mind:

"I wonder how long I could let this grow before the lawn police arrest me?"

An action shot.

But the biggest reason for this seeming paradox is that fire just doesn't give a darn about me, while Mother Nature hates me.

Oh, yeah. Mother Nature is a vindictive bit ... being. She hears me complain. I complain a lot.

"It's too cold." "I hate bugs." "That's not rain: It's a cloud of pollen!"

Once, as I was mowing in the front yard, one of our trees bent down and beaned me with a limb. It had nothing to do with me not paying attention. It's also the only time in my adult life that I did a full somersault.

But recently I learned a new twist: My furniture is in cahoots with Mother Nature. Much of it is wood, after all, an increasingly expensive resource that doesn't just grow on trees. I'm always shoving furniture around, banging into it, and of course sitting on it. This axes of evil (see what I did, there?) recently tried hard to do me in.

I was mowing in the back yard, near the lilacs I've horribly neglected. If you were a lilac and your caretaker doesn't trim you or keep other trees from growing up in the middle of you, wouldn't you be upset? I don't know, either.

As I pushed the mower around one of the bushes, it reached it's driest, deadest branch out and clobbered me in the arm.

The evidence.

The above photo is my arm, just so you know. Now that I think of it, maybe this is what the far side of my forearm always looks like--I usually can't see it. But no, my wife takes great joy in pouring peroxide on my fresh wounds, and when they're old I don't scream like that.

The very next day, I noticed the TV remote was missing. (Just hang on, it's connected.) No big deal: It can always be found by sweeping a hand between the cushion and the inside of the couch's side. We put it on the arm, it slides down, and Bob's your uncle.

(That's just an expression: I don't mean to offend anyone who actually has an Uncle Bob.)

Now, the couch is only a few years old, and we really like it. It has two recliners, something that's always seemed like rich luxury to me, but boy, am I glad for them--especially on bad back days. But when you recline and unrecline and plop down on something all the time, there's bound to be some wear and tear.

As near as I can tell, a nail popped loose and just hung there, between the side and the cushion. Waiting. For me.

I swept my hand down there, just like I always do. What happens when something suddenly stabs into your hand? You withdraw your hand, don't you? Which I did, but the nail had already embedded itself into my finger. I'm pretty sure it bounced off the inside of a fingernail.

I'll spare you the photos.

Have you ever bled so much that you couldn't stop it even with pressure, elevation, and cold? It was just a finger, for crying out loud, which is exactly how I cried. Out loud. Luckily no one was home, but that meant I had to do the peroxide thing myself, and it's not nearly as much fun that way.

Two injuries in two days, on the same arm. And what swung that nail out to grab me? That's right: the couch's wooden frame. I got even by bleeding on it, but still. Also, I hurt my back again jumping halfway across the living room while waving my hand wildly, and later I had to clean up that blood.

Luckily I'm used to cleaning up my own blood.

Don't doubt the connection: The truth is out there ... and in there. Mother Nature is out to get me, and there's nowhere to hide. Today the couch--tomorrow the bed.

There's a thought to sleep on.

When I'm going to give blood, I prefer advanced notice.

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
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 At the Albion Fire Department's annual appreciation dinner last weekend I received a hand tool from people who should have known better than to give me a hand tool:

No, those aren't wings growing out of my head, but I appreciate you thinking I could earn some.

https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/2020/07/40-years-as-firefighter.html

 The dinner is when awards are given out for the previous year, you see. I've already gotten a cool statue and an even cooler watch, just for sticking around. (You older people, explain "watch" to the younger ones.) You might remember that Phil Jacob was honored not long ago for hitting his 50th anniversary with the AFD; for his 60th, they have to give him a fire truck.

I know what you're thinking: "They gave you a tool?" But in all fairness, it's the power tools that usually get me in trouble. I've hardly ever hurt myself with a hand tool, this year.

Now, Mitch Fiandt got the 35 year statue, despite the fact that he's been fighting fires longer than I have:

The young punks just can't pull off the firefighting mustache like we old farts can.

I'm just that good. Or more likely it's because he put in 35 years on the AFD, but previous to that he served on the neighboring Orange Township Fire Department for eleven years.He's the only member of the AFD who remembers how to operate a steam engine.

 Other service awards that night went to Brad Rollins for 30 years, and Shane Coney for 25 years. Between the four of us, we have something like a century and a half in firefighting experience, plus sometimes we have contests to see whose joints pop the most when we get on a truck.

Just a week to go until what might be the prime event of the summer, considering all the other events seem to be canceled. Well, no year is perfect, although 2020 must be going for a record.

The Albion Fire Department's annual fish fry is still on, and if you don't think that's an event, you've never seen my reaction when they serve mine up. But we've had to make some changes this year in response to the coronavirus pandemic--and it's the first time for the firefighters as well as the public, so please have patience as we work out the kinks.

Instead of fish or tenderloin, this year the meal will be fish or chicken due to supply shortages. Sides will be beans and chips, but no drinks this year--however, it should be pointed out that Albion has both a splash pad and a fully functional water fountain on the courthouse square. (Kidding! If you don't have your own drinks, I'd suggest getting some from a local business.)

Sadly, the Chain O' Lakes Festival that happens the same week has been canceled this year, for what I believe is the first time in at least fifty years. But the fish fry goes on, even if it is takeout only, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. (or until the food runs out) on Wednesday, June 10. The cost of $11.00 for adults and $7.00 for children goes toward the Albion Volunteer Fire Department Auxiliary, and in the past has funded everything from emergency equipment to training resources.

Remember, the fish fry is takeout only. We'll do our best to make for safe and easy traffic flow in and out, and we ask in return for everyone to use care and watch for pedestrians--and for emergency vehicles, if a call should come in during the event.

Also as a fund raiser, the AFD's history book Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights is still on sale, with all proceeds going to AFD. Take a closer look here:

http://markrhunter.com/SmokyDays.html

I wasn't certain there was any point in reviewing Code of Honor, considering it was published eighteen years ago. (!) But hey, I did read it this year, and later learned it's still available on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Code-Honor-Americas-Harlequin-Superromance/dp/0373708823

It's also up on Kindle, but I had the paperback edition sitting around. I first read romances around 1990, a few years before I started writing them, but all my life I've been picking up any book I could find about firefighters; this qualified both ways.

Code of Honor is one of Harlequin's Superromances: Extra long stories with a bit more depth and more subplots to them. Fire Lieutenant Jake Scarlatta was stabbed in the back by his best friend, a fellow firefighter, and now has trust issues. Firefighter Chelsea Whitmore has been assigned to Jake's station, but she's now a pariah on the fire department after an affair with another firefighter led to disaster. Oh, and she now has trust issues.

Trust issues are a big deal in romances, especially when there's no other logical way to keep a couple apart. In this case Jake and Chelsea have something else: He's her supervisor. But even while fighting off their growing attraction Jake is a fair guy, and fights to give Chelsea every chance. The only problem is, she keeps making rookie mistakes ... mistakes she insists she isn't making. Sabotage? It appears someone at the station is less open minded than Jake is.

Female firefighters aren't as big a deal these days, but this was written about twenty years ago. To put it into perspective, the book came out less than twenty years after a lawsuit forced the hiring of the first female New York City firefighters; in the words of the old ad, you've come a long way, baby.

Overall Code of Honor is well done. Getting the casual reader up to speed on the fire service leads to some clunky writing here and there, especially early on, but the plotting and description is strong, as is the characterization. I had two major problems, the first of which was my own fault for not noticing: Code of Honor is part of a series, and not the first book in that series. As such, I had some confusion as characters dropped in who'd already been established in earlier works. The lesson? Always read them in order, kids.

The second problem will go unnoticed to most readers. Shay clearly did her research on the fire service, and she got a lot of stuff right. But sometimes, for the sake of plot, stuff happens that just wouldn't happen. In one example, a crew arriving on the third alarm--in other words, after several other crews are already at the scene--advance a hose from their truck toward a large building fire, then run out of water when the truck's tank runs dry. A dramatic problem, except it wouldn't happen: Assigned to the third alarm, they probably would have taken a hoseline from one of the already-arrived units. If not, they'd have established a water supply from a hydrant or water tanker before making an attack on a fire that big.

Realism in entertainment is a problem with every profession: It's why I don't watch most firefighting shows, and I'd bet most lawyers don't watch lawyer shows, either. But overall if you like romances, you'll like this one. (Romances have also come a long way, baby, but we all have our preferred genres.)
 

There's going to be a feature about Emily and me in the Thursday issue of the Fort Wayne newspaper, The Journal Gazette. (Assuming some big news event doesn't kick it down the road, of course.) I'd sent them a press release about the Albion Fire Department photo book project we're working on, and they interviewed us last week. It should be out in both their print and online additions, and the latter is here:

http://www.journalgazette.net/

After I sent the press release I talked to a reporter who interviewed me for over an hour, so I take it the article will be about more than just that particular project. We're looking forward to it--I hope you enjoy it too!

You know what I like? Fire trucks.

I also like history.

I'm also a fan of my home town, Albion.

Now, as a person who's been a volunteer firefighter for some 35 years or so, I can safely say I've been a part of all three of those things. And we've combined them all before, in a book Emily and I did called Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights: A Century Or So With the Albion Fire Department:

I'm very proud of that book, which was decades in the making. But, although it did have some photos, it didn't have as many as I'd have liked. Now, some time later we did another book about Albion and Noble County, entitled, naturally, Albion and Noble County:

It's part of Arcadia Press' Images of America series, which features images of ... well, you know. Now, that book was a load of hard work, but it was also very cool, because we searched long and hard and world wide for pictures, and got a lot of really cool ones loaned and donated to us. That got me thinking.

And here's where you come in. Yes, I'm pointing at you.

I've been having some family and medical stuff that's kept me from getting very involved with the fire department recently, so I wanted to do something, and here it is: Another book about the Albion Fire Department, but this time all about the pictures. Fires; fire trucks; firefighters; firehouses; fire history; fire dogs; whatever. Not a lot of text, just all the good photos we can get our hands on.

If you have any fire related photos involving Albion in any way, could you please loan them to us long enough for us to make a copy for the book? You'll get credit, naturally, and half the proceeds from sales of the book will go to the Albion Fire Department. I'm not asking the AFD to fund the making of the book as they did with Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights, so the other half of the proceeds will go toward actually designing, producing, advertising, and printing the book.

If it's in any way related to Albion's fire history, even slightly, we're interested; and we're especially interested in former members, since it's awfully hard to fight fires without firefighters. Seeing as how this is going on my blog, I should stress that I mean Albion, Indiana. Although, come to think of it, it would be kind of cool to have a section on Albion firehouses from across the country.

We'll collect all the best and put out a great visual record of Albion's firefighting brothers and sisters. I don't know for sure how long this will take, but I'm shooting for getting it published maybe early next summer. And as always, thanks for your support!

You can contact Emily or me on our website contact form at www.markrhunter.com, our through any of our social media, or--believe it or not--our number's actually in the phone book.