A Saturday Ramble

I'm back in the firehouse for the first night trick I've worked in over a month.  Not due to anything bad; the Gods of Time Off just happened to smile upon me on either side of Thanksgiving.  To quote Bob Dylan from Idiot Winds (on his "Blood on the Tracks" album), "can't help it if I'm lucky."

So far, it's not a bad night: two jobs in the 1st 90 minutes.  The first job originated from a well meaning citizen who thought he heard a smoke detector going off in a vacant house.  The only problem I found upon arrival was figuring out which of the 6 vacant & boarded up houses the caller was referring to.  No worries, though, we found it.  By the way, if you didn't when you set your clocks back, make sure you change your smoke detector batteries and check your smoke detector's operation at least once each month.  And while we're talking about smoke detectors, make sure everyone in the house knows what to do when it goes off (and the correct answer to this should be "head for the nearest exit" and not "head for the dining room because dinner is ready").  OK, enough on smoke detectors.

Our next job was someone who turned on her heat today and has had a headache all day.  In my City this week, we had a well publicized incident where a 20 y/o female succumbed to carbon monoxide because she & her boyfriend were running a gas-powered generator in the basement of their home after their utilities had been shut off.  Given the media coverage of this incident, it almost made sense that our complainant, who states she removed her batteries from the carbon monoxide detector two weeks ago because it kept chirping, was concerned that she might have a CO problem in her home.  She didn't, and perhaps she'll either contact her landlord or just pick some batteries up the next time she's at the grocery store.  Guess it will depend on how well-developed her sense of personal responsibility for self and family is.  Message here:  also make sure you have a functioning carbon monoxide detector in your home, especially if you're equipped with ANY appliance which creates carbon monoxide as a byproduct of combustion in it's operation.  Oh yeah: don't run a generator in your basement either.

Common sense isn't so common, apparently.

In other news, today was also a running day.  After the lessons I learned about preparing for an early morning run last week, my Friday evening this week consisted of sitting on the couch watching the Indiana Jones marathon, enjoying a small bag of popcorn and going to bed at a much more reasonable hour.  Much smarter.  Come this morning, enjoyed a quick bowl of cereal and headed up to the Y for a solo 3 miler.  The girl running a couple treadmills down had a pretty good pace going and before I knew it, my 5k (because, like I said, adding that extra mileage is just what I find myself doing) came in at it's best yet.  I stop short of identifying this as a PR because it was only a treadmill, but it was still gratifying.  And best of all, last week's fartlek walker was a no-show.  Yay me.

Hal Higdon has me doing a walk tomorrow, so as soon as I get off duty, I'll zip home for a quick 3.2 miler before grabbing a nap and heading back in to the firehouse.  I hope I'm not supposed to bring in dinner.

Have to give props to my Great & motivational Training partner who, in addition to completing today's 3 miler also went spinning AND skiing.  You're my hero!  When I grow up (don't laugh... it could happen) I want to be just like you.