A few months ago, I posted a blog about my kayak trip down the Silver River near Ocala. Then I told you about the monkeys and alligators. Well Monday we took another trip up the river, but there wasn't a single monkey to be found. As much as I was scared of them the first time, I was a little disappointed that they weren't there.
As it was, myself, Rudy, John and Ashlee paddled up river again into Silver Springs and floated back down to the boat ramp. The whole trip took us 6 1/2 hours. The paddle up river was kind of tiring because it seemed to me that the current was a little bit swifter than the last time.
The trip back was amazing. We didn't see another soul on the river. At one point it started to rain and we could hear thunder in the near distance. We all started paddling like crazy, not wanting to get stuck in a thunderstorm, but after about 5 minutes the rain passed, we all stopped paddling and just were. It was amazing. The silence was deafening. All you could hear was a gurgle of water and the wild life.
We floated like that for a while and then started paddling again, because it was getting late. There is one point on the river were it is really easy to stop and park your kayak and get out and swim for a bit. After all the crazy paddling we did it was nice to take a dip in the cool water.
The Silver River is crystal clear and very narrow, but there aren't alot of places that you can get out and swim.
The trip starts out in the Silver River State Park and then about 3/4 of the way to Silver Springs attraction you enter the Silver River refuge. They have very strict rules about no swimming or getting out onto the banks or anything. Not even when you get up into the attraction at the main spring. It is pretty cool though because there you are kayaking and he glass bottom boats are floating past you with all these tourists taking your picture and taking videos of you. I waved to one guy who was more interested in us than what his tour guide was saying.
Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures this time, but Rudy and Ashlee did and as soon as I get them, I will try to post.
Oh yeah, Amy I wanted to ask you something:
We saw this thing that was labeled 'USGS' for United States Geological Survey and I wondered if you knew what it was for. It was just down river from Silver springs attraction, kind of off in the water, but near the bank. I thought I recalled that you worked with them, so I thought you might know what it was.
8/18/2009
8/12/2009
I got to be a Truckie!
So, today started out like any other ordinary day at work. We did our station duties, washed and cleaned the trucks, and got some lunch. About 3:00 pm, I was just waking up from a short nap, when the tones go out - 2nd alarm request for commercial building fire in Cumberland Cirlce. Units on scene in offensive mode, smoke and flames showing!!
YEE HAW!! I happened to be on the Quint today (this is a ladder truck) They needed a medic (that's me), so there I was suiting up heading to a fire as an actual truckie! Truckie is a term for a person on a ladder truck. Typically, their primary job is search and rescue or overhaul.
We get on scene and it was a madhouse, there had to be at 10 other engines, rescues, district chiefs and ladder trucks on scene. Since this call was in the city, I think their entire fleet of engines was on scene. We got there and staged, then immediately got called in to assist. I packed out in my full bunker gear with my SCBA bottle, helmet and mask, grabbed a pike pole and followed my lieutenant down to the scene. We reported to command and were given the task of making entry on the AB side of the building to look for fire extension. We saw a few flames, but most of everything was in the attic.
We withdrew from there and I got on the nozzle outside for a defensive attack. Since there had already been a ceiling collapse, they called for evacuation and were turning to defensive mode. My crew got called to go in with E2 and pull the ceiling in the adjoining apartment and to see if the firewall was still intact. We grabbed our pike poles and pulled ceiling down in the kitchen until we saw flames then we directed the hose streams and put out the flames. Next we headed into the garage that was next to the kitchen and made entry into the attic where we found some more flames and knocked those down too!
At this point one of the guys on my crew stated that he was low on air and I could hear his low-air alarm going off, so the three of us exited the building and made our way over to rehab to doff our gear and grab some waters.
There were people everywhere! I guess the residents of this neighborhood don't work, so everyone that was home was out watching us put out this fire. After we left rehab, my crew and I relocated to a short wall across from the fire building to wait for our next assignment. I noticed a gentleman sitting next to me watching everything unfold, so I asked him if that was his apartment. He said yes, and looked down. I didn't know what to say, so I told him at least he was OK. He agreed and said that everything in their could be replaced.
Since the fire was coming under control and their were so many people on scene, we were cut loose and we grabbed our gear and headed back to the station so we could put our truck back into service. We had bottles to refill, gear and tools to clean, and dinner to cook.
Below is a picture of the fire scene that was posted in the Gainesville Sun. The Cooper Mini was in the garage and two of the crews pushed it out so they could fight the fire that was in the attic. Five minutes after they pushed it out, the ceiling collapsed in the garage. Talk about a great save!!
Our fire even made TV20 news at 5:30 and 6:00!!! I would have to say that it was a good day!
8/09/2009
General (patten - he he) Update
So, my life doesn't seem to me to be as adventurous as others (Amy ;-), I'm not a newlywed anymore (Leslie) and I don't have a fabulous new business (Jaime) But there are a few things that are coming up that I am a little excited about.
First of all, ever since I started taking classes at the Fire College in Ocala, I have wanted to teach there as well. Once I obtained my Fire Officer 1 state certification, I was able to submit my transcripts as well as a letter from my department stating that I have 6 years in as a firefighter in order to obtain my Instructor 3 status.
What this means is that I am now certified to teach any Fire Classes that I currently hold certification in or any fire classes that I have taken. Sooo, I kept checking in with some of the Captains that I know that teach down there and finally it paid off!! I got a meeting with the chief of the fire college and after waiting for nearly a month, I got a phone call from the EMS director asking me to come down for EMT orientation!!
The Fire College has decided to start offering EMT as part of the FireFighter 1 curriculum (sp?) and I have been offered a position to teach! I also get to take Live Fire Training Instructor and will eventually get to teach on the fire side as well! Very Exciting for me to say the least!
The second thing is I am coordinating a fire fighter calendar for our union. Now ladies, you are going to the some of the first to be offered the official 2010 Fire Rescue Professionals of Alachua County firefighter calendar.
All proceeds are going to the MDA and last Thursday my union voted to front the money for printing! I am super excited about this opportunity to up the totals that we raise for the MDA. It should also be fun to shoot the guys and ladies that I work with. (shoot as in pictures, not with guns ;-) Calendars should be available by late October, so remember to get one for your girl friends for Christmas, they will make great stocking stuffers!
I haven't forgotten my quest to run in a race every month. August's race with be the Run for Daruis at the University of Florida. Check out Darius' website and tell me you wouldn't run 5K for him www.Dariusgoeswest.com What an amazing kid!
So that is the General (Patten - he he) Update. I promise to keep you posted more often.
Love to all!
K.
First of all, ever since I started taking classes at the Fire College in Ocala, I have wanted to teach there as well. Once I obtained my Fire Officer 1 state certification, I was able to submit my transcripts as well as a letter from my department stating that I have 6 years in as a firefighter in order to obtain my Instructor 3 status.
What this means is that I am now certified to teach any Fire Classes that I currently hold certification in or any fire classes that I have taken. Sooo, I kept checking in with some of the Captains that I know that teach down there and finally it paid off!! I got a meeting with the chief of the fire college and after waiting for nearly a month, I got a phone call from the EMS director asking me to come down for EMT orientation!!
The Fire College has decided to start offering EMT as part of the FireFighter 1 curriculum (sp?) and I have been offered a position to teach! I also get to take Live Fire Training Instructor and will eventually get to teach on the fire side as well! Very Exciting for me to say the least!
The second thing is I am coordinating a fire fighter calendar for our union. Now ladies, you are going to the some of the first to be offered the official 2010 Fire Rescue Professionals of Alachua County firefighter calendar.
All proceeds are going to the MDA and last Thursday my union voted to front the money for printing! I am super excited about this opportunity to up the totals that we raise for the MDA. It should also be fun to shoot the guys and ladies that I work with. (shoot as in pictures, not with guns ;-) Calendars should be available by late October, so remember to get one for your girl friends for Christmas, they will make great stocking stuffers!
I haven't forgotten my quest to run in a race every month. August's race with be the Run for Daruis at the University of Florida. Check out Darius' website and tell me you wouldn't run 5K for him www.Dariusgoeswest.com What an amazing kid!
So that is the General (Patten - he he) Update. I promise to keep you posted more often.
Love to all!
K.
7/23/2009
Florida Trek
The Alachua County Board of County Commisioners, in a effort to make sure that they don't have a bunch of fat slobs working for them, has concocted several health and wellness programs over the years. My favorite since I have been here is the Florida Trek.
This is a personal competition where you keep track of the miles that you log each week and our Risk Management co-ordinator keeps track of them for you on a handy dandy spread sheet.
The miles break down pretty easy, if you do something with distance, say running, walking, biking, etc. you just keep track of the miles. But, if you do something active, like softball, tennis, step class or strength training, 15 minutes = 1 mile.
There are several "points" along the trek and with each one you get your name in a drawing for a fabulous bike at the Employee Health Fair in May. The points are as follows: Alligator point -250 miles, Panther point - 500 miles, Flamingo point - 1000 miles, and Manatee point - 2000 miles! Amazingly enough there are people who do reach the Manatee point, so they just start back over again. These people are cyclists and ride like a million miles on Saturdays and Sundays, so I am in awe of them.
The Trek starts on June 1 and lasts all the way until April 30. Last year, I logged an impressive 713 miles! I was truly proud of myself. Most of these miles were logged during my marathon training. I did take two months off after the marathon (I didn't feel like running or even going to they gym after that) so I know that I could have easily done 1000 miles.
That brings me to my goal for this years Trek - 1000 miles. I know I can do it! I've had a few good weeks, and one not so good week - 2 miles :-( The way I figure though, is 2 is better than zero, right? I have other goals also, last year my goal was to have the most miles in Fire Rescue, which I did, so I'd like to repeat that goal again.
My friend Beth, whom I met because of the Florida Trek has been pushing me to ride with her. (She is one of those amazing bike riders I was talking about earlier.) She took me out to the Hawthorne trail and we rode 24 miles. I thought I was going to die, because I was pedaling my butt off to keep up with her "easy ride." It was fun and I think the spin class might help me to hang with her.
This week has been exceptional! Not including yesterday, when I was at work, and it's not easy to get in a good workout on R16, I have worked out every day! I did a spin class on Tuesday with Leslie and we rode 22 miles! Then after that we went downstairs and did a 30 minute abs and glutes class.
Right now I am sitting on 125 miles!! Halfway to Alligator point!
This is a personal competition where you keep track of the miles that you log each week and our Risk Management co-ordinator keeps track of them for you on a handy dandy spread sheet.
The miles break down pretty easy, if you do something with distance, say running, walking, biking, etc. you just keep track of the miles. But, if you do something active, like softball, tennis, step class or strength training, 15 minutes = 1 mile.
There are several "points" along the trek and with each one you get your name in a drawing for a fabulous bike at the Employee Health Fair in May. The points are as follows: Alligator point -250 miles, Panther point - 500 miles, Flamingo point - 1000 miles, and Manatee point - 2000 miles! Amazingly enough there are people who do reach the Manatee point, so they just start back over again. These people are cyclists and ride like a million miles on Saturdays and Sundays, so I am in awe of them.
The Trek starts on June 1 and lasts all the way until April 30. Last year, I logged an impressive 713 miles! I was truly proud of myself. Most of these miles were logged during my marathon training. I did take two months off after the marathon (I didn't feel like running or even going to they gym after that) so I know that I could have easily done 1000 miles.
That brings me to my goal for this years Trek - 1000 miles. I know I can do it! I've had a few good weeks, and one not so good week - 2 miles :-( The way I figure though, is 2 is better than zero, right? I have other goals also, last year my goal was to have the most miles in Fire Rescue, which I did, so I'd like to repeat that goal again.
My friend Beth, whom I met because of the Florida Trek has been pushing me to ride with her. (She is one of those amazing bike riders I was talking about earlier.) She took me out to the Hawthorne trail and we rode 24 miles. I thought I was going to die, because I was pedaling my butt off to keep up with her "easy ride." It was fun and I think the spin class might help me to hang with her.
This week has been exceptional! Not including yesterday, when I was at work, and it's not easy to get in a good workout on R16, I have worked out every day! I did a spin class on Tuesday with Leslie and we rode 22 miles! Then after that we went downstairs and did a 30 minute abs and glutes class.
Right now I am sitting on 125 miles!! Halfway to Alligator point!
7/19/2009
MDA/IAFF Local 3852 yard sale
While most people were sleeping in or enjoying a day off Saturday, I was busy with the MDA yard sale that I organized. 6:00 am rolls around pretty quickly, especially when you spent most of Friday moving all the generous donations from your station to the location of the yard sale. Jonathan and Tara Richardson were awesome to let us use the parking lot of their store, The Babies' Room for our sale. As I arrived at the location, the weather was clear and sunny and perfect for a yard sale.
Ashlee and Jean showed up to help get things set up and we were open for business sooner than you could say, "Squad 16 on scene, investigative mode." Ashlee, our resident artist, was put in charge of making signs to direct the public to our location. I think this sign took her like an hour to make ;-)
Below, is a shot of some shoppers picking up that much needed item at a discount price!
Ashlee and Jean showed up to help get things set up and we were open for business sooner than you could say, "Squad 16 on scene, investigative mode." Ashlee, our resident artist, was put in charge of making signs to direct the public to our location. I think this sign took her like an hour to make ;-)
Below, is a shot of some shoppers picking up that much needed item at a discount price!
I wish that Mother Nature had been more cooperative, because she let it start raining around 10:30 and the ladies that I was working with less than enthusiastic about being out in the rain. We packed up and called it a day, but not before making $450 for the Muscular Dystropy Association!!
I'm pleased with that amount and more than grateful for all of the donations that my brother and sister firefighters made to help this thing be so successful.
I have the coolest job
Last Monday I arrive at work only to find out that our USAR (Urban Search and Rescue) team has rope training at Deerhaven. I am not on the USAR team, but my partner is, so we got to go out to Deerhaven (energy plant that burns coal into electricity, I think.) There were 4 trucks and a District Chief out there, so we had a lot of people.
Rope training is rapelling. We took the elevator up to the 10th floor and set up to rapel down to the 8th floor. We had to rapel down the side of the building through the outside stairwell. It was so awesome! Here is a picture of the view from the 10th floor:
After checking out that breathtaking view looking south towards Gainesville down US441, I put on my harness (with some help from the USAR guys, of course!)
After checking out that breathtaking view looking south towards Gainesville down US441, I put on my harness (with some help from the USAR guys, of course!)
The next picture is me getting ready to let go and start lowering myself down. I'm pretty sure at this point I was shaking and my breath was shallow and fast.
Upside down! The only way to keep yourself from bouncing when you change levels!
By the time I got halfway down, I was having fun!!
I love my job!!
7/07/2009
June/July races
So, this race a month thing is getting sort of like a job. I had a really hard time finding a race for June and July. Two reasons are that I have been super busy and June and July are the hottest months ever and not many races are out there.
June's race was the Dash for Dreams 5K at Westside park. A small race, but pretty good except that the 1st leg of the race was on 8th avenue - up the hill! What a crazy first mile. Also, they only had one water station at the one mile mark and I think that they could have done with a second one. (Things I will note for the 5K that I am planning.) Overall, it was fun. They had an auction for some items and I got $20 gift certificate to Ivey's grill for $15. I guess the highlight of the race was that Shelley Meyer ran in it. I don't remember seeing her, but somebody mentioned it like it made the race more official or something.
July's race, ironically, was the Dream Society's Firecracker 5K in Inverness. I happened to be in Orlando on the 2nd and 3rd, so on the way home I stopped in Inverness for the race that started at 6:30PM. It was actually kind of cool. The race course was an out and back on the Withlacoochie Trail, so it was kind of naturey (I may have just made that word up) It also happened to be the same night as the city of Inverness' fireworks display, so there was a bunch of people and they had a little miss firecracker contest and some churches sang patriotic songs. I would have liked to have stayed for the fireworks, but I was by myself and it was a little depressing to be there alone.
My times for both races were around 35 minutes, which doesn't sound good to me, but I just don't know what to do to make myself faster.
Actually, I feel like I am stuck. I love to run, but I don't want to "just run." I'd like to improve myself at the same time. I thought about hiring a running coach, but that might cost too much. I don't know what to do.
June's race was the Dash for Dreams 5K at Westside park. A small race, but pretty good except that the 1st leg of the race was on 8th avenue - up the hill! What a crazy first mile. Also, they only had one water station at the one mile mark and I think that they could have done with a second one. (Things I will note for the 5K that I am planning.) Overall, it was fun. They had an auction for some items and I got $20 gift certificate to Ivey's grill for $15. I guess the highlight of the race was that Shelley Meyer ran in it. I don't remember seeing her, but somebody mentioned it like it made the race more official or something.
July's race, ironically, was the Dream Society's Firecracker 5K in Inverness. I happened to be in Orlando on the 2nd and 3rd, so on the way home I stopped in Inverness for the race that started at 6:30PM. It was actually kind of cool. The race course was an out and back on the Withlacoochie Trail, so it was kind of naturey (I may have just made that word up) It also happened to be the same night as the city of Inverness' fireworks display, so there was a bunch of people and they had a little miss firecracker contest and some churches sang patriotic songs. I would have liked to have stayed for the fireworks, but I was by myself and it was a little depressing to be there alone.
My times for both races were around 35 minutes, which doesn't sound good to me, but I just don't know what to do to make myself faster.
Actually, I feel like I am stuck. I love to run, but I don't want to "just run." I'd like to improve myself at the same time. I thought about hiring a running coach, but that might cost too much. I don't know what to do.
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