Saturday, August 6, 2005
GETTING CAUGHT UP
This is actually the post for Sunday Aug.7, but I want to go to bed soon.
The SCONE 2005 page is now complete with results of the races run so far and unofficial point totals. There is still
some discussion whether the Bear Ridge race will count in the points or not.......
All the initial pictures of the cars are there. May add the trophy shots as well.
All the pictures I have posted from and dealing with the FXFD is now on the FXFD page. I will go through some state parade
pictures and post them on a special page in The Scrapbook.
Haven't had time to work on The Scrapbook. Be patient.
Sunday is the Franklin County Field Days Muster. Any trophy we bring home will be a victory. The rookies are there to
learn and most of all, HAVE FUN!
We had the annual custodian picnic today at Lyall Smith's place. I thought he left.... Yeah, he offered his
place on the lake-actually Mallets Bay- for the party. Was out on the lake a little today. Rode a Sea-Doo for the first
time. I did not fall off. Thought I was going to.
Need sleep.
RACIN' AT CANAAN!!...........FINALLY!!!!
Si Allen and Tunk Berry won the A-mains Friday night at Canaan Fair Speedway. Mike Kondrat was 2nd in both races.
Clay Dow was 3rd in the first race. Anthony was 4th in the first race and 3rd in the 2nd race. Second race pictures will
be posted for tomorrow.
Man, was the place dusty! Second race, especially. Anthony was running 2nd in the 2nd race and tried a move on Tunk Berry
for the lead, but couldn't do it. Mike Kondrat then put up a good balttle for 2nd and got it with about 3 laps to go. Both
Si and Tunk led wire-to-wire.
Unofficially, Anthony still leads the points at Canaan by 5 over Tunk, 146-141. Si Allen is 3rd at 139. Riki Likowski
is 4th at 131. Clay Dow and Bill Guertin are tied for 5th at 119.
I will try to update the official finishes and complete unofficial points on the 2005 SCONE Series page for Sunday morning.
Thursday, August 4, 2005
AND YET ANOTHER BUSY WEEKEND....
Third night in a row for muster practice. Bucket brigade Thursday night. Blew the whistle for the start of the run while
clicking the stopwatch, then aim and shoot.
Really like the one of Tom and Ryan on the ladder. Showed the other guys. They liked it, too.
They did two runs in the high 40s. Practice and the actual muster are two diffeent things. We use 3 gallon buckets. Teddy
Bear had smaller buckets. Field Days may have bigger buckets. The main part of practice is getting the rhythm down. Getting
the basic fundementals correct. Once you do that, the size of the bucket doesn't matter.
The height of the platform can screw you up. You practice at one level, the muster is higher, then you have to adjust
where the person on the ladder is.
Canaan Friday night. How many times have I said that? The last time Anthony actually raced at Canaan, he won.
On June 3rd.
Ever since then, we've rained out. Supposed to be good weather......
Wednesday, August 3, 2005
BLASTS FROM THE PAST
How about that? I surprised myself.
Today's pictures are old ones.
The shot of Matt and Justin was from Cambridge Fire Dept.'s 50th Anniversary. I think it was 2000. We had gone up for
the parade in the morning, then went back for a muster in the afternoon. I need to look at the trophies. There were four events?
Bucket Brigade, SCBA Endurance, wet hose, and portable pump? or midnight alarm?
Anyway, we won first place in all of them. I think there were four teams. Had fun.
The picture from the Field Days was a few years ago as well. Not sure if that was the year we won Sportsmanship Trophy
or not.
The Picture of the Day with Larry Parsons in dress uniform was from the Swanton Festival parade back in 1998, I think.
He and I went up with the 1973 Engine 1.
We did a few parades together. That was fun. One 4th of July, we took E1 up to Jeffersonville for their parade. It started
at 9 or 9:30 in the morning. Got done there, and was headed home. Stopped in Cambridge for a soda and was on our way.
At one point, Larry asked me what time the parade in Westford started and I said 11am. About 10:45, we were coming home
past Minor's Country Store, when suddenly, Larry says, "Wanna go to Westford?". "Sure!", was my reply and onto Rt. 128 we
went. Pulled into the Westford Fire Station about 5 minutes before 11.
Larry hollered to Westford Chief Randy Botala.
"Can we be in your parade?"
"SURE!"
So we got in line, and made the loop around the village green, getting into two parades in one morning.
Tuesday, August 2, 2005
I'M SO CONFUSED!!!!
One thing to understand about my website and the correlation between the Blog and the Picture of the Day.......
Because I am working days at the school, I will sit down around 10pm and change the pictures for the following day. I
will post a new blog for the next day, but because I am doing it the night before, the picture off the day has one date and
the blog the day before. When I was working nights, I would get home from work a little after 11pm, sit down and by the time
I was done, it was after midnight, so the picture and the blog were listed for the same day.
Does this make any sense?
Still doing editing on the Scrapbook. I want to make sure it is what I want it to be.
These are the final pictures from the Teddy Bear Featival. Now I have to go through my old photos to see what I want
to scan.
Oh God, he's going to do some more Catamount Stadium pictures......
Not necessarily. I may surprise you. I may not surprise you. We'll see.
Monday, August 1, 2005
UNCLE MIKE'S SCRAPBOOK
For a while now, I've been trying to come up with something to have a secondary website that has all the POTD archive
stuff and 2005 racing photos when it becomes 2006 and things like that. I thought I was going to have to create a whole new
site and insert pictures and everything.
I have come up with a solution! Uncle Mike's Scrapbook.
I simply copied this site and am now in the process of editing it to be a scrapbook. Thanks to Margie, my sister, for
coming up with the name. I was trying to go with Picture Archive, or Archives, or photo closet or something. I mentioned it
to Margie and said I was looking for a certain name and she said "Scrapbook?". Yeah, that will work.
Thanks, Marg!
In any case, look for The Scrapbook to make it's debut in a few days.
I'm looking for a quote to have on the Scrapbook main page concerning photography. "A picture is worth a thousand words"
is too generic. There's the line from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles-"Take a picture. It'll last longer.", but not what
I'm looking for.
If you have an idea, let me know. Thanks.
It took me a couple of minutes to come up with something to describe the guys getting ready for the Wet Hose Coupling
without it sounding dirty. He said, "Wet Hose Competition"....uh huh, uh huh!.....
A member of the muster team twisted their ankle in practice last week and Saturday morning, unable to find the proper
tape, wrapped the ankle using duct tape. It worked.
Last set of Teddy Bear Muster pictures will be tomorrow.
Sunday, July 31, 2005
YET ANOTHER EDITION OF "ODDS 'N ENDS"
Man, the more I look at today's Picture of the Day, the more I think-"That's a good picture". Could have had a different
angle, but it shows the guys just before the whistle blew. Every other team were laid out on a straight row. Ivan and Jordon
hang back, because they connect the hose to the hydrant. This also gives the other four guys room to move.
Two funny vehicles coming home from Shelburne on Saturday. One was this really green Jeep with out of state plates that read
"SHREK".
And yes, I guess the Jeep was the same color as the character.
The other was this very little yellow convertible, again with out of state plates, that read "MTCHBOX". Must be
he collected them as a kid, and now he drives one.
Kimi Raikkonen was able to keep the car running this morning to win the F1 Grand Prix of Hungary.
Is it really August....already?
I will add all the muster pictures to the FXFD page. I will be going up to Highgate on Sunday with the rest of the team
for the Field Days Muster, so look for more pictures next week. Look for a couple more Muster pics on Tuesday.
POOR HANDLING AT BEAR RIDGE
Anthony called me this morning with the results from Bear Ridge.
The track was very slick and very dusty.
Anthony was doing well, but the handling went away. It was so dusty, you couldn't see anything. He finally pulled
off with 3 laps to go because he was not going to improve his position and ended up 7th out of ten cars. Mark Cole in the
6X won, Riki Likowski 2nd and Mike Kondrat 3rd.
I wll be checking the Bear Ridge website for the official results, and when they come up, I will post them.
If you ever get onto my site and a picture doesn't come up, right-click on the square and click "Show Picture". Some
times, that happens to me, even when I'm editing......
