2006 Blog Archives

The Fairfax Fire Department Muster team won top honors in the annual Firefighters' Muster at the Vermont State Firefighters Association's convention at the Collins-Perley Complex in St. Albans Saturday afternoon.

The team used first places in Bucket Brigade and Midnight Alarm, a second in Wet Hose Coupling, and a third in SCBA Endurance to out-point Waterbury Town, 22-20.

Results are as follows:

Wet Hose

1. Waterbury Town

2. Fairfax

3. Addison

Portable Pump

1. Underhill-Jericho

2. Cambridge

3. Shrewsbury

Bucket Brigade

1. Fairfax

2. Waterbury Town

3. Middlebury

Midnight Alarm

1. Fairfax

2. Middlebury

3. Waterbury Town

SCBA Endurance

1. Cambridge

2. Waterbury Town

3. Fairfax

Final Point totals

basis of 7 pts for 1st, 5pts. for 2nd, 3 pts. for 3rd

1. Fairfax 22

2. Waterbury Town 20

3. Cambridge 15

4. Shrewbury 10

5. Middlebury 8

6. Underhill-Jericho 7

7. Addison 3

Team member pictured above:

Standing (L-R), Ryan Zeno, Justin Hayes, Marc Bessette, David Toof, Ivan Patry, Chief Dean Potter

Kneeling (L-R), Jesse Fleming, Jordan Hayes, Kyle Williams

The Koltonski Award was scheduled to be presented to the team Saturday night at the annual banquet. the award is given to the team with the most points at the muster.

Congratulations, guys and girl!

Parade scheduled for 12 noon Sunday.

They got the motor back. All is good. Anthony makes his 2006 ESS debut Friday night at Autodrome Granby. I will be there............

In spirit.

We are setting up for the muster Friday afternoon and I'm sure we'll be all afternoon. I want to be sure to be there to help lay out the SCBA course-my event. No telling how long we will be so I knew I wasn't going to the races.

Elaine Kirkpatrick will be at the museum on Sunday.

Jeff YanDusen, #56D, won at the ESS show at Can-Am in New York State Thursday night. #8B Alain Bergeron 2nd and #22E Luke Eriksen 3rd.

I will try to get a couple of pictures at Collins-Perley Friday.

Kyle got this great shot of the guys literally knocking down the target in Wet Hose Coupling practice Tuesday night.

The following is the muster and parade schedule from Wednesday night's Messenger.

Saturday

Sports Events (Muster Games)
Collins-Perley Sports Complex Field Area
11:30 am Line up for Sports Parade
12:00 pm VSFA Sports Parade and Opening Ceremony
12:30 to 4:30 pmVSFA Sports Muster Games

(Uncle Mike note-I am an official at the SCBA Endurance event.)
4:30 pm Muster Games Awards Presentation

Sunday

VSFA Parade
10:00 am Line-Up Begins at Fonda Container, Lower Newton Street
12:00 am Parade begins in Downtown St. Albans
Reviewing stand at Taylor Park, Parade ends at C.C.V

If there are any changes, I will let you know.

St. Albans Town will not have a team at the muster.

Fairfax should do very well, but you never know. Middlebury is tough and so is Shrewsbury.

If you have nothing planned, come on out to the Collins-Perley Complex and cheer on your local fire department.

We will have Engine One in the parade on Sunday. I hope to be marching in front of the truck carrying the American flag.

I hope to see some Fairfax people there.

Posted for Wednesday July 26th............

Took the camera out Tuesday afternoon when a storm was rolling through-went around us- and took a shot of Margie's rose bush. Small, but this is the third flowering of the summer, I think.

Took the camera up to the station for muster practice and Kyle Williams offered to take pictures. She did a fantastic job. Got some good ones. More coming all week. The guys had some good times in practice. The picture today is Midnight Alarm. Baby powder is used to make the turnout gear slide on easier. Always a cloud when they take off.

After practice, I played with the camera settings and got this shot of the sunset. Used a candlelight setting, then telephotoed the lens and the sky went from cloudy blue to cloudy red. Came out really nice.

Posted for Tuesday July 25th.........

"Oh Yeah,

It was like lightning, everybody was frightening
And the music was soothing, and they all started grooving
Yeaaaah

YeahYeahYeahYeah
And the man at the back said 'Everyone attack!'

and it turned into a ballroom blitz
And the girl in the corner said
'Boy, I wanna warn ya, it'll turn into a ballroom blitz.'
Ballroom blitz."

It's unbelievable how the song "Ballroom Blitz" really made an impression on me. 1973. Fell in love with that song. Everybody did.

No internet to log on, find the song and play it over and over again.

Had to wait and listen to it on the radio.

I used to keep my radio on while I slept at night. CKGM out of Montreal. Great station back in the day.

I was so in tune to that song, I would wake up in the middle of the night, and realize they were playing Ballroom Blitz. My ears were working and my brain would wake me up to hear it.

They are using Ballroom Blitz in the promos for the BBC series, "Life on Mars". As Margie said after watching the show-"Very intriguing.".

A Manchester, England detective is injured in an accident, and wakes up in 1973. He's in a coma, back in 2006......or is he?

"Life on Mars" is the David Bowie song he's listening to on his iPod when the accident occurs.

Very good show. Encore Sunday at 9pm with a new episode Monday at 10pm on BBC America.

It's it's a ballroom blitz

It's it's a ballroom blitz
It's it's a ballroom blitz

Yeah, it's a ballroom blitz!

Posted for Monday July 24th...........

Late Sunday morning on the couch, jumping back and forth between the Tour de France, the British Open, and CNN to see what was going on in the Middle East.

If that doesn't officially qualify as a Lazy Day............

Four people came to the museum Sunday.

For those of you with cable or a satillite dish and have access to BBC America, there's a show on Monday night that looks interesting. "Life on Mars", about a cop from 2006 that for some strange reason gets transported to 1973. 10pm on BBC America. Because I work nights 9 and 1/2 months of the year for the last 8 years, I have gotten away from episode television. This show I'm going to check out. I'll let you know how it is.

I don't remember them talking about us getting so much rain today. I had almost 1/2 inch in the rain gauge late this afternoon. Probably got 3/4 of an inch by now. I thought this rain was supposed to be south of us. All the race tracks in the area rained out, from Bear Ridge to the ESS at Canadaigua, NY.

Chilly, too. 30 degrees colder than earlier this week. Going to make for some nice sleeping weather.

Larry Ward got Henry's forum back up and running. Thanks, Larry. I guess this new forum is more secure.

They were putting dirt along the sides of the rec path Friday. Need to update the pictures.

I will be at the museum Sunday afternoon from 2-4pm.

Watched "War of the Worlds" on HBO, Saturday night. I had seen it in the theater. An amazing movie.

Another good movie is "National Treasure" starring Nicholas Cage. Saw it in the theater on my birthday two years ago, and caught it again on cable the other night. really good movie. Half Indiana Jones, half Mission Impossible, 100 percent family popcorn movie. Everyone of all ages will like it. Watch it on cable or rent it. You won't be disappointed.