2006 Blog Archives

A few leftover pictures from Granby earlier this month.

I need to do some work on resizing some of the pictures I have on my site. Some of the pictures are over a million and a half bytes. I use a web photo manager before I upload pictures now, so they are about 50-60 thousand bytes.

One of the things I need to do is set up a page for all the ESS cars from this year. I have a SCONE page, but need an ESS one.

Really hoping to have some decent pictures the next few days. Looking forward to Saturday.

Enjoy the weather.

Who'da thought it??

It seems anything major in life comes as a surprise. Even when you are trying to achive something and it finally happens, there is always that momentary spot of disbelief.

Like when Keith Foulke flipped the ball to first, and the Red Sox won the World Series. You knew it was going to happen. But when it did, there was that moment of surprise. "OH MY GOD! They actually won."

9/11. Who knew THAT was going to happen? Other than the terrorists. Even then, they had to be a little surprised they carried it out.

Nature's great at pulling the rug out from under people. A 5.1 earthquake on a Saturday morning a few years back. Talk about your Rock and Roll Wake Up Call.

Everyone expects the big one on the west coast, where half of California ends up in the ocean. Yet when it happens, it will be like, "I can't believe this!".

A shooting in Essex. WOW.

Wednesday a school shooting in Montreal. Now THAT was a surprise.

Stuff like that doesn't happen in Canada. 1 dead, 19 wounded, and the police killed the shooter.

What will life have in store for us today? Maybe it will hold off until next week. But when it happens, we will be surprised.

I gotta look back through my essays. I feel like I've said all this before in a previous blog. Am I plagerizing myself? I'll bet I'll be surprised if I did!

Three more photos from Monday night's ceremony in St. Albans.

Steeple Market is adding on. Took a picture Tuesday and will post it later this week. I guess the place will be laid out a little differently inside when they are all done.

I'm guessing with all these cool nights, the foliage will be on time this year. Too bad. I rather liked the idea of it still being green in October like it was last year.

May be doing something fun this weekend. You'll see the result here.

And it doesn't have to do with race cars.

Steve Bessette, Justin Hayes, Jordan Hayes, and I went out to St. Albans Monday night, and represented the FXFD at the 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony in Taylor Park.

Very nice. Really glad I took the day off from work to be there.

It was still light when we got there, but it was dark when it ended. Cooled off a bit, too.

But it was good we had the truck there. After a bugler played Taps, all the trucks ran their lights and sirens. That is always great.

Congratulations to those who organized it all.

From what I could see, there was St. Albans City Fire, St. Albans Town Fire, Fairfax, Georgia, Fairfield, Milton, Sheldon, Enosburg, AmCare, Vermont State Police, the Border Patrol, St. Albans City Police, Swanton, Mississquoi Rescue, and St. Georges, Que. that were there. If I missed anyone, I do apologize.

More pictures to come.

Images were taken from a DVD put out with a book called "What We Saw" by CBS News. It shows their footage from that day. Brings back a lot of memories. And chills down the spine, as well.

Has it really been that long?

Yes, I guess it has.

When you think about it, a lot has happened since then.

The war in Afganistan.

Invading Iraq.

The Red Sox winning the World Series. The White Sox, too.

The rec path and athletic fields being completed.

Many friends have passed away.

New friends we have met.

The FXFD muster teams winning two state titles. A couple of Teddy Bears, too.

Security. Terror alerts. Red, blue, green, orange,..........brown?

I never needed a photo ID. I never really traveled anywhere. I do not drink or smoke, so I wasn't buying those products. I knew who I was. Everyone else knew who I was, too.

Now when we are about a mile from the Canadian border-both ways- everyone is digging into their wallets for their IDs and tossing them onto the console next to the driver like tossing in poker chips. "I'm in." "Me, too."

Can't fold here.

Tonight at 7pm in Taylor Park in St. Albans is a ceremony remembering those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. The Fairfax Fire Department will be there with Engine 1. I took the day off from work so I can be there, too. If you can, I really encourage you to be there. If it's anything like the ceremony in 2002 for the first anniversary, it will be memorable.

I'll have pictures tomorrow.

There is some new music coming out that has got my ears perked up.

Evanescence is back. From the sounds of the first single, "Call Me When You're Sober", Amy Lee and crew have picked up where the left off with their debut album Fallen. A full sounding song, lots of music, led by Lee's vocals.

Please give it a listen at:

www.evanescence.com/audio.asp

Click on Play Track next to Call Me When You're Sober.

The new album-The Open Door-goes on sale October 3rd.

My Chemical Romance, on the other hand, are re-inventing the wheel with their new album-The Black Parade. Taking a cue from Green Day, Gerard Way and company have come out with their own concept album/rock opera. They even went so far as to recruit Rob Cavallo to produce the album, just like he did with Green Day's "American Idiot".

The difference between the two, will be the presentation.

As bassist Mike Dirnt said, "We wanted every song on American Idiot to be a song you wanted to play air guitar to". And it is.

Based on the first single, "Welcome to the Black Parade", The Black Parade reminds me of a soundtrack to a musical. It is very theatrical. There are different harmonies. There is orchestration. It sounds like a song you would hear if you attended a musical.

I cannot wait to hear the entire album. It drops October 25th.

Well, OK, I can wait. That's a ways off.

In the mean time, you can listen to Welcome to the Black Parade by clicking: