Happy Halloween...

I just wanted to wish everyone a safe and enjoyable Halloween. Have a great weekend!!

Widow's Mark Tattoo Shop.... a.k.a. "Putnam Ink".. LOL

Forget "Miami Ink" or "L.A. Ink", how about "Putnam Ink"!!!

Tonight before work, I had my tattoos done and I must say what a different experience it was from my first one. Granted, my first one was done by a friend's sister who is an apprentice and needed a "doodle pad" to draw on, and I only had to pay her a reasonable tip. This time it was much more expensive, but well worth the money!! The artist was Dave Ploughman, a late 40's to early 50's New Jersey native, and U.S. Navy veteran who grew up in Connecticut, and who I found out while I was getting stabbed with an ink gun, that he actually has family in Scotland also. His father is a Scot, and Dave even spent 2 years living in Scotland after retiring from the Navy back in the late 70's, visiting family, touring the country, and actually did his apprentice-ship in a Glasgow tattoo shop. Back then, he told me, you didn't have custom work done. It was pick something out from the old, classic artwork off the wall, and that's what you got, no modification. I asked him if he did a lot of Celtic knots or Scot flags, etc., and he said "it was around the time when daggers with banners wrapped around them saying 'death before dishonor' were popular."

So during the 3 hours or so, of him occasionally making me grimace in pain, we talked about Scotland. About breakfasts' that are more like a full course dinner, Edinburgh, Glasgow, trips to London, Loch Ness, Iverness, Fish and chips, the wonderful weather, Celtics/Rangers, and the Protestant/Catholic futbol fights. Meanwhile, with him keeping my mind off my right arm, he was doing an incredible job on my two tattoos. The time flew by, even with a smoke break in between the outlining and the shading/coloring.



Millar = Clan MacFarlane

My Clan MacFarlane crest is unremarkably detailed, and he added just the right touch to my rampant lion. I originally just wanted the outline, then thought to get the traditional full red lion, but I chose to let him use his artistic capabilities(after all he's the artist), and he chose to add some shading and a small splash of red to make it stand out just right.



I apologize for the poor lighting, my dispatch partner took these for me at work tonight.

I think my Grandma would be extremely proud, not necessarily of getting a tattoo, but proud of what I chose to start my Scottish sleeve with. "Loch Sloy, Loch Sloy" grandma. Now I just have to figure out how to incorporate some heather, the ole' blue and white, a thistle, and Sadie(Gram's name)...

My first Meme.... Thanks Linda

Okay, so Linda decided to tag me for a "Meme", which I guess is similar to a Myspace survey. I'm sure I could come up with plenty of answers, but I'll just go with what comes to mind, so here it goes....

Ten Things You Probably Didn't Know About Erik Meme

1. I have a fear of electricity, not the usage of it, but being electrocuted by it. Although I do love thunderstorms, I just have a fear of downed power lines or hitting exposed house wiring while fighting a fire. It doesn't stop me from doing what I need to do, but I do keep a cautious eye out for them.

2. Even though I'm told I'm a great Dad with my daughter, I still feel like I owe her immensely, because my marriage failed and I haven't been there for her every day to see her grow up. I know she loves me, and I love her to death, but the thought is always in the back of my mind that I'm a shitty father for not being able to work things out.

3. I may come off as pretty outgoing over the internet or on the phone with people, but in person, I'm extremely shy until I get to know someone and/or feel comfortable around them in person. I hate being extremely self-conscious.

4. I had an extreme fear of heights since I can remember. But after joining the fire department when I was 18, I gradually overcame the fear and now I love it. I'll go on any amusement park ride, and love to operate on the roof at fires now.

5. I had a tough time with winter sports while growing up, i.e. skating, skiing. Not sure if it was a lack of balance or weak ankles, but now I'm pretty decent with hockey skates. Not too sure how I'd do with skiing, but if I ever get the chance again, I'll try it.

6. I'm scared shitless of snakes!!

7. I'm a good "house bitch", as my ex-wife used to call me. I do yard work, dishes, vacuum, cook, and even separate and fold laundry. My only fault is dusting...

8. I'm horrible with keeping in touch with people, even family. I get so consumed with work, sleep, and paying bills, that I loose contact with people I care about. Maybe that's how today's society is, everyone's too busy working in order to pay the bills, there's no more "family time."

9. I was scared shitless of needles. When I was in the 4th grade, I refused to let my doctor give me a shot for childhood asthma. He then proceeded to send me to the hospital where I ended up getting admitted for almost a week, and ended up getting stuck with a lot more needles. Now I'm fine with needles, it's temporary pain, and it won't kill ya!

10. I'm pissed that as a child, I didn't pay enough attention to my grandparents. As an adult, I've become more interested in learning family history, their history, and their culture. Otherwise, I'd be fluent in French, and could tell my daughter the stories my Grandma always told me about growing up in Scotland.


Linda, you also posted these answers, so I'm assuming it's part of the Meme, or these are multiple Memes...LOL


Four places I go over and over

Dunkin Donuts in Dayville to get my nightly dose of caffine...
Rene's house to hang out and shoot the breeze...
The firehouse to hang out with Rene and the guys to shoot the shit...
Work...

Four people who email me regularly

Rene
Myspace
Facebook
and I also get those emails from some investor/estate lawyer from Africa about my inheritance. Although lately it's been emails from the "UK lottery"...

Four of my favorite places to eat

Local- J.D. Coopers
Distant- Bidwell Tavern in Coventry, CT
Chain restaurant- Olive Garden
and lastly, is something that I haven't been to yet.

A Burns Supper.

Four places I'd rather be

Right now, home and in bed...
Anywhere with my daughter...
The UK...
in a hot tub (very sore from the playscape olympics)

Four TV shows I could watch over and over

Ghost Hunters (T.A.P.S.)
Cash Cab
Scare Tactics
anything on the History Channel

Four people I'm tagging

I don't even know 4 bloggers, and Linda's already done this, so I'm going to have to tag Claire!! ;-)

Turned out to be a beautiful autumn weekend after all....

Wednesday afternoon I swung by the local tattoo shop to check it out, and get a price. I found it very neat, clean, relatively inexpensive, and I've heard a lot of good things about them. Unfortunately, I couldn't schedule and appointment for Thursday or Friday, so I have to skip out on the fire department training this coming Tuesday evening, to get stabbed a few thousand times with a needle gun, and I'm totally stoked about it!!

So I picked up Hayleigh, Friday afternoon and we went right to Rene's house and ordered dinner. We ate when his wife got home, and then we all piled into my Durango and drove out to the Boy Scout Camp in Ashford, CT., where they were having a haunted hay ride. They also had games and facepaint for the kids, along with beverages and candy.





Well, the kids got the crap scared out of them on the "haunted trail", before we even hit the haunted hay ride! We eventually finished the course, headed back to the clubhouse for some more games, and then went home.

There was a little excitement Saturday, where we woke up early because Hayleigh not only had dance class in Norwich, but she also had "The Nutcracker" practice and hour before that. So we trucked down to Norwich and pull into the parking lot. My ex-mother-in-law was supposed to meet me there to take Hayleigh to a family party after the dance classes, and as we got out of the car to go see "Meema" I notice what looked like someone egged the main enterence door. As we walk closer, I notice the contents of a wallet on the ground, and look to the side of the building and the spare enterence, which looked like someone sliced the juglar vein of a bull and aimed right at the door!! The dance teacher pulls into the parking lot, parks her jeep, and kicks a pair of eye glasses as she gets out. I call Norwich PD, diverted the early students to the front of the building, while the owner called and cancelled the later class. Come to find out, the guy who's wallet contents were on the ground, was admitted to Backus Hospital early that morning as a drunk. Apparently he was drunk enough not to realize that he had been mugged!!

So a few hours later(as I got recruited by the NPD to help block off the parking lot while they did their investigation) I started home. I ended up relaxing at home for a bit, and when Hayleigh got dropped back off by her mom, it was off to Rene's house again, where we carved pumpkins. Wait, let me correct that, the girls picked out the designs, Rene and myself carved the pumpkins while the girls played and watched a movie(LOL)!! The weather Saturday evening had mild temperatures, but was rainy with some major gusts. We called it a night around 9:30, and drove home, only to find the power out in the neighborhood. So Hayleigh and I lit a candle, and piled onto the bed, where we watched a DVD on my laptop.



Surprisingly, the battery lasted all the way through the movie, and I awoke to find the power back on at 0230am.

We woke up around 9am, got dressed and went to Hayleigh's friend Robyn's birthday party at Koirnania, which is like a YMCA with a pool in Thompson. We then met up with Rene and his family at the Thompson Hill Greene. There was a scarecrow contest, and the weather was absolutely beautiful to the point where I went photo-crazy!! Linda, I think I'd make you proud with all the "Steeplechase" pics I took...LOL

Eventually, we went to McDonald's for lunch, then to the Putnam Elementry school playscape, and hung out till it was time to bring Hayleigh back to her mom's house. I think Rene and myself had as much of a blast as the kids had. Rene and I decided to have "playscape olympics" which entailled a race, an obsticle course, a balance beam event, and the grand finale was a swing-jumping distance competition. Rene was the overall champion, but I got the "gold" in the swing-jumping event. I used my height to my advantage. So all in all, it was a busy, fun, and mostly great weather type of a weekend, spent with my daughter and my friends. Now it's back to work for the week...LOL

Dancing with the who??!!

So after tonight's elimination show, I have to post something about it, even though it may make me sound gay-ish to all my macho friends. I don't care. How could Cloris Leachman still be on Dancing With The Stars? Seriously??!! And how could Toni Braxton get voted off before Susan Lucci?? It makes me wonder if Howard Stern started up another "cause" to crown Leachman the winner, much like he did to sabatoge American Idol a few years ago to have Sunjaia(sp?) win...

Although I commend Leachman for attempting the ballroom dancing at the ripe old age of 82, I hope to think that people will wise up soon and vote on talent, not personality and humor. And I'm hoping soon is like, next week!! Leachman is constantly interupting the show with her adlib attempts at comedy that honestly isn't funny, and her dancing is fair-okay at it's best. As far as Toni Braxton is concerned, she agreed to take part in the show, despite a diagnosed heart problem that has since cleared up with the help of dancing. She was showing great potential, as stated by the judges, which is much more than I can say for Susan Lucci. Lucci's dancing has been nice, I'll give her that, but she doesn't seem to have that drive or desire as much as Braxton did. She looks fragile, and her dances to this point have been such, FRAGILE.

On the other hand, Warren Sapp has surprised the hell out of me, as I could not imagine a very large, "athletic", NFL defensive lineman being light on his feet. But he's showed great skills. I'm going to go out on a limb and predict my final four contestants. I'm predicting, obviously Brooke Burns, Kody what's his name who dances with Julianne Hough, then Warren Sapp, and then it's a toss up between Lance from NSYNC, or Mr. Olympian, Maurice "?" with Cheryl Burke.

Alright, I'm done with my "feminine side" rant, about Dancing with the Stars. I guess I should get back to work even though nothings going on right now... Post later!

Who's up for getting shot in a tatoo by a paintball, while talking on a Blackberry??!! LOL

Isn't it amazing how a year can fly by. Last I remember, I had just thrown out the large garbage bags full of Christmas wrapping paper and the boxes from all of Hayleigh's toys. Now it's near the end of October, and there's only 14 more days till Election Day. GO OBAMA!!! I'm not sure if things seem to go by faster as we grow up, or if it's the actual global warming thing, that seems to make the year(and the weather) fly by so fast.

When I was younger, the winters seemed to be much colder, longer, and snowy-er(or snowier, is that a real word? LOL), and the summers always seemed to be long and hot. Maybe it's the fact that I work 3rd shift, and sleep through most of the daylight, that seems to make the days all blend together, but either way, the weather patterns over the past several years have been odd to say the least.




On a different note, I have several plans for this week. In a previous post, I believe I mentioned that fact that I thought I had registered to vote back in high school, but wasn't sure. Well, as soon as I get out of work this morning, I'm going to the town hall first thing, to either confirm my previous registration, or make a new one. I want to make sure that I vote this election, as I feel it's an important one. Then I'm filling up the gas tank and going down to Backus hospital to see a former co-worker that's been admitted overnight for observations, post, some chest discomfort.



I also received a phone call the other day from Sprint, that I have a free $150 upgrade available. I've been having trouble with my Nextel phone freezing up on me, and the #2 button works when it wants, so I'm looking into a Blackberry. Years ago, I had a regular cell phone and everyone was telling me to go to Nextel. So I switched over to Nextel, and now everyone is getting rid of it and going back to regular cell phones. Having checked into the Blackberries, both on-line and a member at the fire department allowing me to look at his, I've made up my mind that I'll drop the Nextel and pay a little more for a Blackberry. The Sprint/Blackberry plan comes with GPS, free text, free internet/web-browsing, and multiple brands of free instant messaging for maybe $10 more than I'm paying now. It also has many other features on it, including a camera with video option, and the fact that it performs much like a PDA and an i-pod, where I can plug into my laptop and upload photos, a calender and songs onto the phone. So I'm excited about that.




I'm also planning on getting some more tattoos this week. I'm planning on starting to fill out my right arm, which I have a Scottish sleeve visualized for it. I know - I know, the last post I was talking about what bills to pay with my big check this week. The bills will be paid, but I will have some extra, and having just the outlining done will not cost too much. I can always come back and have coloring done afterwards, as I'm not positive which colors I want them done in. So I'll be getting my Clan MacFarlane crest(above) on the top of the shoulder, with a large Rampant Lion below.



After that, I'm still working on what and where next, but I'm hoping to incorporate a thistle, and my Grandmother's name to my Scot sleeve. Now my last tat was done by an apprentice down in Montville. This time I'm going to a local shop artist, so if it's not too bad, I might move onto my chest for the next adventure, possibly next year. However, that one will take some research, as I want my daughter's portrait over my left chest, because after all, she is the closest thing to my heart!!

Other than that, just a relaxing weekend enjoying time spent with Hayleigh, my best friend Rene, and his daughter Megan. I'm also excited for the weekend of November 7th, as I made plans with Rene to have a father/daughter double date, to the movies to see Madagascar 2, and dinner, which I think the girls will absolutely LOVE!!! Then on the 15th of November, my dispatch partner Travis, a co-worker Jeff, and myself planned a full day of friendly paintball games between a our three departments, along with the Plainfield Police Department, down in Voluntown. The paintball complex has been reserved for us, and I'm sure it will be a blast! Pun intended. LOL, stay tuned, I'm sure I'll have some tales and pictures to post about, along with the welts to prove it...

Alrighty then! So I'm feeling a bit better now, still a little achy, but no more back of the neck headache, and I feel well rested while working an overtime shift tonight. The Red Sox have come back from a 3 games to 1 deficit, to tie the series up, 3 games to 3 and I'm crossing my fingers for this evening(Sunday), that they pull it off, as I think they'll be able to take care of Philadelphia in the World Series rather handedly...

I'm left with a dilemma of sorts, when it comes to this coming pay period on Thursday. I worked plenty of overtime the past two weeks, and I'm a payment ahead on my personal loan. So do I, make a regular payment, make another double payment, or make no payment, and put it towards getting one of my last two credit cards paid off. I realize that the credit card is more of a problem with higher interest charges, but then again, I can really narrow down what I have left on my personal loan to the point where it would be paid off by February or possibly earlier! Which would mean more money towards my last two credit cards. The credit cards are small, less than $1,000 and I could pay them off rather quickly once the loan is out of the way. Either way I figure(barring any unforeseen expenses), I will have just my truck payment left before the beginning of spring! It will be nice to be out of debt for the first time since before my divorce, and I can finally start saving and seriously look for a small house or condo to buy. Hopefully something nice in a rural setting that has a big yard for my daughter and I to play in!

Fire department wise, I'm less than a month away from coming off my 6 months probation, and almost checked off on all of the trucks, with the exception of Engine Tank-279. It's a standard, and Turtle (Jeff) took me out for the first time the other morning.



Surprisingly, "Turtle" is a high school football nickname for Jeff, rather than his resemblence to a turtle! LOL

I've driven standard before, have owned several vehicles that had a stick, and I actually miss it sometimes, but it was very interesting, to drive my first fire truck that was a standard. First off, I believe the transmission is Gruman or some kind of German company, where the gears are different from the usual car transmission, and they are spaced very close together so you don't know if you're in 2nd or 4th gear!! I found it out the hard way as we came off a nice trip through the back roads and came up to a major 4-way intersection in our district.

We came up to intersection with a red light, and we were making a right turn on red. I checked to my left and only had a tractor-trailer in sight, far enough away for me to merge onto Route 44. Well, I started out in 1st gear fine and winded the engine up to shift into 2nd, depressed the clutch and put it in second, or so I thought!!! The truck started bucking, so I threw it back into 1st, winded it up, back into 2nd again? Wrong, apparently the truck refused to go into second, rather it kicked the lever over, OH-SO slightly into 4th gear. Turtle and myself were getting jerked around while the truck was having a major convulsion.



Now picture two young looking fellows in this fire truck, getting thrown around the cab, going 4mph, with traffic backing up behing them!! LOL

Meanwhile, the T-T unit is bearing down on us, so I throw it in first, hit the blinker to the right, and watch as traffic starts to back up behind me. The t-t driver finally goes around me as I nursed it out of the way in first gear and waited for traffic to clear. Finally after man-handling the gear shifter, and a few loud clunks, I seemed to have cleared up the problem and drove it back to the firehouse.

Other than that, I think I did pretty well for my first time, if I say so myself. Although I did find that the bench seat doesn't go back far enough for us vertically endowed people, and it doesn't like to downshift, and I mean AT ALL!! The clutch catches pretty high up, so I ground the gears a couple times, started out too slow not knowing that you had to wind out the gears, and my foot started cramping up where my boot folded while pushing in on the clutch. I don't even want to try it with my bunker pants and fire boots on, because by the time I get the truck to the scene, my legs will be totally shot and they will have to scoop me out of the dang cab of the truck!! I think I'm going to store a pair of sneakers in my gear grid for that truck alone.... LOL

Under the weather...

So I'm feeling a bit under the weather tonight, as is many, many people that I've been around lately. Apparently it's getting to that time of the year where it starts to get colder, and people start getting sick. For me it always seems to happen during the transitions between winter/spring, and fall/winter. I think it's the multiple days, where it'll be warm one day, cold the next, then warm again. My sinuses seem to be dry and stuffy, my hips are aching, and it feels like I have spinal meningitis because the base of my neck is killing me. Hopefully I'm just a little under the weather, and I'll start feeling better after a good days sleep this morning after work.

Other than that, I'm hoping the Red Sox can pull out another win later today, and continue the fight to get to the World Series, but for some reason I don't have any expectations this year. It's been a tough, long season with the injuries, rocky pitching, and they've also ran into a bee's hive so to speak, with the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays have had an unbelievable season this year, and if there was anyone that I was worried about the Red Sox playing, it was them. So I'm rooting for my home team, but I won't be shocked if they can't pull it out.

This weekend, I have an overtime shift on Saturday, so technically I only have one night off(Friday) with no major plans, and barely any money till next Thursday. But I'm looking forward to next weekend with my daughter, as we may be going to Old Sturbridge Village with Rene and his family. So that's it for now, I'll try and make a post over the weekend, but if I'm still feeling ill, I may just sleep the weekend away...LOL

New Video

One of my previous post I put a fire department video on, as one of our younger members tinkered around and made it with the help of one of his friends. Well, I was in the mood tonight before work, as several others are making attempts at such a thing, and I got hooked. So I started it while at the fire house this evening, and finished it up tonight at work, as it was pretty slow on the 911 front. So here's my video that I made, comments good or bad, please.... Thanks, and I hope all of you had a great weekend!!

A little self reflection...

I've been thinking lately that even though I work and volunteer in such an exciting field as public safety, my life is pretty damn boring. (LOL)

It's pretty sad when you work at night, sleep during the day, and have your evenings planned out by the t.v. schedule.

Monday= Dancing with the Stars, Tuesday= DWTS results show, Scare Tactics, Wednesday= Ghosthunters, Thursday= First 48, etc, etc, etc.

I keep telling myself that I need to start eating healthier, cut out the caffeine, nicotine, soda and sugar, and start walking or going to the key gym, but my lazy butt keeps putting it off. Maybe if I start working out more often, I'll get that energy boost that I need, to stop feeling tired so much.

So what's happened lately? Well, I worked overtime this past weekend, a 3rd shift to 1st shift double on Friday and Saturday day shift, then went to a live-burn in Killingly on Sunday morning, before coming back in to work Sunday night.


Seriously, it feels like every other weekend I'm working overtime, the next weekend I'm trying to keep my daughter entertained and making sure she's not bored, and then the weekdays in between each weekend, working, eating, and sleeping. Don't get me wrong, I love my job and work with great people, but it seems like it's taking me forever to get caught up, never mind ahead of my bills. There's so much I want to do, and look forward to, but getting paid bi-weekly makes things difficult come the beginning of the second week. Especially with the cost of gasoline lately!

Anyways, here's some pictures of a live burn that we took part in, Sunday morning.


It was on Cherry Hill Rd. in the Attawaugan section of Killingly. It was an old abandoned house that was ruled unsafe, and the land owner along with the fire marshall gave permission to Attawaugan Fire Company to burn it down. I was originally asked by a friend if I wanted attend to help out, but as it turned out, my department, along with many others, were asked to attend.

Now my department is trying to get me checked off on all of their trucks, so this was the perfect opportunity to have me drive Tanker 179 and run the pump some more.

Even though I have 10 years driving experience from Putnam, including the ladder truck, I still have to get cleared that I know equipment placement and how to operate the pumps on East Putnam's trucks. So East Putnam, Dayville, Community, South Killingly, and East Killingly all went to Attawaugan to help burn this house that was deemed too hazardous. I figured I'd be involved in a tanker shuttle or get to flow some water, but really ended up sitting there chit-chatting with friends,


and watching the house burn down to the ground. I didn't even flow one drop of water to the truck I was tied into, but our younger members got a chance to see some big fire,


had some fun, and I enjoyed watching several fire departments get along and have fun training together.



I never really saw that in Putnam Fire, where we basically stuck to ourselves and didn't like training with other departments. When I first joined Putnam when I was 18, we used to go mutual aid a lot, and we enjoyed it. But over the years the department's nose got higher and higher in the air, and before you knew it, no one wanted us to come play, and we didn't want others to play with us. It's nice to get back to that feeling once again, where no matter what department you're on, others are willing to summon others, and work with others like the "Brotherhood" firefighting is....


My best friend Rene...


Our East Putnam Crew

Remember.....

Remember when one parent working a good paying job, was enough to support a family comfortably?

Remember when a salary around $35,000 was a good paying, middle class job?

Remember when family used to get together on EVERY holiday for picnics and get-to-gethers, rather than having to work to pay the bills?

Remember when families used to go out on Christmas Eve and go caroling throughout the neighborhood, just because?

Remember when you didn't have to lock your car doors in your own driveway?

Remember when $2.00 a gallon for gasoline was outrageous?

Remember when it only cost $700 or so to fly round trip to the UK?

Remember when the first Knight Rider was on with David Hasselhoff?

Remember Magnum P.I.?

Remember C.H.i.P's?

Remember Emergency(Squad 51)?

Remember The Love Boat?

Remember "Look Boss!! Thee plane, Thee plane!!"

Remember "I love it when a plan comes together"

Remember "I'm so hungry, I could eat a cat" (see if you get that reference)

Remember Larry, Kevin, D.J., Ainge, and The Chief?

Remember The Superbowl Shuffle?

And finally, to those of you who are Red Sox fans:

Remember when you could get a Red Sox ticket?

Remember when it was like $45 for a field box seat, and $15 for a bleacher seat?

Despite the two World Series Championships and the excellent seasons in the past few years, do you still have that negative feeling in the back of your head like they're going to blow it, and we'll have to wait till "next year"?

I guess that's part of being a Red Sox fan, used to years of high hopes, only to have your dreams eventually crushed... LOL

I think another Championship would help a little more in getting that feeling out of heads!!

GO SOX!!!!!!!!!!!