It is well known in the world of smoke eaters that bowstring and scissor truss roofs are deadly to firefighters. These cheaply made roofs collapse early in a fire and are dangerous to firefighters attempting ventilation. Too many firefighters have paid the ultimate price for cost cutting, because that is what these types of roofs are, cost cutters.
The following pictures illustrate a new church that was built in my area that I would respond to if there were a fire there. I took these photos when I was a captain and did my own inspection of the church. I gave my findings to the chief and recommended highly that if there is a fire of significant size, ventilation should only be performed off a truck (ladder truck) and no firefighters should place a foot on that roof. Firefighters familiar with this construction will not be surprised at the shoddy workmanship.
To illustrate the weakness of this construction, I also have photos of the roof after it collapsed during construction. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
Click on each photo for larger view.
Death Traps
First Date
Humor/fiction, no really, it really is fiction! Written for high school English class. Got an A. Seriously.
At 7:45 PM you leave your house to pickup your very first date. At 7:46 you realize that your car has a flat tire. By 7:56 you have your car up on the jack and the tire off. At 7:57 your car falls off the jack. It is now 8:05 and you have the car up on the jack for the second time. At 8:15 you finally have the spare on. Throwing everything into the trunk and slamming the lid tightly, you get into your car in a huff. You then find to your dismay that you have left the only set of keys you have for this heap in the trunk. You quickly run into the house to borrow Dad's car. Dad is an on-call fire fighter and needs his car in case of a call. He gives you the keys to the old, beat up, oil burning, wood hauling pickup truck.
The time is now 8:30. You are one half hour late for your very first date. As you blaze a smoking trail across town you are dismayed to see red and blue lights flashing in the rear view mirror. The cops! Wonderful. After a ticket and a stern lecture about speed, residential streets, and small children you are finally on your way to Her house once again. Oh boy! Is She going to be mad! The cop's lecture has departed in all manners possible from your mind as you once again push the beater beyond its limit. Screaming around a corner you spot Her house. As you pull up in front your stomach jumps into your throat when you lay on the brakes and nothing happens. Tears spring to your eyes as the rear end of a new Cadillac is custom rebuilt by the front of Dad's truck.
Shaking your head with remorse and sensing impending doom you woefully walk up to Her house. You fail to see the fluorescent, glow-in-thedark skateboard on the walk in the fading evening light. A sigh escapes your lips as you stare at the sky while lying on your back. Getting on your feet is a pain filled task. A knee pops as you straighten it and blood drips from an elbow that is poking itself out of the sleeve of a brand new shirt.
You approach the door and see a sign that reads, "Beware of the Dog!" You laugh when a Chihuahua comes running up barking at you. Suddenly, he sinks his teeth into your ankle. A quick flick of your foot sends the little dog howling through the air. As you gleefully watch the flying dog, something tackles you from the rear knocking you to your knees. Turning your head around brings you eye to eye with a full grown German Shepherd. His nose is snarled, his teeth are showing, and death is in his eyes. You just picked on his little buddy and now you're going to pay.
Somehow, you manage to drag yourself onto the front porch of Her house despite the added weight of the big dog. A porch light comes on and you look up to see your now ex future father-in-law staring down at you while sadly shaking his head. You say nothing. The only sensation you have left is your hearing. You are impervious to any other type of pain. He tells you, in a surprisingly calm voice, that his daughter left a half hour ago with your best friend. He wants to know who is going to pay for the damage to his new Cadillac and who is going to repaint the front porch that is still wet.
As you kneel in the wet paint with the German Shepherd for company you see the reflection of red and blue lights in the shattered glass in the street. It's the same cop. You try to keep up your dignity. You fail when the cop addresses your ex future father-in-law by saying "Hi little brother." A fire truck pulls up. As the fire fighters clean up the Cadillac's leaking gasoline the engine company officer walks up to you to get his report filled out. It's your Dad. The only things that brightens your totally worthless evening is the German Shepherd who has been keeping you company during these last few painful moments. He finally lets go of your posterior and licks your face.
Silly Me
Well, silly me put the wrong link to my new Wade's Conservative World web site in the link in the left sidebar. It has been corrected. I give myself another Duh Me award!
Narrow Escape
Written for high school English class. Got an A.
I drove down the dark, narrow, deserted country road headed for what I knew was certain disaster, or even death. To my misfortune, that narrow, moonlit rut was the only way home. Suddenly, there they were, shining hideously in the light of the full moon. As I drew nearer my heart began pumping harder, my breath quickened, sweat beaded on my forehead, my palms became slippery. I stopped. I looked left. I looked right. I looked both ways again to double check myself.
Nothing. No sound. No whisper of wind. No rumble in the ground. Holding my breath defiantly against the strong willed rapidly beating heart inside me I gently pressed the accelerator down moving me and my doomed, hapless car forward to certain destruction.
To my right a sudden faint light. Oh! Horror of horrors! At a wicked pace there came one of those great, black, behemoths bearing straight down on me! It squealed and screeched and screamed! The very sound shook me to the depths of my soul! Its eyes! Those horrid eyes with light so bright I could not see! Flames shot from its feet as it approached, fire and brimstone.
For a moment ... everything froze. I froze, time froze, the beast froze. Chills on my neck and chills on my spine, the hair raising on my neck. Ooh such fear as never known before by any man. To stare death in the eyes! So cold. So cold.
A click. A noise. A faint sound in my head. My foot slammed the accelerator to the floor. The car screamed in protest moving forward slowly, smoking with anger at my adrenaline fueled strength. The car realized that the devil, the grim reaper, the black death was at its very door. It jumped forward swiftly snapping my head into the headrest. The bright light! It was there! Above me! Then it was gone.
The cold. Inside the car so cold. Was I dead? I was sure. An aching heart throbbed violently in my throat where it had gotten stuck as it tried to escape a doomed body, tried to leap, to jump, to live! The silence. So quiet. The car had stopped, died, and I knew, so had I. A whisper. So faint. Coming in the open window of the car. A faint breeze. Warm. Caressing. Gentle. Breeze.
I looked forward. There they were, shining hideously in the light of the full moon. Long steel rails stretching to infinity to the left, and disappearing around a sharp bend to the right. Long steel rails in the moonlight, reflecting, beckoning, mocking, grinning. Steel rails. "Of course!", my now awakening brain said. I had just missed getting hit by a train. I must have fallen asleep on the tracks. I had woken up just in time to survive! A narrow escape! But wait? Why were the tracks in front of me again?
Just a Reminder
New posts will be over at WordPress. Blogger just isn't resolving my issues with post dates not showing up nor are other changes.
The new Wade's Conservative World Please make changes to your site if you have me linked. Thanks!
Security Before Politics
Security Before Politics The writer, a Republican, was director of the CIA from September 2004 to May 2006 and was chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from 1997 to 2004.
Send In The SEALS, Not The Clowns
In true Jimmy Carter style, Barack Obama has responded to a hostage situation with total ineptness and bungling. In this case, Obama hasn't responded at all, and in fact, refuses to comment, not even so much as a public statement where he wishes Captain Richard Phillips well or even states he hopes the situation turns out favorably.
This lack of publicly addressing piracy and hostage situations speaks loudly. Most presidents, Carter excluded, would make bold statements that piracy and attacks on American flag ships in international waters will not be tolerated. Not Obama. Not even a peep. What message does this lack of message send?
The US is weak. Here is the mighty US Navy with SEALS aboard and nobody has the nerve to send an order to take out the pirates. Now that would send a message. Our highly trained SEALS could easily overcome these pirates without loss of life to Americans and send a big message. Instead, these pirates are now emboldened. They are holding off the mighty US Navy and they will now prey on more ships at sea knowing that there is not a country on this planet willing to stop them.
Is this indicative of how Obama will be in crisis situations? Send in the FBI and then completely ignore the situation in hopes that it will go away and he won't have to deal with it? This is exactly what Obama is doing. Hiding. Acting cowardly. He won't even speak out about one American life hanging in the balance. Barack Obama, does not even one American life mean anything to you?
This is the type of person you get who sits and listens to the Reverend Wright's inflammatory hate America sermons for twenty years. This is the type of person you get when he hangs out with domestic terrorists like Bill Ayers. Now he is our president and he won't touch a situation involving the life of even 1, one American.
What is going to happen now? There will be more hostage taking of Americans across the world because our enemies (especially Islamic Jihadists) are watching this unfold and see how weak Obama is. We are now the laughing stock of the world because Obama won't take on a handful of pirates holding ONE MAN hostage, a handful of pirates that our Navy SEALS could take out as easily as Obama is spending our tax dollars.
My God, what has happened to America? At least Jimmy Carter would have tried something even if it came out bungled. Obama is totally so totally inept he can't handle one small situation where we overpower the pirates so greatly, they should have been taken care of on the first day the Navy was present.
So, send in the SEALS, not the clowns (the FBI) to negotiate. Send a message, "Attacks on Americans will not be tolerated."
Daily Devotional Describes Obama
Is it irony? Is it coincidence? Is it God telling us something? Today's automatic daily devotional on my iPhone appears to describe Barack Obama perfectly. What do you think?
Proverbs 18:6 A fool's lips enter into contention, and his mouth calls for strokes. 7 A fool's mouth is his destruction, his lips are the snare of his soul.
I find this appropriate in light of Obama's anti-American, anti-Christian, and pro-Islam statements.
Firefighters file reverse discrimination suit
This is a bigger occurrence than people know. Happens in most fire departments in large to medium cities across the US annually when promotions are up.
http://hannity.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/04/03/firefighter-controversy/
posted via iPhone
More Problem Solving
If the government really wants to do something about greenhouse gases from flatulent farm animals then I have the greatest idea ever that will reduce emissions, provide unlimited alternative energy, and create jobs.
Give each farmer enough money to build a barn to hold all their cattle in. The government then hires contractors to build in each of those barns a device that will capture the methane produced by the cows and and convert it to energy. The government can then utilize and sell this energy to power our cities. It is all win win! The government gets it's investment back, the farmer doesn't get to pay an extra tax for each flatulent cow, and in fact gets paid by how much energy the cows produce, and all those contract jobs that will be needed to build the barns and the converters for methane-to-energy can be filled by the illegal aliens, uh, I mean all the Americans that have been put of of work when their jobs went to Mexico and Canada, eh?
Sounds good to me!
Problem Solving
Sent to me via email:
Everyone concentrates on the problems we're having in this country lately: illegal immigration, hurricane recovery, alligators attacking people in Florida ...
Not me. I concentrate on solutions for the problems. It's a win-win situation.
+ Dig a moat the length of the Mexican border.
+ Send the dirt to New Orleans to raise the level of the levies.
+ Put the Florida alligators in the moat along the Mexican border.
Any other problems you would like for me to solve today ? Yes!
Think about this one:
1. Cows
2..The Constitution
3. The Ten Commandments
C O W S
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow, born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she slept in the state of Washington? And, they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow..
T H E C O N S T I T U T I O N
They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq ..... Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it has worked for over 200 years, and we're not using it anymore.
T H E 1 0 C O M M A N D M E N T S
The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this:
You cannot post 'Thou Shalt Not Steal,' 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery,' and 'Thou Shall Not Lie' in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians...It creates a hostile work environment.
Obama's Speech in Tweets
In case you missed my tweets from Twitter on Obama's speech last night;
Obama speech in one tweet, wait for it...
BHO: "Because I inherited a deficit I must increase the deficit in order to reduce it."
BHO: "Dubya made me do it."
BHO: "In order to give you a tax break I must raise your taxes."
BHO: "After I raise your taxes the highest in history (Bill eat your heart out) I will reduce them slightly. Told you I'd cut taxes!"
BHO: "WWHAND" What Would Harry And Nancy Do?"
BHO: "How m-m-m-many times do I have to tell you, Dubya made me do it!"
BHO: "Read my lips, no new deficit."
BHO: "Look, nothing up this sleeve, nothing up the other sleeve, nothing on the teleprompter, and nothing between my ears."
BHO: "Look, you just don't understand me, plumbers are rich people too!"
BHO: "If you are not for me, you are a racist!"
BHO: "Did I mention Dubya made me do this?"
BHO: "Cap and Trade, it isn't rocket science, but your costs will."
BHO: "Constitution? What Constitution, I'm the Prez for crying out loud! Anybody gotta light?"
From the lost Star Trek files: BHO as "Bones", Harry Reid as Captain Kirk, Deficit Reduction as Itself. Bones; "Dammit Jim, he's dead!"
Apple, Some Days You Just Stink
Most times Apple is great. Sometimes Apple stinks. Sometimes they just downright suck. After all the hoopla surrounding a great new iPhone version 3.0 coming out today, it turns out it isn't coming out today. It will have great new features, it will have everything everybody wants. But not today. Talk about disappointment. Talk about hyping the hype. Apple deliberately deceived people to get people to hype a product that isn't coming out yet, treating it as if it were. Doom on you Apple.
Don't get me wrong, I love Apple's products and have been using them since 1987, but their hype philosophy is getting old. Their approach to homosexuality ticks me off, they are a company and as such had no business trying to help California's Proposition 8 get defeated last year. Praise God they lost that one!
Apple's philosophy is getting too aligned with Steve Jobs' philosophy, very liberal and ME centric. Yeah, their products are great, especially the iPhone, but come on, hyping a product that isn't even finished and ready yet as though it is going to be? Crazy.
As it stands now, I love my iPhone the way it is after jailbreaking it. Works perfectly, has the features I want. I just cannot buy into the hype anymore. This is ridiculous. Apple, bite me.
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Apple Becomes Big Brother With Censorship, But Remains Hypocritical
