Step 1 - Carve and shape car designs

Step 1 complete. next step paint and polish wheels/axles

The Pinewood Derby

The Pinewood Derby is coming up. Jnauary 24th at the Sierra Vista mall in Clovis. The layout is going to be Tigers, Bears, Wolfs and Scouts playing against each other. There will also be a Dad division and an open division. The boys picked out their designs. Jake's car is going to be the "Roadripper", Ryan's is the "Blaster" and mine is "Engine 11". So thats 3 blocks of pine ot carve, 3 wheel sets to polish and balance and 3 custom paint jobs to do. So this is what I get to start with. Lets see what the finished product will be. Engine-11 has no chance of winning but i think Blaster and Roadripper might because of their aerodynamics. Scouts and Parents do not wait until the last minute. It took me about 2-3 hours each car just to cut and carve it.

Holidays and the boys.

We just finished clebrating Christmas early Every year Christmas is when we make it because of my schedule.The boys got a lot of presents. The favorites were NintendoDS, roller skates, a bike for Ryan and a skateboard for Jake. Jake loves to read books which he can do on his own. He was really excited to get more Captain Underpants books from Grandma. After a fun day of opening gifts at Grandma's, when we got back home Ryan was passed out in the back seat, Note the coloring marker in the ready position.

Scout Night at the Falcons game.

We had a great time at the Fresno Falcons game last week. It was Scout night so Jake, Ryan and Caleb met up for some hockey fun. Because it was Scout Night the boys got to go out on the ice and pick up the pucks for the second period "chuck the puck" game. I never have been on the ice before at a Falcons game so it was fun for me too. What was even more fun was trying to keep track of your Scouts after they are "released" to go pick up the pucks. Talk about lord of the flies anarchy!

Breaking things for a living

One of the fun parts of my job is breaking things. Urban Search and Rescue Teams or USAR for short have some pretty amazing capabilities. Most USAR teams are part of fire department companies with extra responsiblities and training. A lot of the specialized equipment we carry is meant to gain access in tough areas. One example might be a freeway collapse after and earthquake. In the early stages of an incident like this you could have people trapped in void spaces. A USAR team would come in with specialized tools and training and recon the area looking for potential victim spaces. After a primary search is completed the breaking tools are brought in to make access. One of my favorite tools, the concrete cutting chainsaw, can be seen in the video below being operated by one of my fellow firefighters during some recent training. We were able to breach a hole in 9" or reinforced concrete, large enough for a stretcher to fit through, in just under 45 minutes.

Its in the blood...

So I came home this afternoon and found a package from Darren Jeffrey at ATS http://www.alpinets.com/ He had some materials for me to look over for the upcoming canyoneering class and part of that was a series of very well produced videos of his classes and trips (rapelling through waterfalls, rock climbing, rope rescue, swimming). We watched the videos with the kids then turned the T.V. off and told them to go play. Some time goes by and I notice it is quiet. If you have boys you know that is not a good thing! I look in the backyard and Jake has "rigged" his utility ropes I gave home to the inside beam of the play fort and layed them over the side. It looked like a real rappeling station. Then he is trying to climb up the rope hand-over-hand and trying to scale up the outside of the fort. Funny thing is I have never shown him how to tie a knot! Of coarse his assistant (Ryan) is supporting his operation by letting Jake boss him around. Another funny part is during the video there is a man rappelling through a waterfall from a moderate height and Ryan said in his own words "I get bigger and do that with you Dad".

Its in the blood sorry Momma Jen

Another successful class!

Just finished up another Open Water class in the rugged yet pristine waters of Monterey California. The weather and seas were perfect as 11 students and 2 instructor interns learned how to dive and how to teach people to dive. Learning how to dive in Northern California is very challenging and is not for everyone. Still if you willing to learn how to dive with the extra gear, I think you will find Monterey as one of the worlds premire dive sites for many reasons. I have dove many sites around the world and still find Monterey on my short list.

Lame first attempt

All great writers say you should write for at least 20 minutes everyday, well I'm not a great writer but I do enjoy the sound of my own voice and I do not want to be left behind in the age of social networking and information.Anyway disregard this "filler" I hope to make this blog interesting and entertaining..