Back to School

Wow, I hadn't realized that it's been nearly a month since my last post. You know what they say about time flying...

Anyway, the dread start of the school year made its annual appearance on Monday, ending my idyllic respite and forcing me to do something to earn my paycheck. Its somewhat exciting, considering that I'm teaching a brand-new class for which I managed to get approval.

How many high schools can say they have a firefighting class? Not many, less that ten in the whole state of Texas, and we're one of them. Unfortunately, many of the students want to treat it like just another elective: a blow-off class that they don't have to take seriously.

They couldn't be more wrong.

I'm going into it with the mind-set that every one of them will one day use this class to be a firefighter, either career or volunteer. Suddenly, the class becomes serious... deadly serious. In firefighting, those things that you don't learn can one day get you killed or seriously injured. I've expressed that to the students, very forcefully, in fact. We'll see how many drop now that they know how it's really going to be...

I'm a Texan

Last night, Nate and I went to the Houston Texans' practice near Reliant Stadium. I think he had a good time, though with him it can be difficult to tell at times. At least we got free t-shirts out of it.

Afterwards, we went to Denny's, to which he claims he's never been, and enjoyed dinner. Then it was off to his mom's to drop him off for the weekend.

So today I'm at home, trying to take care of FD business. The training seminar I'm planning for September is taking up an inordinate amount of my time, but other matters are rearing their ugly heads. Seems someone with the county dropped the ball and the paperwork necessary for the FD to be paid for May and June never made it to the county auditor. Then Verizon decided to drop part of the calling plan for no apparent reason, resulting in a larger-than-normal bill.

So after a relaxing evening, it's back to the rat-race today.