Autumn Life

Thanksgiving Day Scene...

It's been entirely too long without a post. But Nature would be offended if I holed up and wrote instead of being outside, appreciating the good weather and absence of bugs. But now it's only astronomically autumn, the snow and the thermometer justifiably assert that this is, indeed, winter. We've had the first snowfall and several subsequent snowstorms. There's nearly a foot of new snow that fell yesterday, overnight...and it is still snowing. Single digit (above zero) predawn temperatures are occasionally forecast - and occasionally correct. It'll be a long time until spring, and the calendar isn't yet done with fall.

It may be cold but we have a cozy place to enjoy the scenic beauty and invigorating climate whilst awaiting the return of planting time. The changing of the seasons provides a background rhythm for life's arrangement. There are certain things, such as hole digging, that must be done before the ground freezes and some chores, such as tree harvesting, that are more pleasant in the winter. Thus, my schedule is commanded by nature, reassurance that a higher power is in control.

W demonstrating the proper snow-romping ear position

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I'm busier than I want to be, but still never in a hurry. Suzy tends to the horses, worrying about one getting too fat and the other getting too thin, what arrangement of blankets are needed overnight, the water levels in their (heated) buckets, something or other that must be urgently purchased, etc. The horse care-giving permutations are endless, resulting in an infinite potential for anxiety. I only see contented animals being doted on to further their contentment, which is why I'm unsuitable as a horse owner. In addition to the daily chores, she also knits for hours on end and reads the latest book specified by her book club. 

The EMT classes are in full swing. We meet twice a week, long evening hours at the Wilmington fire station, and longer study hours at home. It's a difficult class because there are many skills that have to be learned in the classroom, then relearned on patients in the back of moving ambulances. There are so many EMS calls in our district that I only respond to the ones nearby. As word spreads that I'm an EMT student, I'm asked to pitch in instead of just ride along and observe. Now I assist with the work as we respond and transport patients to the hospital emergency department.

A flipped van but no critical injuries.

There was a three car motor vehicle accident yesterday, but everyone was uninjured, no transport required. But EMS calls involve older patients. If they are stable it's interesting to chat with them on the way to the hospital and it makes the long and bumpy ride easier for them. Tall tales are part of the old logging tradition so it's easy to coax a story in the Adirondacks. All you have to do is mention something about one of the innumerable weather catastrophes (Irene or the '98 Ice Storm will suffice), deer (of course), school taxes, or the 1980 Olympics. Only the most seriously ill patients won't talk about one of those subjects. 

We had a fire call this week, the fire was in an abandoned building in our district and every department in a two-district radius was also paged out to assist. I asked one of the officers about the apparent overkill and he said that many homes (ours, come to think of it)  are far into the woods, and the extra tankers are needed to relay water. Oh.

I got to the station earlier than usual and upon arriving at the scene, the fire was already knocked down. The main tasks were ensuring there were no hot spots in the rubble, stowing hoses and refilling #345, our tanker. I was asked to park it in the garage, and I uneventfully backed it around a parked car. It wasn't precisely centered in the bay, but I didn't hit anything, either. 

I finally completed the Firefighter and EMT physicals, that was a chore, but I passed and I updated all the required immunizations, too. Now I can begin clinicals for credit. I'd like to ride with the City of Plattsburgh Fire/EMS, they get a lot of action, and one of the Advanced EMTs at AuSable is an officer down there. He said he could arrange it and I'm awaiting a time slot. I'll probably do the ED clinicals at Adirondack Medical Center,  a small hospital in Saranac Lake. But I still have many classes to go, the state exams are in April.

The old window and its replacement.

I installed  another window, this one is on the north side and it's at ground level so the job was relatively simple. The side door is also complete. We're awaiting one more window, on the south side, then our window project will be done for the season. The shed is slowly coming along, too. We installed some siding and a big window that we got for free after helping raise the roof on a run-in shed at the stables. I also started teaching a couple of classes at Ray Brook Federal Correctional Institute, the former Olympic village I mentioned in a previous post.

Where my math and electrical circuits students reside.

A federal prison is a most unhurried place, at least during normal operations. Punctuality is superfluous in an facility that basically exists to extract time from its inhabitants. Besides, the North Country isn't a temporal based culture, things happen much later than city people expect. Thus, it took months to be badged at 'the joint'. First were the requisite background and fingerprint checks - that should have been a simple lookup because I've held state and federal security credentials of one type or another for my entire adult life - but it took months. Then came a thorough orientation including what not to wear (certain sports logos are associated with gangs), how to operate the radio that must be properly holstered and carried constantly. (This week I even remembered to turn it on.) I was briefed on how to report an incident and various protocols, including the dreaded hostage situation and how family members can obtain the status of an 'event'. 

Anyhow, once cleared there was an abundance of interested inmates, enough to fully populate two classes, one in applied math and one in AC circuits. I teach both classes on Monday mornings, right after breakfast. It's surreal to be teaching vector math and trig to a roomful of convicted felons. But they are terrific students, totally engaged as an hour of their sentence flies by. Many of them go out of their way to thank me after class and say that they feel like they are learning something challenging. This is especially meaningful because, in prison, nothing is more important than respect.