Sorry about the depressing line of posts lately. I’ll cheer up (but still, please read them). Here’s something positive for y’all I am a proud member of my small town’s volunteer fire department. I’ve always been on the volunteer fire department wherever I’ve lived. It is a big part of my life, one that I can’t give up. I can’t imagine not being a member of the volunteer fire department. My father was a volunteer fire chief. My brother is a volunteer fire captain. My uncles, cousins, and friends are all present and past members. It makes me a bigger part of my community. I feel like my community needs me. It is important for me to be around, to be available for my friends and neighbors when they need me the most. I’ve always told “city folk” who come to the country that when they called 911 in the city, someone whose job it was came to help them. When they call 911 in the country, their neighbor gets out of bed. But this post isn’t about that. This post is about camaraderie. This is about my Freaking clothes dryer. My clothes dryer is old. It was made in the 70′s I think, and well… it may have seen better days. A couple of months ago it broke. My wife Gkemtb (who is a volunteer firefighter who I met on the department) came and told me that the clothes weren’t drying very well. I investigated and found, through a muddled process of trial and error, that the dryer tub wasn’t spinning. Crap. So, being the vollie FD guy that I am, I had a plan. I called up Lt. Mike, who in addition to being a full-time and volunteer firefighter/paramedic also owns a small appliance repair business. In short order, he diagnosed the problem, found the belt that had broke, and helped me learn how to fix the problem. He took payment in the form of a coupla adult beverages and back slappin’. So the dryer’s worked for almost a year until three days ago. It quit on me again. So, I did what I always do when I try to fix things. After repeating this procedure I finally narrowed the problem to the fuse box that supplies the 220v service to the dryer. So, hoping that it was going to be an easy fix, I went to the hardware store and bought two new 30a fuses and a continuity tester. After putting them in, my dryer still didn’t work. Tones go off for a car wreck. Made it to the station and made the 2nd truck out… got cancelled enroute. I wish I would have made the scene, a car ended up on top of another. There’ll be pictures because our photographer was on scene. She’s great. She made chocolates and took photos at our wedding. Mike was there, and so was another Mike who’s also a good buddy. They borrowed me a tester to check to see if there was power at the box. Then they told me how to use the tester because, did I mention I’m terrified of electricity? I went home and couldn’t get the nerve up to touch the probes to the wires. I’ve treated some electrocuted victims in my day and don’t wish to count myself among them. Gkemtb was standing by with my radio to get the ambulance (Mike and John) over to the house in the event I fried myself. She woulda done CPR too (I hope). But still, I was scared. Enter Scott, my neighbor and also a volunteer firefighter. He called me something to the tune of “frilly girl” and tested it. Problem found: No power to the box. Unfortunately, he’s not an electrical guy either… although he’s better than me. He recommended that I get someone else to help. Enter Marty, another volunteer firefighter and a neighbor from down the street. He’s an electrician. He was washing his car and was happy to come over and help. Inside of ten minutes he found the problem and had it fixed. Gkemtb had some rhubarb to give him to take to his wife who volunteers to do data entry for the department. Heck yea I’m a proud member of my vollie FD.
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