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Use water proof ink on the pre-nup. Ynetnews.com:
An unusual wedding ceremony was held in the southern resort town of Eilat on Wednesday, as Sharon Tendler, a 41-years-old Jewish millionaire from London married her beloved Cindy, a 35-years-old dolphin, Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Thursday.
Via A Welsh View..
The Midland Firefighters got a Christmas present -- a neat looking red mouse pad with the fire department emblem on it. A group of volunteers hand delivered one to each firefighter on each of the three shifts at each of the nine fire stations in Midland.
Cool. Nice work, folks.
(Mouse not included.)
Picking up where Mythbusters left off --
The other night on Mythbusters Jamie and Adam put to test the myth that steel toed work shoes can do more harm than regular shoes if something is dropped on them. The theory is that the steel cup will curl over and cut off the toes.
The standard rating for steel toed shoes is I/l75 which means that the steel toe will retain the required clearance when a fifty pound weight is dropped on it from a height of 18 inches. [ Source.]
The Mythbusters demonstrated that their I/75 rated shoes passed the test. So they piled on the weight and raised the drop height until the toes were finally crushed. But there was one test that their viewers probably wanted to see more than any of the others: Would the steel toes hold up if run over by a car? But they didn't do that test!!
Most of us don't worry so much about a fifty pound weight falling on our toes. But getting the little piggies rolled over by a car, now that could happen. So lets find out what would happen.
Luckily the local Academy store is having a sale in which a pair of Brazos brand steel toed shoes can be bought with a mere $19.99 plus tax. And the shoes had the standard steel toe rating of Ansi Z41 PT99 I/75 C/75.
And test we did. The working title of this piece was "Curiosity Crushed the Shoe." But the shoe passed the test! The vehicle is supposed to weigh 3,600 pounds, and the tire rolled over the toe of the shoe ever so gently. But a dial caliper and a cardboard template showed that there was no discernable distortion. What a disappointment.
The C/75 rating means the steel toe is supposed to retain clearance under a compressive load of 2,500 pounds. But the full weight of the vehicle doesn't end up on each tire, so we don't know just how much weight the shoe actually had to endure. I wouldn't want to test it again with my foot in the shoe, but the shoe passed the test that time.
So I guess that pair of shoes is my Christmas present to myself this year. Shoes for Christmas. Darn. I wanted toys.
Early this morning the Skyscan sending unit told the display that the temperature was 8.8 degrees outside. Now that's cold!
And presently, around 5:30 pm, it reads 32.2 degress. Each winter we get a cold front that keeps the temperature below freezing for a couple of days. But it's still early in the season. So there may be more of this to come in the next couple of months.
(By the way, that Skyscan is a neat little tool. Cheap too, at Sam's.)
The Citizens Fire Academy ended recently with a small graduation ceremony at which those of us who attended were able to say "Thanks!" to the firefighters who put it on.
The program was very educational. And the portions where we had to actually do the work ourselves brought home the fact that our firefighters are smart, strong and highly skilled.
In the early days, the Midland Fire Department consisted of volunteers, and with most structures made of wood, fires were difficult to control. Two fires in the early 1900s almost destroyed the downtown business district, according to research by Assistant Chief Eddie Klatt. Then after World War II the need for paid employees became apparent, and gradually the department grew from one fully paid fire fighter to its present staff of 172.
Many of the early developments in fire fighting were direct results of lessons learned from the disastrous fires in the history books: the Chicago fire of 1871, the Boston fire of 1872, the Baltimore fire of 1904, among others.
Fire fighting units came from miles away to help fight the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, but their hose connections weren't compatible with the threads on the hydrants. That led to standardized hose couplings, and fire trucks carry adaptors to hook up with non standard connections.
And the Chicago fire stimulated an emphasis on fire prevention by fire departments. Most states and municipalities have building and fire codes based on model codes that have been developed over the years in an effort to prevent or contain any potential fire.
The fire inspector, armed with a pencil and a flashlight, works to enforce those codes and prevent fires. And his goal is to be so successful that the fire fighters get to spend their entire shifts sitting around the station getting bored because there are no fires to fight.
They also investigate fires to try to determine the cause. If someone set it intentionally then it's arson, and that's a very interesting topic. Some of the tell tale signs of arson seem irrefutable, and they often raise the question: Why else would that clue be there if someone didn't intentionally start the fire? I plan to write more about that subject in the future, particularly in light of the recent Grand Jury indictments and arson charges reported in the Midland Reporter-Telegram.
Much of the time consisted of actual hands-on doing the stuff that fire fighters do. But being citizens, we probably had it ten times easier than a real fire fighter cadet would have it. Nonetheless, it soon became apparent that my expectation of 30 leisurely hours of class time were sorely misplaced.
I couldn't estimate the weight of all the protective clothing and equipment they have to wear, but it's heavy! They wear tall, thick rubber boots with steel soles. The bunkers have a thick outer layer of flame resistant, water repellant Nomex and an inner moisture barrier to protect the skin from superheated steam. And there's the hood, the helmet, the mask, the gloves and the SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus).
There's also the personal alert safety system or Pass Device. If you saw those films of the immediate aftermath of the twin tower collapse on 9/11/01, then you may have heard that chirping noise. Those were Pass Devices worn by downed fire fighters, and they serve as a warning whenever a fire fighter hasn't moved in 20 seconds. By itself it's just a loud but tolerable noise, and you just shake your bootie to get it to stop. But to firefighters in a fire it's a terrifying sound, because it means a fellow firefighter has stopped moving. Everything else becomes secondary, and finding that person becomes priority number one.
One of the exercises we did was a search for a baby, a doll actually, while bunkered up and blindfolded.
It was a simulation, so there wasn't any fire to contend with in this exercise, but we had to crawl in teams of two on the floor of an unfamiliar building looking for the doll. Out team found it after about ten minutes. Party's over, right? Nope. Then we had to find our way back out. And that's much more difficult than it might sound even though we were retracing our path, or at least trying to. A bath room that we bypassed on the way in and forgot about became a brand new adventure.
Lesson learned: Memorize every item encountered on the way in because it won't feel the same on the way out.
There's a very expensive hazmat truck on duty at the fire department. The other vehicles carry all sorts of equipment for fighting fires. But the hazmat truck carries items used for examining a substance and determining potential consequences of a leak or spill. It has a computer on board with some amazing software: mapping software called Marplot, a chemical database called Cameo, and Aloha software that allows the user to draw a plume for a chemical or gas leak based on the weather conditions. All of that software can be downloaded free at EPA should you wish to map your own hypothetical chemical plume.
We had a not-so-dry run before we actually did any real fire fighting, (see Fighting Fires -- Handling a Fire Hose).
The training field has a building in which they stack hay to burn for teaching purposes. So we bunkered up while they started the fire. And the two person teams crawled in with the hose and put out the fires. It was all very exhilarating. Exhausting, too.
Here's a quiz. How long does it take to suck up a 30 minute air tank? The answer depends on how hard a person breathes, and for me it took about 15 minutes. Calm down, slow, slooooow ... Pacing is the key. Real fire fighters have it down.
And I learned that I ain't one of them. But, it was a very educational experience, and it was a thrill to work with such dedicated people and to see that they are so well trained, fit and efficient.
And here's hoping that fire fighters get to sit around the station all day and night not receiving any fire alarms.
Previously in this series: Fighting Fires -- Handling a Fire Hose and Fighting Fires at the Airport.
As follows:
"Editor's Note: You may notice the photo at the right of Charlize Theron from "Aeon Flux" has little to do with the following story with the exception she is mentioned as a possible Oscar nominee for her performance in "North Country." We at the Midland Reporter-Telegram had planned to do this week's cover on "Aeon Flux" because it is the only movie opening, but the studio canceled a last minute screening for national critic's screening so we have no story or review. We apologize if you had rather we show a photo of Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Copote."
Heh heh, what a hoot. Who would have guessed that MR-T Entertainment Editor Georgia Temple had such a great sense of humor?
Buddy's Drive In in Andrews got a great deal of attention when former co-owner Bonnie Duncan disappeared in March of this year. We were all very worried. (See Bonnie Duncan vanished, feared dead, found safe for the story with links.)
Too often the case of a missing woman does not have a happy ending, but she turned up a few days later alive, well, dazed and confused in Daly City, California. There was never any published explanation, so I'm speculating that it was a simple case of an overdose on fried food.
Anyway the episode ended well. And today there was no shortage of customers in Buddy's. The place filled up quickly, and the parking lot was overflowing. They used to say that a way to select a restaurant was to look for one with lots of trucks parked outside. If pickup trucks count, then Buddy's gets the nod.
Buddy's is famous for its battered fried steak fingers, and it's a huge serving. They dominate the plate, but if you look hard enough there's a tiny little lettuce salad hidden under there. It's a balanced meal about like a sledge hammer is balanced. But it was very tasty.
The price for the steak finger meal is $7.50, and it's a lot of food. It's too much for some, and they've probably been asked so many times that they've printed in bold letters on the menu that they will not sell half orders. It's all or none at Buddy's.
Bonnie Duncan is currently living in another city, and the new owners, Mary Anderson and Kelsey Robertson (Bonnie's nephew) are now running the restaurant. It's located at 106 E. Broadway, Andrews, Texas. Call 432-523-4890 for reservations.
Vegans might want to try elsewhere. If you don't enjoy emerging from lunch with a greasy film on your teeth, then perhaps Meatless Meat might be more to your liking.