Where did my weekend go??
Oof... it's Monday morning (barely) already... where did the weekend go??
I remember having "spare" time... I really do. But there certainly was none to spare this weekend!
Friday after work, it wasn't raining and the grass seemed reasonably un-soggy, so I came straight in, changed into yardwork clothes and managed to get the front yard mostly mowed. Also discovered that I have baby robins in the crotch of the apple tree, so I gave it a fairly wide berth after momma bird cussed me out for getting too close to her babies. Walked over and had a lovely chat w/ the elderly couple next-door... they're getting ready to be traveling for awhile, so I'm glad I got to visit with them before they left town.
Saturday was a blur of rotating dogs in and out (I have my two, plus a foster dog who's on crate rest and has to be leash-walked, plus Barry and Sally's girls were visiting for the weekend) while doing laundry and random bits of housework. I did spend some time just hanging out in the yard with the dogs, which was nice. We've had such a wet, chilly spring that the occasional moments of sunshine are worth treasuring. Did some work on the fire department's website, practiced guitar for awhile, and went to bed at a semi-civilized hour so I could get up early on Sunday.
Sunday started out w/ a visit to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis with my friend Steve from work. The "Incredible Costumes from Film & TV" exhibit was closing after today and I wanted to see it, plus we spent a good bit of time gawking at the 42-foot-high Chihuly glass sculpture in the atrium (so.very.cool!!). The dinosaurs exhibit is really well-done, and the interactive science area was very cool. Skipped Barbie, and Dora the Explorer, but did wander through Egypt for a bit. All-in-all, a busy three hours, from museum opening until I had to leave to spend the afternoon at the zoo. This was my third shift as a volunteer Naturalist in the Forests exhibit, and it's cool to be at the point where some of the keepers recognize me and I'm comfortable with asking them questions when they have a few minutes. They're really good about answering questions for the volunteers, and telling us interesting things about the animals, because they know that we're mostly relaying questions that we've been asked by guests. I had another volunteer in Forests today, which really made it nice, because we could unlock the cart with all the cool artifacts and have them out to use when talking to the kids, without feeling completely tied to the cart. As long as one of us was there, the other one could roam, so we got to go see the other animals instead of spending the entire shift in Bats. I love the bats... they're very cool and they're new so it's where people have the most questions... but it was nice to go see Elliott the White-Handed Gibbon, and the very busy (and squeaky!) Asian Small-Clawed Otters, and I got to watch the Alaskan Brown Bear having a grand old time getting to peanuts that the keeper had stashed in a ball suspended from one of her trees. I stayed late (about 45 minutes after the zoo closed) so I could go watch the Ring-Tailed Lemurs for awhile... they've got babies, and the babies are just starting to turn loose of mama and jump around in the trees by themselves a little, and they're really adorably clumsy. :-)
Once I turned in my radio and my cart key and got out of the zoo, I headed towards home and took advantage of the travel time to call home. I was hoping to catch Mother, but she had already left for choir practice. Tried her cell and missed her, and left her a text message that I'd call later. Then I called back to the house and had a nice long chat w/ my Dad, who had hip replacement surgery this week. He's home and convalescing and seems to be doing well. We made plans for me to call back when Mother got home from church, and I finished my trip home after grabbing a sandwich at Subway so I wouldn't have to cook. Got home, traded the zoo uniform for comfy exercise pants, kicked off the hiking boots, walked the dogs, collapsed on the sofa and realized it was almost time to call Mother. Just as I reached for the phone, it beeped that I had a text message, and my FD pager chirped once and died the I-Need-New-Batteries death. Text message was from the FD paging group... they were rolling on a two-car accident about five miles from my house. Since this was the first page I've gotten since they voted me in and made me official (I'm the webmaster/photographer for now, and will probably "upgrade" to Public Information Officer once I've been there for awhile), I thought I should probably show up, so I traded the comfy exercise pants for jeans and a less sloppy t-shirt, stuck my feet back into the hiking boots, grabbed the camera and was out the door.
Until I get my official ID, they had told me to "respond slowly" so I'd make sure the FD guys were there before me. Since I'd had to change clothes before I could go, that wasn't a problem, and I arrived just as the ambulance left. As I was pulling up, I realized I'd never asked basic questions like "Where should I park?" and "Do I leave the keys in the truck?" (As it turns out, I guessed right: Out of the way, with flashers on, and yes, leave the keys, so the truck can be moved if needed.) I checked in w/ the first officer I saw, and the Asst. Chief pulled his safety vest off and tossed it to me (he has reflective strips on his turnout gear, so he was still visible w/out the vest... I was in dark jeans and a black t-shirt at dusk, so I was much more visible with the vest) and I got pictures of the scene and the cars, and then chatted with the guys while we watched the wrecker get the cars picked up and towed away. I needed some paperwork that was back at the station, so I followed the trucks when they left the scene and headed back to town. Just as we got to town, both of 'em went lights-on again and turned and went back the other way. Nothing had come across to my phone, and my radio was dead, so I had no idea what was going on, but I turned around and went trailing after them. About a half-mile later, the lights went off and they turned around and went back to the station, where I asked 'em if that last little exercise was just to see if I was paying attention. :-) It wasn't... they'd gotten a call about a motorcycle accident, then got called off because an ambulance got to the scene and it wasn't serious. Spent some time talking procedures and training, and I got my very own frighteningly yellow safety vest, and finally got back home about 10 pm and called and had a nice long chat with Mother... only an hour and a half later than I'd planned on calling, but she understood when I told her it was my very first FVFD run. :-)
So now I'm finally relaxing! Doing some paperwork for work that I would normally do tomorrow, but I have a vacation day tomorrow! Hip Hip Hooray!! If the dogs will let me, I'm going to sleep late, then I'm probably going to work on the fire department's website for a good chunk of the day. I have most of the info I need, and my target go-live date is the end of this month. And now one of the guys wants a website for his business. Eep. I don't need to actually sleep, right? 'Cause that's about all the "spare" time I have left!
I remember having "spare" time... I really do. But there certainly was none to spare this weekend!
Friday after work, it wasn't raining and the grass seemed reasonably un-soggy, so I came straight in, changed into yardwork clothes and managed to get the front yard mostly mowed. Also discovered that I have baby robins in the crotch of the apple tree, so I gave it a fairly wide berth after momma bird cussed me out for getting too close to her babies. Walked over and had a lovely chat w/ the elderly couple next-door... they're getting ready to be traveling for awhile, so I'm glad I got to visit with them before they left town.
Saturday was a blur of rotating dogs in and out (I have my two, plus a foster dog who's on crate rest and has to be leash-walked, plus Barry and Sally's girls were visiting for the weekend) while doing laundry and random bits of housework. I did spend some time just hanging out in the yard with the dogs, which was nice. We've had such a wet, chilly spring that the occasional moments of sunshine are worth treasuring. Did some work on the fire department's website, practiced guitar for awhile, and went to bed at a semi-civilized hour so I could get up early on Sunday.
Sunday started out w/ a visit to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis with my friend Steve from work. The "Incredible Costumes from Film & TV" exhibit was closing after today and I wanted to see it, plus we spent a good bit of time gawking at the 42-foot-high Chihuly glass sculpture in the atrium (so.very.cool!!). The dinosaurs exhibit is really well-done, and the interactive science area was very cool. Skipped Barbie, and Dora the Explorer, but did wander through Egypt for a bit. All-in-all, a busy three hours, from museum opening until I had to leave to spend the afternoon at the zoo. This was my third shift as a volunteer Naturalist in the Forests exhibit, and it's cool to be at the point where some of the keepers recognize me and I'm comfortable with asking them questions when they have a few minutes. They're really good about answering questions for the volunteers, and telling us interesting things about the animals, because they know that we're mostly relaying questions that we've been asked by guests. I had another volunteer in Forests today, which really made it nice, because we could unlock the cart with all the cool artifacts and have them out to use when talking to the kids, without feeling completely tied to the cart. As long as one of us was there, the other one could roam, so we got to go see the other animals instead of spending the entire shift in Bats. I love the bats... they're very cool and they're new so it's where people have the most questions... but it was nice to go see Elliott the White-Handed Gibbon, and the very busy (and squeaky!) Asian Small-Clawed Otters, and I got to watch the Alaskan Brown Bear having a grand old time getting to peanuts that the keeper had stashed in a ball suspended from one of her trees. I stayed late (about 45 minutes after the zoo closed) so I could go watch the Ring-Tailed Lemurs for awhile... they've got babies, and the babies are just starting to turn loose of mama and jump around in the trees by themselves a little, and they're really adorably clumsy. :-)
Once I turned in my radio and my cart key and got out of the zoo, I headed towards home and took advantage of the travel time to call home. I was hoping to catch Mother, but she had already left for choir practice. Tried her cell and missed her, and left her a text message that I'd call later. Then I called back to the house and had a nice long chat w/ my Dad, who had hip replacement surgery this week. He's home and convalescing and seems to be doing well. We made plans for me to call back when Mother got home from church, and I finished my trip home after grabbing a sandwich at Subway so I wouldn't have to cook. Got home, traded the zoo uniform for comfy exercise pants, kicked off the hiking boots, walked the dogs, collapsed on the sofa and realized it was almost time to call Mother. Just as I reached for the phone, it beeped that I had a text message, and my FD pager chirped once and died the I-Need-New-Batteries death. Text message was from the FD paging group... they were rolling on a two-car accident about five miles from my house. Since this was the first page I've gotten since they voted me in and made me official (I'm the webmaster/photographer for now, and will probably "upgrade" to Public Information Officer once I've been there for awhile), I thought I should probably show up, so I traded the comfy exercise pants for jeans and a less sloppy t-shirt, stuck my feet back into the hiking boots, grabbed the camera and was out the door.
Until I get my official ID, they had told me to "respond slowly" so I'd make sure the FD guys were there before me. Since I'd had to change clothes before I could go, that wasn't a problem, and I arrived just as the ambulance left. As I was pulling up, I realized I'd never asked basic questions like "Where should I park?" and "Do I leave the keys in the truck?" (As it turns out, I guessed right: Out of the way, with flashers on, and yes, leave the keys, so the truck can be moved if needed.) I checked in w/ the first officer I saw, and the Asst. Chief pulled his safety vest off and tossed it to me (he has reflective strips on his turnout gear, so he was still visible w/out the vest... I was in dark jeans and a black t-shirt at dusk, so I was much more visible with the vest) and I got pictures of the scene and the cars, and then chatted with the guys while we watched the wrecker get the cars picked up and towed away. I needed some paperwork that was back at the station, so I followed the trucks when they left the scene and headed back to town. Just as we got to town, both of 'em went lights-on again and turned and went back the other way. Nothing had come across to my phone, and my radio was dead, so I had no idea what was going on, but I turned around and went trailing after them. About a half-mile later, the lights went off and they turned around and went back to the station, where I asked 'em if that last little exercise was just to see if I was paying attention. :-) It wasn't... they'd gotten a call about a motorcycle accident, then got called off because an ambulance got to the scene and it wasn't serious. Spent some time talking procedures and training, and I got my very own frighteningly yellow safety vest, and finally got back home about 10 pm and called and had a nice long chat with Mother... only an hour and a half later than I'd planned on calling, but she understood when I told her it was my very first FVFD run. :-)
So now I'm finally relaxing! Doing some paperwork for work that I would normally do tomorrow, but I have a vacation day tomorrow! Hip Hip Hooray!! If the dogs will let me, I'm going to sleep late, then I'm probably going to work on the fire department's website for a good chunk of the day. I have most of the info I need, and my target go-live date is the end of this month. And now one of the guys wants a website for his business. Eep. I don't need to actually sleep, right? 'Cause that's about all the "spare" time I have left!