Perfect Example

Yesterday afternoon after my wonderful visit I had the opportunity to telephone my wife at her brother’s house. I was able to talk with my daughter who was very bubbly and basking in the afterglow of her Jamaica trip this past week. She had a great time and is truly enjoying a fantastic summer. I had a very good conversation with my wife and she informed me that she is planning to come back out here in October. She is trying to pinpoint the date but this was excellent news. Our 15th wedding anniversary is October 10th. I’m not sure if she will be out here on this date but anytime in October or November would be great by me. My mother and sister are coming next month and now I have my wife coming back the following month. I have so many great things to look forward to which will help me to pass the time even quicker. Yes, March 2nd of next year will be here very soon. I didn’t speak with my son because he went to a pre-season NY Giants Football game with my brother-in-law. My son is becoming quite the sports fan and he is getting some fabulous opportunities to attend live sporting events, thanks to our incredible family.

The rest of the day was uneventful as I spent the evening outside talking. I fell asleep about 10:00 pm thinking about my big visiting day today. Sometimes even the best laid plans go astray. At 4:15 am the CO came through the dorm and woke up everyone by saying “Fire call.” As soon as I heard this, I knew my visits today would not happen. Thankfully, I was able to spend a glorious day yesterday with my two friends. Seeing them today would have been wonderful, but it was just not meant to be. I was hoping they would call the camp before they departed their hotel this morning so they wouldn’t have to drive all the way here for nothing. Unfortunately, I had no way to contact them nor did I have anyway to contact my friends in GA. This would be the first time the GA meeting/visit didn’t take place because I was out on a fire. I hope I didn’t disturb any of my friends’ plans by having them drive out here and not have the meeting. I look forward to these meetings and I am so grateful for everything everyone has done for me. The last thing I want is to be an inconvenience to my friends so hopefully they called before coming out.

This is a perfect example of living one day at a time because I have no way of knowing what tomorrow might bring. Yesterday was an excellent day with my extraordinary friends and I enjoyed every second of it. Of course, I looked forward to their return today but this didn’t happen. I am disappointed but not devastated – this is just one of those things. I am equally disappointed about the GA meeting but again not devastated. I love all the visits I receive and I have been blessed with incredible friends.

Instead of having these visits, I was off to fight a brush fire in Thermal, Ca which is just south of Palm Springs. This is a very hot area in terms of temperature. There wasn’t any waiting around this morning as we were on the fire bus 15 minutes after being awakened. The ride took 90 minutes and when we pulled up the fire looked like all the other fires I had been on previously. It ran its course by the time we got there covering 4 acres. The fire did threaten a few houses but there were natural fire breaks separating the houses from the fire. Thankfully, there wasn’t any wind and the fire put itself out. Even though it was out we always seem to have work cutting a fire line around the burn area. Since there were fire breaks the fire line did not have to very big. The area was flat and there wasn’t any hiking. The hard part was getting to the mineral soil through the 3 feet of mulch. The temperature was climbing steadily and as the sun rose higher in the sky everyone on the crew was feeling the effects. One of my crew members actually got sick and started throwing up about 15 minutes into our work session. This work is very hard and extremely labor intense. A few other guys had to take many breaks so they could stand up without falling down. I did my part and once again helped with the retrieval of the fire hose. The professional firefighters had been on since 3:00 am and the ground was extremely muddy. I was full of mud because as I walked I would sink deeper and deeper. I cannot remember when I was this muddy. I did my best to maintain a positive attitude. Thank goodness there wasn’t anymore work or we might have lost the entire crew. This was a very run of the mill brush fire on a flat parcel of land but it seemed much more difficult than the hilly, rocky, steep mountain wildfires.

We finished up everything before noon and headed back to camp. On our drive back, one of the fire captains noticed an overturned car off the side of the highway. He pulled over and our Captain followed suit. Sure enough, a car had veered off the side of the road and laid in a ditch upside down. There were 4 people in the car; 3 adults, and 1 child. Miraculously, everyone was in good shape. Some of my crew members assisted with the rescue. Since I sit in the back of the bus, I wasn’t included in the rescue because only 4 crew members were needed. In the realm of there are no coincidences in life these people in the car were extremely fortunate because the fire Captain noticed them in the ditch very soon after they overturned. Each of them had a few bumps and scratches. The child who appeared to be around 2 years old was in the best shape of anyone. I was amazed as to how quickly the paramedics and the firefighters responded. This was a very happy ending to a potentially dangerous occurrence.

Today did not go anywhere near how I planned it to go. However, it was a good day anyway. I love the visits on Sunday, but today it just wasn’t meant to be. Sometimes (actually quite often) life throws these curveballs and it is up to me how I react. In life it is much better to be proactive as opposed to reactive. Try as I may, I am not in control of many of the events in my life right now and today was an example. I could have sulked and been depressed to not have these visits but I chose to face the day with a positive attitude. This makes a world of difference and my life is better because of it. I do apologize to everyone for not being here and thank you once again for everything everyone has done for me!