House Renovations and blog comments

Huh. Until Ed pointed it out yesterday, I hadn’t even realized that for the past couple months, the comments box hasn’t had a button to actually submit the comment. So… theme change to this very blue one.

As for the house, the four of us (Marie and myself plus my parents) got a ton of stuff done on saturday, both inside and out. Mom and Marie tore up bushes and weeds that were threatening to overtake the house, and planted roses on the south side of the house. Dad and I attacked the laundry room and managed to get it framed in and remarkably level. We put down the new flooring Sunday and yesterday, and now that the tile has set we can move the washer and dryer back in and finish the wall. Also, I’m tantalizingly close to finally having power in the garage. I spent portions of the past few days trenching along the walkway and laying electrical conduit. I picked up a 1.5″ diameter 30″ long auger from Ace Hardware which I used to run the conduit under the walkway and into the garage. I’m still amazed that it actually worked, and relieved that I didn’t have to pull up part of the walk and trench through it.

Also, Happy 35th Anniversary to my parents!
Congratulations and thanks!

I’d make a lousy cop

Not that I’ve ever felt particularly drawn to law enforcement, but like most things, I’ve considered whether it would be something that I’d enjoy. I had even toyed with the idea of becoming a reserve officer on one of the local departments just to test the waters. I’ve come to the realization lately that just isn’t a field for which I am particularly suited. For one, I tend to think people tell the truth as a general rule. Now of course I know intellectually that this is not the case, but emotionally I find that I have a really hard time asserting what I know to be the truth and not giving others the benefit of the doubt. The nice thing about EMS and firefighting is that usually, people have a palpable incentive to tell the truth. I often have patients that will flat out tell me that they just shot up, puffed up, smoked down, whatever… and near (or slightly under)-21 aged college students having their first experience with alcohol poisoning or hangover are very precise about the nature and quantity of drinks ingested. Fear of perceived death is a powerful truth serum.

Aside from the above, I find that many police officers that I know possess an almost unreal sense of character. Cops seem to be able to evaluate the personality of an individual in just a few moments much the same way as I can walk into a medical scene and know immediately how sick a patient is and how fast things need to happen. As first impressions go, I have the worst judgement ability of pretty much anyone I know. I have become good friends with many people that I once thought I had nothing in common with, and have long-since parted ways with just as many who I thought would be longtime friends. I’ve offhandedly judged people to be self-centered, obnoxious, incompetent, and dangerous only to find later that they give freely of their time and energy and are more caring and compassionate than I would have imagined.

I continue to work in the emergency services field because I feel that I can and do make a positive difference, and that I have some degree of natural ability or tendency for the job. But I realize more frequently now than when I was younger there are some things that are best left to those who do them best.

Returning from Maryland/West Virginia

We’re near Cleveland now, on our way back from the five-day field trip for Tectonics/Structure. We had a jam-packed several days and saw some of the greatest scenery of the east coast. It was a lot of work, but tremendously educational and in the end, a ton of fun.

I’m definitely ready for a bed instead of a sleeping bag, and by all accounts the ten hours per day of hiking and recording that we did on this trip is only a sampling of what I’ll be in for at field camp next month. The thought makes me both excited and very nervous, primarily because it was hard enough to be away from home and Marie for the five days, let alone five weeks.

Photos soon!

Hitting the road again

After finishing up the term on a surprisingly high note, I’m off again on another geology trip. This time we’ll be camping for five days in Maryland and West Virginia as we look at remnants of the events that built the Appalacians and rifted North America from Africa and Europe.

On saturday, Marie and I did a bit of a survey of local quarries (and local stores, including Cabellas and REI.) To a rock hound, abandoned quarries are potential gold mines (so to speak) and I was looking for opportunities to go exploring without alll the negatives associated with fence-climbing and trespassing. The problem with most quarries is that the ones that are operational don’t like it when people climb around in them, and the ones that are closed are flooded.