Arose before my alarm sounded (0530) and checked my phone's text in-box to see if i was dreaming about Nephi and Naomi...t'was no dream. Congratulations to the both of them. Nephi said that as long as the paper work is officially accepted, they are officially married.
Then i got myself ready for my appointment for the annual fire department physical. I had to go fasting so they could do a blood draw to check cholesterol levels, glucose levels and generally have me in a weakened condition so i wouldn't put up much resistance to the pokes and prods. They got what they wanted out of me. (though it took a little effort for the urine sample because of the dehydration factor) Then they ran the battery of tests to see how much I've deteriorated during the last year and what kind of a liability I have become.
Hearing test: ok in the mid ranges...weak in the upper tones in left ear and sub standard in the very low frequencies for both ears, but not so bad that medical or technological intervention is required...yet.
Pulmonary function test: above 100% in all catagories. about 120 in the cellular level portion (in other words, my alveoli are in excellent shape for a geezer)
Eyes: 20/30 for distance. Not quite that good for near stuff. that's to be expected with age
EKG: Looks good as far as i can tell. have to wait for the follow up visit when they do the treadmill stress test and have the doc interpret it.
Body composition: I fell in the desirable range for BMI and percentage body fat.
Then I hurried home to get some breakfast down and rushed to Taylor to do some flash chamber live burn training. (hence the title above) The idea was to give our crew experience in recognizing and anticipating flashover conditions in a structure fire. As fuel is burned in an enclosed space and the temperature rises and the available oxygen is depleted, the smoke (composed of unburned hydrocarbons and products of combustion) gets thicker and banks down. Eventually the gases in the room reach ignition temperature resulting in an amazing display of grace and beauty known as a rollover. Wish I could have had a heat-resistant camera to record the day's events. Wow! It almost seemed as if the fire had a soul and is was living being. It got plenty hot in there, but probably did not exceed 600 degrees because the reflective stickers on our helmets didn't burn off. A few of us did get slightly scorched, but no major damage to the gear. All in all it was a very productive day and one I'm sure everyone will remember for a long time. Now everyone involved has to wash their turnouts to remove the carbon particles that have become imbedded in the fabric. It's fun to watch all these macho guys man up the washing machines!
2 comments:
First off... congrats to Naomi and Fartfi!
Second off... Congrats to dad! Way to be healthy! Get on Wii fit and keep better track of that BMI though! :)
Last off... Fire is cool! Was it anything like Hollywood's Backdraft?!
Dad, that is so awesome that you are very healthy. If only I could get my fat, lazy butt off the couch and running again. I think I might be a bear. I just want to hibernate in the winter. It is so difficult for me to fight the winter doldrums that overtake my body's biological wants of sleeping and eating. Must. Go. Run. On. Treadmill.....
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