I haven't been as busy as I would like with meeting my crochet obligations, but have just about finished one project. I need to start on some of my squares for the two new groups while finishing my squares for the last two groups ... but am being slow about both.
What I am doing, is enjoying the visit from my nephew. My ONLY nephew on my side of the family (blood relative). He is 32, not married, and a fireman in San Diego. He is sweet. He is tall. He is handsome. He is also a great help in the kitchen and a good cook! Wow.
He has been such fun to have around and is a very wonderful reminder as to what family is all about. He is also a reminder to me of what I missed these many years in never having been blessed with children. It is such a pleasure to see what a wonderful man he has grown into, how self-confident he has become, poised, funny, and hard working. The photo above is in San Diego a few years back. The one above that was at his graduation from the academy.
He is studying for his next test for the department and I have been helping him with the flash cards. It is a wonder to behold - he can repeat verbatim what is on those cards - at least 50 cards! It is amazing the mind can do such a thing ... and I am learning so much about all that a fireman has to know.
Can you imagine that they have to know which way a fan has to face for particular rooms to ventilate? What the fan is made out of, how to maintain and oil it. What ladders are made of...gloves and gauntlets? There are tools galore that they use for breaking into a roof, for sawing down a door - different blades for different doors - and how to cut electrical wires that go into houses - how to disconnect gas lines or water lines ... how much oxygen is in a tank ... how to haul a person out of a building (leaving an axe and a flashlight pointing UP to show the last place that was searched) - how to search a room when you can't see because there is too much smoke, remembering whether you went in left handed and have to come out right handed.
So - the next time you think about it - bake a cake for your nearby firestation and take it to them to say thank you. It might be someone's most favorite nephew that you are treating well that day. And it might be your grandmother that he pulled out of the last burning building he went into. Or your puppy that he will save in the next one. And if you see that he looks like this fellow, tell him is Auntie Catherine loves him beyond belief and is so very proud to have him as her beloved nephew.
Cat, I loved this post. It's amazing all the different things he has to know -- and I'm sure that's only a drop in the bucket of what's involved. I just might have to bake that cake.
ReplyDeleteHave a fun visit with him. I'm so glad he came to see you.
You brought tears to my eyes, You made me think about never having had children either, yet loving my life. You made me think about my nieces and nephew who are still in Indiana and brother who is in Florida. How I miss them now that I can't see them everyday whether I wanted to or not.
ReplyDeleteYou also made me think of our local firemen . . . . where you almost all the members are volunteers. So, I will make something and take it to them as a surprise thank you.