Day 5

Day 5 Wednesday Again 7am wake up is a good idea. Cereal for breakfast with a banana has been my staple fair for the week. Our class is getting a little more misdirected as each day progresses. I think we (the student) are still learning but not in the way the course was designed. Oh well that is what we the pilot students are for :-))

Tonight was karaoke night and we the class got up as a group and sang Garth Brooks Friends in low places. There were a few students that really had good voices that were fun to watch and then there were also a few ...LOL Bad ..Singers that also had fun and made everyone else laugh also.

Day 4

Day 4 Tuesday, Started out by sleeping in till 7am... Great idea. With our class being a pilot class.

(Pilot class means that the class is still a work in progress and that the instructors are watching how the class flows making any adjustments where necessary). So far we the students have found out that the class needs a bit of tweeking before it is ready for public delivery. It also means that some times the class gets a bit bogged down and loses some of its direction.

I have enjoyed the class and the information learned I plan on conducting a needs assessment for the City of Danville so that I can focus my time and energy to a well defined issue.

I have been missing Stephanie a lot. My highlight of the day is the time I have while talking with her. I will be glad when this week of classes is over and I can go home and hold Stephanie in my arms.

This night I went to the command post (a place next to the pub and sat around talking most of the night with my class mates about common issues and ideas from their departments.
and headed off to bed around 10:30

Day 3

Day 3 Mon.

The class Im taking is developing life safety strategies. In the class we are learning the process so that when we return to our towns we will be able to apply the process to our communities. Today we were tasked to write a problem statement for the pretend town we are using in the class, and then using what we learned write a problem statement for our own towns.

After class our instructor, who is a civil war buff took a group of us to Gettysburg to give us a tour of a few sites of interest. He gave a 20 min lecture at each spot painting a very clear picture of how the battle occurred. We went to the Devils Den, Little Round Top. And The Bloody Angle.

At around 6:30 we went to the Farnsworth House for dinner. I had the chicken pot pie and bake potato.

We got back to the campus around 8:30. Read the assignment for the next day, called Stephanie, and went to bed.

Day Two

Day two started with waking up late due to a power outage 30 mins later than thought. No big problem. Breakfast at 7a and ramp up time for the start of a long first day of class. The day blew by and at 5 pm out the door with our home work assignments. Home work was 3 reading assignments and a 4 page work sheet. I ate dinner at 6:30 then worked on assignments till 9 went to my room to relax and at 10 talked with Stephanie lights out at 10:30 ZZZzzzzzz. More details later I am on a time crunch.

NFA Day 1

Arrived Saturday night at 9pm. Had a box dinner waiting for us since the cafeteria was closed for the night. 3 pieces of chicken coleslaw and a roll with a diet Pepsi to drink. I found a cellphone sweet spot (most places on campus don't have a signal for Cingular.) called Stephanie to tell her I was here safe and sound. Lights out for me was 10:00/ 10:30. Its 7:45 am so Im heading over to the classrooms for classes at 8.

Headed to Maryland!

I’m going to the airport in less than an hour to fly to Baltimore for a week of intense training. I’ll be at the National Fire Academy taking a course on identifying community fire safety and prevention issues. This is a one week pilot course based on their two-week curriculum, so I expect to have long days and many night time group projects while networking over cold beer and hot wings.

I’ll be blogging occasionally, but no photos until I get back due to their regulations on computer use.

Stephanie has everything under control at home. She'll be dropping me off and picking me up from the airport since we only live 10 minutes away.

Our Church Quest Community Church is presenting Questapalooza. It is a huge party for the city of Lexington, Kentucky, being thrown by Quest Community Church on September 10, 2006. Check out what we have going on.

About Quest
"Transforming unconvinced people into wholehearted followers of Jesus "

From the earliest days, Quest has been a church dedicated to "transforming unconvinced people into wholehearted followers of Jesus." As a church, we have an unrestrained passion to see people from all walks of life see Jesus for who he really is and begin a relationship with Him. Hundreds of people in our history have done just that. Lives have literally been changed forever.

"A church for people who don't like church"
Today at Quest you'll find people at all points along their spiritual journeys: cynics, skeptics, seekers, and followers of Jesus. Most are attracted by several things: authentic relationships, people who live beyond themselves, creative communication, and a "come as you are" spirit. Do these things appeal to you as well? Welcome to Quest.

This is the tree the Patricia planted when she was 1 yr. old it is now aprox 45-50' tall
The confined space training trailer that we used a few weeks ago in a rescue class
The first meal on the new grill a month ago