Back From Aruba

Last week I was on vacation. Let me tell you, Aruba was awesome! I left the computer at home and simply traveled with the tablet. I did not do much but occasionally check my email. Do you blame me? I will be posting more pictures and some info on Aruba’s Brandweer (Fire Department) soon!

I bet you never thought I could go without a computer for 1 whole week…me either!

Here is the part that sucks…I have a ton of emails to go through. I figure I will go through about a thousand to find the 10 actual emails (the rest being spam or auto emails I rarely read). Then I have to get back into the swing of things. In addition to that, the kids are on spring break this week. I am spending time with them. We have planned several events. Oh, and my niece is hanging out with us this week as well. Needless to say, I have my hands full of kids and fun…so you still won’t see much from me until next week.

What also sucks is the news of the Tennessee LODD and two Philly LODD’s. Godspeed Brothers.

The view from our room

And we all know what next week is….FDIC! That’s right. Willie Wines Jr., Mike Elston, Andrew Catron and I are driving up Wednesday through Sunday. We cannot wait. I will be posting our itinerary this week sometime! We will have patches, challenge coins, brotherhood chips, and maybe some other stuff to hand out! Be sure to hit us up early…we aren’t bringing 30k of them!

Hero Rush is on April 28th in Maryland…I am still not entirely sure if my wife and I will make it. We will see.

Also on the horizon are two large events…

People occasionally ask what they need to do to get Willie and I to speak at an event, or Dave and I to present on social media…the answer is simple – contact us. If we need to submit a proposal, we can do it. Just let us know! We enjoy traveling and speaking!

May

In May, I am speaking with Dave Statter and others at the  Ohio Fire & Emergency Services Foundation’s 2012 Leadership Conference. It is May 23 & 24 in Newark, Ohio. Lt. Steve Robertson from the Columbus Division of Fire will also be at the conference. Click here to sign up.

September 

Announcing the South Dakota Firefighter Benefit. Willie and I will be speaking at the event September 15th. This brand new event was thought up, planned, and is being executed by Bob Gard. Let me just tell you now, this is going to be ONE HELLUVA GOOD TIME! From the event, to the auction items, to the give away stuff, to everything else…it is going to be fun! Willie and I will actually be in town early and travelling across the state IN A CRIMSON FIRE TRUCK visiting stations and meeting South Dakota’s Bravest!

The SD Firefighter Benefit was created to bring firefighters from across the state together to raise money for organizations that are solely funded by donations, and work to better the fire service.  This year we have selected the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation find out more about this organization at www.firehero.org,  the second organization is The National Firefighter Endowment find out more herewww.thethinredline.org.

Pinterest

Are any of you on Pinterest? Check out the Fire Critic on Pinterest here. I know what some of you are saying….ha look at that, FC is on pinterest…ha ha ha. I get it, trust me I do. I deserve it too! However, in an attempt to ensure I at least understand most social media platforms, I finally decided to take a look. What was most interesting was at the 2-3 dozen images that had already been shared on Pinterest from FireCritic.com! Very cool!

Ok, that is a short update. I will be progressing through emails and getting caught up in about 4 weeks I imagine!

I have a lot more stuff to share. A package arrived from Bob Gard (see above), Firehouse Pride, and Axe…more on those in a later post!