Gone... but not as far away as they could have been

Today, Diana and Jonny moved out. Diana made some decisions that she felt would be best for her and Jonny. She wanted to move from Antelope to Philadelphia to be with her boyfriend, but he isn't quite ready for that level of relationship.

So, she went back to Salt Lake City. NO, SHE DID NOT GO BACK TO HER EX! She went back to set up shop with a friend of hers who had a baby about 5 months ago. She left around 3:00am, and got there in the early afternoon. We kept in touch her entire trip, and her trip went well and safe.

So, I sit here with a (temporarily) empty apartment. My old roommate Mike is moving back in at the end of the month. Hey, he pays his portion of the rent on time all the time! And he has and continues to improve his life. He is a good friend, inherently honest to the core, and I trust him implicitly. He doesn't mind my wanderings at 4 in the morning when I am on my way to an event. And I get cat-sitting out of the deal if I go out of town, say, to Salt Lake City. :-)

Google Maps Street View captures house fire

No kidding. You need to see this one to believe it.


View Larger Map

The local Fire Dept was on scene already. If you want the link to this picture (At least until Google removes it), clicking this link will give you the location.

Update: Google took the photos down, but here they are:

Helicopter Crash Photo Released

This photo was released today. Its amazing anyone survived.

On a brighter note, two of the firefighters were released from the hospital today. :-)

Gas Prices... anyone else see something disturbing?

Take a look at this mapping of the price of gas in the Sacramento area vs the price of crude oil:

Notice a disturbing trend? BEFORE the price of crude topped out near $147.00, the price of gas had already peaked, and was falling. It peaked a full month before the price of crude did. Some thoughts on possible causes for this effect:

1. We were using A LOT LESS gasoline (3% drop? I can't see that causing this effect YET)?
2. Less trading? (I doubt this... but, if someone has this info, let me know.)
3. Someone in the oil industry (AKA refineries and huge gasoline companies) KNEW that the price would soon start falling on crude oil.

Now, personally, I am seriously betting on number 3. Insider trading and insider knowledge DOES affect industries, including this lovely volatile market. If this isn't a marker of this, I don't know what else is. After all, it was this industry that said we would see prices fall only after about 6 weeks AFTER the price of crude topped out. Hmmm... something wrong with this picture? I hope I am not the only one seeing this.

A Sad Day for Firefighters... and all of us

Last night, up to 9 firefighters were killed in a helicopter crash here in Northern California. This occurred up near the "Buckhorn" fire, in the Shasta/Trinity area. A Sikorsky helicopter was transporting the 11 firefighters (2 crew members were on board as well), when it went down. It crashed and burned.

4 survived. Three have critical burns, and one is in serious condition also with burns.

These firefighters gave their lives protecting others and property. Please pray for these heroes, and for their families.

UPDATE: Two of the firefighters may not survive. The news just reported that their conditions were getting worse. William Coultas and Jonathan Frohreich remained in critical condition in the UCD Burn Unit Wednesday. The other victim, Michael Brown was listed in fair condition in the hospital's surgical intensive care area.

Disappointment...

... doesn't even begin to describe my feelings right now. I caught word that the letters went out late last week regarding acceptance into the paramedic program. I knew I qualified, so it wasn't that I was expecting a "sorry, you didn't make the cut" letter. So, I eagerly went to my mailbox to retrieve what I thought was going to be my acceptance letter into the paramedic program.

"Thank you for submitting your application to our 2008 Part-Time Paramedic Academy. Unfortunately, the number of qualified applications did not meet the required minimum in order to provide this important course to the public."

My jaw hit the floor as I was reading it. THEY CANCELED THE PART-TIME PROGRAM! Paramedics are retiring from EMS and leaving EMS due to low pay in droves (many are firefighter-paramedics... firefighting pays a lot better than paramedicine alone... better benefits also.), and they canceled it! Why? Not enough people applied to the program... I don't know how many applied, how many were qualified, but right now, all I can think is there is at least one person who won't be a paramedic for at least another 6 months beyond the 2 years she was going to give up to do this.

Something needs to change, and change quickly. Otherwise, there won't be enough paramedics out there to provide the advanced life support that our increasing aging population needs (some of them are the very paramedics retiring).

I had already committed the next 2 years of my life to getting my paramedic license... For me, it wasn't the money. It never was. If I want a lot of money, I know how to make a lot of money. Its the love of medicine, pure and simple.

This really sucks.

Update: I decided to write a letter back urging them to reconsider. More later.