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We've to a machine to seal these things. I'm not going to end up like George Castanzas fiance and die of glue poisoning. Besides the County supplied these envelopes so you know they come from the low bidder. There's no telling what that stuff is made of.

I got this job through my volunteer work. And yes it is rewarding. I've met some really cool people working with CERT. It's good to know that if something really bad should happen I've got the skills to see that my family is safe and then I can help out my neighborhood.

The job with the County is intersting, too. Well, it's not interesting right this very minute but when things get exciting they get really exciting. Our EOC has assets that local jurisdictions can't afford to keep waiting around so when something happens that is too big for the standard emergency response we can help out.

We've got comm gear, lighting assets, traffic management equipment, technical and high angle rescue gear, mass casualty gear, and other things that local fire depts can't afford. When they need some help they call us and we go out and supply them with whatever assets are needed.

It's pretty cool actually. Fire and EMS guys are great, but they're all focused on fighting fires and getting folks stabilized and to the hospital. Getting 'stuff' to the scene isn't really their forte. So that's what we do. We're kind of the logistics specialists for major emergencies.

We also assist municipalities with their Emergency Operations Plans to see that they're up to date and will actually work if the ballon goes up. So we help them out with everything from table top excersizes to full scale disaster drills complete with cops, fire trucks, ambulances, and 'professional victims' who show up and play casualties in a realistic manner. That's lots of fun.

I took a class to be a 'professional victim' so know I know how to act when role playing different types of injuries. That class was taught by a Professor of Emergency Medicine from Cook County Hospital so she's seen just about everything.

We also got trained in moulage which is the art of making and applying fake gore. I have a feeling I'm going to be real popular with the kids next Halloween. It'll be fun to turn the neighborhood kids into the walking dead. Of course with some of them it'll be pretty much like they are normally.

But lately I drew the short straw and got the graveyard shift. Mostly I just wait around for something to catch on fire. Thankfully that doesn't happen often. It does give me a chance to catch up on my reading, Freeping, and taking some college level coursework in Emergency Management.

If your interested, FEMA has some really good classes available on the web. You can find them here. I don't know if they'll send the completion certificates to Canadians but you can take the classes anyway if you've a mind.

This is getting very interesting.

It is a bit sentimental but the first time a became aware of death was during a radio broadcast of tornado warnings in the mid west.

I was seven and a half years old at the time and we lived in a rented house on a farm that had a root cellar. The root cellar looked like a storm shelter so in my little mind I put two and two together and thought my mother was going to die in a tornado.

We were living in central Ontario at the time, well out of reach of tornadoes sad and silly at the same time.

As far as moulage goes my scout troop took part in a recreation of a vehicle accident using moulage techniques when family was stationed in Churchill Manitoba. The prosthetics included fake blood pumps.

My baby sister who was six years old saw me in full make-up after the demonstration and passed out like a light. My mother of course went freakoid.

Years later my sister told me she had nightmares for months afterwords, poor sweetie.

Anyway Lurker if you want to ping me about your volunteer work feel free, I'm very interested.