I never followed a primary on FR before.
I don’t think i’ll ever follow a primary again :)
I donate a good amount because I live on this board (personal reasons make it tough to do much getting out besides an overnight job).
It is pretty bad. But FR will survive this I’m sure.
Jim’s a smart guy and he knows what he’s doing :)
Take care bro. I’m watching The Sopranos for the second time.
Enjoying it more than the first.
And if you’re still fighting fires, God bless.
Lost one fireman buddy to lung cancer from 9/11, another’s are in bad shape.
Thank you for asking. I am very sorry about your friends. I have known quite a few coworkers that have came down with presumptive illnesses over the years and died. I was on our hazmat team for many years and had some serious exposures, some that sent most of my coworkers to the hospital. I never believed that going to the hospital would be helpful so I always tried to finish my shifts and save the taxpayers some money except for a couple times when I got burned badly enough that my chief made me go in. I have always stayed very active and so far I have no serious health complications.
I am retired now. After 25 years I had enough. There is a cumulative level of stress that eventually starts to wear you down. I do miss many parts of the job. There are very few jobs where basically you get paid to help people and they are almost always happy to see you. There are always opportunities to go beyond what would normally be expected. I was happy when I got promoted because it gave me the authority to get my crews to do more to be helpful to our customers.
The greatest compliment I ever received was after I retired. I made a speech to the mayor, city council and a large gathering of my coworkers, afterward one of the battalion chiefs said to my wife that they “missed the hell out of me” and that if he needed a heart transplant he would only need “this much” of Steve's and he showed just a tiny space between his forefinger and thumb. It means a lot to me that so many of the people I worked with remember my efforts so fondly.
Sorry to blow my own horn... sometimes I come across quite harshly here, but I really am a person who has tried to be kind and a good example to others.