Another Update

I just sent out an email to everyone but I always have trouble keeping up with all the email addresses and a lot of them are old I think.
Found out yesterday that I made the IA-TF I Urban Search and Rescue team. For those of you who forgot or don't know, they are the specialized teams that get deployed to things like 9-11, Katrina, I-35 bridge collapse, tornados, earthquakes, etc. They don't know when they can send us down to College Station, TX for training but we will get outfittted with gear and join the team for training. Of course, the Nov. training dates fall in line with a WMD Haz Mat drill in Des Moines that I volunteered to go to so now I will piss off one chief to please another one.

So now that they are demolishing flood damaged homes, you really get to see the government at it's finest. In order to demolish a home, contaminated and damaged by the flood, you have to have:
The contractor hired to demolish the home
Family Environmental (a company to make sure all the EPA, OSHA, etc laws are followed)
a Disaster & Recovery company (hired by the city)
a City of CR building inspector
a staffed CRFD engine company

From 7:30 am till 3 pm yesterday, two other guys and I were paid $25 an hour to sit in a fire truck and do nothing. At one point, we counted 16 guys at this site (4 were actively working).

Saturday, the 8 new rookies come online. Official count: 10 firefighters under me. There should be 12 (which would prevent my layoff should they choose to close a station for budget purposes) but one rookie last year was fired and another went onto days to be a plans & inspector.

Everyone at CRFD and Area Ambulance have found out about Rachael and I dating. It hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be but there is some regular joking around. It's weird to think I havn't dated someone for about 2 1/2 years. I kind of forgot how hard it is to have to think about someone else when you are making plans, trading work days, etc.

Nick

That's two posts in about 3 weeks. I'm getting better.

UPDATE!

Hello all! I'm sure none of you look at this anymore but I told mom that I was going to update it so I'm sure you will hear about it. Things are, for the most part, pretty regular here. I just got back from Anniston, Alabama. Went down there with the fire department to take a WMD Haz Mat class. (Yeah, like there will be a WMD attack in Iowa) It was a lot of fun and on the last day we did some exercies surrounded by real VX gas (the same stuff seen on the movie The Rock). They used 1200 times the lethal dose for a human being, but didn't tell us that until after we were done. So far I havn't bled from my eyes or fell on the ground with a seizure so I guess I'm ok. Maybe that joke was over the line.

Will be in Chicago this weekend with my roommate John. He is doing the Urbanatholon. I guess it's a 10 mile race with barricades, cabs, and steps involved. I don't think I'm in good enough shape to do as good as I want so I will go for support.

Think I will go as Tom Cruise from Risky Buisness for Halloween.

Sadly, that is about it for new stuff going on with me. Like I said, I lead a very boring life.

Monica, thanks for the football picture of the boys.

Love and miss you guys!

Nick

PS-oh, I'm kinda sorta dating someone. Her name is Rachael and she is a paramedic for the ambulance service in town.

Alright Fam, I will do my best to update you on what I've been doing here in Cedar Rapids for the past month. I'm doing this at work so if it stops suddenly it's because we caught a run and I had to log off. If I don't, someone will come in and send out an embarassing department-wide email under my name.

It all started about August 8th. I pumped my first fire which was suspicious in nature, I will come back to that later. On the 9th we used our boats to give people rides up at the Ellis boat harbor so they could get their boats out of the water at the very last moment (See picture above, Im towards the front). At the end of the day it was starting to sprinkle and lighting out so we tried to get back to the boat dock quickly. We were yelled and cussed at by the houseboat people because we "were causing too much of a wake" and it was going to damage their 'houses'. We actually had to call the police because they were getting so angry with us. I guess their houses smashing into that railway bridge wasn't nearly as bad as our 'wake'. I smile everytime I see that picture of their houses against the bridge. Assholes.

When I worked June 11th, the day before the flood really hit. I was out at Station 6 so I had no idea what was going on down at Central station. They were sandbagging and putting things up on tables so they wouldn't get wet. At this point we were supposed to get one foot of water in the station. We actually got 12 feet. A fridge was lodged up in the celing.

On the 12th, I sat at home and watched everything on TV. Errily similar to what I was doing when Katrina was happening, only now it was happening in my backyard. (Not literally, our place was not touched). On the 13th I was on a boat all day in the Czech Villiage. We pulled a couple people out of their second story windows and about 25 pets throughout the day. I had one cat by it's neck and it swung around and scratched my arm with it's hind legs. I thought about throwing it in the water but we were pretty close to shore (I had an audience) and that would probably be too mean. This is also when Channel 2 wanted to take a tour of the area and the news guy tricked me into doing an interview. I never got to see it. Usually this would be a big deal but when other guys have their picture on the front page of the New York Times, the LA Times and on the news in Germany, Channel 2 isn't that big of a deal.

The rest of the month is a blur of being at work, doing my laundry at the station, eating peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, and sleeping about 3 hours at night. Since Central is totally lost, the trucks had to be moved to stations all over the city. All of our reserve equipment and special operations trailers are sitting outside in a parking lot. For a while we lost all of our station phones and radio contact. Texas Roadhouse was donating lunch and dinner everyday, we had 16 guys sleeping at a station designed for 3, we had to run lights and sirens just to get through town; it was just weird. There is really no good way to describe how different things were and how much the term 'fly by the seat of your pants' became our department mantra.

Since June 8th, I have worked 22 out of33 days. I worked 165 hours straight with a 12 hour break at one point, and then came back 3 days later and worked another 120 hours.

The days in red are all the days I worked from June 8th till today (July 10th).

It sounds like they are going to tear down Central station. No one knows yet if they are going to build a new station in the same spot (with first floor being only apparatus parking and administration/living quarters on the second floor) or if they are going to look for a new spot. To think of everything we lost at the station, all those little things that can't be replaced, is very sad. That place was a second home to me. I was able to walk through it the other day and it has been totally stripped down to the cinder block walls and metal studs. Weird stuff.

Someone from FEMA said that their list of disasters goes 1) Katrina 2) 9-11 3) Iowa Floods, and our chief said recently that this flood is in the top 5 for American natural disasters. It sounds like when people realize how little they are going to get from FEMA, we could average one or two house fires every day.

That's all I can really think of at the moment but I will update again soon when I think of more stories and stuff to write about.

Dicky

I have noticed that you all have upped your posting output. I will post also.
So I have started a full-on workout schedule to lose all the weight I gained while sitting on the couch with my broken ankle. Seriously, I have puffed out like a tick. When I went back to work, I had to struggle to get my workout pants on. Ouch.
On the work front, I havn't seen fire since the middle of December. Next week I work 6 out of 8 days and the first week of July I work 5 days in a row. It will be interesting.
After the Parkersburg tornado the USAR team had it's first full deployment. This is exactly why I want to join the team. How cool would it have been to be up there right after it happened and help all those people right away.
Im getting ready for RAGBRAI. I bike about 40 miles a week but it's so damn windy! Since I still can't run because of my ankle, I bike a crap-ton at work and at the gym.
That's mostly it. I need to get my day going.

Old Man and the Sea

So this past weekend I went fishing on Lake Michigan with a bunch of guys and I have to say, for hardly ever fishing in my life I had the best time. We were at Winthrup Harbor which is about 20 min north of Chicago, right on the Illinois/Wisconsin border. We went up Saturday afternoon and stay in Milwaukee with a guy someone knew. Sunday we drove to the harbor and went out to catch some Koho Salmon. We spent a lot of the time fishing next to a decommisioned nuclear power plant, but failed to pull in any three eyed fish made popular on The Simpsons. It was a beautiful day, the fish were bitting and I wasn't in a cast. That night we went out to eat and then crashed around 9:30, since the next morning would start around 4 am. We headed out about 4 miles the next day and tried to catch a few King Salmon as well as Koho. I, being the least experienced, caught the only one. It was about 10 lbs. (as seen above).

We caught our limit each day (5) and before we left they cut them all up so John and I have about 20 fillets of salmon in my freezer each.

This is me hugging my King Salmon. Right before is lept up at my ear and tried to rip it off. I had the last laugh when I threw it in a dark cooler with about 14 of his dead relatives.

Me, my roommate John, and Paul. Paul was hired with John the year before me.

Ok, I don't have a lot to update, since I have been sitting on the couch for the past 3 weeks, but according to Mom I need to update this for my sisters. Recently I have read 21:Bringing Down the House, the true story about the MIT students that took a crap-ton of money from Vegas. Awesome book. Online I ordered 3 more books. Last Man Out (about an FDNY captain that was trapped in a stairwell of the World Trade Center with the crew of Ladder 7), Again to Carthage (the sequal book to Once A Runner, the best book written about running), and Texas City 1947 (about the massive explosion in Texas City, Texas in 1947). Yes, I am a nerd and love to read about the disasters in America in the 20th century.
Im still up for the job for an open USAR position, which is awesome.
I got out of my big black boot and was given an air splint. I can atleast walk around again now, with a noticable limp.
I may be going to a Cubs game (11-7) this next week. It should be great.
That is all.

Ankle Update

Alright, so this is NOT a picture of my ankle, I actually got it off of Google.com images.

I went to Dr. Fabiano today at PCI and he took even more X-rays of my ankle. The prognosis looks good. He said it is in fact a non-displaced fracture of my right fibia (which is actually the very lower part of of lower leg bone). I did not tear any ligaments, a fact he learned of by doing an extreamly painful Stress X-Ray and said it should heal perfectly. He said that as soon as I can walk on it, I would be able to. With that said, Im still going to take some time and make sure it heals right.

I have another appointment on April 15th to take some more x-rays and make sure everything is alright in there. I will let you guys know as soon as possible as to what is going on there.

A date and an ankle

Alright, enough with the questions and mean spirited comments left on my blog. Here she goes.

The date with Noelle went pretty well. She is a teacher at Prairie High School and she had to teach the next day so toward the end of the night she was getting pretty tired. She usually goes to bed around 9:30 and I took her home around 10:45, so I hope her yawning was because of that and not because I am boring. I took her to Leonardo's, it's a cool resturant/bar with old red leathered booths and 70's style decorating. Then we went to the Piano Bar because they had dueling pianos which were awesome. Overall it went well.

As all of you well know I broke my ankle on St. Paddy's Day. It's a non-displaced fracture of my right tibia/fibia. Yes, I was slightly intoxicated and my roommate John and I were walking from downtown to his truck. He showed up late and was going to give me a ride home. I slipped on a patch of ice and went down. I didnt think it was bad until the next morning when I couldnt put any weight on it. I am going to see a specialist on the 25th and find out what the damage is. I should have enough sick time to get through it all but Im going crazy sitting at home.

Im tired and a little dopped up on codine so I think I will go to bed.

I suppose I have been doing something somewhat productive with all my free time. My roommates and I finished Band of Brothers, all 10 hours. Amazing! I just finished the book Fast Food Nation. Yes, I know Im about 6 years too late but I am a great procrastinator. Im about half-way through Catch 22 and after that I think I will start, yes I'm a loser, The DeVinci Code. We also went out and saw No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood, both excellent movies. I think I prefer No Country. Now I just have to see Juno and I will be content. Other movies I've watched recently: Gone Baby Gone, Goodfellas, Braveheart, the first Lord of the Rings. (It pays to have so much friggen free time) Also, John and I got Strange Brew and we are going to have a "Canada Night". We are going to drink Molson, eat beans and toast, and watch Strange Brew. Remember that movie? The one with Rick Moranis and that other guy?

Now here are the movies I have on my list to Netflix and watch:

Rambo

Juno

Strange wilderness

Cloverfield

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Michael Clayton

Charlie Wilson's War

We Own the night

The Dewey Cox Story

Blow

Dan in Real Life

One flew over the cukoo's nest

The Shinning

I LOVE my job! I have all the free time in the world. Best part? If we are slow, awesome. If we are busy, awesome. It should be a crime to live like I do!

you want to know what Ive been up to recently? Mostly this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jezSeQnfCg .
I have also started to play an uneasy amount of Guitar Hero with John. But all is not lost on me yet, I think I have a date Thursday. Her name is Noelle and she is a teacher. I realized that I hadn't been on a 'date' for roughly...3 years? That is just rediculous.
Otherwise, nothin new is really going on. Im still getting guilted into working at Linn Co. EMA, Still love waking up and going to work, the regular.
Everyone take care.

I swear I'm going to make this Blog work

If anyone has noticed (which I'm not entirely sure anyone has) I now have internet access at my place. I promised that I would keep this Blog going and so I shall.

I wrote a very abbreviated summery of the past six months which, I'm sad to say, pretty much wrapped up what I've done since my ast post. Jason and I did get another roommate John, who is another 20-something firefighter who has just gone through a divorce. Guys on the job have labeled our condo "station 10" and have assumed that we go out every night, get drunk and chase loose women. In actuality, we sit around and watch Band of Brothers. Which is a great mini-series, but doesn't resolve my 'non-girlfriend' issue. As of right now, once again I may be the only Miller at Christmas without a spouse nor any offspring, American-born or not.

On the employment front, I have joined the Linn County Hazardous Materials team and have put my name in the running to join the local USAR (Urban Search And Rescue) team. If I get selected, I could travel to anywhere in America if (God forbid) another 9/11 or Katrina happens.

I hope everyone is doing well with their adoption/random sickness/horse castrations.

Take care.

Internet status=back

Im guessing that no one will check this seeing that my last post was August 1st, but I just wanted to let everyone (Meleah, Monica, Crissy) know that I do in fact have internet back and will update my blog.
Things that have happened since I last...umm...blogged.
-Got my one year on the Department
-Saw you guys on Christmas
-Got a second job at the Linn County Emergency Management Agency (bad idea)
-Snow
-Some other stuff
-Spent four days in Park City, Utah skiing
-Now
So now that we are all caught up, I will leave now for I need to sleep. Have to work tomorrow.
Good to be back.

Regular Update

Alright guys, I promise you I will not give up on this Blog thing. The situation stands that Jason and I seem to lose internet access on a regular basis so I can't do much at home. I check my mail at work but as I still have a month of rookie...umm...ness left I feel 'blogging' at work would not be a good idea.

Things with me are pretty darn good at the moment. I could not find a ride up to RAGBRAI last week so I didn't ride, although I did drive up alone one night and partied with my team. There is NO ONE that can prevent me from going the full week next year. Talk about a young, single, firefighter's dream! I'll spare the details, but it was awesome.

I bought a grill recently and so my cooking skills have expanded exponentially.

Some of our neighbors are recent Coe and Cornell College grads and so I am slowly gaining friends. The one roommate "Kari" is very pretty and cool. She runs marathons and I think I shall ask her out on a date soon. I'm such a nerd.

Work has been extreamly slow recently (which is a good thing overall, I suppose) and I have been working on Truck 1. This means that any fire in the city I will respond to. This also means we can go anywhere in the city regardless, so last shift we ate at Texas Roadhouse for dinner. AWESOME!

That is just about it for now, I promise I will keep updating the blog even if it takes a while. Hopefully we will figure out our internet situation soon. Take care y'all!

Nick

So our internet sucks here and we have been without for about 2 weeks now. J Dub is in charge of it so I hope he gets it fixed, maybe while he's out on RAGBRAI. Luckily Ive been using a near-by wireless network so I can go through my routine of internet sites to visit.
Chris was in Tipton today and I drove down to see him. I figured if I missed Chris in tipton, it would be enough for my family to shun me. He got an iPhone and although I wasn't that excited about it, I want to buy one really bad now. It is awesome, almost too awesome.
The other day I helped a guy I work with teach some fire classes out at Kirkwood. There guys are all wanting to be firefighters and asked me how many tries it took me to get hired in CR. I told them "just once", and they didn't like the the rest of the day. I remember when I was in their shoes, just like it was yesterday. Wait, it WAS just about yesterday.
Boring post, but wanted to keep this party going. I will post more in the near future.

A dearest apology, a birthday, and a socialist/time-doing/sex tape star

First off, I must deeply apologize to the Shreiber and Droll families. My eldest sister, Monica, and her family were in the Eastern Iowa area (more specifically, Tipton) and I did not go to see them. Why did I blow them off? do you ask? Well, other then a few insignificant errands, I completely forgot about it. My mom informed me of the visit a while ago, but for some reason I did not put it on my calender. (If it's not on one of my three calenders, it doesnt not exsist to me) And since our internet went down for a couple of days that week, I did not read her email reminding me of the visit. So do I blame my mom for this? No. I'm an idiot. Monica, Eric, Max, Jay and Ally, I am so sorry I missed you guys.
You see, I have gotten old enough to the point where I really want to see my neices and nephews. In college, they were semi-regular little people to me, it sounds bad but I was very immature and preoccupied. Now, I really miss those little rug-rats and I am sick to my stomach that I let this oppourtunity pass right through my fingers.

Also, I apologize to Meleah. Mia and I have a special bond together and I miss you a lot. So when she (you) sent me a not-so-nice email, I took it to heart and I'm sorry that I missed the event.

Also, Chris had his birthday a few days ago (I remember because it was on my calender) and while I was about to call him (most likey a huge surprise), I found out that he was in Washington DC, so I didn't bother. Crissy, tell Chris that I remembered and that I wish him a belated Happy Birthday.

And finally, Paris Hilton is a waste of space. I have to push down my murderous feelings toward the media on a regular basis when I think of all the time they have wasted covering her entire jail sentence. We have troops dying overseas and people dying from floods right here in America, yet they decide to cover every minute of Paris Hilton. I find it disgusting. Her sex tape wasn't even THAT great! Wow. As in the words of my sister Monica, Later Y'all!

Three week check-up

Alright, I'm not giving up on this Blog thing quite yet. I havn't posted in a while because I've been hella busy. (That's right, I just said hella) A lot of things have gone on and I plan to sum up the high-lights of the past 3 weeks so that my readers (my 3 sisters and my parents) know what is up in my life. Wow, it's been a while. Here we go...

1. The CRFD road race went really well. It was supposed to rain but it held off until the results ceremony (held inside). I got some flack for 'not doing anything' but it's not my fault because my only job as Assistant Race Manager (that's going on my resume) was to 'accept blame for everything that goes wrong, because as a rookie everything flows downhill.'


2. Worked my first 48 hour shift which went alright, but I am used to taking a nap when I get off work so the second day was a little rough in the morning.


3. Had a garage fire. Lots of fire. It was neat.


4. I was asked to help out with a training house burn in Palo. I had been to many house burns before but had never spent the entire day inside as an 'instructor' and let me tell you...even if you just sit inside and down actually do anything, breathing in air from a tank while sitting next to a big fire makes you sweat a lot and makes you tired. I was exhausted! It was awesome walking around as an 'instructor' though!


5. I moved from the 'grandma house' that I lived in with Josh (another rookie that owned it) into a condo with another firefighter (Jason, a 27 year old firefighter that is into biking, drinking wine, and has multiple girlfriends) It's nicer/newer, $150 cheaper, closer to a shopping/eating district, and I dont get made fun of for being gay (no one likes Josh) or 'sleeping my way to the top' (Josh's dad is an assistant chief). However, my social life is still pretty inactive and I am still in love with Netflix.


6. Went to Chicago with Brad Peck and stayed with his brother, Nate. Went to a White Sox game (it was 'Mullet Night', explaining the picture shown above that he decided to send to Meleah), went out a lot, stopped by the Chicago fire station where they filmed the movie Backdraft, and went shooting in Indiana at a gun range.


7. Went to Ames fire school.

That is pretty much the past 3 weeks summed up. I am still alive, all is well, and I promise that I will update my blog more often now that I finally have internet in my new place. Cheers!

The 5K commith

I'm going to say right away that I am not a good runner anymore. Sure I had my days, 3 time state champion, EIHC conference record holder, current record holder of 2 Tipton High events, NCAA national qualifier...
Sorry about that, have to relive the glory days when you havn't done anything good as of recent.
Anywho, during my training I was talking to our special operations captain (big runner) about...well, running.
So when the 7th annual CRFD 5K came around, Captain Dall put me and another firefighter in charge. As a rookie. Ive never even ran in this race, let alone help run it.
So now the race is Saturday and Im very nervous about how it will go. I had to go around and as businesses to donate doorprizes (which I hate), talk to people on the phone (which I hate), and do all the crappy busy work (eh, wasn't that bad). The cool thing is that I work that day so for the whole morning I don't have to work. Which saying that outloud, sucks because I love work. Although...Rookie of the Year, here I come baby!

The Homeless shouldn't play with matches...or maybe they should.

I need some job security what with Cedar Rapids "restructuring" and chopping off city jobs like a crazed Donald Trump on Meth. So if you are a homeless man...sorry, person...reading this in the city library then keep up the good work! To warm yourself up on those chilly summer nights, why not start a fire in a house? I commend your arson-ess (?) spirit!

Here is a link to the CR Gazette article convering the last house fire I had on the 16th. There is a video under the picture. If you watch it, and see the guy slamming open the side door, Im the second firefighter that goes into the house once the door is open.

http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070516/NEWS/70516054&SearchID=73281383448106

I'm in love with John Cusack

I finally got around to watching Say Anything and I have to say that it has propelled John into the upper echelon of my favorite all-time actors, along with Zach Braff, Jeremy Piven, and Jesus. Looking back, I have realized that every movie he has been in I have enjoyed thoroughly. So here is my favorite John Cusack films (that I’ve seen) in order from excellent(1) to good(10).

1. Grosse Point Blank
2. Say Anything
3. High Fidelity
4. Serendipity
5. America’s Sweethearts
6. Being John Malcovich
7. Con Air
8. Runaway Jury
9. Pushing Tin
10. Identity

Telemarketers can go to hell, and I think I actually mean it

I am not a man that is strong willed. One time Discovery Card called me and after 30 min on the phone I had signed up for a Discovery Card. They are so perssistant and for some reason unknown, I form a relationship with these people and give in. Like I said, I have no testicular fortitude.

So I called this company because evey week they would send me a note informing me that my truck warranty would be up soon. I got worried that they were implying something and so I called. They are basically a supplemental insurance company and after 30 minutes on the the phone (including the telephone guy 'asking his manager' about a discount) I had signed up for it. I asked dad about this type of thing because it sounded fishy. He said "it sounds a little fishy, I would cancel."

Cut to today. I called to cancel and once I got to the person that could help me (4 people in), this lady and I discussed my budget, my future, and my family. I told her I was buying a house, told her I live 3 bocks from work; I tired everything. Finally, after (not kidding) 18 minutes later she told me how I can cancel. I need to send this sheet back into their company with my name, date, reason for quiting (which makes me think they will send more crap my way), and I have to get it notorized! I'm a wussy.