What a couple of days...

Well the fire station is officially open. I was on my feet for 8 hours straight yesterday fueled by adrenalin, bottled water, the energy of hordes of people and pride. It was just a great day. There was rain the night before making many people anxious about the event being too wet to be outside. Fortunately we awoke to a brilliantly blue skied day full of warm Fall sunshine. The opening ceremony was appropriately moving and patriotic and thankfully not too long winded. Considering a mayor, fire board president, general contractor, and state assemblyman all spoke it's nothing short of a miracle. It was all said and done in like 40 minutes.

We estimate we had about 2500-3000 people come through. We were prepared for twice that number. It was a good turn out but still a manageable sized crowd. Did I mention fun? There was a great swing band, fire engine rides, health fair (the station is in a over 55 community), Sparky the fire dog, a ballonist, and hot dogs. Can you get more all American than that? At one point around noon all the red topped tables were full. The tables were surrounded by helium filled red and blue balloons and the brand new bright green grass was filled with small children dancing, cavorting and cart wheeling. It was like looking at a Norman Rockwell painting.

In case you are wondering how one little fire department can afford all that, we didn't and can't. We had business sponsorship and contributions.

After a week of writing a couple hundred thank you letters I'm hoping to settle in to the nitty gritty of my regular work again. Although since our area has grown substantially in the last five years rumor has it that a new fire station is in the works. Which means my boss will be the project manager again putting it all together with architects, contractors, and partnerships/sponsors from the private business sector. Since this all touches on different jobs I've had in the past so I'm sort of excited about it.

Lucky you. You'll probably get to hear all about it.