The First 48

Luke pulled his first 48-hour shift this weekend...ugh. He called me at 7:15 this morning and asked if I cared if he stayed on for another shift--with overtime pay. What's a girl who's hard-up for some Christmas cash supposed to say? It's probably been great for him, since on Saturdays they're required to do absolutely nothing unless there's a call, but for me...well, today was less than thrilling. However, it is 24 full hours of time-and-a-half pay, and Christmas is but a few short days away, so...whatever. He'll be home in the morning and I'll make him watch the kids all day while I sleep off the past two days.

But we did get to see him tonight, since it was the annual Fire Department Christmas dinner. Nothing exciting, but the boys were on cloud nine amidst the throngs of firefighters. The highlight of the night was when Santa came around to hand out goodies and Patrick told him we'd be leaving him a beer and some cookies on Christmas Eve. Gee, I wonder who put him up to that??? They also had a really great slideshow, with lots of pics of the guys doing cool things and looking very sexy in their gear, but in true Luke fashion, he managed to avoid being in every picture but one:

As you can see, there was nothing he could do to avoid being snapped here, so I guess he just decided to embrace it for once. And look what a cool picture it turned out to be! My favorite part is all the other guys' heads peeking out over the platform above. In the grand scheme of things, they are just boys being boys...and they're lucky enough to get paid for it.

I have no idea if this is Luke or not (probably not), but we'll pretend it is, because I know that this was taken during the physical test that all the applicants had to pass before they were accepted into rookie school. Among a slew of other things, they had to slam this tire with the sledge hammer until it moved quite a good distance. I can't recall how far, but I know I wouldn't have moved it an inch, so I guess I'll never be a firefighter. Too bad. I remember Luke saying this day kicked his butt, but he got through, and the rest is history.

I'm not sure when this picture was taken--I'd have to guess at the opening of their newest station--but I just think it is really cool.

So that's it. Thanks for reading--I'll catch you all later!