Bowling with Rooty-Tooty's!

Last night we had another little A-shift party. One of our Lt.'s, Drew set up cosmic bowling with rooty-tooty's. We had convinced Chief that she needed to get out of her little cubby hole (her office at the firehouse) and come play. Unfortunately she ended up having to work late and said she'd try to make it once she was done. Diane and I stopped on our way to the bowling lanes to make a drink on the bumper of Engine 1, the reserve engine. Too funny, but tasty drinks!

Then we headed over for a few games of pin knocking. There were quite a few people there and we all had a blast. The bowling lanes are pretty worn and less than even or smooth, but we still managed to have lots of fun and get some strikes too! Chief did show up towards the end and had a drink or two and I think may have even tossed a bowling ball down the lanes. Rooty-Tooty's are a nasty sounding drink that is pretty popular down here this year. It;s made with Root Beer Schnapps and orange juice. It sounds terrible, but actually wasn't too bad. I thought it just tasted like homemade root beer. I guess that it's a popular drink as the liquor has been very limited and rationed and yet there always seems to be another bottle of Root Beer Schnapps for the taking. The fact that it only costs $2/bottle may have something to do with it too.

After the bowling time was up Diane and I took Chief over to the crevasse to hang out for a bit. She didn't want to go with the firefighters only because she needed a break from anything work related. We chatted with some of the guys in the crevasse and then all headed home to bed. It was a pretty early evening which was nice and everyone had a lot of fun playing and hanging out together away from the firehouse.

Today at work I was to go out to Pegasus for the C-17 landing. It was pretty uneventful until the airfield manager and then one of the shuttle drivers in Ivan the Terrabus drove away from the plane way, way too close to the wing. Our estimates were between six and ten feet, far within the approachable limit of fifty feet! In this picture you can see Chief and Lt. standing in the tire tracks of the Terrabus. It was stressful to say the least. Unbelievable... The rest of the time Lt. Hartbarger and I sat in Red 5 and chatted, snag with the oldies on the radio, tried to keep my hands warm above the defrost and then listened to my iPod. It was a decent day even with the exciting stress of a near miss with the Terrabus and aircraft.