We got home Sunday evening. Boy were we pooped!! The big Chief gave us a "short cut" home. Frankly I'd have rather not taken it but I was outvoted. Yes it was shorter in milage but longer in time! Mostly because of the 2, yes I said 2 lane hwy.
We had a great time, learned alot! The first day I took 2 hands-on classes. The morning class was learning about different exterior hose attacks for fighting a fire from the outside of the building. Involved using large hoses (2 1/2" hoselines, not normally used as a "handline") as handlines, needing only 1 or 2 people. Normally these lines take at least 3, more if you want to move it around. Got very wet and tired! The afternoon class was a flash-over simulator. With all the man made products everyone uses in their homes and offices flash-overs are occuring more and more and killing more firefighters than ever. It was a very eye-opening experience. The good news was that my cell-phone I forgot to remove from my pocket before I put on my gear survived the class (though it did have double protection) but my watch did not survive. When I took off my gear it was evident that the heat had killed it.
The second day I took a class that lasted all day. It was on highway incident safety. It too was an eye opener. My training Captain also took the class. I am now in the process of putting together a course we can take to the law enforcement agencies the we work with so they will have an idea of why we block off lanes of the road when we work a scene and hopefully we can educate them. The big Chief also asked me to put together something that we can put out as a public service message. Rather like many other states that have the "slow down and move over" campaign. Wednesday several of the seminars I wanted to take were cancelled so I took that as my chance to go shop. And shop I did. I hit 4 scrapbook stores, and 2 quilt stores. I wanted to go into a JoAnn's ECT but couldn't find it again after I decided to go back to it. Bought loads of goodies. Thursday we spent the day going to more seminars as well as looking at things at the Trade show that started in the afternoon. We (DH and myself) bought some personal equipment for work, things we needed but the department doesn't provide. We spent Friday and Saturday at the tradeshow. Looking at and evaluating things the Chief asked us to look at. Sunday was the trip home Monday I had to return to work, was glad to as it gave me a chance to rest! Now the laundry is caught up, DH did that Monday while I was at work, what a sweetheart!! The yard work is done, now I just have to do a little house work. My DMIL said she had the best time with our boys, so that was a relief! They didn't fight like they normally do with us, she also took DS#1 to his military ball, and took pictures. I'm glad to be back, I missed the NG!!!!