3 posts tagged “puntagorda”

I visited Stations 5, 7 and 12 today. 7 and 12 were very cooperative and friendly. I have nothing but good things to say about B Shift for both of those Stations.

Charlotte County Fire/EMS Station 7 - E7 and crew

Lt. Brad Wasmus is an old friend of Tom's. I had been out to Station 7 before on C Shift and even earlier today but had missed him. I was worried about the afternoon and whether rain would come in but the sky cleared up and the sun came out! It was nice to meet him and be able to photograph his crew. If he's interested, I'd be more than happy to provide a portrait on the house. Station 7 has an engine, plus the two airport vehicles: the rescue and the crash truck.

Charlotte County Fire/EMS Station 12 - Squad 12 and crew

Station 12 was another great crew. Lt. Jim Wilcox had a positive attitude and the great energy of the guys made this a fun shoot. Station 12 has an engine, a truck, a rescue, a technical rescue, a hazmat and the black sheep.

Tom's going on a MCSE boot camp starting on Sunday and will be home the evening of April 27th. I have to get as much work done as possible since I don't photograph with children in tow. While it's hard to explain why I'm doing this project. I'm not doing it for the money. I'm not doing it to sell to the papers or magazines. If that happens, I certainly won't baulk, but my intent is really PR. It's good for them and it's good for me. They really need photos that are available to them, not promises of "year"books that are painfully delayed after firefighters have already paid for them. It gets my name out there more, and Google can certainly confirm that it's out there. I also learn more about the apparatus which is important for emergency scene photography. I need to know what I'm shooting.

Bailey's friend's birthday party - Bailey bowling

On Saturday, Bailey's friend and classmate had a birthday party at the bowling alley. Her first time bowling, she had a fantastic time. Since her friend is the sister of one of Eddie's friends and classmates, I really should have brought Eddie.

On Friday, I had a court hearing so I took a few pictures of downtown Punta Gorda.

After picking the kids up from school, we stopped at Kiwanis Park in Port Charlotte. Michael and Eddie had their cameras with them so they also took photos. Unfortunately, it began to rain within the hour, so our stay was brief.

Kiwanis Park - kids on bridge

Today has been a very relaxed day. Apparently, there's some kind of football game on later. Hey, I don't really care if the Bears aren't in it and we know how often that happens. If there was any question, I think this season proved that my husband won't ever quit rooting for the Dolphins. That might change when he's in unfriendly waters (or mountains) where there are no fellow fans sympathetic to a nearly zero-win season. But I doubt it. Who's even in this year's Superbowl?

Here's a picture of Indiana. On Wednesday, he will be one year old:

Indiana - 12 months

He's a gorgeous golden retriever and a very good dog, if a bit of an attention monger.

I focused a lot on planning waymarks today. There's a lot that should be waymarked in Punta Gorda. Then there's continuing the firehouse series of waymarks that we'd been doing for the area. I'm not doing bogus "Burger King Restaurants" waymarks. I'm talking about legitimate historical markers, mural masterpieces and the relics of our history.

We did a little geocaching after we picked up Bailey. We stopped by the Charlotte County Motor Speedway and took pictures of the old Punta Gorda Fire Department ladder truck that's parked out front. Tom used to work on this ladder truck. It's a shame to see it subjected to the elements and rapidly deteriorating. The Engine that's no longer in service is now located at Steve's Auto Shoppe and is very well cared for.

Bailey's dad has asked to have her for a week. He has no job, he needs to be searching for a job, he claims he's just sitting on Short-term Disability, he isn't paying any child support nor does he think he needs to pay any child support, and he wants me to extend visitation and have her in that delusional house of crackpot reality for longer? I don't think so. Anna's mom let Anna stay with us for a week while Tom was home on Short-Term Disability because he was recovering from a full hip replacement and child support was paid.

That's right, folks, we fork out $1100 every month for two children while getting $0 in return for three!

Tomorrow has more phone calls, more arrangements, more dealing with stress. Tom has all of his things to do.