In this vacation I have just offered myself and accepted the position of visiting scholar. There is no pay but room and board has been provided as well as some transportation costs.

Today was field trip day. Vick and I took the boys to a firehouse this morning for a tour as part of their twin’s playgroup. There were fourteen plus women with at least two children each, two firemen and me. I felt more than a little out of place as the only male out of uniform, but I did learn that while stopping, dropping, and rolling one should also cover ones mouth because of the fumes (they’ve added that bit since I was small) and that while most fire alarms are now hard wired to the house, those with batteries should have them changed in accordance with the “spring forward fall back” time changes, just so you don’t forget.

I learned the difference between a fire truck and a fire engine; the engine has a ladder while the truck does not. We were given fire truck and engine “baseball” cards to illustrate this key difference. A fire fighting Hummer was alluded to, but unavailable for inspection as it was out tending to a brush fire. Sadly there was no pole; the station occupies a single level, but they are moving soon and may have a pole at the new facility. Fireman Steve showed us the kitchen, the TV room, the lockers where he changes his clothes and then he showed us where he sleeps, “It’s hard to make noise in here because everyone can hear everything.” Jan, a random mother, was fanning herself during this portion of the tour. Stuffy little cubicles, its no wonder she was feeling the heat.

Steve also wanted the children to know what to do if someone has been shot, the house is on fire, they are on fire, mommy or daddy have fallen out of a tree or off the roof and hurt them selves, broke something or several somethings. Call 911 and know your own address. Some of the children are still on language acquisition so they were simply encouraged to become familiar with what a crawling fireman looks like, should they ever see one then they will know he’s there to help. Really it was a contingency workshop more than a fieldtrip. Overwhelmed by the possibilities, most of the young ones took their red plastic hats and kept a tight lip, reluctant even to climb through the driver’s seat of the truck, filled as it was with portents of disaster and the potential for their own or their parent’s demise.

After we took pictures with the engine of doom, and we convinced Nick and Jake that they weren’t going to fire it up for us, it was my turn to have a field trip all my own. I went and visited Andy in the land of corporate America. Marble entry and security guards, flags and food courts. Like a high school really, complete with basketball court, air hockey, and a putting green. He works on the fifth floor of six in the company headquarters, which is one building in a complex of several. This is the marketing division where he works as an analyst. It’s a nice complex and I met several of his coworkers. It actually reminded me quite a lot of my job on a much larger scale. Though our divisions consist of one person each with a great deal of overlap and little to no oversight. He trouble shoots like I do, but his area more specific. I spent a half hour watching while they resolved a computer problem that looked all too familiar. Action in the service of a corporate entity the end result of which is improved vision for people – they’re a vision company.

Andy has good vision insurance as a consequence of this job and he gave me his old pair of Maui Jims so see my eye through the trip back to St. Louis. As you may have inferred from yesterday’s comments I will begin the road trip portion of this adventure tomorrow morning. The Big Texan awaits us with jackalopes aplenty.