State of the Blog: Y’all Connect

For May and June, end-of-the-month horse show reports replaced/will replace end-of-the-month blogging commentary. (!!) Instead, mid-June posts on a blogging conference. List of previous SotB.

Tomorrow, I will be attending Y’all Connect, a blogging + social media conference presented by Alabama Power. Report to follow.

What I Will Do
I will enjoy being out among the three-dimensional people. Getting off the farm is good for my mental health.

I will get blog addresses from anyone within reach of my voice. I am endlessly fascinated by the variety of human activity.

I will be open to all ideas, suggestions, or advice. I have the option to be selective about what I apply.

What I Will Not Do
I will not make myself crazy about bloggers with bigger numbers.

I will not envy blogs that are cooler than mine.

I will not get my back up when someone pontificates about what I MUST do.

I will not be ashamed of having a niche blog. Chacun à son goût.

I will not forget my personal bottom line. As previously stated, the goal of my blog is “to keep me from going batshit crazy.” [Back]. I do not need monetizing, I do not need cross-platform promotion. As long as I am amused, the blog has achieved mission success.

~~~
Previous posts on the same theme:
Sine Die … Or Not September 2014
State of the Blog: What I Want From My Blog March 2015

For your amusement, a discussion of etymology, Where did the phrase “batsh*t crazy” come from?

Off Topic: Training Exercise

Water On Wheels 2015
Water On Wheels 2015

For a fire that is not within reach of a fire hydrant, water comes from portable swimming pools, known as dump tanks. Tankers fill up where they can, perhaps from a lake, perhaps at hydrant too far to reach with hoses. The tankers drive over, dump water in the swimming pools, then return for more. This is known as shuttling water. Engines then pump the water out of the dump tanks and feed it to the engine that is actually fighting the fire. Think of it as a really intense bucket brigade.

Last weekend, my department spent two days at a multi-department water supply seminar, run by Got Big Water, sponsored by the Alabama Fire College. After instructions and practicals, the class was able to move enough water so that the attack engine could maintain a water stream of 1000 gallons per minute. Story and photos here.

FFD 1000

You may now be impressed.

What was my role? Despite many years as a firefighter, I remain too ignorant to be useful in a forward position. Someone will yell for a 2 1/2″ gated wye from 263. Instead of leaping into activity, I stand with a dumb look on my face thinking: What is a gated wye? Where do we keep it? Which vehicle is 263? I’ve come to terms with this. Some things I am good at, some things not. Mechanical aptitude is a Not. The information just won’t stay in my head.

Instead, I used our service truck to run a mini-water shuttle. I drove from staging site to dump site to fill site handing out water and Gatorade. Not glamorous, but given an Alabama summer, not without merit.

Yes, my one random snapshot of the dump tanks captured three of the women in the class. Out of approximately 50 participants over 10% were women, most right in the thick of the action. Slowly we make progress.

FFD WoW certificate 2015

non-OT

New Equipment: Saddle

saddle june 2015

The saddles for Previous Horse and Mathilda have been retired. I decided to start with an inexpensive – in saddle-speak – synthetic saddle while I figure out what I want for my new forever saddle(s). Internet trolling and personal preference settled on a Wintec 500, close-contact, with flocking. When I stopped by my local tack shop, those options got an immediate pffft from the owner. Her professional recommendation was a Wintec 2000 with suede seat and air panels in the all-purpose style, because reasons. Hmm. I have been shopping at Carousel Tack Shoppe for 20 years. She has yet to lead me astray. Let’s do this.

Allow me to introduce my first saddle purchase in 30 years.

Something Completely Different

Ask and ye shall receive.

On Friday, Joan said. “What an impossible jigsaw puzzle that would make!” [Warm-up Ring]. Voila!

Warm Up Ring puzzle icon

Click here: Foto Friday Jigsaw
Courtesy of Jigsaw Planet

I chose the mid-range (150 pieces), classic puzzle shape, no rotation. To customize the puzzle, hover over the photo on the Jigsaw Planet page, hover over the arrow in the corner, then click Play As. You can choose number of pieces, shape, and rotation. I test drove it with 24 pieces. The black & white border is the only thing that makes the puzzle possible.

If you click on the ghost icon in the lower left corner of the puzzle screen, the completed image is projected as a background. My grandmother would NOT have approved. We were not allowed to look at the cover image beyond choosing the puzzle.

Props to Equine Ink for using Jigsaw Planet in the post Make your own digital jigsaw puzzle of your horse. Everything I was finding was way too complicated. Then, I Googled “digital jigsaw puzzle wordpress.com”. The post came up as the 7th link. My search algorithm must have a default to include “horse”.