Wichita, KS

Started the day today, after 2 hours sleep, by having breakfast with KC KS FF Dave Doherty. Thanks for breakfast Dave. Gotta love the west, you can get egg white omelettes w/o hassle. After 7 pots of coffee I headed out to Wichita.

The Great Plains are, well, great. I'm riding on Engine 1 at station 1 downtown tonight and getting pointers on forcible entry (through the lock) from FF Mark. I'm doing laundry right now and just got done working out. I made it down the pole without incident earlier on a house fire call that turned out to be steam coming off of the roof after the rain. Huh??? It had been about 9 years since I had last managed a fire pole, no sweat. Pat Bailey would be proud. Besides that it's been pretty uneventful today. I stop for gas at half a tank because stations are very sparce, even worse out in west KS I'm told.

I'm heading down to the burn unit tonight at St. Francis to check it out and maybe get a bite to eat.

Jenn and the kids are at a party today so I hope their having fun and wish I were there. I miss them terribly but I'll be home soon. It is very hard when they call and the kids end up crying by the time the conversation is over, that makes me feel like a jerk sometimes. I hope they understand what I'm doing as best they can for their age. I am doing this for my kids as well, I want their lives to be lived in a kinder world than we see today. I have to remember that great things do not get accomplished without sacrifice and enthusiasm. The Harley is going great and I removed a metric ton of bugs from the windshield today, sorry bugs.

Be good.

Mike