How's it going?

Well, isn't that a loaded question. So far, the course is extremely harder then I could have ever imagined, considering that I was told that there was 2 weeks of training & then we'd be on the phones.

Well, that's not quite what is happening. We have 4 weeks of training & then 4 rotations (4 working days & 5 days off) of preceptership and once that is complete, we finally start on our own. So, it was a small shock to the system when I first found that out!

Well finally today, I was able to go & sign my letter of employment I'm officially temporarily employed by SERHA, at least until Dec 16 when Ambulance New Brunswick takes over.

I can't really complain. I mean, so far I have only failed 1 test where I have 3 fails maximum.

As you can see by my posting time below, it's almost 4am and I've actually just gotten back from PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) for a listen along & I found it very interesting. The two places are very similar in the service that they provide (answering 911 calls & sending out help: ie: ambulance or police/fire); however, the set up & software is completely different. I'm anxious to see (if I make it that far) what ANB is going to bring to the table.

Well, I just wanted to give a quick run down & maybe non of this makes much sense; however, I don't want to post-edit it either as this is "Another Day in the Life of Joel".

Have a great night, I'll certainly try!

'til next time!

Car Seat Safety

Allison is a very observant mother. She was watching TV one day & noticed this "Child Safety Link" commercial with an toddler certainly older then 1 year old. Allison wasn't sure what to think, so she emailed Child Safety Link. Here is a copy of the email (read from the bottom up):

Hi Allison:

Good questions. The benefit of being rear-facing is that it distributes the force of the crash evenly along the child's spine, providing better protection for the brain and spinal cord. This outweighs the risk of injury to the legs. It is okay for the legs to be
touching the back seat or crossed for the child to get comfortable. In a forward facing position, all of the force is concentrated in a small area of the child's neck. Their head will pull the neck forward. If the child's bones and muscles are not strong enough (which generally happens around 17 months or more) there is the risk that the vertebrae will separate and cause the spinal cord to stretch or tear. So
therefore we recommend that parents not rush to turn forward facing. I know that it seems like a graduation, a milestone to be reached, but it is actually a step backwards in terms of safety if the child is not sufficiently developed.

I hope that this helps.

Kim Mundle
Car Seat Safety Specialist
IWK Health Centre
tel: (902) 470-7324
toll free: 1-866-288-1388

>>> "Allison Gallant" <alliecat@******.ca> 16/10/2007 12:18 pm
>>>
Hi Kim. Thank you for your response. I now understand better why the girl in the commercial was rear facing, however, at her size, wouldn't there be a risk of her legs breaking in the event of a car accident? Wouldn't it be safer for her to be forward facing since she does meet the minimum requirements for forward facing?

My daughter is 10 months, 30.5" and 21lbs. I was planning on turning her
car seat around on her birthday (December 4th) because I know she will meet
the minimum requirements, however, is it safer to wait as long as possible
before doing so? I guess I'm unclear as to what the risks are rear facingvs forward facing.

Thank you for your information.

Allison

-----Original Message-----
From: Kim Mundle [mailto:Kim.Mundle@iwk.nshealth.ca]
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 11:47 AM
To: alliecat@********.ca
Subject: Re: I would like to express my concern over a Child Safety Link commercial that

Hello Allison:

Thank you for your comments about the commercial. The girl in the commercial is over the age of one, and over the minimum weight of 22 lbs because the safety recommendation for the rear-facing position is that children remain rear-facing as long as possible, within the rear-facing weight limit and height limit for the seat. Most seats sold in Canada can be used rear-facing up to 30 lbs, and therefore many children can remain rear-facing until age 2 1/2 or 3 years old. The age one and 22
lbs is the minimum that children must be to consider going forward facing. As well, they should be walking solidly on their own. When filming the commercial, all of the images were overseen by a certified Child Restraint Systems Technician for accuracy. Do you have any questions regarding car seats? I will be out of the office for a few
days but would be happy to talk with you when I return.


Kim Mundle
Car Seat Safety Specialist
IWK Health Centre
tel: (902) 470-7324
toll free: 1-866-288-1388

>>> "Allison Gallant" <alliecat@nb.sympatico.ca> 13/10/2007 11:21 am
>>>
I would like to express my concern over a Child Safety Link commercial that I recently saw. This commercial is talking about car seat safety and the importance of rear facing seats for children under the age of 1. The girl in the commercial that is climbing into the rear facing seat is clearly over the age of 1 and is way too big to be riding rear facing. I feel that this is a misrepresentation of good car seat safety. My sister and I are mothers to children all under the age of 3 and take child safety very
seriously. We feel that your commercial would be more beneficial if it was properly
advertising what your message is about.


Thank you for your time,



Allison Gallant

All I can say is wow! I would have never thought! This certainly opened my eyes & we are going to seriously think about when we are going to turn Olivia around.

Just thought I'd share this news!

'til next time!

A new adventure

Day 2!

It's hard to believe that it's already been 2 days that I'm no longer employed with RBC. It's even harder to imagine that it's been just over 8yrs that I was with RBC. I certainly can't say that I have been miss-treated by the bank...

I have started a new employement, but this time, it's really in line with my final career. On Monday, I started with Medical Transport Coordination Center, aka: MTCC. So far the training is pretty intense. Lots to learn in a short period of time. Well, actually, we have 4 weeks plus 4 weeks of on the job training.

It is pretty interesting & I'm learning stuff, but a lot of it you have to know it on the tip of your fingers. I know that it will come to that, but I'm the type where I have little patience and want to know everything now.... but that's just part of life! What's even more fun is that in my class, I actually know half of the people, 2 from the FD, 1 a friend from school, 1 ex-client and 1 person who's house we'd saved!

Well, that's about it for now! I have to email my old payroll coordinator to see if I can get access to my payroll sheets to see how much I'm getting paid next week...

'til next time!

It's official

What a day!

If you would have talked to me this morning, I would have told you something completely different then what I'm telling you now!

TD Bank called me this morning & made an offer of employment which I ended up accepting. It was kinda crazy - a pretty decent offer actually! I was getting everything in place and then I got another phone call...

JP from MTCC asking if I was still interested.... The funny thing is that I didn't know who was calling me since he didn't really identify himself... I said that I was still interested and certainly couldn't wait to start.

So, at the end of the day, I had to make a decision. I had 3 possible jobs, my current RBC, a new TD Bank & a new one with MTCC.

Since being a firefighter and wanting to be in the emergency services industry, I ended up going with my heart - MTCC.

Starting on Monday, I will be in training for that job. Things should go pretty well. What is even funnier is that I'm going to be joined by 2 other fellow Dieppe Firefighters - Danic Brun & Mike Belliveau.

It's going to be a blast! I can't wait to get started!

Also, tomorrow at the Fire Dept, we are hosting the JOLT competition (Jaws of Life Tournement) which puts Fire Depts against each other to see who can extracate someone from a vehicle the quickest & most efficiently.

I'll grab some pics & post them as soon as I can!

'til next time!

Is it really worth it?

So, yesterday I decided that I wanted to refresh my notebook so I did a complete re-install/re-image of my hard drive.

Everything went perfectly well except for the fact that I can't get my iTunes to work like it was working before. Unfortunately, I have already synced my iPod with my re-installed iTunes, so there is nothing that can be done now!!!

The only real problem that I'm having is that my play list & top rated have disappeared along with my album art. I guess I can live with that, but I'm going to have to continue to try to figure out how to fix it! I may call on DearCali for this one.... we'll see!

So, tomorrow afternoon is going to be an interesting afternoon. 3pm isn't going to come fast enough! Again, can't go into too many details just yet, but keep your fingers crossed! Everything could change between now & Friday!

Off to bed!

'til next time!

10 years and counting

Hard to believe that it's already been 10 years in the Fire Service. Time has really gone by fast. When I sit down & think about it, I haven't even really seen a lot of fires as per say!

I've fought a few, but nothing major where we can "surround & drown" the place. I guess that just means that Dieppe Fire is very efficient!

We had our open house this weekend (Oct 7th) and that's where I was presented with my 10 years of Service Maple Leafs. Also, during that time, Allison & Olivia came down & I was able to snap some good pictures with Olivia. You can see them on my Flickr page.

Other then that, not a whole lot is going on. I'm still waiting for news about some movement, so it's still all hush hush, but I'll let you know as soon as I know something. I'm sort of anxious to get it all over with and I have to be careful that it doesn't affect my current performance.

Well, that's about all I've got for right now....

'til next time!

Stay Tuned

Tomorrow, Wednesday, I will be meeting with an opportunity to do some local business. I know that I'm being vague; however, I don't want to jinx things.

On Thursday, I will also be meeting with MTCC do complete an aptitude test. I'm sure that these are pretty simple things; however, they are kind of stressful when you think about it.

So, stay tuned & I'll be able to share more news as soon as I have it available.

'til next time!

Fire Fire Fire

Well, on Sept 25, we had quite the little adventure!

Allison went to a scrapbooking party and I was at home with Olivia. I had just sat down from putting Olivia down & was on my computer - actually thinking of something to blog about, when the phone rang.

It was my accountant telling me that he had some questions in regards to my taxes (2006 - yes I know that it's a little late! LOL). As we where going through that, my pager went off at 2056. My heart starts to race as I listen to the dispatch.

The call came in that the building was already half involved in flames. I couldn't believe it! I was at home stuck on the phone. I never wanted to hang up so quickly in my life to call Allison & see where she was at.

Once I was finally done with the accountant, I called Allison really quickly. As she answers, I ask "where are you?" She simply replied that she was getting ready to leave. I was happy about that. Cause I knew that we where going to be spending some time on scene.

Once Allison arrived, I headed to the Fire Hall and discovered that there was 3 other people there too.... looking for the Deputy Chief's keys. He was out of town.

All in all, the fire went well. The building was not half involved as the dispatch came in. It was contained & we where able to keep the fire from spreading too much.

Other then that, I've got 2 new developments coming my way. Two local employment offers have arrived on my door step. I don't want to go into too much details just yet as I don't want to jinx anything.

Olivia is growing up very quickly. She can now easily stand and also crawl up the stairs. She is also recovering from Tonsillitis.... She had a very high fever last week - as high as 102. All in all, it was scary, but under control. The only thing that really bothers me about my work is situations like that. I was in Richibucto and Allison wasn't sure what else to do. I rushed home & spent time with them while we waited for our Dr's appt.

So, Olivia is going to stay on meds (penicillin) for 10 days, just to make sure that eveything is completely gone.

Well, that's all I've got for now!

'til next time!