Red Cross: Back

I'm back from another day at Red Cross. Drove down to Otis ANB base at 7am, arrived at 8:45am. Helped load up the previously boxed "Mass Care" supplies including baby diapers, clothes, packaged snacks and drinks as well as all the cots into 3 vehicles and 1 trailer - one of the vehicles being the Suzuki I bought from Megan (arabellasq) which happens to be red and fits right in. They're even talking about getting me magnetic red crosses that I can stick to my car while working. Not sure if that was a joke or not ;)

After we filled up the vehicles, (about 2hrs), we dropped a few off at the New Bedford office and brought the ERV to the Boston HQ and unloaded it.

Until Monday.....other non-ARC posts to come...I swear. When you do this much driving you listen to a lot of NPR and do a lot of thinking.

Be well.

Got more exposure to the ERV. I think I've going to get Red Cross Driving training which will let me drive any of the 3 vehicles we had today - a van, a suburban tricked out with GPS and the ERV. I believe I need "ERVs: Ready, Set, Roll", "Defensive Driving", and even Logistics Initial Response Vehicle (LIRV) Driver Training while I'm at it.

We are on "Stand Down" from Ophelia - it all but dissolved about 9am ET this morning several hundred miles off the coast of Massachusetts. However Tropical Depression 17 is headed roughly for the Mid-Atlantic states and there's a tropical wave northeast of the South American continent that's targeting Miami. But hell....the computer models are only accurate for a few hours and if you watch the past tracking paths they're all over the place. I have a feeling I'll be more needed in the winter when the No'reasters hit.

Elton John Rocks On

Kirky (kiekre) and I had an awesome time at the Elton John concert last night. I have to admit - I'm a music snob. I really enjoy truly heartfelt music from all ranges of emotions from the lustiness of Sarah McLachlan's "Ice Cream" to the lamentations of Mozart's Requiem to the rolling rowdiness of Ben Folds on his piano. But when Elton John belted out old favorites like Crocodile Rock, Rocket Man, and Daniel, I couldn't help but feel exhilarated.

John's still got his flying fingers - man can he play. And the long, flamboyantly played overtures to his songs were just wonderful. He truly enjoyed playing last night - you could see it on his face and hear it in his music.

Luckily the evening was fun enough to overshadow the annoying people around us. You'd think we were in college again. Beer spilling all over the place, a drunk couple behind us who could barely stand on their feet, and an absolutely infuriating man in front of us that kept taking video clips and camera shots with his phone.

At one point this guy got annoyed at people moving in front of his shot so he moved up to empty seats three rows ahead. Several minutes later, he disgruntledly came back, I assume because the people who owned tickets to those seats had returned. However in the meanwhile another couple took his seats and he furiously went off to first find a security person and then an usher. I can't count how many times ushers with flashlights interrupted the moment because of people who came late, were too drunk to find their seats again, or to resolve disputes.

While taking Kirky to this concert was very important, (since I oft tease her for her music choices - and joke about her tone-deafness, I wanted her to have a fun music-oriented evening), I definitely prefer the smaller, cozy folk-house settings where I hear some of my favorite singer-songwriters like Ellis Paul, Rachael Davis or Erin Dooley, (who I went to HS with).