Alls quiet on the Pine Tree Front....

ARC Girl at Oktoberfest 2008

Probably shouldn't say that because then all He-- will break loose..but my god it was quiet this week at ARC! Went to the Bangor office on Thursday to break the monotony, pickup some stuff etc and Hillary was feeling the pain too...looks like the "disaster Princesses" have no idea what to do with themselves when there is nothing to do! Literally we had no fires, almost no meetings no disasters, upheavels, major issues or anything to deal with this week....BOOOORINNG!!! So what do we do...catch up on all that stuff we don't have done? Yeah right! Like Lynn says..you guys don't know what to do with yourselves with nothing to do!!

Its true...I tried really really hard to finish up the Northeast Harbor cases which need to go into CAS and I did ...almost! I had a ton of health forms to put in...didn't....did start on my Emergency Services directors course stuff for the workshop at the end of the month...but really did not accomplish a grand lot this week!

Don started in Boothbay on Monday but was back by Tuesday night and worked at Hewes for the rest of the week...then of course all I heard was about the stock Market...had to check the internet before I talked to anyone, every evening...scary stuff. Glad I work for an agency that doesnt have any money to begin with...where can it go from here??

Tylers college fund is taking big hits though! Don't even open the retirement fund envelopes.

Heading to DC next weekend...Diva daughter had a play last weekend that I missed due to Oktoberfest...which was subdued this year!! but fun none the less.

She is designing the costumes for the Mainstage production this fall, so I will see that..and her internship companys show is up and running, will see that also. They have asked her to train with them. They said she has "the look" they want! Hmmm a real job...in theater even! We shall see!

So happy autumn all...oh and by the way...I am the proud owner of my very own ticket to the Drop Kick Murphys concert at UMO next month....god save the Princess!! Have to take Ty and Henry...yikes!

ARC girl

Updates from me!

Hey less than a month and I am posting again....scary!! Things have actually quieted down at work, now that its "officially" fire season and we are getting at least one a day. NOT like this summer when entire villages burnt down, or major apartment complexes, or giant hurricanes as in 4 at a time hit the gulf! I mean really, what's a fire a day compared to all that?

This weekend was a little interesting as an unnamed storm on Thursday all of a sudden decided it needed to form into a Hurricane named Kyle on Friday and head north! Nice! It was a good exercise. Things that had been on my mind to do... like cleaning out the old shelter kits and redoing them..done! Labeling the new cots..done! Getting that order of comfort kits in....done!
Printing off the new forms and shelter handbooks...done! We were ready. Alot of volunteers put themselves on standby. The two affected EMA directors were great to work with, lots of calls and communication, and in the end, nothing to do...but it was good to have a few things in order.

Ty very busy with Soccer. Games or practices take up my afternoon schedule. Show choir and band going well also. Pep band has played at a couple of the games..funny to see the JV's get off the field grab their instruments and go play for the varsity game!

Oktoberfest this weekend...hope the weather is nice. I have alot to do between now and Saturday and little time to do it! good thing I can do this party with my eyes closed mostly!

Well before I fall asleep....good night everyone ARC Girl

Its the Middle of the Night....

Hey, I have time to post....when else do I???? Now I get up at 6, shower, coffee, dry hair and then drice Tyler to school to be there by about 7:45...get some more coffee and head to the office. Check email, eat breakfast, and then start the day....of course the end of the day is now soccer games, practice or something like that in between...picking him up and feeding him and bringing him where he has to be next!

Just read Sib #2's blog who took her oldest off to College for the first time...wait till you do it for the third time and think...I am not sure she is coming home anymore....

And Sib #3, she can't catch a break with her achilles tendons.....and that is why they have that conotation of being you're "achilles"

Sib #5 is apparently engaged...no mass email here to announce this and I have not been formally told, but that is the word thru the grapevine

Lets see what else is going on in my world tonight at 1 am..oh yeah I am officially full time at ARC..duh, been that way for months but had to push to get the final paperwork on it!
Oh and hubby has a new job...In Boothbay Harbor...no we are not moving...he is ...sorta
Kinda one of those commuter kind of things...really good position with Hodgdon Yachts, CFO, and they gave him 4 day weeks, and housing etc. so works for everyone...

Well, I think this foot cramp which got me up in the first place has finally susided and maybe I can go back to bed...See you all in the AM, which means I probably wont see you here again!!
ARC girl

I'm BAAAAAACK.......maybe!

So where has ARC GIRL been you ask??...Well lets see, the last day she blogged July 24..about 5 days later she got a phone call..5;30 am, downtown Northeast Harbor...on fire...Main Street, at least 3 buildings, apartments many homeless. out of control....ARC girls home town.

I drove over, got thru the barricades, parked the car and walked over hoses and past companys of trucks and men to find the chiefs of the operation, They were at the rear end of the buildings that were still completely engulfed. At least 18 homeless they said..not sure of whereabouts...

Hours later I had processed over 22 people, Hillary had come down, and then left, 14 Russian national students had been re housed. The State had been notified there would be documentation issues and I had started to help different organizations set up relief funds, centers and central contact places. It is now September and I am still picking up bits and pieces from this disaster. The home town girl just couldn't be allowed to get away....it was one of the most rewarding yet difficult disasters to date. I did PR, I did fundraising, I did foreign diplomacy and government liasion work, I did chapter health and client case work, I did disaster mental health and psychological first aid and most of all I gave back to a place that gave me alot growing up.

Thank god for Hurricane Season, so I could get out of Northeast Harbor!! Gustav, Hanna, Ike, and Josephine have wreaked havoc with my one week vacation and all the weekends in between as I deploy people and the ERV's to the south. Then the storms think about heading north and everyone up this way wants a volunteer, an ERV, a red cross!! Its the job you love to hate sometimes!!

Then there are the back to school duties..Ty in Ellsworth, JV soccer team, practices etc. Caroline back to DC, life is never dull. Believe me I can run circles around Sarah Palin!!
And quite frankly...The ARC girl is more qualified than her to be a heart beat away from the Presidency! I know CPR!!

Work for ARC? Use a Pencil on your Calendar!!!

Ok...Typical DAY for ARC girl....Thursday July 24 2008 Schedule looks like this:

9:30-11am Volunteer subcommittee meeting at Jackson Lab for MDI Pan flu committee

12:30-4pm Ellsworth office

6pm Peninsula Ambulance Board meeting.

THEEEEN.....the ARC Board of Directors decides to have the Staff interview Patrick Adams for the Executive Directors Job...ok...Cancel Jax Lab meeting. Meanwhile find out that there is a Hancock County meeting regarding Heating crisis at 10am ...nope can't attend that either...have to go to Bangor for the Board meeting.

So, get up, drying hair..power goes out..damn...put hairdryer in car and head to Ellsworth office to get ready for Bangor meeting...phone rings.,.power out in Ellsworth and MDI...hmmm! Call Ralph Pinkham EMA director, he's on his way to EMA, doesn't know whats going on. Phone rings again...power out in Bangor, all of Penobscot county....Hmmmm! Head to EMA....Ralph is talking to the Hydro and MEMA in Augusta...Huge outage...ALL Bangor Hydro Customers are off line! Ok, so we are not going to Bangor today...that meeting is cancelled!!
Governor comes on radio stations that are on the air to say they are working on the issue.
Power comes up in Ellsworth first. Yeah!!!

Ralph and I decide to attend heating meeting...the 'third option' I had for the day..but didnt think I could attend because of Jax lab meeting, and Board meeting. Back to Ellsworth office at 12 noon, by 2pm...TORNADO watches!!!!! All the counties completely surrounding Hancock county...OK!! Me and toto know where to go, the basement at the courthouse!! Its not here in front of these floor to ceiling windows I can tell you that!!

Hillary calls...says "I want a schedule" so we can figure out where to be, how to dress, if we get a shower, and our hair done in the morning?????? Yeah Right!
Welcome to our world...
No Day is ever the same, and NO DAY is ever as you planned!!!

You can not keep a neat date book...so don't even try!!!!!!!!!!!! For some of us type A's this is a very hard thing to get over!!!!

ARC girl...hanging on to the Ruby slippers.

Why do they call it the "MOTHERBOARD?"

So, why DO they call it the MOTHER BOARD??? Do you want to know why I haven't been posting...because of the Mother board...it died!!! Yes I turned my laptop on and it didnt turn on!!
Tried all the things you are supposed to do, no luck. Took it to my husbands office..he turned it on..nothing...took to the IT guy...nothing...so I took it to Circuit City...no Geek squad, but guys in Geeky green polos at a certain desk..."Guy" in polo turns it on...looks at it and then shuts the cover. Says to me..do you want the bad news or the good news first? Just tell me!!!

"Its the Mother Board" Now, I know nothing...NOTHING...about computers and electronics in general except the on/off switch, but I do KNOW that the word MOTHER BOARD means BIG trouble!!! He tells me its gone...so I say what is the good news about all this?? He says, all HP 6000 Mother Boards are failing and have been recalled...I say and this is a good thing????????
Yeah, because you get a new MOTHERBOARD! Well grand!! How much is this, and what about my data and when do I get my computer back??? Free, we will back up your data, and 7-10 days!!

Well, we are on day 5 now and ARC girl is suffering miserably without her laptop...at least she is in her office today with a computer to herself to play on!! It has not been fun! So why do they call it the Mother board..not the father board..because everyone has to have a mother?? Because females are the "control" of everything?? Huh?? I mean seriously why?? Did a man come up with this name?? I am guessing so!!

So what else is up...or down...as the situation may be??? Took three teens to a concert in Portland on Friday.. they had a blast, (Tyler and Kyle even ended up ON STAGE with the band!!) and I went to a barbeque with my sister in law and it ended up being Old Home Week with all these MDI people there!! Some I had not seen in years!
Came home and took Caroline and Aisha out to dinner for Care's 20th and Aishas last meal in the USA before three weeks in Africa on a Grant project. Then took Aisha to the Bus the next morning..She is an amazing young woman! I am so proud of that one!

Then to top it all off coming down the stairs the other night a couple of heavily framed portraits came down and one hit my leg directly on some veins, causing quite a bit of swelling and bruising and alot of pain. I was petrified I was going to have phlebitis or compartment syndrome or something the way it was looking...it went down a little overnight and then I had it looked at the next day..out of work for a day and I am back...no worse for the wear... a little swollen and black and blue...

Well the office is very warm today, no AC for ARC girl...don't want to overstay my welcome today!! Have a good one...and take care of your MOTHER>>board!

People...Keep your fires to yourself!!

You wonder where I've been? ARC girl, deputy director of disaster etc...has her hands full!
What on earth is wrong with people..its summer! In the past week..we have had two apartment fires two trailer fires and three house fires!!!!! IN one WEEK!!!!!!!!! three of them over the 4th!! Not sure what the problem is here but it's one-a-day...two in one town!! Lots of homeless people!! Now if this was the middle of heating season, that would be one thing....NOPE!!!
DO NOT leave your citronella candles burning, or your cigarettes burning out on your porches...!!! And if that was not enough, there were three terrible car accidents on the Blue Hill Peninsula this weekend that invovled kids, life flight helicopters and two deaths from a burning auto..not pretty.

BUT on a nicer note, the weather was perfect for the weekend. Attended the Brooklin Parade, a very small community parade that the former owner of the Sedgwick Store used to have a float in (moi!) and win first prize every year!! Then had some fun friends over for a barbeque, hung around the house on Saturday working on my poor neglected flower beds and pots and enjoying my backyard, the Reach, and the sunshine.

Busy week this week, travel to Washington County, Staff meeting in Bangor and then..taking three teenagers to a rock concert on Friday!!! Wish me luck on that one!!
I'll be "Shippin' up to Portland" for DKM...luckily I am not a ticket holder, just a chauffeur...dont mind the music, but only for about 30 minutes or so..then it starts to sound the same!!
So this should keep me off the list...until next time, "Tessie is the maiden....