Keystone State Thread

One trait of having autism is that I have a photographic memory. For example, I can remember getting toilet-trained by my parents in the early 1990s, and my parents rewarded me with Hot Wheels cars for using the toilet. There are certain things I just can't remember, even in the last five years. Things just blur together.

However, one thing I will never forget is my mom waking me up on the morning of September 11th, 2001 and leading me into the family room (we lived in a 1-story ranch house at the time). I was 12 years old and I had just started 7th grade not even a week earlier, and at first I thought that my mom was just waking me up for school. It didn't take me but a few seconds to realize that something was going on. We had a 32-inch Sony Trinitron TV in the family room, and the news was on. We lived in Washington (state), so we were three hours behind NYC and DC, and the towers had already collapsed. I immediately saw firefighters in their full gear in the burnt out wreckage of either the Trade Center or the Pentagon (I forget which). It was then that my mom told me that "some bad people had flown airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon." I can still remember standing our family room, staring in absolute shock at the TV.

I am watching the 21st Anniversary broadcast on Fox right now, and I saw raw footage of both planes flying into the Twin Towers. Seeing this over two decades later still fills me with feelings anger and sadness that I can't quite explain.

About five years after the attacks (sometime in 2006), my parents and I went to NYC and visited Ground Zero for the first time (At that point in my life, I hadn't been to New York since December 1996, so it was almost a decade since I'd been there last). We stayed at a hotel somewhere in North Jersey during that trip, and coincidentally at that time one of the terrorists who helped plan the 9/11 attacks but wasn't one of the hijackers, was on trial for his crimes. There was this Asian lady who was a few years younger in 2001 than I am today (I'm 33, specifically almost 6 months shy of my 34th birthday) who didn't die in the initial attack, but was trapped on the upper level of one of the towers due to damage caused by the plane. She called 911 and they played recordings of that call at the terrorist's trial. I can remember my dad saying that the terrorist was pretty much screwed with evidence like that. You could hear the absolute fear and terror in the woman's voice as she pleaded with the 911 operator to send someone to help her. I cannot remember if she died from smoke inhalation or in the collapse of the tower, but I was 17 years old at the time and hearing her pleas for help damn near brought me to tears as I watched the trial on that hotel TV.

NEVER FORGET.

 

Good morningish Pennsylvania.

 

GOod evening everyone! Today is one of those days I wish I had some sort of car port or garage to work in.
Spent just about 3 hours in the rain mounting (not wiring) a pair of lights, rotopax moutns and continuing to try to figure out these traction board mounts.

Ah well, such is #condolife.

 

Day 7 of 7 at work and day 6 went over by 30mins. Today, I'm here for an extra 6hrs on top of the 12. Thankfully, in my anti-social tendencies, I remained apart from my relief for the last few days. (we'd see each other at shift change, I'd give a report, and then out the door, (and vice versa) 15 ft apart...) Yesterday he woke up with a 103* fever, and positive.

That being said, I gave myself a headache spraying the crap out of the office, mens room (cause I'm nice like that... even though the three others are on the return from a quad trip), and the trucks with lysol. I'm tossing the level of tired up to only getting 2-4 hrs of sleep each of these last 7 nights. So knock on wood, I get outta this unscathed.

I stayed off social media for a good bit today, just didn't seem like the type of thing to do today, being the 21st anniversary.

Seems to be that we got the rain we've been needing. Hope everyone had a good sunday.

 

Sounds like a nice pay check coming up!

 

Yikes. Good luck and hope you get some rest.

 

The only saving grace right there... Tattoo money
80 hours total for this last week, across the board something like 40 hrs of regular, 28 OT, and 12 Double/holiday time. Since I get paid weekly, what would be my short week (24 hrs) is now gonna be 24, plus 2hrs OT and 16hrs Double Time.

 

With any luck, I'm hoping for 8 hours, Interview #2 for Job application #1 is tomorrow at 1000, thankfully it is just a phone call. Interview #1 for Job application #2 is set for the 26th, and I just sent in a resume for Job Application #3.

 

Good luck Liz

 

Thanks Matt! Did you start the new one yet?

 

X2

 

Good luck! Same industry?

 

@steelcity2
@Taco critter

They had a car show at the little airport in Blue Bell yesterday, and the Wienermobile was there! This particular Weinermobile, dubbed "OH I WISH" (note the license plate), is the oldest one in the fleet, a 2012 model built on an Isuzu commercial chassis and hasover 300K miles! This giant hot dog even has a backup camera (see last photo)!

 

Knew a girl who was chosen to drive it for a summer. She was college age.

 

It doesn't have air brakes and it isn't over 26,000 pounds, so you can drive it with a regular license!

 

Yep, she had to go for training, driving and public info stuff.

 

@Taco critter
Happy Anniversary John

 

On a broad spectrum? Yes, Fire Marshal (sorta private and public sector), Fire Chief (private sector), Fire Chief (public sector).

 

Good morning fellow Pennsyltuckyvanians!!!

Good luck, Liz!!! @TinyTech626