My parents have made their own granola since I was a kid. I don't know what it is about this family and granola, but a few years ago, Grandma gave me her recipe. I've since made and given her granola to several people. I've made my own little changes to it, but it still gets rave reviews. This year I branded it Swan'ola and Darron and I made some to give for Christmas. Darron thinks it should be Swa'nola instead, to make the post-apostrophe portion as long and as close to the word 'granola' as possible, but the jury is still out on that (why don't we call it Sw'anola then, hmm?). Anyhow, I suppose I could have called it Boydola or Yamamotola, but Boydola sounds like an Italian dish, and Yamamotola reminds me of a cell phone. Beside its rhyming with 'granola,' Grandma used to be a Swan anyway, so I took Head Chef's liberty and went with Swan'ola. In any case, I think somewhere she must be pleased that her granola has made many people smile. So here's to Grandma, always making people happy - even when she's not around!
Happy New Year, everybody.
December 31, 2008
December 2, 2008
Omen?
So, as a sort-of response to my dad's question: over the Thanksgiving long weekend three things happened in four days.
On Wednesday, my classmate had a first-time grand mal seizure during our final exam (see previous blog). Definitely out of the ordinary.
On Friday, I was on the freeway when a car ahead of me caught on fire. It's common enough to see a car with smoke coming out, but this one was actually on fire, and it was under the engine so the driver didn't even know he was flaming. Very rare. I don't think I've ever seen a moving vehicle with flames that wasn't part of a prop. I pulled over, though there was little I could actually do for him without a fire engine or even a fire extinguisher.
On Saturday, just after dark, I was on my way to Darron's and I happened upon an accident and a near-hysterical 18-year old in an intersection. I lit my trusty flares behind each car and quickly checked the girl out, although she was just "shook up" and not hurt. I waited with her and a couple other Good Samaritans until PD and fire came, then took off. Not so rare, but taken together with #1 and #2 in the previous days, highly unusual.
I've had enough off-duty incidents during my active firefighting days to know these things happen from time to time. But that's just it, they happen from time to time. Three in four days is a bit freakish. I felt like Nancy Drew, whose life is conveniently one event after another. I tend to think it was happenstance: if I had made life-saving split-moment actions or decisions in each of these cases, I would probably be really freaked out. But things would have turned out all right whether I'd been there or not. Still, things sure happened close together all in a flurry, and I just happened to be there.
What do you think? Something subtly reinforcing my career choice, or mere coincidence? Perhaps it was a reminder that I need to do some ride-alongs with the FD because I clearly noticed that my thought process has slowed down quite a bit. After two and a half years of not doing emergency response, I'm definitely out of practice. But I still love it! And perhaps that's the most telling omen of all.
On Wednesday, my classmate had a first-time grand mal seizure during our final exam (see previous blog). Definitely out of the ordinary.
On Friday, I was on the freeway when a car ahead of me caught on fire. It's common enough to see a car with smoke coming out, but this one was actually on fire, and it was under the engine so the driver didn't even know he was flaming. Very rare. I don't think I've ever seen a moving vehicle with flames that wasn't part of a prop. I pulled over, though there was little I could actually do for him without a fire engine or even a fire extinguisher.
On Saturday, just after dark, I was on my way to Darron's and I happened upon an accident and a near-hysterical 18-year old in an intersection. I lit my trusty flares behind each car and quickly checked the girl out, although she was just "shook up" and not hurt. I waited with her and a couple other Good Samaritans until PD and fire came, then took off. Not so rare, but taken together with #1 and #2 in the previous days, highly unusual.
I've had enough off-duty incidents during my active firefighting days to know these things happen from time to time. But that's just it, they happen from time to time. Three in four days is a bit freakish. I felt like Nancy Drew, whose life is conveniently one event after another. I tend to think it was happenstance: if I had made life-saving split-moment actions or decisions in each of these cases, I would probably be really freaked out. But things would have turned out all right whether I'd been there or not. Still, things sure happened close together all in a flurry, and I just happened to be there.
What do you think? Something subtly reinforcing my career choice, or mere coincidence? Perhaps it was a reminder that I need to do some ride-alongs with the FD because I clearly noticed that my thought process has slowed down quite a bit. After two and a half years of not doing emergency response, I'm definitely out of practice. But I still love it! And perhaps that's the most telling omen of all.
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