Backstory: Heroes

Today is Memorial Day, a day set aside to honor those folks who have given their lives for the protection of our country. I thought it would be an appropriate day then to give you the backstory of one of my favorite images:
My friends, Joe and Beth, live in Montgomery, New York. It's a small town up in the Hudson Valley, about an hour north of Manhattan. Every year, on the weekend after Labor Day, the town hosts 'General Montgomery Day' (GMD) to honor their founder. It's a great celebration full of all kinds of small-town events: soapbox derby, carnival rides, arts and crafts, and one of the best parades you could imagine! You see, in the Northeast, the public safety tradition runs strong and deep - generations of fathers and son (and daughters, too!) choose to serve their community as firefighters and police officers. And the parade is the perfect time to put on the Class A uniforms and show their stuff. Almost every firehouse has some sort of antique fire apparatus, and they polish it up and bring it out to the parade.

My first GMD parade was in 2001 - September 8th to be exact. I spent the weekend with Joe and Beth. Thoroughly enjoying myself, it was time to head back to Atlanta. So on September 10th, 2001, I boarded a flight from New York and returned to Atlanta. Of course, we all know where we were the next day. For the guys in the picture, they were quietly hanging out in their firehouse in one of the small towns around the Hudson Valley when the call came in to head to Manhattan and help their firefighter brothers and sisters. When it was all said and done, 343 brave souls lost their lives in the line of duty - many of whom came from the small-town departments.

Fast-forward one year, to September 9th, 2002. It's time again for another GMD parade. The mood is obviously more somber, though much more patriotic. Virtually every firehouse gets a standing ovation worthy of the honor. I tried in vain to capture as many images as I could with my digital camera. After getting back to Atlanta that year, I took some time to review what I captured. And I found these two guys. Dressed in the same call-out gear they wore into the Twin Towers, in scorching end-of-Summer heat, they proudly marched with their flag about 3 paces ahead of their firehouse. You see, they were the survivors of their house - everyone else was new with less than a year of service.

There's no doubt that the men and women of our Armed Forces deserve Memorial Day for all their sacrifice. The men and women of our domestic public safety - firefighters and police - deserve the day, too. So the next time you see a cop or a firefighter, thank them for all they do.

Happy Memorial Day.

Two NEW Words...

1) Friends
2) Rock!

Two Words...

1) Dating
2) sucks

Backstory: Eye of the Tiger

When I started getting into all of the various social networks, such as Facebook, Meetup, Myspace, and so forth, I decided that my profile picture should be something unique. You might be familiar with the image I chose:

Although I have shared the story of this picture with some of you, lately I have had a couple more questions about it. So here is the story behind the picture.

Between 1998 and 2001, in addition to my full-time engineering job, I served as Resident Caretaker for Autrey Mill Nature Preserve in what is now John’s Creek, Georgia. I provided maintenance and handyman services for the facility, as well as security at night. I also helped out with logistics and set-up for special events.

One event in 1999, in particular, was called Wild Weekend. It was a national program aimed at showcasing nature preserves and animal reserves. One of the folks the helped organize Wild Weekend was also very active at Autrey Mill, and arranged for Autrey Mill to become the focal point of the Wild Weekend program. With that, we began preparing for a festival that would ultimately include presentations of numerous small wild animals. The presenter would be none other than Jim Fowler, of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom fame. He would show off animals such as snakes, bobcats, raccoons, and others provided by Chestatee Wildlife Sanctuary in Dawsonville, Georgia.

In preparation for the show on Saturday, I took Friday off to help with set-up. Just before lunch, we received a phone call from the trainer at Chestatee. He had been in the city that morning with his animals, helping Jim with some media appearances, and wanted to know if he could come by on Friday and drop his trailer for the night. Shortly after that, we got a second call letting us know that Jim and some of his associates would also come by to take a look at our set-up and begin preparing for Saturday’s show. About an hour later, the coordinator showed up with his trailer. He expressed concern that he needed to clean the compartment where the lion cubs were, and he inquired if we had a place we could secure the cubs. I suggested our Star Pond courtyard, which was fenced in. He turned the cubs loose, and we soon stopped our set-up work to watch the cubs play. They appeared to be hungry, so the coordinator put together some food for them. But instead of he taking the time to feed them (since he had to clean the trailer), he handed me the bottle and pushed me into the courtyard! I was a little worried at first, but he told me not to panic – the cubs were used to being around people and being bottle-fed. They knew what to do. The panic turned to joy and excitement:

After a while, Jim Fowler arrived with a couple of his press and media guys, as well as his son and daughter. They toured our facility, being impressed with what we were doing on such a limited budget. After some strategizing and planning for the Saturday show, Jim made a comment to the Chestatee coordinator about this being the perfect time to get the publicity shots done. The coordinator agreed, and they proceeded to lead out this HUGE Bengal tiger from the trailer! Not being one to pass up a prime “Kodak moment”, I raced inside and grabbed my camera. I was going to get my own “Jim Fowler publicity shot” even if they did not Jim and his folks took turns posing with the tiger while the media guy took their pictures. I stood off to the side, taking my own pictures. All of a sudden, the media guy turns around, grabs my camera, and tells me “it’s your turn!” And before I knew it, I had this tiger climbing all over me! What a total thrill! I ended up with two good shots that day, the second of which is:

And in addition to the tiger, we also posed with a full-size black bear. I can’t find that image at the moment, but I’ll look for it. This bear, when standing on his hind legs, was at least a foot taller than me!

It was truly a memorable experience. That night, the cubs, tiger, and bear stayed in the trailer, while the snakes found comfort in my living room (they were secured). And Saturday’s show went off without a hitch. Of course, when they brought out that Bengal tiger, all the folks there jumped back in fear at the sight of such a beast. If only they knew that just 24 hours prior, he was nothing more than a cuddly kitty-cat looking for a bottle!

P.S. As a side note, when I meet people at Meetup events and they want to know my contact information, I simply tell them that I’m the guy feeding the tiger – and they all instantly know who I am!

P.P.S. Look for more "Backstory" posts in the future. If it is a slow "news week" I'll write some more posts giving the history and background of some of my favorite pictures.

'cue Indulgence

A few years ago, I found myself being a "regular" over at Williamson Brothers Barbecue. I had gotten to the point where I no longer ordered main platters or sandwiches, but rather made a meal from several appetizers. One of my favorites was 'Barbecue Nachos'. They took a bed of tortilla chips; covered them with sauce, pulled pork, and cheese; and baked the whole thing until it was gooey and bubbly. Yum! One time, I ordered a dish called 'Barbecue Bean Cheese Fries', which was their thick-cut steak fries covered with baked beans, barbecue sauce, and cheese. It was pretty forgettable. EXCEPT that it spawned a creative idea: could they put the pork and sauce and cheese from the nachos on top of the steak fries instead of chips??? Why, yes, they could! Woo AND hoo!!!

And so it became that, for the rest of the time I was a regular, I would order "off the menu" and get pork nachos on fries instead of chips. It was bliss...
One evening, at home with a mess of homemade barbecue, I thought I might recreate that personal dish for myself. Except that I didn't want to go shopping and all I had in the freezer was a bag of tater tots. Wait a minute - could this be higher bliss??? I baked off the 'tots according to the package, piled on the barbecue, drizzled some sauce, and covered the whole thing with cheese. Oh. My. Gawd! Such a simple concept, but, yet, such a wonderful result.
And so Monday evening rolls around, and I again find myself with a mess of homemade barbecue (leftover from the Blog Family birthday party on Saturday night). A quick run through the local mega-mart yields a bag of 'tots, and in a short time, I find myself with this:

It might look like something straight out of the White Trash cookbook, but I assure you that it is a taste sensation! And there are plenty of leftovers for another meal this week. Yay!

Thanks for the Meme-ories

I’ve been tagged for a meme by Blogicalinks (and Sheeple, and Dianne,...). A meme consists of any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that gets transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. You've no doubt gotten e-mails where you fill in lists of information about yourself. That's one example.

Here are the rules for this one:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

Since I'm doing this at work while taking a break, you unfortunately get subjected to one of my Engineering reference books. I will tell you that the first book I picked up (the closest to me), is titled Architectural Graphic Standards, but it didn't have enough sentences around page 123 to work. So my second book was Human Factors in Engineering and Design, and here's what it has to say:

When symbol displays might be used in various circumstances by the same people, the displays should be standardized with a given symbol always being associated with the same referent. One example of such standardization is the system of international road signs. A few examples are shown in Figure 4-19. The National Park Service also has a standardized set of symbols to represent various services and concepts such as picnic areas, bicycle trails, and playgrounds.

Are you sufficiently dazzled now? Regardless, if you've read this now, consider yourself tagged!