Visit From Alison

Wednesday night we picked Meredith and Alison up from Will Rogers Airport. We were there on time and the airplane arrived on time. First time for that for us.
I guess Alison loves to fly because she came off the airplane very happy. Meredith said she didn't sleep the whole trip. Alison was busy playing with her foot.
Meredith then told Alison BoomPa and JG were there and she had a big smile on her face. She wanted out of the carriage to be held.

Justin was the first to get to pick her up. He loved holding his neice. This was the first time they saw each other and Alison seemed to like Justin a lot. I think she likes everyone. Justin did not want to turn Alison loose so Meredith got her suitcases and JG got the stroller.
I think Meredith loved her brother holding her daughter. Very seldom do you get to see someone as proud as the mother of Alison. Justin was proud to finally be with her too.

Time to put Alison back in the stroller and start for home. It has been a long day for everyone. JG and Justin wouldn't get more than one foot from Alison.
Putting Alison in her car seat in the car. She does not like strapped in very well but accepts it. We are on our way from the airport. It is around 9 PM.

Tornado Watches and Warnings

We have been under a tornado watch or warning for the last week. As soon as I get home each day we hurry to the dog park to let the dogs work off their energy.

This is one of the storms we could seek from the dog park. This thunderstorm was East of us travling North East so it was no danger to us. It produced one funnel just outside of Stillwater but that was it for this one. There were only 6 or 7 tornados touched down yesterday and none of them did much damage. No one was hurt.

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First thing we do everytime we go to the park is go swimming;. I have never uploaded a video so I hope this one works. This is usually what the dogs do at the lake.

Lady resting after playing hard at the park. But Leia will not let her rest long.
Lady and Leia play with each other all the time. They play together when there are thirty other dogs in the dog park to play. They are becoming best of friends.

Work, Work Work

Another hard day at work. Work, Work Work is all I seem to get to do. We had another converence today at Edmond Fire Station #5. It only lasted two hours so it was really enjoyable. We are getting ready for a multi agency incident, something big like a tornado, multiple shooting, or something else that will take a while to complete the scene work.
This is the back side of the command post. Command 1 it is called. 54 feet long and where the slides are it is about 15 feet wide. The tractor trailer is really impressive to look at.

The mast on the back holds all the antennas for low band, Uhf, Vhf, 700 and 800 HHz frequencies. It also holds a high quality movie camera to take pictures of the scene of the incident. There are also 4 other cameras on top of the trailer that provide security for the trailer itself.

There are two entrances to Command 1. The front entrance goes into the communications section and the back entrance is the command post.

The small door on the front slide out is a large LCD television that shows what the cameras are broadcasting. There are two slides on each side of the trailer. This makes each room very large.

The Tractor part of Command 1 is driven by an OHP Trooper. After Command 1 arrives at the place it is going to set up the OHP Trooper Driver provides security for the Command Post.

On front of the trailer is a very large generator to provide all the electricity needed to run all the equipment inside. The air conditioner is above the generator. The trailer can be kept very cool or warm, whichever is needed.

This is the command post area. On the other side of the door is the Communications area. The Command area will sit 10 people and their computers/radios confortable around the table and another 10 people along the tables on each side. That would be more people then ever needed in a mobile command post.

Looking the other direction in the command center of the trailer. There is coffee and a small sink for water.

The conference table has connections in the middle for electrical plugs and computer networking plugs. There are enough for each of the 10 members to have two plugs and a network connection. More can be made if needed but I think that is all that is needed during an emergency.

This is the communications work station. This area would answer phones and enter the information in their computers. There are no radios consoles on two of these positions.

This is the other side of the work station. This device will allow the communications personnel to talk on all rado frequencies. There is two work stations with the radio consoles.

The communications room also has a sink and coffee pot. There is not a restroom in the trailer. After the trailer is setup, a prota-potty company is called to set up portable johns. This keeps people from coming into the command post to use the bathrooms. A very good idea.

As I said, Work, Work, Work, but it is really enjoyable work. I love it and I don't know of anyone that wouldn'g love to have this kind of job. I feel really lucky to get to work with such equipment and good people. Maybe I should call it Play, Play, Play instead of Work Work Work. It is fun and always something going on and so much to learn.

Leia

With Meredith, Chris, Alison, Justin, Benita and my help, we finally came up with a name. The vote was 6-0 in favor of Leia. Like Princes Leia of Star Wars. Yea... finally have a name for the new Catahula.

More Pictures to come, I hope.

New Addition to the Family

Everyone knows Lady. She has been with us for about a month. She is a very active Catahula and loves to go to the park and play with other dogs. She seems to play better with other Catahulas than any other breed of dog so we decided to find Lady a Catahula companion.
We found a very gentle and smart Catahula in Yukon, Oklahoma at Pets and People. We took Lady with us so she could help us pick out the new addition. At first Lady didn't like the attention we were paying the new dog and when we walked them together Lady snapped at her. We went to the dog park in Yukon and let the two dogs go. There were several other dogs in the park but Lady and this dog played together nearly all the time leaving the other dogs alone, We adopted this 18 month old Catahula pup, I took quit a bit of effort to get her to get into my pickup. She didn't think it was correct getting into a vehicle. After working with her for about fifteen minutes I got her in the pickup. Partly picking her up and partly her efforts. Mostly mine.

Lady didn't like her in the pickup. She snaped at her and barked, something Lady rarely does. She was not really happy at all that this pup was in the vehicle. We went to the dog park in Edmond and the two dogs played hard together, went swimming together and seemed best friends. When we left and went back in the pickup, Lady again didn't want this dog in the vehicle. When we got home, same thing. Lady did not want her in the house. Lady, the new pup and I took a two mile walk together. It was very pleasant and they got along very well. When we got back to the house Lady started trying to snap and bark at the new pup. We worked with them for about two hours and finally they tolorate each other in the house. Outside they are best friends, inside they tolorate each other. Now, for Justin's cat,,,,,well he don't want either dog here. He thinks he has been put at the bottom of the pecking order, and he has.

We have not named the new pup yet but it has to be done soon so she can be trained to know her name and other commands. If anyone has a suggestion let me know.

Leo the Lion

If you go to the dog park long enough you will see everything. Maybe this is going too far.

Maybe it is not going too far. I found it unusual and the dog didn't seem to mind. She got lots of attention.

Birds Eat To Much

JG always likes to feed the birds. Bird food does not last too long around our place because of all the birds. Our birds are fat and sassy.

Not too many people have birds as pretty as ours.

Lady Found A New Friend

Today at 4:30 PM we started our tornado season. We had at least 5 tornadoes touch down in the metro area. The closest one to Edmond was about 4 miles West at Memorial and Penn. There was no damage with this tornado.

As soon as the clouds broke and there was no danger I went home and took lady to the dog park. There were no dogs there so JG, Lady and I played ball. Lady will retrieve a ball if there are not a lot of other dogs there to distract her attention. Shortly a Great Dane showed up at the park. She was really big and looked clumsy, but Lady seem to really like her and they played.

One strike from her paw and lady would go rolling but would get back up quickly and play with the Dane.

They played chase but Lady could outrun her without a problem. The only time she could catch Lady was when lady stopped and let her.

The owner of the Great Dane said she was glad to find someone that her dog liked and a dog owner that was not afraid to let such a big dog play with their dog. Most people think the big dog will hurt their dog but this dog was just a big baby.

Soon another dog showed up. More Lady's size. Only problem was lady wanted to play with the big dog but the red pup would not leave lady alone.

They played together and all three had a good time.

After an hour everyone was really tired and came back to us wanting to go home.

Lady and JG said goodbye and left the park.
It was a beautiful day after the storms left. There was some damage in Norman, Moore, and South Oklahoma City but none in Edmond. I was able to go home and spend time with the family. We watch a DVD "Sherlock Holmes" with Robert Downy Jr.

Training

This week has been spent in Homeland Security training, COM L, to learn how to be a communications leader at an event that requires more than one agency to respond. We are studying only events that the responders are responding from 50 miles or less. Class starts promptly at 8 AM and is out at 4 PM. We get one hour for lunch but have very few breaks. It is a lecture class with two instructors. Sometimes it is hard to concentrate that long but I have managed to pay attention and not to go to sleep. Homeland Sercurity has grants to help with disasters and major events. Oklahoma was given such a grant to provide a command/communications mobile unit that can respond anywhere in the state. It is available to any public safety agency by making phone call. Depending where the event is, it usually takes no more than four hours for it to be on site and set up. My area, Edmond, would be much faster because the command post is parked only 6 or 7 miles south of our city. The tractor above has the largest engine a truck can have. When responding to an incident, there is a highway patrol escorte, red lights and siren in front and back. It can move down the road if needed.

The command/communications trailer itself is a 50 foot trailer with double slides onboth sides. It is equiped with satalite communications, several cameras, big screen televisions, radios, voip telephones and just about everything else an agency might need during an emergency. The only thing needed on a scene of a disaster is the people to man the trailer. There is two seperate rooms. One room is a dispatch area with a place for 6 dispatchers. The other room has a large conference table that will seat 10 to 15 people administrating the incident. There are enough telephones and computer plugs for everyone, in fact more plugs than people that can fit into the trailer. It is beautiful and will help on our next major event.