AIFD

A couple of weeks ago, someone smelled smoke in the woods down at the other end of the Angle by the Post Office and J&M Store. So the Angle Inlet Fire Department was called in to investigate. The fire crew, which is strictly volunteer, rushed to the scene to check it out.  It has been extremely dry this summer and a fire up here would just take off, well, like wildfire.

2 Angle residents who stopped to help our heroic fire crew.  Also, a lovely shot of the fire engine, which is older than the fire chief, dating back to the 70's.

Your brave AIFD Fire Chief, Brian, master of hoses.

Somewhere a week or two before this day, an interesting fellow came through the Angle and stayed in a shack out in the woods. A very run-down shack with no door on it, he hung a blanket where the door would have been.  He yielded some sort of dagger than hung from his belt.  No one is sure what it was for.  No one is sure who this guy was or where he came from or why he was such an odd fellow.  We see some different folks up here. But we do know he had a fire going by that shack that smoldered away in the peat and had been burning all this time. So the AIFD went in there and took care of business.  It involved some hoses and water and a bulldozer.  Is that enough details?

Introducing the other member of the AIFD, Rick.  Yes, two McKeevers make up our fearless fire crew.  Training?  Who needs it. Meetings?  Not really. To quote the fire chief, "We only like to do all of our meetings and training during active fires."  And of course the guy always on the scene, Tyson Jayce in the passenger seat.

Filling up the truck with water from Pine Creek.  No fire hydrants way out here!

The road they bulldozed back into the woods.  The fire was put out and all was safe in the Northwest Angle once again.

On Saturday, I will run my last long run of the year, and what a year it has been.  Trials and triumphs abound as we near the 1 year anniversary of our move to Minnesota.  October 1st will  mark the 3-month anniversary of my mother's passing.  At the race, people will be wearing shirts to honor their loved ones who have fought cancer.  I won't have a such a shirt, but it will be on my mind as I run, as it always is when I run.  I am a healthy person who  challenges my body by my own will.  People battling cancer, or any fatal disease,  are put through challenges because they want to live.  At this race when I reach mile 11 and the hip pain starts in and the fatigue and the blister on my second toe, I will think of my mom and know that I can endure these little pains because she endured the big ones. What's 2 more miles, right?  This Saturday when I'm approaching the end of the race, I will be listening to a song by Jeremy Camp called "Let it Fade".   I'll be listening to it and thinking of my mom and her battle. It will give me the inspiration to power through and know that great things are ahead of me.  So if you think of it around 10:00am on Saturday, get out your iPod and listen to that song.  Think of me running my crazy ass off right then, pray for my legs to carry me through, think of my mom and her courage.  And for those of you who live by faith, think about the great things that await us.  That's what I'll be doing.