Since it has finally cooled down a bit, the leaves really started to fall from the trees in my yard and in the woods by the house.  The problem is that quite a few of the land in the rain gutters.  Since they normally don’t blow out by themselves, we have to do it.  That meant using a leaf blower with a snorkel type of attachment and try to blow them out of the rain gutter,   was able to get most of them out, but since it rained a few days ago, the wet leaves don’t come out too easily.  The fun part now begins, since I had to climb onto a ladder and scoop them out with my hands.  Even with gloves, my hands smelled a bit of compost when I was done.  Since today was the third Saturday, Ellen, Eileen and I went bowling at the East Islip Lanes with the St. Mary’s League.  Like what happened several times before, the team paired off with us did not show up, so we had the two alleys to ourselves.  I ended up with a 98 average, but reached 100 or better in two of the games.  Somehow, the middle game was poor, and I only got an 80.  Maybe I was releasing the ball too early.  However, no matter how bad our scores were, we all had a good time.

There is no good time at work.  It turns out that at review time I was told of several things that I was guilty of over the last 12 months, most for the first time. The snitch also told the supervisor that I sometimes forgot to cover my mouth when I coughed or sneezed, and talked too loud on the phone.  I was also guilty of demanding too much space and not respecting the space of others.  Most of it is total bullshit, but I see the writing on the wall: time to jump ship.   

We also had a fire call at an apartment complex near the high school.  While it turned out to be food on the stove catching fire, it was banged out as a general alarm.  I ended up on the ladder truck, despite being in an engine company.  By the time we arrived at the complex, the residents had put the fire out themselves.  However, the chiefs and the officers still had to check the apartment.  When it was over, the chief ordered all of the crews form the engines and the ladder truck to meet by the apparatus for a talk.  He was quite pissed off that the first due engine did not stop right next to the hydrant, which was right next to the apartment complex’s main entrance.  Had there been a working fire, they would have had to stretch several hundred more feet of hose, and not be next to the hydrant.  Therefore he told us that we all made a serious blunder, but since the fire was out by the time we got there, we were lucky that no firefighters were injured or worse.

This afternoon I got to watch part of the LSU-Ole Miss football game.  The Tigers were winning at half time, despite being the visiting team (the final score was 41-24 in favor of LSU).