Dear Readers,

I hope this missive finds you safe and relatively well. On Tuesday the 16^th, I gave my presentation on the Gulf Hotel Fire and assorted 1940s fire related topics. It was well received and I had a good time. It was my first virtual presentation and, thankfully, it went off without a hitch and there were no technology problems! I’m gratefully because technology and I are not the best of friends. For a while now, I’ve had people asking me to do a podcast on fire service history related information. So I’ve finally given in to the requests and I have sketched out a limited run podcast, meaning it will be a set number of episodes. I’m calling it Old Flames. You’ll notice there is a new tab on my website with that name. You can find the episode links there, though it is also on Spotify and will eventually be available through Apple Podcasts, iTunes, etc. As of now, there are two episodes out and more will be released in the coming weeks as I am pre-recording them. There’ll be some general fire department history stuff, some discussion of historic fires, and some interviews with fire service authors. If you have some…burning…question about fire department history, let me know and I’ll try to work it into an episode. Of course, I include a warning that some episodes will touch on fire fatalities and, of course, the podcast includes salty language at times.

One year ago yesterday, March 19, 2020, I made my very first Journal of a Pandemic Year post. I would have never guessed that a year later, I’d still be writing these entries. Everyone says that we’ll get back to normal one day, but honestly, I’m not sure if I even remember what normal is anymore.

On Thursday the 11^th, my wife got her first Rona shot. She was a little under the weather for a couple of days afterwards, but nothing too bad. She got the Moderna shot like I did. Luckily for her, she knows what to expect having seen me get both shots (and having seen me get my Irish ass kicked by the second shot)! She’ll be getting her second shot around April 8^th, I think. So fun times are ahead!

On Saint Patrick’s Day, I found out that I will need another surgery at some point in the next few months. Nothing too major, but having had my intestines pulled out and rearranged not once, but twice, I have a high standard for what I consider a “major” surgery. I guess it is all relative. My doctor sent me to a specialist who referred me to a different specialist to do the surgery, so I’m waiting for my appointment with him to have the actual surgical consult and find out what all it will entail. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do it right after the spring semester ends so I can get it out of the way before the summer starts. Not that I have big summer plans apart from enjoying baseball season.

That’s all I have for now, Dear Readers, but be sure to check out my Old Flames episodes and, if you are interested, subscribe to the podcast so that you can get the newest episodes as soon as they are released.

Until next time, friends, take care of yourselves. And each other.

L.H.