Believe it or not that song goes through my head every Tuesday afternoon. Had to share.
I am in the city. Have a doctors' appointment. I came in early so that I may take the bike to the dealer to get a quote.
In Alberta, in order to get a police report, the damage has to be more than $2000.00. In order to make an insurance claim, the company needs a police report. Do you see this nice little catch-22 forming up?
I went to the dealer and they priced out my bike, they got to $1200 but they couldn't get a price on the fender and another metal part. Guess what, they have to be made!
I take my pieces of paper to the Edmonton Police Service (you'll know why I used the S word in a minute).
Office, no I am not going to badge him, was at the counter at the Station. First off, English was his second or third language. I explained my case to him.
He was really strict on the $2000.00 - he suggested $1800 & $1900 I said it could be that, as there were two steel parts they couldn't give me a cost for. Constable detective then told me he knows all about bikes. I was packing up my stuff, I knew this was going nowhere. He wanted a detailed quote from the dealer. The type of detail detective constable wanted would involve the bike being dismantled at $105 an hour, for about 3 hours. The lights in Dudley Do-right's brain didn't clue into this, $315 plus tax added to my $1600 was going to take me over the top - let alone if the frame were bent. I said thanks and headed to the RCMP.
They took my report, the officer actually was a bike rider, so he knew what I was talking about. They could not figure out why insurance company required a police report in order to do a claim. The insurance companies must pay officer EPS to ensure there are no biker claims. There I feel better.
The Edmonton Police used to be called Edmonton Police Department - EPD. I suggest anymore of these guys at a front desk, that maybe Service is the wrong name; Department is more apt.
Sunday was a pretty good day after all. I wrote the test, there were some easy questions and some hard ones. There were 10 questions on wild land fire fighting, on this course. WTF it was supposed to be interior.
The practical tests went well, for our crew. We did what we were supposed to. I avoided nozzle, my replacement though almost blew it for us. He refused to shoot water when ordered; until i almost took nozzle from him (I am not going through this twice!).
The phobes though, they didn't do so well. With military precision whey whipped through the first two practical tests. On the third, the had issues. This was not a minor issue, in fact the tester just about failed them. One of their radios jammed up on an attack team. They were incommunicado for about 20 minutes. They sent in the Rapid Intervention Team to check on them.
When it was over, the instructor tore a strip off them. Then the tester did. Basically on the safety side they failed miserably. Safety is job one, we don't need to be rescuing the rescuers.
Last night at Fire practice they wanted me to start another course. It would involve this weekend. I resisted. I told them I have been on courses for the last 4 out of 5 weekends and I need time to de-stress. I hate to make a grown man cry, but oh well.
This weekend is the start of Edmonton Pride and it is a motorcycle rally. I told instructor guy I was busy this weekend a couple of months ago. He didn't take them into consideration when planning. Turns out he has 6 people on the course, out of 40 that need it. I asked if I could challenge exam, as the course material was covered in the last course I took. He said no.
It was pouring today on the ride in, it looks like it is about to start up again. That's ok - it is not cold.
Picture was taken on the West side of Provost. The sky really is much bigger than in the picture, it was a nice blue. The ride home on 13 was incredible. We passed a whole pile of geodesic domes in the middle of a field. If an explosion were to occur there, it would create a huge crater and affect Earth's rotation. I think they should cut down more trees, in case of a forest fire.
Last thing, after that course I am more confident as a firefighter. I has not qualms crawling around with zero visibility and attacking a fire when you encounter it.
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