YAWN!

Da Kid's working a double shift: 24 hours at one one-man station; the next 24 at his own.

Herself and I took a ride out to his regular station today. She'd been there once before when coming back with her father, "The Mayor," from . . . somewhere WAY up there he said, "Let's stop by Da Kid's station!"

Since they'd come from a completely different direction and I'd never been there before, that didn't help me any especially since I don't have a clue where anything is out there.

In case I ever had to go out there to pick him up, Da Kid had given me directions and the way I understand them. ("Get on this road and stay on it. Go over the blue bridge. After the blue bridge at the second light . . . ") But still.

Although Herself and I had planned on going out there, Da Kid didn't know we were. We, she and I, figured two back-to-back shifts each in a one-man station out in the boonies? We'll take him some chicken wings from his favorite place. Which is what we got as take-out for him, after we finished eating our own.

(Ooh, they've got good wings.)

That's a neat little station, and it's really not that small. Three bays with room for more and although it's housing only one firefighter per shift now, it's got enough room to sleep four. Eight if they move the weight lifting equipment out of the room it's in into where the storage cabinets are and put another two sets of bunks in there. Good sized common area, too, and the kitchen is . . .

I digress.

While Da Kid is showing me around and explaining this and that (Those are some big-assed trucks!) he's yawning every other sentence. Big yawns because since he left home early Monday morning, he's had maybe two hours of sleep.

The warnings are everywhere. Fire conditions here are HIGH and what started out as a small yard fire — the home owner says he was cutting his grass and his mower must have caused a spark — quickly became a huge one.

Twelve hours with, as Da Kid put it, "everything": woodlands, structural and burning cars. Choppers overhead, HAZMAT on site, fire trucks coming in from everywhere and burning embers flying away in the wind to start still another fire deeper in the woods.

I don't remember whether Da Kid said they were able to save the guy's house, but with something that big I kinda doubt it.

The chicken wings?

Although Da Kid didn't say anything, a mama knows when her boy is happy. So did the woman (who, by the way, took and passed the exam given by the state nursing board last week) he'll be marrying next year.

Did he eat them? No. Not then. Later tonight he said.

I think he's worried if he eats them any sooner, as tired as he is once he has even standing upright, he'll doze off.

Unless there's a call, sleep schedule is from 10 to 6.

May tonight be quiet.