October 21, 2009 - 2:19 pm
What a year 2009 has been. In January I decided to get off my rear end and get back in shape, and 40 pounds and a couple thousand miles on the bike later, I am almost where I want to be.
(
resting HR 55, BP 110/70, and cholesterol sits at 155)
Things changed on a more drastic level in March when my beautiful wife informed me we were having a baby in October! Now I know, I already have 4, how drastic can another one be? Right?
Well let me tell ya...
We purchas…
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on October 31, 2009 at 2:58pm —
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So I was messing around on Facebook when I get this list of suggested friends. Normally they are people from school or friends from work, etc... but this time ther is a girl I don't know who looks familiar. So I clicked on her link and see not one common friend... not one. What I do see is everyone on her sampling of friends list is a brother.
Normally I won't just send a friends request unless it's a brother firefighter, or someone I know is a friend from the past, but this time I sent a messa…
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on September 1, 2009 at 10:10pm —
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On Wednesday I drove 150 miles to stand with thousands (the Alamo puts the crowd at 20,000) in defense of my country. In defense of MY country...
Do I need to carry a gun to do that?
No
Do I need to go across the world and fight terrorists, like the brave men and women of our military do daily?
No
Is my standing side by side with hundreds of thousands of my countrymen, to decry out of control spending, and blatant disregard for our constitutional rights defending my country?
YES it is!
A…
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on April 17, 2009 at 11:30am —
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So...
Since this is not a partisan event, even if the frakkin idiots at MSNBC and CNN think so, I am going to find myself standing with thousands of Americans who think the government has gone too far.
I am proudly conservative in my beliefs and convictions.
Does this make me a right wing whack job??? I think not.
Here is what I believe and try to live up to every day.
I strive to place god at the center of my and my families lives, and am accountable to him.
I believe Ame…
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on April 15, 2009 at 10:08am —
9 Comments
So here is the long awaited update to my Fat Guy blog.
For those of you who dont know, I am riding for a cause.
Finding a cure for Multiple Sclerosis Please feel free to make a donation here
Sams Club MS150
With the ride now 3 weeks away I am ramping up my miles weekly, with a 200 mile week 2 weeks from now. The MS ride will be over 150 miles in 2 days, and I will have ridden another 150 the week leading up to May 2nd.…
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on April 9, 2009 at 5:30pm —
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So...Im on vacation.
The morning we are to leave Ft Worth to drive home, I am awakened by my lovely wife with a plastic stick 3 inches from my nose. My first thought is, "Damn, is my breath that bad?" But no, it was not a tooth brush, it was a pregnancy test...
After a second to get my bearings, I say, why is there a pink line?
To which Tammy says, we are pregnant.
Was this really in the plans, well not so much. BUT...
In a way, yes.
See, we planned to have a baby now, not when Sophia happ…
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on March 20, 2009 at 4:11pm —
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Throughout my career I have battled the bulge, and lost on a few occasions, but also spent the majority of it in pretty good shape.
That was until I came back after 4 and a half years of working in the private sector.
So when I decided to rejoin the brotherhood I was in decent shape from driving mud and staying physically active. Unfortunately....when I got on the job things were pretty relaxed and I was back to getting a steady check that meant i could eat a little better, and that led to me…
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on March 11, 2009 at 3:31pm —
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So I found out about the MS150 when I owned Jack Johnston Bicycles in 2003.
At the time I was mildly interested in the ride because I had customers who were excited about it, but it wasnt any different than the 100 other charity rides I helped support during my tenure at Jacks, or so I thought.
It wasnt until I met Dave Berman that I found that the MS rides were not like the Hotter n Hell, or Beauty and the Beast rides. This was truly a great cause and something I wanted to be a part of, so fo…
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on February 24, 2009 at 12:11am —
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Alameda Fire Department Accomplishments During the Administration of Fire Chief James L. Christiansen: Diversified workforce: committed to creating a diversified work force that mirrors the ethnic makeup of the community. Of the 12 new fire fighters hired under Chief Christiansen’s administration, six were from underrepresented groups (three females, one Asian male, two Hispanic males).
The London based
Local Government Association is advocating women make up 15% of the fire servi…
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on January 5, 2009 at 12:30pm —
27 Comments
From the time I was old enough to know what was happening on Christmas morning, my life has revolved around the fire service.
On Christmas morning 1971 I was 4 years old. Since most Christmas memories center around what we received that year, mine isnt like most peoples childhood memories.
Well...not including many on this board anyway. But I digress.
Christmas morning was exciting with the huge tree (maybe 5' with the star on top!) in our small mobile home that sat across the street from my…
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on December 25, 2008 at 9:38pm —
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Fire Department Muster
Posted by Allen Wahlstrom on August 21, 2008 at 9:34pm in Firefighter Nation Kitchen - Meet and Greet
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OK I am working on putting together a muster for Corpus Christi Area Fire Departments.
It has been about 17 years since I was involved in the competition team from NAS Pensacola, and since then Combat Challenge has become the standard in this ring.
I am not looking to do a Combat Challenge, but…
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on August 21, 2008 at 10:54pm —
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Friday morning we rolled in and got the rest of our training done...amazing how fast things start to come together when layered over days. The plans that took us 3 hours to complete were getting done in 30 minutes now. Keystrokes were coming into play and we were getting excited about heading to the Red Sox game that evening....
Gifts, Red Sox Tickets & The T
After class dismissed Friday we made a frantic dash around town for presents and to take a few more pics and of course hit th…
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on April 21, 2008 at 6:19pm —
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A rather long side note
Coming from the south, I've always held a special place in my heart for the traditions that new england firefighters represent. There is just this air about them that screams tradition, and every one Ive ever met has upheld that picture of what it is to be a firefighter, from the place that gave birth to the American fire service.
All that said, I just wasn't prepared for the way we were treated by the brothers and sister, whom we'd never met before Tuesday. To s…
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on April 20, 2008 at 9:28pm —
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Names and Locations have been changed to protect the involved parties…
Every once in a while you need a recharge, be it at home, in your hobby and unbelievable but true in your career. Well I didn’t really think I was in need when I left for New England last Tuesday…was I wrong.
My trip started with a 4am wakeup and about 6 hours of travel, and that was before getting in a car that would take about 5 hours to get the 45 miles from Logan IAP to our hotel in Lowell, MA. Not the way to start a re…
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on April 20, 2008 at 7:20pm —
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So I had to blog about my new daughter Sophia. She was born yesterday at 1143 am, has all her toes, fingers and other vital parts, and she is beautiful! Her trip into this crazy world was the makings of a great story, so I thought I would share with all of you, my faithfu…
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on March 6, 2008 at 11:30pm —
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Line of Duty Death is something none of us wants to put our families, friends, or community thru...thats you folks.
Our job is to fix the problem, not compound it. When are we as a group going to figure that out? Really...how many "LODD's" is it going to take before someone says, "Hey maybe we should not call unsafe responses anything other then what they are...a hazard to our communities".
10 mph over is the law...seat belts are the law...when conditions allow
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on January 18, 2008 at 8:20am —
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Thanks to Chris Simpson for refreshing my memory.
In 1984 I was a 17 year old Junior firefighter in Aledo, Texas. Now in the '80's we still went in as juniors. Things have changed and today Aledo has Paid guys from 7am- 7pm and vollies fill out the service. But back in the day, it was all volunteer and not that many of us in a small town of about 800.
So on a winter day in early 84 I was a teachers aid in the Kindergarten building. Out of the cold a teacher came in yelling t
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on January 3, 2008 at 7:32pm —
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So having been in the fire service since the mid 80's, I have always envied the IAFF guys and their window decals, hell they have about 30 of them now. Irish, diamond plate...you name it, and they all look good...even the god awful gold ones.
OK so they are get out of jail free cards...right. How many times have you been stopped with one on your window and gotten out of the ticket???
So since my department is atached to an AFL/CIO Union I cant jum
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on December 28, 2007 at 12:23pm —
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We are so far beyond spoiled today. I just finished watching the end of the Cowboys game in the dayroom at Station 2 and there were 3 of us in there jumping around, yelling at he 60" bigscreen TV. Sounds great huh...well, it wasnt long ago, at least 10 of the 11 guys in the station would have been in there. And at least 2-3 would have been cheering for the Bills, never mind we are oh 2000 miles from upstate NY. It's just how it used to work, there had to be the dicsen
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Added by Allen Wahlstrom on October 9, 2007 at 1:26am —
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