Just this week, not only on our relatively quiet haven of Hilton Head Island, but right here in the community in which I live (Palmetto Dunes), comes a story which has become national news.  Before I knew it would be on CNN and everywhere else, I read in our Island Packet this article on a […]

I’ve been very busy working on my wife’s company’s website and unable to really spend any time blogging lately.  That’s probably a good thing as I really have wanted to learn a little more about creating sites from scratch (or close enough, using Dreamweaver) but found it to be much harder at first than I […]

For the past year or so, our department has been building a training facility of our own.  We officially dedicated it on the 29th and christened some of the props with a little demonstration burn to wow the VIPs who came out to celebrate with us.  It's a nice facility and was designed with more […]

  If you didn't know, that's a quote from Steve Jobs (I didn't).  I was sitting in the office of our Deputy Chief/Ops, reading a magazine while he finished up a meeting, and I saw that quote.  I liked it a lot and wanted to share it with you. The quote was being used by […]

  I know that I am one of the chief purveyors of snarkiness as a means of combating the less-than-professional element in our midst.  I guess that just because I have a personal vision of what I'd like to see the fire service evolve into, there are those out there who also have a vision […]

  Elvis has left the building, in the literal sense.  Elvis Presley came to mind today because of the Facebook vote we are taking for a colleague as to whether or not he and his fiancee should elope to Vegas and get married by an Elvis impersonator.  But as happens with many ideas of mine, […]

  It wasn't really by design, but the last time I was in Atlanta, I found that I had some problems getting my e-mail on my fancy smart phone.  Likewise, on this occasion when I spent a few days in "The City Too Busy To Hate", my "missing" status this week evolved into a few […]

  Ken Bell, a friend and the other Deputy Director of the South Carolina US&R Task Force, announced this week that he is retiring from the program to spend more time with his family and his other pursuits.  In a reply I sent that was meant to pay homage to his contributions to the program (which were […]

I'm Mick, and I yell.  I think this is the part where you all are supposed to say, "Hi Mick."  Why do we yell?  I started to say, "I'm a yeller", but that doesn't sound right.  And I don't scream.  Screaming to me indicates panic or total loss of personal control.  But anyone who knows […]

I woke up this morning with an idea for emergency services that is already a reality. It’s funny about technology in our business; innovation driven by the private sector and the military is implemented and has probably run through four or five revisions, then we look at it and say, “Wow, this is amazing technology!” while the others have likely moved on.