yup - I just repelled down a four story building with a cute fireman and climbed a 75-foot ladder with another. And I held three of their hoses.

It's part of Citizen's Academy - an eight-week course (for only $40! and they feed us) that takes place every Wednesday for three hours to explain exactly how our local government and its programs function in this great city of ours. We've gone to City Hall, met the mayor, city clerk, city attorney and city manager, then went to our Park and Rec Dept where we toured all our local parks and graveyards. It turns out we're presently building the best skateboarding park in the state of Colorado, designed and partially built by our region's best skateboarders. Also the Evergreen Cemetary is a great tour if you get a chance; the old chapel there is really neat. Last week we went to the Traffic Engineering Building and saw how the time the lights, what happens when you feed the meters downtown, how the city buses are ran, what's going on with construction in this town, and more. Then tonight was at the Fire Department. They fed us, gave us a live demonstration of how they rip a car apart in an emergency, let us repel down their buildings, climb their ladders and play with their hoses. I'm suddenly this HUGE fan of the fire department. And they said we can visit the stations anytime to visit, and even schedule ride-alongs, which I might have to look into ;-).

This week I am also meeting Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and FDR, two of whom are good friends of mine. And I'm going to meet two authors (one who wrote "The Worst Hard Time" and one who wrote "No Child Left Inside"). Crazy busy week. Plus then there's the Zombie walk on Saturday in Manitou (all should come! it starts at 4pm).

And I'm learning to sew. My pirate vest looks mightily recognizable now, but still have to learn how to sew button holes. Cristine thinks its funny that I've done costuming for twelve years regionally and haven't been properly taught how to sew. (Shoot -- my first community theater experience of a post-apocalyptic MacBeth back in 1996 had TIRES for armor, and we used power tools instead of needles...)

AND found someone a job today. Take that, economy!