Christmas is over. It's cold and we still have that snow on the ground 12-29-2009

Back to work and things are changing...... Robyn, one our Deputy Fire Marshal's, handed in a resignation letter today. she plans to move to Ohio and be with the love of her life. This is good for her, however, Brian Simmons and I are concerned about the workload and callback life.

The weather is very cold. high today barely above 30 degrees, but windy.

I got some books for Christmas, and a few from one of my new favorite authors, Dorothea Benton Frank. I am currently reading the "Isle of Palms". It, like her other books, takes place in the South Carolina coastline islands. Gotta love those characters that she creates, and she always includes the Charleston history and culture. The food is part of her stories too, some books even have recipes. I got "The Christmas Pearl" and "Bulls Island" also, all in hardback. I have already read "The Return to Sullivan's Island" and "Pawleys Island". The summer filled, beach lined stories seem to help get me through the cold snow covered early winter that we seem to be having.

My mom & dad are currently in Florida. They said it was about 70 degrees down on the Gulf Coast today. My uncle George, Bennie, & Lyndsey are going out grouper fishing tommorrow, so the weather must be pretty nice.

I have to work on New Years Eve. We have a fireworks show that will be shot off at the stroke of midnight. this, of course, is regulated by the Fire Marshal's Office and we do the early setup inspection and are on site during the performance. Zambelli fireworks Internantional has been contracted by the Roanoke County Parks & Rec Department.

Speaking of Parks & Rec., I was at the Green Ridge Rec Center today for the acceptance test of the new fire pump that supports the building's sprinkler system.

Things coming up...... The Rodeo is coming to the Salem Civic Center Jan. 8, 9, & 10th, 2010. The Shrine Circus will be at the Roanoke Civic Center Jan. 28, 29, 30, & 31st, 2010. The Provost Guard Valentine's Dance is Saturday Night Feb. 13th, 2010 and only costs $20.00 for the couple. Live band "Off the Cuff".

Gary D. Huffman
12-29-2009

Christmas was grand, now looking forward to the New Year 12-28-2009

Well, Christmas was great. We were actually pretty beat by the time Christmas Day arrived though, based on the big snow, the shoveling, the last minute shopping, and the parties and get togethers!! The Presents were all under the tree, the energy was magical, and we were eating like crazy. I must have put on 8 pounds the week of Christmas!!





We had a Christmas Party on Wed. Night Dec. 23rd for the Wickham side of the family, that is my mother's side. Santa Claus came and delivered presents for good boys & Girls. Uncle George got a fishing calendar. Uncle Pete got one of those little grass skirted dolls that you put on the dashboard of your car and she wiggles. Santa was played by John Sweeney of Garden City. He and his wife, Mary Kay, joined us for dinner and a Dirty Santa game.

Christmas Eve arrived and we went to my parents house for lunch and gift giving. My mom & dad left right after that for Florida. They wanted to get out of Virginia before the Christmas morning ice storm arrived. We were really getting beat up by all of this weather. Florida was sounding wonderful. I Got a house just sitting down there at 7390 Eastern Circle Drive, but I had to start callback on Christmas Day. After my folks left we had our little
Christmas at our house. Paula, Jordan, Mason, Max & I.



We shared the special time together as a family, we had nowhere to be and no shedule to keep. We were thankful for so many things in our lives. The day to day pressures and stresses were put on a shelf and we just had a great time. the gifts were distributed and when it was all over, we had lots of neat stuff. I got a lap top, Jordan got a flat screen high def TV for her room, Mason got DS games and Legos. Paula got a new bedroom bedding and curtains and a steamer to get those creases out. We were thankful for all that God had provided for us and giving the greatest gift of all, his son Jesus Christ, our savior.

Sometime during that night Santa Claus came and Mason woke up the next morning with even more gifts. More DS games, and Legos. There were GI Joe figures and a huge brown Bear, stuffed, of course.







Oh, By the way, Jordan really liked her hat!

And Max, our black Lab, had a good time too with all of his chew toys, a new bed and all of the attention. He is such a hound!!




Gary D. Huffman - Christmas 2009 style

Catching up..And.."The Big Snow Storm"

Well, I haven't added to the blog in a few days and man, are there things to tell you!


Tues. night Dec. 15th, 2009 - We went to Mason's School, Mountain View Elementary, for a musical that he, and the whole 2nd grade class, was in. That is him to the left of the mic singing an old time Rock & Roll Christmas Tune. Mason did very well and he was wearing a green elf hat.

Wed. night Dec. 16th, 2009 - We had Christmas at Paula's parents house, Raymond & Joyce Compton. Paula's sister, Cindy was in from sunny florida and was loving our much cooler weather. (Not) We had a fabulous dinner and enjoyed the time spent together. As you can see we had a great time. look at all of those presents under the tree. Mason is in the center, Paula on the left, Cindy on the right, Jordan to the left of mason and Paula's dad, Raymond, is behind Mason. I couldn't be in the picture. i was taking the picture!

The weatherman was starting to hint of some weekend winter type weather, but we all planned for the big trip over "Big A Mountain" to Fletcher's Ridge in Bucanan County for the Big Cristmas parties on both of Paula's parents sides of the family. The Comptons side on Friday night and the Farmers on Saturday night, but.....

Thursday Dec. 17th, 2009 - This was my last day at work for a while, so I was around the office for a large protion of the day. The weatherman was kicking things up and calling for a large snow to start on Friday around 4 pm. I worked out for Robyn Blankenship to get my 4 wheel drive vehicle due to the proposed 18 inch snow.

Thursday night, I attended the James Evans Masonic Lodge #72 meeting and served in the position of Senior Deacon for this meeting. We did not have the scheduled elections for this Dec. meeting, so they should be held in January 2010.

Friday Dec. 18th, 2009 - After sleeping in then getting e few things together, The Schools all anounced that they were closing 2 hours early due to the incoming weather. Well, Paula decided that we should leave for the country 2 hours earlier also to get a head start on the weather. I went to school and picked up Mason. we packed quickly, dropped Max off at my mom & dad's. They would surely spoil the dog while we were gone. We picked up Jordan and by 2 pm we were heading up Christiansburg Mountain on I-81. We hadn't eaten, so we planned to stop at the Christiansburg exit.

When we came off the exit, it was starting to snow. While in McDonalds, it started to really stick to the grass. We jumped back in the car and headed south. We were getting text messages about every 15 minutes from Cindy, Paula's Sister, on the road conditions at the mile marker that they were passing. they were almost a hour ahead of us.

Well we got stuck in standstill traffic in Mongomery County due to wrecks. The road was becoming very slippery and there were crashes everywhere. We saw vehicles in ditches, into guardrails, and some upside down. after a brief stop there, we moved on and got to the south side on Wytheville. It was snowing very hard and suddenly the traffic just stopped. We were at a standstill for nearly 5 1/2 hrs.

Now this was not the most pleasant situation, but we had gas, heat, bottled water, chips and swiss cheese. We had some cake if needed and extra blankets. the longer we set the deeper the snow seemed to get. We listend to different radio stations, but none seemed to give us the news we needed. the best information came from K-92 fm out of Roanoke. They are located an hour away, but they knew and spoke about our situation quite a bit. We sang to the songs and talked about old times and just many diferent things. In today's life, we are moving so fast, that it wasn't so bad being stuck out there at mile marker 68 on I-81 with all of the truckers.

I would go and talk to a truck driver behind me every so often. He would inform me of what he was hearing over the CB from the other truckers. They had a mess of a wreck ahead of us and after the trucks had set for so long, they couldn't get them moving in the large amounts of snow that was piling up on the roadway. He told me a story of a single mom with a 5 month old baby. She had milk but no way to heat the bottle. A truck driver with a microwave heated it for her. He would ask if we were okay every time I went to talk to him. I'd say yeah, we're fine, we have gas and food and we had made contact with frineds by use of cell, which had a poor signal, and they had reserved us a room for the night in Marion, if we ever got to moving again.

Here we were, heading for the country for christmas, stuck in traffic, and three cell phones just working overtime. We had a hard time getting the signal to go out, but we did after much moving around inside of the vehicle.

Paula learned that Cindy was stuck in Abingdon. She learned that her mom & dad had made it to her grandmothers on Fletcher's Ridge after attending the Friday night party that we missed while sitting at mm 68. They reported the snow was getting deep and they had lost power.

Finally we saw the yellow lights of a salt truck over the hill. The trucker behind me had told me that they were going to be working their way from the front of the blockage back to us. They had to move the trucks out as they came back to get the road open. I walked up to the Highway worker and he said they were salting the road around each truck and working their way back to us. I witnessed these huge truck and trailers slide and spin and then slowly inch forward and head on out down the road. He finally reached us. The highway man asked if he got the truck beside us moved, would I be able to get out. I replied "yes" and he said "okay" and that he was sorry for taking so log to get us out. We were happy to be moving and thanked him with a huge smile.

I-81 was a mess the snow was deep, our windshield wipers were freezing up and it was snowing so hard. We finally got off the interstate in Marion and found our motel. It wasn't the grandest, by any means, but it was off of that interstate. All of the motels were full. Cindy had gotten back to Abingdon and found a room at a Hampton Inn as did Dean, Paula's cousin, who was coming in for Chrsitmas too, but from Raliegh, NC.

I got the kids and the wife all settled in our room and I went back out in search of food. I found a McDonalds all lit up like an Oasis in the middle of the desert. I grabbed a bunch of food from the drive through and arrived back at the room to find my family huddled around the television watching "Christmas Vacation", a true Christmas classic. We ate and went to sleep.

The photo above was taken the next morning of the motel we stayed at. It was called the Magnuson Inn, or something like that, but thank goodness they were there for us.

Saturday Dec. 19th, 2009 - After sleeping in, since we didn't get to sleep until around midnight the night before, we all got up, showered, and dug the Kia out. People were leaving the motel and sliding all over the place. Checkout was at 11am, so we got out just in time. We needed food and guess where we went. McDonalds again. While at McDonalds, we were on the cell phones trying to determine if we were going on to Fletcher's Ridge or back to Roanoke. I talked to my dad and it was still snowing in Roanoke. There was no power at Fletcher's Ridge and there were trees down blocking roads, so we decided to go back home. Cindy left for Florida.

The roads were in great shape going back north on 81 until be got to Radford. Stuck again. I tried talking to truckers again and finally, I got that little Kia Borrego off at the Radford Exit, hit route 11 through Christiansburg and down 460 into Salem, Va. Finally got home just before dark. The roads were bad around our house so I couldn't go get Max and decided to watch the Saints play on TV. You know what, They lost to the Dallas Cowboys. They are not undefeated anymore. Saints are now 13 -1 but hey, maybe they can still get to the Superbowl!! Who Dat?

Sunday Dec. 20th, 2009 - Spent the day digging out, went grocery shopping and just happy to be home.

My dad brought Max home. he seemed happy to be back too. I had to shovel out a place in the grass for him to go to the bathroom. The poor dog sure is picky.

Planning on watching movies tonight and relaxing with my family in front of the fire, maybe a glass of wine by the Christmas Tree with Paula later.

I sure hope you are having a very Merry Christmas! By they way, I think they said we had 19 inches of snow. The Weather channel broadcast live from Roanoke, VA too, during the storm.

My mom works for Friendship Retirement Center as the head of Dietary and she has had to work this weekend while my dad was busy picking people up to get them to work. Even though the weather is bad, those folks in the retirement center still have to eat and have ther basic needs addressed. Mom & Dad are going to Florida on Christmas Day though. I hope they have a great time and enjoy the warmer weather. I'll take the sand over the snow any day!

Christmas is coming fast, be careful. I have got to figure out a way to get to Florida too.

Gary D. Huffman

The John Sweeney Christmas Story! 12-15-2009

John Sweeney works in the Fire Marshals Office with me, but is a retired Captain of another Fire Department.

One Christmas, many years ago. This a True story. John Sweeney, while working at a Fire Station, near a once thriving Mall, was contacted by a mall director that needed to have Santa Claus arrive at the mall on a shiny red fire truck.

Well, he talked the young lady through the proper procedures to make this all happen. They got approval from the administration and the date an time were set. The mall, which was starting to decline in popularity, advertised the arrival of Santa at whatever time, one Saturday before Christmas.

That Saturday arrived and John Sweeney and his fellow firefighters arrived at the predetermined meeting spot. The time for Santa to meet the truck came and slowly passed and there was no sign of a Santa Claus. 30 minutes went by and John and his crew were getting a little worried, but they didn't know who to call.

A little more time passed and then they saw a car speeding their way and upon arrival, it was clearly the mall director and she had this fellow in a red suit all laid up in the back of her car.

You guessed it. It was Santa Claus, but he appeared to be a last minute find for this most important role. The lady appeared to have found Santa on the side of the road somewhere after pulling off a hard night, the night before. He needed help to get out of the car and onto the back of the fire truck.

There was no time to waste. They were already late and the kids were waiting for the arrival of Santa Claus at the front of the mall. John and another firefighter held onto Santa, to make sure he didn't fall off the back of the truck, and away they did go.

They arrived to the front of the mall and the kids were all yelling and cheering. Santa went to step off the back of the truck and just about fell on his face, but recovered nicely and yelled out to the cheering children. "Hey Kids, yall ready for a biscuit?"

You see, the mall director had apparently promised him breakfast for his duties and he was ready to eat. John and another firefighter grabbed him up, one on each side, and half carried Santa to his seat. They planted him in his nice big Santa seat and wished him luck.

I am certain that there is more to this story, but it ended for John at this point.

Merry Christmas!

Gary D. Huffman

Busy Weekend 12-13-2009

Wow, what a busy weekend, I haven't had time to update my blog page.
Friday 12-11-2009
Well, we had a special luncheon at work with the Roanoke County Fire Department. It was held at our new station, Station #1 on Hershberger Road.
Each year, the employees of both the field operations and staff, jointly toss our own donation into a hat and we have social services give us the names of about 4 very needy children. We then have Beth Dalton, the glue of our Office( Beth if you are listening, thank you so much), use the money to purchase gifts for these children. We then pick a date and have the children come to a fire station. We cook a huge lunch, Santa came and gave them their presents and it will tear your heart out to see these kids get blown away by the event and spirit of Christmas. The Chief of or Department, Rick Burch plays the role of Santa, and I have got to tell you, it is a hoot. He gets to carrying on, dancing and singing, and giving multiple excuses about Rudolph and his short comings. It is just a great time and then Santa leaves on a fire truck. It is quite touching to see the smile on these kids faces.

On Friday Night, I had a stated meeting at the Kazim Temple(Shriners), and we had 10 new nobles join our Oasis. As a Provost Guard member, Several members of our unit offered the security of our Temple and worked the door. During the meeting, a lady off of the street just opens the door to the meeting room and asks for $20.00. She was of the appearance of a homeless individual and had to be escorted from the building. The Building is located in Downtown Roanoke, VA.

Saturday Dec. 12, 2009 was the day of the Provost Guard's Christmas dinner. Since I was the Captain of the Shrine Unit, I was responsible for making this event come together and fly. We had originally reserved a room at Corned Beef & Company in Downtown Roanoke for our party, however, in an effort to keep expenses down and just make the event more simple, we chose to have it ot the Kazim Temple, in the Arab room, and have it catered.
Well that sounded great, but finding a caterer during the Christmas party season for a group of about 30 people was quite hard to find, so I twisted my mom's arm, Sue Huffman, and she agreed to help. Mom works as head of Dietary for Friendship Retirement Community and has done quite a bit of catering on the side throughout the years, but would just as soon not do it anymore because, well, its just tough sometimes.
The Party was awesome though, We had a great time. We had 29 people attend. 2 of which were in Grand Line for the Grand Lodge of Virgina, Freemasonry. John Chambliss, Deputy Grand Master and Paul Sleeper, Grand Sr. Deacon. We also have Kerry Campbell, Grand Jr. Warden as a member of our Provost Guard Unit, however he was on vacation in Charleston SC.
We had 3 members of the Kazim Divan and 1 Sweetheart. We call the widows of our dear passed brothers sweethearts.
This particular dinner was my last function as the Captain of the Provost Guard Unit. I was finishing 2 years as Captain and it was both sad and a relief at the same time. Art Pendleton became the new Captain for the year 2010. I finished my 2 terms as the 34th Captain of the Kazim Provost Guard Unit since it started in 1947. It was an honor to serve.

Sunday Dec. 13th, 2009. Well, today was another interesting day. Paula and I, in conjunction with my mom & dad, Roger & Sue Huffman, have been providing our church, Community Advent Christian Church(Old Mountain Rd.), with a reception after the children's Christmas Play each Christmas season for many years, and this year was no different.
We put together a spread of cakes, nachos with cheese dip, mini corn dogs, ham biscuits, finger sandwiches of tuna & Pimento Cheese, Christmas Punch, etc... We had 183 people attend the play and the reception afterwards.
We decorated with blue tablecloths and snowmen. I think it was a success. The play was great. Mason, my youngest, was in the play and he sung his heart out. did a fantastic job. I left just before the play finished to get the food and stuff ready for the rush of hungry folks and the tiny kids were waiting outside of the sanctuary door. They typically dress to a nativity scene theme and come in for the last song of the play. This is pretty much yearly. Well this year, before they could even get into the sanctuary, the lamb pooped and had to be changed. I thought that was just a little bit funny, in a way. Guess you had to be there.

Yes , a busy weekend, but it was full of family, friends, and the sounds of Christmas. I sure am tired, but it was quite worth it!

The weather was bad Sunday Morning, a little ice, but warmer now. By the way, Who Dat? Them Saints done won again. 13 - 0. Looks like a Saints Superbowl. I'm lovin'it!! Go New Orleans Saints. Who Dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?

Gary D. Huffman

Colder weather makes my heart go south 12-10-2009

It is tough for me to deal with the cold temperatures. I guess, after years of working outside in the winter months fighting fires and then digging out fires through the slow progression from firefighter to fire marshal, I have a deep desire to go south when the mercury drops below 35 degrees.

Snow is great, but just around Christmas. We tend to keep those cold temperatures and chances of snowfalls well into March here in Roanoke. Thats just too long.

I love Florida. Paula, my wife, and I bought a little place down in Hernando County Florida back in Dec. 2007. I have to tell you, I just love getting down there and fishing in the gulf, smelling the fresh sea breezes. We take our black lab, Max too. He seems to really like it. Jordan & Mason love it also.

We are not directly on the gulf, but are just a short drive over to Pine Island or Hernando Beach. Hernando County is located just north of Tampa Florida and it represents a slower paced "Old Florida" feel and way of life. The coastline is not commercialized at all and in fact is mostly a nature preserve. This part of the gulf in known as the "Nature Coast". There are free roaming manatees in the waterways and other wildlife, to include gators and even wild boars. There are crystal clear rivers that are made from huge underground fresh water springs and under-water caves that are over 100 feet deep.

The County Seat is Brooksville and offers nothing special, except there are some beautiful older homes and stuff. Going into Brooksville is odd because it is like stepping back in time. There are still stores like Western Auto and there is a little hot dog place called "Coney Island Hot Dogs". It is like stepping into a scene from "Happy Days"(the show). Great footlong hotdogs and they have an Elvis impersonator perform there live every first Wed. of each month.(I can't make this stuff up). And get this, Brooksville has rolling hills! in Florida? Its almost like driving through downtown Lynchburg, VA.

Hernando still has the County Fair every year, a Rodeo sponsored by Shriners. It has palm trees and is fairly warm, especially when you compare it to Roanoke. It does get cold at night through those winter months though. In fact Brooksville used to be the tangerine capitol of the world, but you can't find a tangerine tree hardly anywhere now. The weather turned colder at some point and the trees would not produce anymore, so much for global warming theories.
But they still drop a huge tangerine down a pole in downtown Brooksville at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve!

You ought to come down sometime. There are quite a large group of folks from Virginia that I call neighbors , while in Hernando County. It seems that when people come to visit, they can't help but buy themselves a place too! I did.

gotta go for now.

Gary D. Huffman

Character Counts, Buddy! 12-09-2009

New Preacher in Town:
There was a new paster in a fair sized town. One day he hopped on the city bus for transportation to a meeting. When he boarded the bus, he gave the driver money and the driver, in turn, provided him his change. When he reached his seat, he went to put the change in his pocket and discovered the driver had given him 25 cents too much.

As the bus traveled down the city streets, the paster thought to himself, What should I do?

When the bus reached his stop, the pastor stopped at the bus driver's seat and explained that he had been given 25 cents too much in change and wished to return the amount.

The bus driver turned and smiled and said to the pastor, "I knew that you were the new preacher in town. I gave you the extra quarter just to see what you would do. My wife and I are looking for a new church and we may just visit your church"

After the pastor was off the bus and walking on the sidewalk, he could only think that he could have completely sold his character for as little as 25 cents.

We are tested every day, do the right thing.


Gary D. Huffman

The first day of the rest of my life! 12-09-2009

I have just created my very own blog, something that I thought to be totally impossible for me to do. It is my hope to use this blog to talk about things that are very near an dear to me.
God, Family, Our Country, Masonry, My love of life, My love of Florida, My dog Max(He's Family), My Job, and just about anything else that crosses my mind at the time. Most Importantly, the people of my life!
Christmas:
Christmas is quickly approaching and it sure is a busy time of the year. I have something scheduled for each evening between now and Christmas Day. Call me crazy, you're right!
First and most importantly, Christmas is a celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, the son of God. LUKE Chapter 2 of the Bible will tell us this story. If you do not know it, please find time this Christmas to read LUKE Chapter 2. Share it with your Family and Friends.
My Wish:
My wish this Christmas would be for our Country to try to heal and repair. We need to somehow try to figure out how to put more God and less Government in our lives. Now, I do not suggest the removal of government. It has a great roll in each and every one of our lives. We need more elected officials that are true statesmen and not those that seem to have more personal gain at heart. We need statesmen, not politicians.
We need to do what is right. We each need to be responsible for our own lives and not depend on government to provide any of our basic needs. The more we depend on governement, the bigger it gets and the more liberty and freedoms we loose. Be responsible. Do what is right.

By the way, I have a great wife named Paula, A daughter named Jordan. She is all that too! and a handsome young son named Mason. We have a black Lab named Max to complete our family. He is truly a member of our family. Enjoy the holidays!

Thanks for checking out my blog.
This is really cool!

Gary D. Huffman