All fire is is rapid decomposition.

I'm still busy with things. It seems these days I'm going back and forth between being pleased about certain things and quite frustrated about other things.

For example, I'm done with winter. I've had my fun, and I'm ready for spring. I hate the snow, I hate the cold. And I'm not exaggerating, either. I do exaggerate some times, but last night I waited an hour for my stupid bus, and spent it taking inventory of all of me that was frozen. (My ears were frozen. My legs were frozen. My arms were frozen. My eyeball fluid was frozen. My cells were frozen, etc.) And that was when I decided I've had enough of this weather.

I've had enough of walking, too. I've walked so many miles this week.

There's a light at the end of the tunnel, though. Qwest said they would have my phone line connected at my new apartment today. I can work from home again. I hope it doesn't bother my roommates. Guess I'll find out soon enough.

Also positive news, I started my CERT classes last night. I feel really good about doing that. Our class has about thirty people participating. It's a stake thing for a stake near the Provo temple. They do these trainings in groups of like 25-40 people, and it turns out that the reason is so that they can have pockets of like...prepared people that can work as a team to do a bunch of stuff to respond to a disaster before the real emergency people can come.

So I'm becoming a team with a group of people that I don't really live by. AND! They're from like, two family wards, so everyone knows everyone (or half of everyone). But it's still definitely worthwhile training. We're going to come up with team assignments, though, and that's going to be interesting, because I probably won't be anywhere near here the next time I'm in a disaster. But I guess with disasters probably a few people from the group would die or be unable to help anyway...

It makes me want to get everyone around me all emergency prepared. I want my ward to do CERT. I want my workplace to have us all do CERT. Ah well.

Here are some nice tips for you:

- When you go into buildings (especially ones you work in, or spend a lot of time in), notice where the breakers and shut off valves are, and where the fire extinguishers are. It turns out to be kind of important.

- If you're in an emergency, they used to fish for your driver license and haul you off to the hospital trying to figure out who you were. Now, they'll look in your cellphone to see who you've spoken with recently. If you label people in your phone as ICE (which is for "In Case of Emergency"), they'll call them first.

- Presented with the choice, stack your firewood uphill from your house instead of next to your house. Fire burns uphill. It'll take a lot longer for the fire to get to your house if the wood catches fire.

And then, as part of our homework assignment for this week, our book says:

"Wear appropriate clothes to the next session (no shorts or open-toed shoes), because you will practice putting out a small fire with an extinguisher."

AWESOME.