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It was pretty sad to hear Ronnie James Dio died.  I was also surprised to learn he was 67 years old.  Seriously? At 67 that dude rocked harder than most hipster jackoff “musicians” half his age.  I saw him live when I was 15 and he had a giant sword and slayed a giant mechanical dragon that appeared over the stage.  Cheesy?  Yes.  But this was METAL.

A few years later a group of us went to the NAMM Show in Anaheim and did the usual stargazing and gear worship.  While we were standing in the cocktail line we noticed that Dio was right in front of us.  We chatted him up as the line crawled forward and he ended up buying our drinks and we chatted a bit more about Sabbath, Rainbow, Satan, touring, partying and anything else we could muster up. I have a picture of this somewhere that I should scan and post up (though I look like a total metal dork, please forgive me).  He was a champ and a hell of a nice guy.  While I don’t buy into this afterlife nonsense I’ll say that if he’s in Heaven, he’s slaying angels and if he’s in Hell, he’s got a nice, shiny throne to sit on.

Moving ahead, we’re going up to LA tomorrow night to a Chuck Palahniuk event.  He’ll be reading passages from his new book, singing book and whatever goes on at these things.  Should be fun.  I admire his work and some of his books can be listed amongst my favorites (Lullaby, Fight Club, Survivor).  After that, it would be criminal if we didn’t stop off at Roscoe’s for some fried chicken and waffles.  So, thy will be done.

I finished up all my CERT courses the other day by participating in a simulated earthquake disaster drill down at the NTC training area.  I drew the card of “Logistics Leader” which meant I had to stick around the equipment trailer and make sure the teams had whatever supplies they needed to aid in any search, rescue and fire extinguishing.

After the drill, the San Diego Fire Chief swore us in and we received diplomas.  Pretty nifty.  It’s been a while since I’ve take a class and have seen it all the way through without getting distracted, bored or having something come up that takes precedence.

Instead of sitting around and waiting for a disaster before I can spring into action, I’ll be taking some free followup courses like “Personal Preparation” and “Ham Radio”.  Not only will these satisfy the DSW requirements for a couple of years, but I’ll also gets some more hands on experience.  Since I’m an electronics nut, I’m particularly interested in the ham radio course.

That’s all for now.  I’m officially a low level member of the fire department and FEMA.  Hopefully I never really have to use this knowledge.  If I do, this means we’re all in deep shit.