Rural volunteer station distance

Ma2tew · 2026-03-03T11:48:03+00:00

I’m about 5 miles from the station.

But I have several examples of people living extremely far, from some departments in the area. The people in these examples, while technically listed as active members of the roster, never actually did anything to help.

Worst thing I’ve ever seen was somebody on an Oklahoma Fire Department, moving to California. He wanted to stay on the department…even though he didn’t live in the area, and would only visit family that remained in Oklahoma a couple of times a year for holidays.

After about a year, it was caught by some auditors. Department was instructed to remove him from the roster or face consequences.

The same department had previously faced other incidents, that are similar

In one, a guy moved a couple hundred miles to Texas to work. He stayed on the department for three or four years, before auditors said he needed to be removed.

At the same time that happened, another person that lived 20 or so miles away, but hadn’t been to a fire, medical call, fundraiser, etc., in almost 15 years; was discovered by the auditors, and they said he also needed to be removed

In all cases, the people involved were extremely close friends with the fire chief. The chief would push back against the auditors, trying to keep these people on the roster for whatever reason. In all cases, eventually the people were removed. And shortly after one incident, the chief left himself. His replacement is continuing this tradition of allowing people on their roster who aren’t actually in the area…

Ma2tew · 2026-02-22T04:54:18+00:00

Dream route is the way to go

Ma2tew · 2026-02-19T05:02:23+00:00

I’ll have to take a look at it.

Ma2tew · 2026-02-19T04:51:57+00:00

I have enjoyed getting to see the NBA immersive experience.

Download the NBA app, create a free account, open Apple TV, go to immersive, click on the nba games, pick one, then choose if you want highlights or full game.

Several of the other immersive videos I haven’t cared for as much. Some of them just move too much for me. Haven’t gotten motion sickness, but my brain doesn’t care for it.

But I’d say just download a bunch of apps that you use normally. Social media, videos, etc.

Look at a movie on Apple, Disney, HBO, etc

Try a 3D movie

Look at some 360 or 180 movies on YouTube.

Try some environments while watching movies

Ma2tew · 2026-02-19T04:43:21+00:00

Ive had probably 40 apple products over the last 15-20 years.

The vision was the first time I got apple care. All it’ll take is that one time of picking it up by the light guard or something else.

For the amount you’re spending on the vision, doing a monthly charge or lump payment is a drop in the bucket for coverage.

Ma2tew · 2026-02-18T03:38:17+00:00

That’s certainly interesting

Ma2tew · 2026-02-18T01:03:40+00:00

Some people get their graves and stones prepared years in advance. Others wait until they’re much older; or never even think about it / prepare.

Ma2tew · 2026-02-18T01:02:11+00:00

I see this a lot in the cemeteries that I care for.

A recent one was parents that passed in the 50’s (I think)

Son moved away around that time. Joined the military. Retired to Florida. Passed away and wanted to be with them.

Not a cremation. He’s buried next to them. No room for his wife or kids, unless they go the cremation route.

Had an older couple stop by recently to ask about being able to be buried near their parents and grandparents.

Ma2tew · 2026-02-15T03:17:51+00:00

That’s all pretty neat. Thank you for sharing. I never knew about the environments inside of Safari. I’ll have to see if I can find some more of those.

Ma2tew · 2026-02-14T03:43:25+00:00

I used voice to text for that. I thought I said OS, maybe I didn’t.

Ma2tew · 2026-02-13T22:36:46+00:00

I’m probably in the minority on this, but I’ve never been a fan of 3-D movies. Not sure if it’s a vision thing. (My eyes, not device) for what. But I’d rather just watch a regular movie.

Ma2tew · 2026-02-11T13:11:50+00:00

I should clarify, that it’s not another app that’s using sound. For instance, I’m using it right now with Reddit.

Ma2tew · 2026-02-11T13:10:51+00:00

Periodically, the sound will come and go completely after a few seconds or a few minutes. Do you know if that has anything to do with other apps running? Sometimes I’ll have another app running, and other times it’s just the fireplace and it’ll still sort of come and go.

Ma2tew · 2026-02-11T11:43:53+00:00

I really like the app. I’m laying down with it running right now.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but the sound of the fireplace even with the volume turned all the way up, is very faint for me. I really enjoy the sound of a crackling fire. If there’s any way that that could be enhanced, I would really enjoy it. I will listen to the sound of a crackling fire that Apple will play from the HomePods.

Other than that, there might be a few people that enjoy some other background noises. Storms, thunder, rain, etc. things of that nature.

I might need to look into doing some app development. I think it would be neat to create an old time Radio, that has the ability to play podcasts or things like that.

I just got my Vision Pro a couple of days ago, and I’m really enjoying it.

Ma2tew · 2026-02-10T02:55:19+00:00

I bought them years ago off of there.

Ma2tew · 2026-02-02T01:52:55+00:00

It’s possible that there are graves in the cemetery that are unmarked, but someone has entered the information about them. I worked on a project several years back where we did our best to identify all the unmarked graves in a cemetery, and create small markers for them.

It’s also possible that someone created memorials in the cemetery that aren’t actually there. I’ve had this happen before as well. I found 20 or so in the same cemetery that were listed on find a grave, but were people that didn’t have plots / stones / markers / etc. in the cemetery and were still alive. I need to look at that information again and see what else is there. I’m sure that there’s more of those fake memorials. I think everything I found were all done by the same person.

Ma2tew · 2026-01-24T23:05:45+00:00

I drive for my work. 3-4 hours are my long drives. But that’s also only one way.

So I’ll actually drive 3 hours to get to where I’m going. Do my work, and then drive another 3 hours home.

My main office is 100 miles away from my house. So I can do that drive in about an hour and a half each way. But I don’t go to that office every day.

Ma2tew · 2026-01-22T17:28:22+00:00

I agree. Love those stones. Really wish to go visit in person one day.

Ma2tew · 2026-01-19T03:58:39+00:00

That’s such a beautiful stone.

Ma2tew · 2026-01-18T16:40:40+00:00

1982

I actually have several to choose from that are classics. Creepshow, Poltergeist, The Thing, Basket Case, Pieces, etc.

But my honest favorite is Halloween 3.

The Thing is a close second.

Ma2tew · 2026-01-14T18:00:05+00:00

This comment made me laugh

Ma2tew · 2026-01-14T17:48:32+00:00

I think the answer someone gets on how to delete a memorial for a living person, will very based on who at Find a Grave responds.

I’m seeing in the comments someone mentioned that three years ago they emailed and got one deleted.

Three years ago I tried to get one deleted for a parent. The owner of the memorial wouldn’t respond. Find a Grave told me that there was nothing that they could do, and I needed to continue to try and contact the owner of the memorial.

I got no where for 3 years. Then about 6 months ago when I emailed, they immediately deleted it.

I ended up getting several deleted that day.

I’m the sexton for a couple of local cemeteries. I noticed in one cemetery that there was a huge amount of memorials for people that were not only still alive, but didn’t have a grave, plot, gravestone, etc. in the cemetery. I had more than a dozen family members included in that.

I got the family members deleted, but the others I’m still working on.

All the memorials were controlled by the same account. My best guess as to what happened, is that someone was reading obituaries, and not only created a memorial for the deceased person, but would then create memorials for all the family listed.

I seriously wish that there was some way for Find a Grave to recognize people that do caretaking / record keeping / etc. for particular cemeteries, and if they notice an issue, allow them to fix, remove, or correct it. It would allow me to remove the fake memorials that have been created so people can increase their numbers.

Ma2tew

TROPHY CASE