Christopher Weir:  

Life "Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it." - Lucius Annaeus Seneca, philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE) I am currently working as a Division Chief/Fire Marshal for the City of Port Orange Department of Fire & Rescue hired in the summer of 2005 after retiring after 25 great years as Division Chief of Operations with the City of Fort Lauderdale. Port Orange is located in Volusia County just south of Daytona Beach, and is a rapid growing community that presents many opportunities and challenges within the next 10 years. It is indeed an honor and a privilage to work with a fine group of 62 fire service professionals in the City of Port Orange. That being said, I reside in Port Orange and am happily married for 19 years. I also have 5 children ranging from 29 to 9 (yep...you read that right....9) and no, I do not want to even up the score. My goal and challenge for for all my children albeit 3 adults and 2 minors, are to be better than Dad. (Isn't that the goal of all Dads for their kids?) The kids all keep me young, happy or slap-happy, or better yet....straight jacket google eyed slap happy, sometimes tearing my hair out, and of course kids are born with Ph.D's (like we all thought) and know the ways of the world since "we just don't understand" (Hmmmm....deja vu....haven't we all heard that before?) and show us not to be too naive because they tell me what I need to know. Seriously I wouldn't have it any other way. I have to be nice to them since they may choose my nursing home. My personal interests still include but are not limited to daily Weightlifting, running, and Aerobics, Cub Scouts with my youngest, federal grant reviews, partaking in national and statewide fire and emergency management committees, and active lobbying in national, state, and local political minefields. All this and still time for the family. On the lighter side I love being a husband and dad. I enjoy cooking and watching The Food Network to get those great 30 minute meals that for some reason take me an hour? I must admit...my wife.....I am completely in awe when it comes to her culinary art skills. Thank heavens I am still the grill king! I love to travel to Maryland to see relatives, old friends, my Glen Burnie, Maryland roots, try to take in a ballgame at Camden Yards or see the Ravens, and for the creme de la creme; famous Maryland crabs (is there any other kind?). I am a member of the Maryland Club of South Daytona, a group of Marylanders most from "Balmer" thats how we pronounce Baltimore (can we say HON!) who get together once per month and we 100 or so transplantees all have come to an accord; "Florida has no concept on how to steam crabs or make traditional time honored Maryland style Old Bay seasoned crab cakes (is there any other kind?). Everytime I see a menu in any restaraunt not in Maryland that reads "Maryland, Chesapeake, or Baltimore style Crab Cakes," it makes me chuckle. Phillips..and Crab Spot...here I come! Kinda like a Chicago style hot dog...it's a tube steak! Oh yeah...my wife and friends will tell you I like to ramble..as evidenced in this story. School School was an interesting and humbling experience in itself. Like most of us I surmise, I hated school with a passion during my elementary days at Point Pleasant in Glen Burnie, Md. barely passing each grade just because I was so aloof to the world. There I was a fat and a pretty obnoxious kid plowing through life not knowing what was to happen next. You know the SOS kid excuse that the dog ate my homework, got lost in the washing machine, it was buried in the snow, it was mailed accidentally to Siberia,...or I just plain forgot to do it. So here I am...with an MBA telling my kids the importance of homework and good grades....all from my experiences of lacking in grade school. Karmic debt be damned! I am now walking my talk! Then in junior high (AKA for political correctness...middle school), no longer aspiring for a dishwasher career, I did a complete 180 and buckled down to what was to be straight A's and some B's throughout 8th grade, high school, and throughout my college journey. I remember bringing in my first straight A report card from Henry H. Filer Junior High....er....Middle School to my mom and dad as they everso cringed for the horrific sight of lower grade carnage only to see my mom in total disbelief...and my dad....left in a catatonic state of WTF. Now the bar was raised to levels I could not promise to sustain, but now the pressure was on. Really...I tell my kids, their friends, and my class lectures at Barry University, UCF, and our local public schools there really is no secret other than to examine what you want out of life and the tools required to meet your needs. Mazlow's ladder of hierarchy does exist and you choose the rung....do not ever let peer pressure from forever flunkies determine your choice of life's ladder rung. Aim for the top I say and reach beyond the paradigm. Mine happened to need alot of school work and job experience to get where I am. My high school year saw a transition from a sophomore/junior nerd to one of a well dressed and muscle bound senior. Having a job, making tons of money, and buying the clothes our parents hated, and then paying for my own hair styles rather than a God aweful date killing flat top was a plus if I wanted to fit in senior year. Amazing what puberty, lifting weights, maintaining my feet to the ground, keeping the ego grounded too, and what a new self esteem can do. I was able to balance trying to be a level headed kid maintaining good grades for a college scholarship. Attending the prom in so many ways put the infancy of adulthood in perspective as our high school days came to an epilogue. I guess prom was likened to a precurser to what we were about to learn. As we graduated, it was time to put away the Boone's Farm, Julius Ceaser's steak sandwiches, and say goodbye to Farrell's Mountain Ice Cream, Figaro's Pizza, and Lum's Ollieburgers. I encountered great relationships throughout school and afterward embellishing in memorable relationships and surviving those heartaches we all encounter with no regrets. I am so grateful for those very special locked in my heart who have taken the time to share their lives and love with me during my life. You are always in my heart and you know who you are. Please smile always knowing I have happy thoughts about our journey and that you, indeed, have made a positive difference in my life and I thank each and everyone of you for such an honorable opportunity to know you. As time marched on, I finally settled down to marriage, then a divorce (which unfortunately is very high in my firefighting profession since 1/3 of our lives are away from family and in a firehouse) and then do what I've always done; dust off, and climb back on that saddle of life and rebuilt my life from scratch. Yep...my ex and I are friends to this day. I learned that life goes on and the only option is to just bury the ego, strike away the demons, deal with It, and move on. An atrusitic wealth of great learning experiences I would not mind returning to but reality shows we press on to our next experiences and goals. No time to waste of what could have been but what the past and today shows us how to improve for hopefully would be another minute of life....Expand for more