I will have been serving as your humble servant for two years on May 17. I must admit, I truly love it here.

We are a small town, a close-knit community of people who live in the middle of a resort town’s rush. Actually two towns, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.

We don’t rush, but the visitors do.

Since I began living here fulltime, we have one TV with cable/satellite access. Suffice it to say me and the wife don’t agree on programming. That’s why our former home 300 miles north had seven cable outlets, including one in the garage.

We need to update.

I spend my time in the newly added sunroom listening to real music while my wife watches the voice, stuff about next top models and over stuffed housewives.

If my portable music’s batteries run down, I then turn on the police scanner, fire and rescue radio my friend let me borrow.

On May 9 at 21:02 I got to hear a man say:

“Fire command on 21st Avenue has been terminated. The cat has been rescued.”

Made my night.

So I’m listening and I hear a call for an animal rescue go to the fire department. I’m thinking, “please let it be a cat in a tree, please let it be a cat in tree.”

Well, it was a cat in a culvert. And it turned into a rescue.

This is not a knock on the Gulf Shores Fire Department or any fire department within range.

Hartly Brokenshaw, the fire chief of Gulf Shores, is one of the best people I’ve ever met in my life, not just one of the best people I’ve met in the last two years.

Our fire departments, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, are full of top-notch individuals and professionals. I’ve watched ‘em train.

I’m just tickled to live in and cover an area where if your cat is stuck in a tree, or in a culvert, if the fire department doesn’t have a real emergency going on at that time, they’ll come help you out.

Real America, small-town stuff. I love it.