Delayed reaction

It takes a lot to get me back to this blog, and I fear this will be a short update today, but here I go anyway. There has been a lot going on, and that keeps me from writing as well. The last I wrote was right before my family took a trip to Michigan to visit my Mother-in-law and her husband. Anyone reading who doesn't know, my wife's Mom is re-married a couple times, and her current husband of 20 some years is from a marriage after my wife was out on her own for a couple years. So not really Dad, or even step-dad. Vis-a-vis, that is why I say Mother-in-law and her husband. He's a great guy though, so nothing disparaging intended.

Just prior to the trip we decided to pull out some extra cash and buy everyone in the family a MP3 player. I had done some hunting around online and found a good deal on SanDisk Sansa Clips. These one in particular were 2 Gig size units. They hold roughly 500 songs. The thought was each one of us could have our own tunes to listen to in the 6 to 8 hour drive up north. We decided to buy them and surprise the kids, instead of telling them we bought them, we revealed them once under way. We spend a few hours picking out music for them that we knew they liked and loaded up their new player. It was a great success, and took up a lot of boredom time with playing with the new devices.

It was a rainy day leaving town, but according to the forecast it was going to be sunny up north, so we were looking forward to busting on through. It was to be nice the whole weekend. Traffic was pretty light, and the trip was mostly uneventful. Seemed to go faster than I remembered. We arrived there in the late afternoon and had time to hang around and relax. The in-laws had paid for a hotel room for us so we could have our own space while visiting. It was a great place at Thunder Bay Country Club. The room was large and had a bedroom for the kids, and a living room with a Murphy bed for my wife and I. It gave us a kitchen and a great staging point for the next several days.

During our stay we rowed on a little lake next to their house. The kids and I played hide and seek in the woods. We had a cook-out by the fire. The temperature was mostly cool, but nice weather for a hoody and we had no bug issues, which is common in the much warmer part of the year up north, and specifically off a lake/marsh. They also had a new big screen TV and I brought our PS2 up there to play some games on the 48" screen, but surprisingly we had so much fun doing other things we hardly even looked at the TV. This is a very good thing.

Alright, more later, I thought I wouldn't have much to say, but now I'm out of time again. The next part of the trip we went to the Mackinaw Bridge, and to the UP. I also have to get some pictures added. More to follow.

Blah, blah, blah

Just felt like jotting down a few words. Yesterday was an average Sunday, which is a good thing in my estimation. Woke up a little later than most days. My wife made breakfast for me, my kids, and my son's overnight guest. Gotta love the guest, if for no other reason, it is a good time for a special breakfast. I love my wife's french toast.

The day leads on, and it is mostly a lazy day, which I'm all about. I had a youth group meeting in the afternoon. At 3pm on most Sundays, until 5pm, I'm an adult leader with The Explorers, which is (in our case anyway) a junior fire fighter/EMT program. It allows teen 14 and older a chance to try on the rescuer hat (as it were). I myself am only in training, but it is sort of a give and take thing. I get to be a part of the training, and learn, while helping be a leader. As time goes on, I will be a certified fire fighter and EMT, but for now I'm really just a helper, and sometimes victim.

Before the meeting I decided it was a good day to take my son for a lengthy hike through the local wilderness trails. We have a great loop of trails about half a mile from my house. With the walk there, and around the back trails, it is a good 3 or 4 mile loop. I had to down play the length of the walk, or he would have bowed out. He is an athlete of sorts, but he is also 12, and prefers the lazy path himself. I try to give him a shove from time to time. I've gotten better at giving myself a shove too, so I try to share the wealth. During the end part of the walk there is a huge stairway that comes out of the woods. I got to the top with him and decided to take a second trip down and up, but he didn't join me. He told me I was showing off, as the woods had a lot of people around at the time. Maybe a little. I'm proud at 42 I can keep myself going. I have a long way to go, but I'm ahead of the game in some ways too. I'm somewhat proud.

We go home, and I was short on time. My wife and the kids were going to hit the road and run to Target for some supplies and summer clothing. We have a trip coming up shortly, and the kids need some summer clothes. As I got home I saw I had 20 minutes to clean up and get in some clean clothes for the station. I like to wear a fire department shirt at least, and look fresh. Although sometimes we get sweaty practicing fire related drills, it is a good example to look professional for the Explorers. I also took the opportunity to take my motorcycle out for the short ride to the department. It is a very short ride, but it is hard to avoid a chance to start her up.

So I arrive at 1500, and realize that no one is there accept me, and one of the Explorers. What is up? Well, upon talking to him I discovered we were starting about a half-hour later this day, and an e-mail was sent. Now I recall the e-mail, so I'm here early. Would have been nice to take my time though. Shortly the full-time guy from the department, who is the Explorers post commander showed up, as well as one of the department lieutenants. I stood around and chatted with them for a bit, discussing today's topic, and upcoming events with the department. Good way to kill a few minutes.

At 1530 all that were going to be there were there. Today was going to be EMS topics, and we had about 4 of the 6 Explorers show up. We were discussing bleeding control and shock. I have been reading the EMT basic text book for a few weeks now. These training sessions with the Explorers, the fire department drills, and being able to go on live calls as a driver have been very helpful. I feel like when I start the EMT basic class I'll have some great head starts. During today's meeting we walked through the practial's sheet from the EMT testing. Each Explorer, and I had a chance to walk through the sheet, and then we did a drill with a dummy, walking through the steps with a first-in bag, and a backboard to get use to the motions. Good stuff.

The second part of the meeting was to go over the inside of the medics. Reviewing how to use the cot, load and unload it, and what was in all the compartments. I was reminded how familiar I already am with this hands on part of the EMT job. I think I was able to help quite a bit with some of knowledge transfer, based upon real call experience.

For the rest of the day, from 1700 on, I was on daddy duty. My wife has to work on Sunday nights, doing work outside of the fire department. She runs the projector at a local theatre once a week. She has done that for several years now, even before the joining the department. She love the work and the people at the theatre. Anyway, while she was out it was a great day, so we went out back and played catch, and cleaned up the back yard a bit. It was our first trip into the backyard really since spring sprung. My son has quite a pitching arm on him. He can throw a ball much faster than I. I'm hoping he can get on a team this summer.

The rest of the night was working on financial paperwork once my wife returned from work. We are trying to get money together to get light and sirens installed on our car. We have been running to the station without those things, and we have a traffic light to cross that is very painful. It is not a cheap affair. I know we are easily in for almost a grand, equipment and installation costs. But hopefully a long term solution too.

That's it for now. I'm getting into the swing of doing this now, so maybe I'll keep it up. Stay tuned for more.

Falling behind on the blog again

This last week had a lot of things going on, but the highlight to me was getting to run with the department to a car accident up the road from me. It was the afternoon, after lunch, and my wife had left the department pager on to see if there were any calls. I had not been especially busy this day working from home, so I was ready to go too. The bad news was I got on the phone right before tones dropped and the pager went off. The phone call was for something not important too.

So to rewind right before that moment, I'm on the phone signing up for XM radio. Our car has an XM radio built-in, and we have not had it working since we had the free trial back when we first bought the car. We are taking a trip to the northern lower peninsula of Michigan next week, and the radio stations are very limited. It seemed like a good time to give that a try again. I guess this makes me feel like going off in that direction of discussion for a moment.

XM, in case you didn't know, is satellite radio. So basically anywhere that you are in the country, you get all the channels. Includes some modern rock, and some news/talk stuff I like. Anyway, we had decided previously it was too much of luxury for something we would not use all the time. After all, we are trying to not be in the car all that much with gas prices, and being a volunteer with the fire department, most of our time in the car is two blocks at a trip. But with the trip to Michigan coming up we decided to give it a try.

Actually I need to back up one more time. You see, I got an e-mail that sort of dragged me in. It said if I came back I could pay $9.99 a month. This seemed like a good deal, so I talked to the wife about it, and she reminded me to check the fine print. I mean, not that I didn't do that at all, but I sure didn't go crazy reading every line, I sort of scanned it to see what the main point was, and to me the main point was it was cheap. Well sort of. That was the hook, this price, but the deal required paying 1 year in advance for the price. I did not want a one year obligation, I wanted a month to maybe try it out and be able to back out. The deal for that sort of thing is 13.95 a month, paid a quarter at a time. So that is the deal we are trying out.

So the afternoon in questions I was trying to wheel and deal the XM people, and they basically sucked me into a deal that was more than I wanted. We'll see how this goes for 3 months, and maybe I'll cancel. We'll enjoy it for the trip for sure.

So the lady I'm talking to, who clearly sounds like she is in a very large room full of people, and has a very heavy Indian sound accent. She has a script she is reading from asking me more questions, and trying to see if I want more "deals". I'm really trying to wrap up the deal and get off the phone already.

Tones drop. The pager is in the room with me, and my wife runs in and grabs it. I hear while trying to ignore the phone it is a car accident a mile or so up the road. My wife is out the door, as she can see I'm not moving myself yet, and she has to go. She is an EMT and firefighter, and that is likely what will be needed. Finally the lady on the phone wraps it up as I see my wife driving down the road. Shoot! I missed the run...... No wait, I can still make it on my own.

Quickly I put my work instant messenger on "Away", run into the bedroom, grab my helmet, riding jacket, and boots and get myself ready to ride down to the station. I know I'm likely to miss the first out equipment, but I'm only a driver, and not a trained firefighter, or EMT yet myself, so I would be limited on scene anyway. I get outside and start my bike. I'm thinking I need to take it easy. Don't rush, and don't over do it.

The ride down the couple blocks to the station is painful. Traffic on the road pulling off my side street slows me to pull out. The first traffic light is red, and I'm behind a big truck. The light turns green, and we have a 3 way stop ahead. The truck turns right, just like I'm going to, but the good news is main street's light is green, and he turns left, letting me cross to the fire station without a stop.

Just then the engine is leaving the station, so I have to pull over to let them go by, and be safe, and then a medic pulls out. I know everyone is on board. After they leave I decide I should go into the station anyway. Maybe more vehicles will be needed. Maybe the rescue, which I can drive, and I don't even need another certified person on board to take that to the scene. Another driver shows up. He has been around for a long time, and I figure I won't be going now, since he has the seniority. But we are listening over the station radio, and I hear the chief calling for medic outside of our township.

I ask the other driver if we should report we are here and standing by, and he says I should let them know. I just heard the Chief ask for help from another township for a medic. I ran outside with the radio and called to let him know I could bring our medic. We had plenty of EMTs on the scene already, so I didn't need to have one with us. I told the other driver "well, I guess you should go, and I should just take off", and he said, "no, come along, they might need all the help they can get." I grabbed my turnout gear, and we hit the road.

He drove, and I rode shotgun. As always it is exciting to run with lights and sirens. We had a clear shot, and I could hear they were waiting for us to get there. We were advised where to stage when we got to the scene, and I acknowledged on the radio. As we approached the scene, I reported to dispatch we were there. As I got out and got my turnout gear on, the Chief asked for the cot and backboard, so we were off and running right away. We loaded up the backboard on the cot with the cid blocks and a c-collar.

The first victims were being pulled out and into the first medic to go. We were heading for the second car and the rescue crew was holding c-spine and getting a KED on the driver. There was only one victim in this pickup truck. The other medic driver kept the cot from falling down the ditch, and I took the backboard to the extrication team. Everyone did a great job. My wife was working with the patient in this car, and her and another EMT were working quickly to get him secured to protect his back, and I helped get him onto the backboard. We strapped him down, got him on the cot, and hurried him off to the second medic. The other medic driver suggested I go, and I was thrilled. It was cool to be able to follow this specific rescue to the conclusion at the hospital.

The rest of the run was routine. Up the road to the local hospital. Radioing in when I was there. Helping bring the cot in and moving the patient to the hospital bed. Restocking the medic and cleaning things up. Helping get paperwork together. It was great that I knew what to do to help the EMTs and fire fighters do there jobs. I think I will make a good firefighter and EMT myself because of the time I get to spend as a trainee with the department.

While we were on the way to the hospital, I heard the department got another call for a certified person to help a neighboring community. The chief responded and help with another accident. He showed up at the hospital while we were wrapping things up. It felt very cool to be a part of the whole thing. Each one is unique. I feel sorry for people who this is only a job to them and they don't feel the thrill. I feel lucky.

Anyway, it is the weekend now. Today my son played soccer with the local traveling team. He is a great defensive player. They did not have him in much today, which was a bummer, but he did get to do something new today, and they had him play mid-field. They won the game 2 to 1. It rained all the way to the game, but stopped just before game time. The sun came out and it got warm. My wife and I on the way to the game got to finish setting up our XM radio. It is pretty cool. Lost of variety on the radio that way.

Tonight I'm staying off call. My son is having a sleep over with a buddy. My wife took our daughter to a play tonight. She returned and said it was great. She is going to keep the pager on tonight in case something goes down in the township, and I'm going to have a beer and relax. And I'm going to stop writing for now.