Sunday, August 29, 2004

Welcome to the Jungle

Wow, what a welcome back to work. After taking a couple of months off for school I went back to work yesterday. The shift started off with a bang, pardon the pun. First call out of the blocks was a guy who called 911 saying that he was depressed about his girlfriend breaking up with him and was suicidal. The SWAT team surrounded his house and he would not put down the rifle he was pointing at officers. He fired it once and one of the officers returned fire right in to his stomach. I cant imagine what 4 9mm rounds to the stomach might feel like but this guy was taking it pretty well.

Just a aside I have had this theory about suicide, there has got to be nothing more depressing then when you are actually trying to kill yourself and fail. And I mean really fail, you hear every now and then about people that jump from bridges and shoot themselves in the head but live and are horribly disfigured. I think you could take one of two options after something like that, option A: wow, there is a God and he really wants me to live and I am so lucky to be alive, option B: holy crap!! I thought my life sucked before and I cant even get killing myself right. Not to mock people with true issues that they need to be dealt with but it is kinda sad if you think about it.

Alright, back to the topic at hand, my crazy shift. So things go along business as usual for the rest of the afternoon, go to some nursing homes, watch some afternoon USA movie and try and nap. Then things started to pick up, the calls were coming in left and right and then the big one hits. Starts out as a possible shooting in front of station 29 and quickly progresses to much more. Turns out there was a car in the fire station parking lot and at someone decided to unload a clip from a 9mm into the cab of the car hitting all 4 occupants. This is what the guys in the fire station discovered once they picked themselves off the floor and dawned there flack jackets. Pretty much the whole world responded to the call, fire, medics, PD, private ambulance and every other onlooker that heard the shots. It was a chaotic scene but still had that crazy efficiency that I have become accustomed to at an accident. Only 1 was DOA and last I heard the other 3 were still in critical condition up at Harborview. It is calls like that that make up for al the BS that we run.


Friday, August 27, 2004

One Year Older...

So yesterday was my birthday...Exciting stuff. Took Stu dog to the park and and headed off to Ikea to do some shopping with the fam. I didn't get anything but its always fun to people watch down there. I love the highly organized day care center they run . You drop your kid off and they get a little wrist band with a bar code on it scan them in. They then enter the plexi-glass enclosed playland and let the fun begin.

For my birthday I got a fly fishing set up from my folks, it should be fun to use over in Eburg. The Yakima river sounds like a pretty cool place to fly fish. I hope I can get out and do some before I head back to eastern Washington though. I think I might head over to the coast and hit up a river over there, maybe the Hoh.

Thursday, August 19, 2004

West Side Story

This post will serve to be a bit of an intro to who I am and what I'm about... So I am a west sider born and raised. I have family from the east side of the mountains but I have not spent more then about 2 weeks over in that neck of the woods until recently. I just got done with a 2 month stint living in Ellensburg where I am attending school. I just finished up with Bio 355 and 356 Anatomy and Physiology. This was by the most difficult class I have ever taken, two quarters of A & P crammed into 9 weeks. I spent a lot of time locked up in my room studying my ass off. The point of me taking this class was to fulfill a requirement for the Paramedic Program I will be starting in a month.

I have been an EMT-basic for about 3 years working for an ambulance company and volunteering for the fire department. I love it but need to start making some real money and would like to do a bit more with my career. Paramedic school here I come. Well that's the easiest way to sum up the last 24 years of my life and brings you up to speed.

I just moved in with my friends back here in Seattle, by move in I mean a pile of clothes in the corner and a twin bed and box spring on the floor but it does the job. I will be picking up a few shifts back on the ambulance and just chillin. I like being back in Seattle, its much cooler and there is more to do. I enjoy Ellensburg but I am still getting my feet wet over there. It nice to be back in my old stomping ground.

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

If Trav can do it so can I...

Well I just wanted to make a comment on one of Air's post but here I am setting up my own blog...ahh well it had to happen sooner or later.