bored bored bored

You know you're bored outta your gourd when you resort to lurking in Yahoo chat, seeing how many spambots you can ignore over a certain time period at 0110 in the morning.
I'm one hour and 12 minutes into a 39 hour shift with QVA. Fun fun. The nice perk about QVA is that I can do whatever the hell I want (except drink) wherever the hell I want (as long as its within 5 minutes of the firehouse).

Anyway, in my boredom, I thought I'd start goin over the calls I've been on that have stood out over the years, and how I got started in this beautiful mess known as EMS.

As a kid, I had the typical fascination with fire trucks and all that jazz... It was always something I wanted to do. Every time I heard the whistle blow or saw a fire truck whipping by, it always got my pulse going...
Anyway, when I was 14 or so, my mom joined up with an ambulance about a half hour from where we live now. She started out as a dispatcher, back before 911 came to the county. I'd tag along now and then, especially when she'd do the 2200-0200 shift. Once I turned 16, I joined up as a dispatcher. By then, 911 was in place, so all we really did was try to round up 2nd crews when the main rig went out, answer phones, and keep track of the rigs times and stuff.

I took the CFR class when I was 17. I could have taken the EMT class instead because I would have been 18 by the test, but thanks to a half-assed knucklehead of a friend, I missed out. I joined up with a rural (very rural) vol dept. when I was 16 with my mom. At the time she was their only EMT, and I wanted to get certified as medical because most of the time it was just her and me. The chief gave her a portable and mom and I were pretty much rescue during the day. This was a dept with only like 15 members on the roster and most of them worked during the day. They'd show up for fires or MVCs, but we'd be lucky to get one or 2 on an EMS call.
Anyway, I took the CFR class with a friend that I got to join up with the FD... And I told him, "Joe, if you're gonna drop out of this class, do it early because I can still get in the EMT class". He, of course, said, "I aint droppin out, I wanna do this!" So what does he do? Drops out 5 days before the practical. Asshole.
So I tested out of CFR in December 2000, and started the EMT class in Jan. 2001. Glad I took that EMT class instead. It was one of the best classes I've ever taken. The instructor was phenomenal. He made it fun and interesting. It was a big class, too. Started out with around 40 ppl, ended with 33, I think it was.

Anyway, midway through the EMT class, I quit the FD I was in. My parents quit due to elevated bullshit factor in the FD, and I followed them out the door. I took a lot of shit there, some good natured, some not. I guess I just figured if it was that bad with my parents around, I didn't wanna know how it'd be with me flying solo. So I quit just after I turned 18. I was still with the ambulance I started out with, but not as active.
I started looking into other FDs, namely the one whos district I reside in, but they apparently got screwed by one too many college students, joining fresh out of high school, getting equipped with gear, and disappearing. So everyone I talked to there said don't even bother applying.

Then one day I went FD hunting. Drove to the next closest district, which happened to be the FD I'm still with today. There was an officer there along with another ff, we talked for a few, I told them my situation, and they got me an application. I knew right away I was gonna like it.

I lived about 8 miles from my old FD, so back when i was a member, now and then I'd go to the station, do some cleaning or whatever, and then just hang out. Well, the chief who lived across the street did not like that. He'd either call or come over, bitchin, and if I wasn't doing something constructive, he'd tell me I either had to do something around the station or leave, because I couldn't just hang out there waiting for calls.

So imagine my surprise when during my interview at my current FD, the chief asked how often I could hang around the station, because I lived about 11.5 miles from this FD. I was shocked that they were actually asking me to spend time at the station. No complaints on my part, I told the chief I'd be there as much as I could.

Once EMT was done, I was getting ready for college. I spent 2.5 years at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, getting my degree in Fire Protection Tech. For my first semester and then my last semester, I commuted either from home or from the FD. For the other 3 semesters, I was a bunk-in at a northern Onondaga County FD. It wasn't bad at first, but near the end the politics and other station bitch related bullshit got to be too much, plus I got the job at QVA over the summer between semesters 4 and 5, so I couldn't work and bunk-in at the same time. I chose work.

Now, after 4 years of being a basic, I decided to advance. I was thinking about taking this paramedic class early on this year and I went back and forth in my decision for a few months, weighing the pros and cons... Then my sister announced that she was gonna take the original paramedic and my mom decided to take the advanced standing class (a condensed paramedic class for level 3's who have been certified for at least 2 years.) So I figured what the hell. Do it this year and I've even got my own study group. :-) It'll be pretty cool once we all pass. Half of the paramedics in QV will have the same phone number. :-)

So that's my "How I got started" story.

Now I vol for the FD still; I'm Lieutenant/Medical Officer there. I work for QVA and VO, and I used to vol for the County Wildlands SAR team, but I put in for a leave of absence because paramedic class is gonna keep me way too busy for that. I've actually gotta pick up my hours at the FD, because I have to make sure I have the required hours and attendance points to remain a line officer next time around.
We have a pretty decent system in our dept. for elections. We vote for the Chief, President, VP, Secretary, Treasurer, and the board of directors. Then the chief chooses the deputy chief, they choose the assistant chief, and so forth on down the line thru captains and lieutenants. The chief also passes out a survey, and the membership writes in their suggestions for the line officers under The chief. He usually follows the survey, unless someone who is not prepared for line officer duty campaigns their way onto the surveys. Up until a year or 2 ago, the surveys eliminated a lot of the BS that comes with regular elections, but shit's been getting ugly over the last year or 2. ppl are buddy-buddying their way onto the surveys and that isn't always a good thing.
I would get more into the possibilities of the '06 then '07 elections, but I'm gonna keep my mouth shut. If anyone from the FD reads what I wanna say, there will be problems if they figure out who I am and who I'm talkin about. So if what I think is gonna happen does happen, I'll let ya know. But in the meantime, it's relatively privileged info, and I don't want to be responsible for it getting out.
Well, that's enough for tonite. I might start reminiscing about past standout calls next time around.

Remember: If you can find humor in every situation, no matter how bad it is, you can make it though.