Gotta love NY weather.

November in Upstate New York.
You usually think of things like the last of the leaves falling off the trees, hunting, getting ready for Thanksgiving, and maybe even putting up the Christmas lights.
You don't usually think of violent thunderstorms, insane winds, microbursts, and hail.
The whole area got pounded sunday evening by what was left of the weather system that FUBARed indiana and all them. The weather radar was showin dark reds and purples.
My fire district got a solid hit. (For anyone reading from the area whalloped by the tornados, i know we got it easy, and i feel for ya. good luck in your recovery/rebuilding)

Anyway, i was working a 24 at Small City ambulance on sunday. Most of the day Sunday was amazing, weatherwise. sunny, low 70s, just beautiful.

I was paired up with a girl who just recently got her paramedic certs and we were first up in rotation. We got called to the south end of our district for a general illness and transported back to Small City hospital (SCH). Couple hours later we got hit for a transfer from small city hospital to Cooperstown. Talk about a trip. it's a good hour, hour and a half drive.
Lisa and I were up again, so we went to the hospital.
Come to find out, it was the same lady we brought in from the south end of our district.
She had a White Blood Cell count of 445,000. I guess normal is around 10,000, so to put it lightly, it was just a little bit high. She was in her 80's, hadn't seen a doctor in 53 years.
Unfortunately, thats all changin now.

So while we're getting her ready for transport, we hear that a tornado watch has been issued for the area. Once we get outside, it was starting to get pretty windy.
Thank God we got to Bassett ahead of the weather. About 10 minutes out from SCH, we started hearing the calls come in from the west end of the county, quite quickly heading east. All we heard were hits for trees and wires down until we got out of radio range.

We still hadn't got the weather when we left Bassett. We stopped a few miles from Cooperstown to get somethin to drink for the drive back. A few minutes after that stop, it was starting to get Reeeeeeaaallly dark (you know stuff's about to get ugly when it's already dark out due to time of day and you can still tell its getting dark from the weather). Then the lightning started in the distance and Lisa and i agreed that this was not going to be a fun drive back home. Sure enough, a few miles later, we drove into a wall of hail, horizontal torrential rain, and blinding lightning. These conditions continued for about 30 minutes before it started to lighten up.

In the thick of it, Lisa said "Adam, i'm glad your driving and not me!" I said "Me too!" and she said "HEYYY!". No disrespect to her, but i'm more comfortable driving in nasty weather than i am as a passenger, unless i really know and trust the capabilities of the person driving. And i know some people who i don't trust driving during the day on dry roads. Lisa isn't one of them, but that's beside the point.
Anyway, the storm FINALLY let up when we were about 20-25 minutes from quarters.
We got back and the rest of the night was uneventful. no more calls and everybody got to sleep uninterrupted that night. I'm workin a 24 there again this Sunday, so we'll see if we can go 2 for 2 when it comes to sleepin thru the night.

I've had quite a few calls with QVA lately. Which is really good, because i can really use the extra $$$. I'm supposed to go in to the new job tomorrow, get my training set up, and turn in a copy of my CDL permit. After that i'll get my training done, get my road test, and once i have my CDL license i'll officially be a school bus driver. Whoopie. It's good pay and i only have to do it until i get my paramedic certs. and who knows, maybe i'll still do it on the side.

Anyway, kinda got off track there. Had quite a few calls with QVA, but nothin that's really stood out. We did have some issues with one of our EMT's... She drove the meat wagon to the hospital the other day for one of the calls we had. On the way to the hospital, she ate a curb pretty nicely. We were going thru a construction zone and all of a sudden the ass end of the rig kicks left and i hear the sound of squealing tires. The paramedic, the Pt., and I all kinda looked up, out the front window, and out the back window to see what was going on... Not too much damage, scrubbed the tire and the wheel up a bit and left a lil cut on the outer tire on the back. The lady who was driving doesn't seem to grasp the concept that a MedTec Type 3 Box rig is just a little bit bigger than the Liberty that she drives. So she's probably gonna not be driving unless absolutely necessary from now on. I figured i'd be nice, let her drive, and see what i could learn from the paramedic towards my class. Not much. wasn't much of a call, basic ALS. the pt was complaining of chest pain, he was 17 years old, about 6'5"+ and a solid 330, if not better. He was a little jumpy at first because i was sitting behind him getting stuff together while the paramedic was starting the IV. Kid musta thought i was gettin ready to jump on him and hold him down or somethin, cuz he kept whippin his head around like someone was sneakin up on him. Later on in the call we got talkin about music and stuff... He's got pretty good taste for a 17 year old. Likes Metallica, Zeppelin, Skynyrd, Seger, lotta the old stuff. pretty cool, compared to some of the posers around here.

I tell ya, some of these kids just make me laugh, yet they disgust me at the same time. we live in a lil ink spot on a map and these kids act all big n bad. Wearin the flat brim hats sideways, super baggy pants down around their knees, with a ghetto strut. you'd think these kids were in NYC or even Syracuse. One day i wanna round all of em up, throw em in some form of mass transit vehicle, and drop em off on South Salina St. in Syracuse's South Side at 1 am. Then again, i just wanna scare em, not get em maimed or murdered.
Its funny to hear these kids talk though. It's kinda like watching Malibu's Most Wanted.
There's a lot of B-Rads in this town. It's pathetic. What's really pathetic is u get these little hotshot preppies who try to pick a fight with a Skater. Skater kicks the piss out of em, they go home crying, then come back a day or 2 later with 2 cars full of friends with various objects of a hostile nature, the 10 kids beat the piss out of one skater while little hotshot preppy sits there screamin and yellin and calling the heavily outnumbered skater a bitch and a pussy or whatever else they feel like callin em. Then when the damage is done, they go around tellin everyone that they beat up skater so-and-so themselves. It's pathetic.
I love my town, Cantcha tell? My sister had an encounter with the small town funk recently, i'm sure she'll be writing about it soon. She's the one with the Things That Make You Go Blah site in my links area.
Anyway, thats my rant for the evening, small town shenanigans.

We got into Shock last night in class. The fun begins. My instructor loves shock, so we're either gonna know it inside and out or go loopy before we're done.
I've started counting the F-Bombs that he drops while teaching.
I counted 90 last night. That wasnt including the ones he dropped while on break or right after class. He was totally wired last night, almost to the point of a spaz attack.
I dont know what got into him, but he started pingin off the walls once he started talking about the progression of shock.

We have learned when to take something very strongly to heart, because if he's trying to make a major point, the sentence normally starts off with "If I EVER find out that one of you
Sons o' Bitches---" We've heard that a few times so far, i'm sure we'll hear it many more.

Thats it for tonite. Gotta get up early tomorrow.
Cya