Shooting

Yesterday I went and visited my good friend Andre. Of course, I am still trying to convince him to move back to Greenville. He even received a letter from BJU. It appears that they did not know he was not coming back. I say it is a sign that God wants him back down there.

Now, Andre's family owns half of a mountain. They have a big log cabin that they are trying to sell. (If anyone's interested let me know and I'll pass it on to them.)

While visiting him we had to do some shooting. I brought over my muzzleloader, .22, .38, and couple of bows. He brough out his AR15, shotgun, and .9mm. First time I'd ever done any skeet shooting. I was finally getting the hang of it about the time my arm was ready to fall off. Also, while we were shooting off our bows, the deer came out to laugh. I guess it was something about us not hitting the target...

More pictures from White Lake

Although it is still taking a long time, I was able to load some more pictures from my camping trip.

The local loon family...

One of two Heron's that reside on the lake...

Two ducks on a log (I feel a bad joke coming on)...

A very green frog (the lake is full of them)...

Well, that should do it for now. All of my other camping pictures are about the same.

Camping

Alright, it's been a little while since I've blogged anything. I have been a little busy lately. On Wednesday I flew back to NH for some weddings and to visit family. On Friday my dad, sister, and I went to White Lake in Tamworth to camp. My mother followed up a little later. The following picture is of White Lake with Mt. Chocora in the background.

This next picture is from the lake while in my kayak, looking back at the beach.

I have some more pictures to post, so stay tuned. Unfortunately, the pictures are not loading right now.

Boycott Greyhound!

My roommate recently took a trip up to Virginia to visit friends, by way of Greyhound. I, personally, have never travelled by bus, least of all Greyhound. Due to my roommate's experience, I don't think I ever will.

For those of you who have never met my roommate, let me tell you something about him. He has a condition that has a really long name and ends with congenita. He was born without the proper muscles in his upper body, and as a result, he cannot use his arms. Now, most people would give up and say "poor me...boo hoo hoo." Not Chris! I have never heard him complain about his condition!

Let me tell you something else about Chris. He is an artist. He writes and paints with his mouth. In fact, he uses his mouth for just about everything. His mouth is his hand. Chris is self-sufficient and does just about anything I do without help.

Well, back to the story. Chris was riding Greyhound. He had four bus drivers on the trip up to Virginia and back. Three out of the four gave him a hard time because he (Chris) had his ticket in his mouth. One bus driver refused (yes, refused!) to take Chris' ticket from him, or hand him a re-boarding pass. Chris is extremely patient with people, so he explained that he was disabled and could not use his hands. Even after this explanation, the bus drivers were extremely rude and the one would still not except his ticket (luckily he was traveling with friends who in turn took the ticket from Chris and handed it to the bus driver).

Now, in the five years I have known Chris, I have never run into a situation where I was out with him and people were rude because he used his mouth. He doesn't even remember a time where people were rude to him because of his disability. However, three of the four Greyhound employees that Chris came in contact with were extremely rude. Makes me wonder what their training and policies against discrimination include.

Vacation and weddings...

On Wednesday I will be flying back to NH for two weeks. I will be attending two weddings, visiting friends, and just all around vacationing. I will hopefully get a lot of kayaking time in. (I just have to make sure I do not drop my camera in the water.)

Unfortunately, neither of the weddings are mine. I have one friend, Lynn Casey (soon to be Lynn Rosedale) who is getting married this coming Saturday in Dover, NH. Lynn and I went to highschool together, so we go back a little ways. I am also looking forward to a mini-reunion at her wedding. About half of our class is going to show up, so that is exciting!

The second wedding is next Friday in Bedford. Two good friends of mine, Justin Ulrich and Beka Brown, will be tying the knot. Woo-hoo!! I used to work with both Justin and Beka at college, and am currently working with Justin at GCEMS. Godd luck to the both of you!!

My last post was about my parent's anniversary. Since I was not home, my sister and I will be giving them their present on the 29th. I think they will enjoy it. Unfortunately, they don't know what it is yet, and Mom reads this blog every once in a while, so I cannot mention what it is here.

Well, that is about it for now. I am on the last 12 of my 36-hour shift in Berea. Thankfully, I have only run two calls- one last night and only one today so far. Not too bad, considering it is Westside!

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary!!

Dad & Mom

July 15, 1978

Tips on calling 911

Today, while at work answer the phones for 911, I have thought of a few tips to give people who want to call 911.

1. Give the address and phone number. Face it, if the ambulance doesn't know where to go, they cannot get there.

2. Listen to the individual on the phone. They are trained to ask the correct questions. We need to know so we can send the right help.

3. Don't get hysterical. You are not helping if you keep yelling to send help and are not answering questions.

4. Do not swear or yell at the call-taker. They already have a stressful job and are doing the best they can to help you out. I know from experience that they are overworked and vastly underpaid.

5. Answer only the questions asked, when asked. We really do not need to know if your mother's uncle's father died of a heart attack. We need to know if the patient ever had a heart attack.

6. Do not interrupt. If you keep interrupting while the questions are being asked then it delays the response time.

7. Don't call 911 for information. Due to HIPPA, the calltakers are not allowed to give out who they took where.

Survival of the fittest...and me...

Well...I survived Westside the other night! No shootings, stabbings, or other types of maimings. Truama is actually the best type of work we can do. I'm not saying that because of the blood and gore (although sometimes it is kind of cool), I'm saying that because it is so easy. For instance, if there is blood or something is someplace where it ought not to be, all we do is cover it up. We don't have to think about it. With a medical call there is so much more work that needs to be done. We have to think, "ok, what kind of medicine can I give to counter-act this condition." Medical calls are so much more difficult for me, although I think it is much more interesting.

While at work the other night I went out to eat with my partner and another crew to Applebee's. While there, our waiter (a strange individual), recognized me as helping his grandmother out six months ago. Talk about embarrassing! The way he was talking it was as if I saved her life or something...and Applebee's was very crowded that night...and he was not a quiet guy... The truth of the matter is that I cannot remember half of the calls I ran last week, let alone six months ago. To top it all off, he didn't even give me a discount...the nerve!! (Just kidding :-)

I am actually going to try not to put too muchEMS stuff in here. Though this blog is supposed to be a compilation of everything that goes on in my head every day. Sort of a venting, get-it-out-in-the-open, informing-thingie. (Makes me feel sorry for all you normal people.) I guess it makes some sense putting EMS in here because it is a big part of my life.

Feel free to browse around on some of the links to the sides. I'm sure my friends would love to have other people (complete strangers) reading up on them.

Liquorcycles

I am working at wonderful Post 14 tonight (go westside!!!). I was sitting outside, enjoying the cooler night, talking to my family. All of the sudden I heard a loud buzzing sound. A dude on a liquorcycle went putting by the station. Since I am on the westside and liquorcycles are very normal down here in Greenville, I didn't thing anything of it. 30 seconds later, the same dude goes by in the opposite direction. I was thinking how odd it was, but again, I'm on the westside. Anyway, about another 15 to 20 seconds later, the dude goes by again. This time, my dad asked what the noise was. I told him, "It's a liquorcycle."

Now, for those of you not familiar with them, I will try to explain this wonderful commodity, the liquorcycle. Let's break down the word first.

Liquor-cycle.

Liquor, of course, refers to the alcoholic beverage...usually distilled, not fermented.

Cycle refers to a vehicle with wheels in tandem (i.e. bicycle, tricicle, motorcycle, etc.)

Put them together and you have an alcoholic beverage on wheels...actually...no...

In South Carolina, a license is not required to ride a moped (open to some interpretation). Also, living in the city, you can ride a moped anywhere (except on highways). Many of the people in the city, who have lost their driver's licenses due to DUI/OUI, ride mopeds. All of us in EMS have nicknamed the moped "liquorcycle."

(I, however, am thinking of getting one. Especially since gas prices are rising.)

Verizon...ugh!

I am not overly happy with Verizon right now. My cellphone (and my only phone) decided to not work anymore last night. The LCD screen will not work, the ringer will not work, if I call out I cannot hear anyone but they can hear me, etc...

I went into the Verizon store today to see if I could get it repaired. Since my warranty expired six months ago I will have to pay $50 for a refurbished new phone. OR Verizon can "replace the microphone" which will let me hear a ringer/phone conversation. Verizon cannot repair the LCD screen which has ALL of my phone numbers on it. So...I cannot upgrade my plan for another six months so if I buy a new phone I will have to pay full price for it.

I told the tech that I would go ahead and pay for the refurbished phone. She said that the computers were down so she wouldn't be able to do anything with it. She also said that she received an email about the system being down and that nothing was there about when it would be up and running again. I told her I would leave it there and pick it up when I got out of work. She then told me that would be fine, but all of the techs left at 5pm. I don't get out until 6:30 if I don't snag a late call. Needless to say...I wasn't too thrilled.

The worst part about this whole ordeal is that this is not the first phone problem I've had with the company. My last phone's data port went bad six months after the warranty ended. I also had phone insurance at the time but it wasn't good for the problem.

I have been a faithful Verizon Wireless consumer for the last 6 1/2 year, but I am becoming increasingly unhappy with the company. The only reason that I have Verizon is that all of my friends/family have it and we're all "in." I am going back to Verizon tomorrow to see what can be worked out. Depending on how it goes will depend on whether I go to Nextel or not. (I really like the idea of direct connect)

Pet Peeves...

Randomly, througout my postings you will find listings of my Pet Peeves. If you ask my family they will tell you that I have many. Unfortunately, I am sometimes guilty of doing some of the things on my list.

1. (This is really numero uno for me!) Not moving to the right and stopping when an emergency vehicle is approaching you from the rear. This is extremely prevelent in South Carolina.

2. Driving in the fast lane when a vehicle is approaching you from the rear.

3. Poor people getting $20+ in scratch tickets, then standing there at the counter scratching them to see if they've won.

4. People that call me and those in my profession an "Ambulance Driver."

5. People who say they "work in the medical field" and think they can treat my patient better than I. (Oh, by the way, the "medical field" was the exciting field of medical transcription.)

6. CNA's and LNA's who think they actually know my job better than I (sort of linked to #5, but bad enough to be a separate peeve).

7. $300 car, $3800 rims.

8. People who feed bears.

9. People who consistently arrive to relieve me 1 min before their shift begins.

10. People who think of themselves as "players." (Whatever that is)

11. When I want to work overtime but none is available and when I am working and overtime is available.

12. Tailgaters...

13. People that "pace" so no one can pass them (I admit that I do it sometimes, yet only when they are tailgating me...)

TAXI!!

My mother was asking me why I put "Transportation" as my career field. It is actually two-fold. First, I could not find anything related to medical/health. Perhaps I was not looking hard enough. Second, I am nothing more than a taxi for those of the lower socio-economic level.

While on this topic, let me dispel a few myths about ambulance necessitiy.

1. Going by ambulance is not necessarily the fastest way to the hospital. We do not drive with lights and sirens all the time unless the following conditions exist; a) we are a bunch of local rescue rangers that need to get our adrenaline up, or b) we are scared by what is in the back of our truck!

2. Going by ambulance does not mean that you see the doctor faster.

3. If you are getting into our truck while we are putting it in park at your house, chances are there is nothing wrong with you and you are going to triage.

4. If you are getting into our truck while we are putting it in park at your house, chances are there is nothing wrong with you and YOU DON'T NEED AN AMBULANCE!!! (duh)

5. If you have had the same condition for the past three weeks, there is no need to call an ambulance at 3:00am. You have survived for three weeks, you can survive another four hours!!

6. If you have vomiting and diarrhea you don't need to go to the hospital, you need pepto-bismol.

7. An emergency on your part does not neccessarily constitute an emergency on my part. I am not going to kill myself getting to your house, I am going home at the end of my shift. Also, it takes a little bit of time to get to your house. We do not a) park outside of your house, or b) drive around the county waiting for a call to spring up (usually I'm at the station working on my blog, watching tv, or sleeping).

8. You should not be worried that you are going to die unless I am worried that you are going to die.

9. Don't get in the truck and tell me what you need. Chances are, I'm not going to give it to you. (If it's drugs, chances are I'm not going to give it to you even if you don't ask. I know when my patients are faking).

10. If I'm onscene and not doing anything, there is a reason for that. Don't jump in and try to do my job for me. I know what I am doing. After all, I am a highly trained, highly paid, professional. (One of the two is correct...)

Suits

Well, today I did it. I went and got fitted for a new suit. How demoralizing that was! I swore after leaving Bob Jones I would not wear another suit. Unfortunately, I have three weddings to go to this year so I figured, for the sake of my friendships, it would be best to get a new suit. Somehow, I don't think that shorts and t-shirts would be considered appropriate attire for the events. (Especially the wedding I'm going to in December!)

I did find out something interesting though: my left arm is slightly shorter than my right arm. Interesting! I had never known that before. Well...that might have to be it for today. I am at work right now. I'm not too thrilled about it...I am working a straight 36-hr shift at a very busy station. Oh well, maybe I will get a little bit of sleep tonight...or tomorrow...sometime...maybe...

Procreation...

Should require special classes, permits, and fines.

I just love it when someone has a little snot-nosed rugrat and they panic when the kid sneezes.
What is even better is when a two-foot tall imp is trying to step over his parent and trips and falls to the floor. Not down the stairs, not out a window, to the floor. He becomes dazed and (as often is the case when the wind is knocked out of you) he has a moment there when he is so shocked he cannot catch his breath.

What is the parent's reaction? "Oh my goodness!!! We have to call an ambulance and get the kid checked out!!!" How did we survive before the ambulances were around!?!?

I don't know about you all, but when I fell my parents would tell me to get up and stop crying. (It would be a slightly different response if I fell out of a tree...I hope.)

Listen folks, if a kid is crying it's not a bad thing. Little kids fall, it's genetically engineered into them to fall and get bumps and bruises and cuts and scrapes. Kids often stop breathing for no apparant reason. No need to call an ambulance unless it persists for long periods of time. Furthermore, if the kid is balling his eyes out he is perfectly fine.

Remember, be afraid of the quiet child.

Hey...another blog...

Alright, I am brand-spanking new at this blogging thing. I was roped into it by a few friends I saw yesterday at a party. Because they talked me into it, I will pay them back by sending their email address' to random spaming companies.

Anyway, today I am in dispatch answering the phones. I was bumped off a truck and yanked into dispatch. I was just having a conversation with someone yesterday on how no one is every bumped from Post 7. Hmmm...guess I would be the first. Oh well, at least I will get out on time today.

I am registered at Greenville Tech for the fall semester. I am hoping to receive a Paramedic degree. We'll see how that goes...

Well, I think I am done with this posting right now. I will try to have some better, more interesting posts in the future.

My Blog

Ok...well...this is my blog...I'm blogging...ummm...