No, facebook

Some of you have asked if I will be making a facebook page in hopes that I will post more. Since I view this as the same as tweeting and I adore having a following of twits... no facebook in the time being. I will also not promise to post more. We all know that I vow to do it and promptly fail to execute it as with all my new years vows.

While we are at it. I am fine the way I am and damn with vowing to make major changes at the beginning of the year. I plan to drink, play video games, and start construction projects in which they will remain unfinished.

Good day and this next beer is in your honor Mr.-whine-my-ear-off-in-email.

xoxoxoxo

Frogger

The AP is reporting that a man playing a real life version of Frogger has been hospitalized. I hate to correct them but I do believe he was playing a real life version of Darwin's theory. It's a shame.... he almost won.

48's

Saying "48" is a bitter sweet word with fire fighters/EMS. On one hand we hear "CHA-CHING" and on the other hand we know we are in for a grueling double shift that spans 48 hours.

Running calls almost all day and night long is hard enough. Doing that for two days straight is a test of endurance. It does come with a few perks. The Captain let's you crash in the crew quarters after truck check in the morning. So the mid-day nap is a life saver! But you have to deal with missing your family for two days, trying to find something to eat, sleep deprivation, cranky attitudes, MAYBE getting a shower, and if your lucky enough to remember to bring several pairs of socks! If you forget the socks you are bound to get "trench foot". Major sucko!

Some how, some way, I signed up for two 48's back-to-back with a one day spacer. I guess I wasn't paying attention or something.... something I am going to remedy from now on! But I am back in the bloggers seat and the calender is free of 48's.

Tesla forever!

On this day...

Ireland ratified their constitution on this day. For better or worse? I see my family's home county voted against this resolution and like true Irish tradition is a pain in the royal arse!

Twenty-eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland.

Read, discuss, drink a pint!

Civilization 5

OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!

Civ5 came out this week! *Squeals like a school girl*

Downloading the manual now. Maybe one day I can afford to buy it and lock myself in my office for a week.

OMG!

*Running around in circles*

Things I think about...

I have a list of reoccurring thing I think about when I am inside a burning building fighting fire.

1. Yay! Residents made it out ok! Time to dance!
   
2. Please don't puke! Please don't puke! Please don't puke!
3. What did he say?
4. I REALLY need to stop smoking!
5. What did he say?
6. URG! I need more cardio work. Need to hit the treadmill more.
7. God there are a lot of freaking beer bottles in here..... I could go for a beer
8. Freaking hell its hot in here...sure wish they would hurry up and ventilate the roof already!
9. Hmmm, way to much coffee. Please don't puke! Please don't puke! Please don't puke!
10. Please don't be the first to run out of air. I don't want to be first out.
    

Mudslide

Do you ever think what something means to you, means something totally different to someone else?

For example, mudslide to us is a drink. To a prison inmate.......

Need coffeeeeeee

working a 48...tired

Swimming

back in the day, I was a semi-professional swimmer. I constantly placed first and, tooting my own horn, had a kick ass body. A decade or so later and I am sporting a pretty sweet beer gut.

As of today I am back in the pool..... and then immediately back out. Holy crap am I out of shape! One lap and I was huffing air.

What made matters worse was the JV team pounding out 30 laps right next to me. They probably put a school bus on their shoulders and jogged back to their school.

This is going to take a long time........ *sigh*

Dragon Age

Anyone play this game? I'm giving it a go and I am impressed! Pretty smoking graphics, totally awesome story and I love some of these new concepts in game mechanics. Right now I am trying to get the wilderness witch to ride my mage staff.

Peppers

Had a special garden request come in from a long time friend. The request is how to grow peppers. That's really all I have to go on so I'll just reply in a generic "growing peppers" type protocol.

You plant peppers in the winter/spring, when the last of your frost has thawed and your soil is about 65(ish) degrees (if transplanting). So you still have a few months to plan things out and get your garden pad prepped.

Also till your soil 1' and check for a potential for Hydrogen of 5.5 to 6.9. You can go to your local garden or home improvement store for a pH tester. Depending on the results you may have to buy several dozen pounds of compost and till it into your soil.

ALSO, make sure your site drains well. If not, then its time for raised beds.

As for growing... anything can grow. Getting it to grow to the desired outcome takes a goal and planning. For peppers its even soil moisture AND *critical* even temperatures. If its going to be a cold night, cover them and maybe a warming lamp. If its going to be a blazer of a day....partially cover them.

When you go to harvest your peppers you get them while they are still green (they ripen quick once removed from the plant). Cut the middle of the stem and you should be good to go.

Also, the best tip I can give you is "Think tomatoes". They are almost identical right up to the end.

Moments

There are moments in your life when you are knee deep in snhit and you have nothing else to say but "F*%k"

n00b killer rock band

Still rollin'

Yeah....damn. It's been a while since I last posted anything. Almost shameful for a blog writer not to vomit mental garbage every half hour and here I am going on three or four months! To be honest I think I blogged so much in the past as I had no outlet for myself. The mindless droning of the corporate life fueled that desire. 1 1/2 years since I was laid off from the borg and I have very satisfying career as a fire fighter / EMS. I feel in terms that are more complete and am truely happy with what I do and where I am at in life, for the most part.

I still intend to post. I am going to try and get this machine pumping again. I hear that if you *try* and post once a day that it gets easier. I'll shoot for that! Tammy once told me that you should post once a day, links even, or something out of wiki facts for the day. It helps for days when you are just not feeling creative.

So there you go folks, my post for the day. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a vegetable garden that needs a little TLC.

The big A-hole

Threw away a bible today. When g-d decides to stop acting like a dick then maybe we can get on speaking terms again.

Typical Thursday

"What is my typical day" a reader once asked...which to be perfectly honest was really just me talking to myself. I don't really have typical days. One day might be dead silent! I will sleep all day or play video games or what not. Other days can just be balls to the walls crazy. No stopping, no lunch, just whatever I can grab from the ER "medic" room (a small room where the hospital gives us free food and drinks).

I thought it might be best to describe what I did today to give you an average idea on what I do on an ambulance. Remember that today was an average day.

Morning: I worked a roll over wreck. The patient managed to roll his/her vehicle several time before parking it upside down. We did a "Load and go" *means we check out the patient very quickly, load the patient into the ambulance, and start treating on the way there. 90% of what we do is "stay and play" which is the opposite.*

Morning and afternoon: Ate breakfast, went to Starbucks, played Soduku for several hours, took a nap.

Afternoon: Ran a psych patient from methadone clinic to the E.R because he/she developed a pretty gnarly infection in his/her private regions that was putting the patient into risk of sepsis shock.

Afternoon: Death of a cancer patient, at home, with his/her family about (including the little girls). It was the posters of "Mom/Dad you can beat this" that made me break down in the ambulance after the call was over.

Late after noon: Took some old fella to the hospital for an emergency CAT scan. I don't know, whatever. I just drove and ate ice cream in the medic room while my partner did the paper work.

Now, here I am, drinking a beer at 2330 and blogging.

OH! Finished Torchwood (The TV series on BBC). Yes, its good. Sad I watched it all already. I did read that they are going to make a season four of it! Hizaah!

Wednesday......eff'ing Wednesday

Oye! Three twelve hour shift in a row is a bit brutal! Plus add in the fire shifts I been pulling!

I spent all of yesterday running to emergency rooms. The ER nurses and I theorize that the sun flares from last weekend have turn everyone a bit Daffy. Hangings, old people falling over, people running into bulldozers, and a string of elderly heat strokes.

My last patient was a real peach of a lady. She had dementia pretty bad but she was absolutely adorable. She keep talking about how I need to study for my arithmetic test coming up so I can grow up to be smart. She talked about random things that just made you realize how much this little old lady experienced. Like an encyclopedia of Americana.

Then she looked over at me and said "I'm going to fucking kill you" got wide eyed and started a sick evil laugh. I spent the rest of the trip in the little window hole between the cab and the patient box curled into a ball with a bottle of alcohol and a lighter stretched out in front of me.

Not long ago...

Not long ago I would have been sitting in a 5' x 5' grey prison cell with two LCD monitors, A small super computer by my knees, and 20 people asking me questions on how to do something better, cheaper, and fast. All the while making big bucks for someone else while getting paid 1/3 of the market average of what I did.

I would look out the window and watch ..... well just watch. Planes, clouds, birds, people, cars and such. There I was... stuck! From 6am to 4 something. Then go home to connect into work via the laptop and work some more. I was laid off from that job.

Today I sat on the tarmac and watched a jet land just 100' from me. The jet was there to meet with ... ME! I loaded the patient from the jet to MY stretcher and into MY ambulance and off to my destination.

I wonder if anyone watches me from their office window?

Netflixing it

Got the Wii hooked up to Netflix.... just dangerous.

Watched the first season of "Arrested development". Have to say its a like

Watched the first season of "Farscape". Have to say that I do not like it

Watching the first season of "Torchwood". Jury is still out

Bank of America

Before things went to shit, my wife and I bought a house. A cheap house in a cheap area, us being the responsible type, we didn't want to live "above our means". Instead we picked a place that was below our means. Which is, simply, not some ritzy 3,000 sqft house for 300k.

The recession hit and I get laid off from the borg in favor of some Chinese kid for 1/100 of the pay. Fast foward to today! I'm desperately trying to get my mortgage lowered through the Obama "Hope" plan.... quite frankly its a crock of shit. They do nothing. They'll sit there and get your total income from you through a series of 20 phone calls all lasting three hours each. At the end of this exhausting accomplishment they tell you that you spend to much on food. Which, in itself is horse shit. Then they transfer you to your mortgage lender to see if they can "help".

I'll stop you there. If your mortgage lender is Bank of America you are totally screwed. Just foreclose and save yourself the six month exercise in spiraling depression. Walk away from the house and let Bank of America fucking choke on it. Go rent a cheap cheap apartment somewhere and rebuild your finances.

Sound off if you have Bank of America and they are playing dumb

Still here...

Just tired mentally, somewhat physically, and emotionally.

Soon as my schedule tames down I'll start writing on all the drama that has been brewing!

Yeah....good freaking luck

I've been living under a rock the last few months. I've missed a lot in the news.

Today someone asked me about the new health care that passed today. I had no freaking clue what he was talking about, which totally made me feel awkward and a little dirty. Well I felt dirty cause my fly was open. Don't read into that, it is what it is.

I come home and my wife starts chatting me up about it. Then on the social media chains I start getting pinged for comments. So to be honest, I have no clue about this until I had someone shoot me the summary.

USA.... you're screwed. I don't know if you know the sheer volume of free loaders that burden the system with unpaid charges. In the fire service alone, it is not uncommon for me to respond to a "patient" that just needs to make their doctors visit. That, USA, is just my tiny intsy bitsy part of the world. I was hearing on the radio, that Austin (The capital of Texas), 4 people alone racked up 10 million dollars in medical bills. 4 people....4 homeless people that, to my knowledge are not effected by the 1% tax for lack medical insurance. Maybe I am reading this wrong and honestly I haven't put a great deal of reading time into this but on the surface I'm thinking "OUCH".

Can small town, USA afford the extra tax your emergency service districts are going to be forced to charge? Where a great deal of the poor people in question move? I don't know, just my thoughts. It seems like it was a rush job to me. I'm going to bed after this beer and shaking my head the entire time.

Standards on wine consumption

So I grab a tumbler to pour some wine in. The wife comments "You're going to drink out of that"?

"Well yeah" I reply "Our daughter sucked from your boobs, at least I'm setting a standard".

Should I worry?

Best shower EVER!

Happy VD everyone!

Another day on the box

Mark my first day on my new shift, on a new box, with a new partner. Hospital after hospital, I go tossing grannies around and still managed to find room for dinner. That is... only after I started shaking and showing the first signs of a diabetic breakdown, not that I have diabetes. Just takes a medical emergency to get a lunch break when you drive a box. Still, this beats the hell out of my old job with the evil mongoloid computer company. At least when I go home I don't have to work for another four to six hours. I also have weekends off :)

Still working on the fire house job. Another slot, another chance... we shall see!

Funny people, the movie

Not so funny, more depressing than funny. Then again if you start watching the movie with "Drama" in mind then its a great movie. Moral of the story, don't judge a book by its cover. Instead accuse it of anti-nationalism and burn it.

The hits just keep on coming

General suck going on at the moment but I did manage to get a ambulance job. Not exactly the fire house but it pays.

I also noticed that I am not getting e-mail notifications when people comment. Suppose its more of the 2010 karma that seems to hangs on me tighter than a drunk prostitute.

Side note, I did fix my water pump by my self. Saved something like $800 and only spent $200 in total, much of which I could have not spent if I planned ahead a little more. I'm such a good planner... don't know what went wrong there.

Oh! I think I might write a book. I have all these ideas that I write down on post it notes and stuff. I don't know why I do it or when I started. I just always had this feeling that I had to write my thoughts when they come to me. I think maybe I wrote them down because I felt like a part of me was dy9ing forever if I did not but this was a way to remember it before it left me. Sounds weird, maybe something like "A thought not remembered is like a love not expressed". Well maybe perhaps "Lasagna not eaten" which underscores a basic point, wasting.

Anyhow, I shall write. Just as soon as I finish this Scotch and fall asleep :P

People of Wal-Mart

I used to think that the great clash of philosophic ideology between Platonism and Aristotelian ideas would determine and steer the course of this nation. Statism vs. Individualism in a life and death struggle and the people of the United States goes the victor.

My opinion, quite different now, is a dismal realization that America is already in a death spiral as we suffocate ourselves when we stick our heads in the Wal-Mart shopping bag looking for the last bag of Twinkies. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you our future: www.peopleofwalmart.com

Tonight

$35 meal paid paid by the hands of a C.E.O
$40 of booze just by my lips paid by the hands of a C.E.O.
$18 Whiskey for the evening at home
$1.08 Inglorious Bastards

Tonight = Priceless

This year sucks

ok...so far

1. My ex is flipping out and trying to keep me from seeing my son.
   
2. Water went out for half a week
3. Water pump failed on my car
4. Dish washing machine died
5. I did NOT get the fire department job even though I was in the top position. *politics*
6. Wife is totally stressing over money

2010 blows

Texas Department of Public Safety

Fuck you! Fuck you Tx DPS!

Fuck you for closing your office to getting your drivers history

Fuck you for making a web site that does not accept your information

Fuck you for making this one of two bullshit ways of getting your driving history

Fuck you for making the other one a month long mail-in application where you DO NOT accept checks.

Fuck you for having a busy signal for six fucking hours to your customer service center. Even Dell answers their phone when their customers call.

Fuck you for being bitches on the phone about it

FUCK YOU DPS

So far so good

This year is already pretty freaking sweet! My daughter and I spent the morning on the couch watching cartoons. She was so quiet that I was able to sleep for most of it.

Then, as I am typing this blog, my wife brings me a sandwich. Maybe my Fire Department will call today and say that I get the slot that just opened! Here's to 2010!

Happy New Years

In 2010 I :

1) Resolve to get dressed 2/3 of the year. The 1/3 of the year I reserve as optional dress days
2) Resolve to eat a meal once a day. Some days I might even eat several times
3) Resolve to drink more beer. The wife brews beer and I am the official quality control officer.
4) Resolve to eat more red meat and invite PETA over for dinner each night I do. Sometimes even lunch
5) Resolve to abuse the planet and write Al Gore in a photo blog
6) Resolve to shop at Wal-Mart and support the Chinese government as I do
7) Resolve to sign up for the Obama Citizen Block Leader program
8) Resolve to start drinking when the British do...which I figure is 6am my time
9) Resolve to stop procrastinating
10) Resolve to