I discovered this while at work this morning after a particularly sleepless night. I have enjoyed my job more in the past year than in the previous 8, but the nights of no sleep can make all of us a little cranky. :) The forces that guide emergency fire and medical calls say that if you have a slow day, you will be up all night. Yesterday was a slow day....I got all my paperwork done and even had a little time to study. I was just about to close up my books, go pee and start thinking of dinner when we got a medical call. It ended up being an unusually long medical call.....6 hours long.....and I wished I had taken one minute to pee before we left. :) There are just some things in life that come to you and you cannot think of one single thing other than that until it's taken care of. One of those things is when your bladder is full. Another is a kidney infection. I don't know why both my examples have to do with pee. After a good dinner at a quarter to midnight, we got a call for a confirmed structure fire. I knew this would happen sooner or later- and it happened last night. I actually had to put all my gear on and fight the fire. In all my years being a firefighter, I've helped with fire fighting activities, but my job was not fighting the actual fire. It was actually a bit of a rush and I had to remind myself to slow down my breathing so my bottle wouldn't run out before my partner's and it was hot and I was glad when it was over. :) A lot of the guys say they went to paramedic school to get a job as a firefighter. I went to fire school to get my job as a paramedic. :) It's just more my cup of tea. So, that was my first actual time fighting a fire outside of training- and at least I know I can still do it and it won't intimidate me as much as it has in the past. Another falacy from my head that was put out to pasture last night was that I can just blend in to the scene when I'm wearing full firefighting gear. Apparently, I'm still short- even in turnouts. :D Which brings me to sleeping in the shower this morning. I was really tired, but it was already 4:30 when everything was put away and ready for the next call- and the last thing I wanted to do was crawl into bed wearing smelly, sweaty things. So I turned the shower as hot as it would go and got in and took a little nap. It was just as good as falling asleep in a warm bath. I didn't want to get out....so I didn't for a while, and it was nice.
The pictures above are from a training we did a few weeks ago at the public pool. The families were invited to swim while we watched and practiced some water rescue stuff. It was neat for me to see the proffessionalism and skill of the teen-age lifeguards as they showed us how to backboard a patient in the water. This is also where I found out that goggles are a miracle. :) Emma has had swimming lessons since she was 2 and has never wanted to stick her head in the water....until she discovered the goggles. Now I can't keep her above the water. It's like a switch got flipped and all of the sudden she is swimming around like a little dolphin. We went right over to the store and she picked out her own goggles. Miracle, I tell you.
Life is good and I'm so glad for the fun I get to have every single day! Namaste, friends.
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