Weekend complete

I worked again on Saturday night. I ate Thanksgiving leftovers my mommy sent along with me, and Joanne brought a yummy sub sandwich.

During a slow part of the shift (which doesn't narrow it down), Joanne and I had a little chair-dance party.


View this clip on Vimeo

Saving lives, one phone call at a time.

Today (Sunday) I agreed to work a 24 hour shift with the fire department because they were short a driver.

We had a call on a road out in the township for a male with chest pains. The address of the call was 7882 (I'm changing it in the story so I don't violate any laws here).

We're cruising along in the dark of night. It is a hilly road, and I'm whooping the siren a bit to avoid deer and cars on the other sides of hills. I know how to get to the road, but I have no idea how far down the address is.

We get to 8000 numbers and they are decreasing as we cruise along. Then 7900 numbers.

7920. 7910. 7900. 7890. 7880. Wait, what? We wanted 7882.

We radio to dispatch, and they confirm that they have 7882. I send someone to the door of 7980 and no one answers. We are sitting in the street, red lights flashing, looking like dingdongs. Someone, somewhere, is having chest pain. I tell dipatch they are not to be found and they need to call them back to clarify.

Dispatcher says the caller is flashing the porch light. She says there is a red pickup truck in the driveway. We go farther down the road and one of the crew thinks they saw a porchlight flash. There is a truck in the driveway. We pull in, and get out. I tell dispatch we are on scene. They reply that the caller sees us several houses away. DAMMIT. Looking around, we notice about 7 houses with red pickup trucks.

Apparently the address numbers aren't in order. Who the hell's idea was that? I should have expected as much around here.

Sunset to Sunrise

On the way home from a good family Thanksgiving, I was on the highway and heading straight for the sun as it sunk into the western sky. For a short time, the orange burst of light was blinding, and no positioning of my hand could shield my eyes. As it descended lower, I witnessed another beautiful sunset. The illuminated clouds looked like far-stretching fields of orange sherbet. Delicious.

Working third shift this past night wasn't so bad; I spent the first five hours with Joanne sharing complaints, gossip, and funny stories. The last five hours went by quickly considering the slow pace of activity, thanks to our friend Google. His Supreme Googleness led to me some amateur comedy videos called "The Stupid-Show". Check them out here.

When I got home at the end of my shift and climbed into bed, I turned on the television. Apparently my brain still hasn't gotten used to this night shift stuff, because I got very confused as the TV lit up and I saw Good Morning America on NBC.

"But it's bedtime!" my brain said, befuddled. Ah yes, I remembered, everyone else was just waking up, and I was tucking myself in at sunrise.

Goodnight day-people.

Turkey Day

Our food is nearly done. I can not wait, whoa.

- - -

I'm looking through the sale ads from the Thanksgiving day newspaper for tomorrow's big shopping day.

Does anyone else find it amusing that Staples will give you a free shredder with the purchase of accounting software?

Sounds like the 'Enron Special' to me.

Amazon.com gets hip and weird

I was checking out Amazon.com's gift guide section for christmas presents earlier. I actually bought all of my christmas presents from Amazon last year, and they all arrived in wrapping paper and with the message I selected attached to the package. That is fantastic.

Anywho, the gift section let you browse by the type of recipient. Mom, Dad, Co-Worker, Metrosexual...

Yes, they included Metrosexual. Weird.

Recent events

Recent events in reverse chronology:



Most recently, work. Well, work is such a negative term. I like to think of it as... as... doing an assigned task as instructed under the threat of no longer receiving money otherwise. Yes, that's it.

Police communications. Saving lives, one phone call at a time.

My family came down for parents weekend on Saturday. We went out to eat, and then saw Bill Cosby do stand-up comedy at Millett Hall on campus.

It was nice to see them. It was nice to see Bill Cosby. We should all hang out more often.

Before that, I went to Johnny Rocket's with Mike. Those straw holders are funny, but remarkably practical. If only everything could be dispensed so easily. After that we saw a movie called The Fog. I should have been able to guess the quality of the film with a title like that, but you live and learn. A friend suggested "The Visible Condensation" as an alternative, but it doesn't have the same ominous tone.

In other news, I resigned from my position on the board of directors at WMSR. I barely had enough time for it before this job, and now I definitely don't. I miss the good WMSR days, but they have passed, and it was a great experience.

The Colbert Report

Steven Colbert, formerly of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, has his own show on Comedy Central now.

I just watched him interview Congreswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio's 11th district.

Best question of the interview:

'Twenty-two astronauts have come from Ohio. What is it about your state that makes people want to flee the earth?'

He makes me laugh.