Life has been nothing short of crazy the last few months.

Home life has been hectic. I've gone through some changes that were years overdue. As much as I wanted some of these changes, I wasn't truely ready for them. I'm embracing them all the same and making the best of my situation.

Things are looking up, overall. I still have my house and my pets, there's still food in the kitchen, and my level of happiness is finally on the rise now that my stress is levelling out/going down.

I've started a new business endeavor. It's something I can do on my days off and at a somewhat leisurely pace. It's enough to help cover my expenses and put a little play money in my pocket as well.

Work has been a challenge mentally. Not because of the calls, but because of a couple of conversations I've had. It's given me a lot to think about and I hope the other persons involved have been trying to reassess their actions and motives in the past as well. I'm not happy with the way things were handled or said, but I've also spoken my piece, it's time I to try to heal and get over it. No, I'm not in any kind of trouble, no worries.

Our call volume has been crazy. Things always get busier in the summer, but not quite like this. We've been getting our teeth kicked in every shift it seems. There's no easy solution the department will accept. There's not even a tough decision they'll take. We just take our beatings and eat, potty, or sleep at every opportunity.

I suppose that's it for now, I haven't had the muse for a "normal" post for quite some time now. I'm still around though, I won't be shutting this blog down. I'm hopeful the break will do me some good, actually.

Ladder Lessons

Every firefighter gets ribbed about having to pull a cat out of a tree. It's like cops and donuts. It doesn't matter if it never happens, you will always be teased about it by friends.

We learn in the academy about how to carry ladders, raise ladders, set a proper climbing angle, have 3 rungs over the edge, etc.

We pulled 14' roof ladders off wall hooks and set them up many times. We carried various sizes of ladders all over the property, some that require 6 guys to carry. In the field, you learn to navigate houses with attic ladders. without making too big of a mess hopefully.

I never really imagined I'd have to pull a guy off of a house. Well, not when he had a ladder in place and buddies on the ground to heel the ladder.


A group of guys come to clean/pressure wash the gutters. Their ladder reached a whopping 4 inches above the eave. The guy stuck on the roof felt like he was sliding and was too scared to try for the ladder.

We asked radio for an aerial to be en route, then grabbed the roof ladder and tried to see what we could do. We managed to get the roof ladder set, and I'm still surprised the guy didn't kiss the ground when he made it down.

The aerial was cancelled and we left.

Lessons they should have learned:
Tall houses need tall ladders
If you can't see the top of the ladder from the roof, you shouldn't have gotten off the ladder in the first place.
Nice, new, wooden patios are pretty...and get very slippery when water and gutter junk are added.
Slippery patios means someone needs to make sure the ladder doesn't slide.
If you think you're sliding off the roof, straddle the ridge. Especially if it's level.
Yes, they make female firefighters (they even let me drive the big red trucks). I saw that funny glance.

Family Funnies

Many times on a call, the patient or a family member does something to engrain themselves into our memories for some time. Lately, this has been happening more often.

Frequent fliers can be some of the best for this since you see them so often and become familiar. Knowing their address when dispatch calls it out, knowing what medical problems they actually have versus what they tell you. This can be especially fun if the patient is a known seeker.

Sadly, there's just no way to write out what was said and be able to properly convey the way it was said. It's just nowhere near as funny without the proper pronounciation, emphasis, and accent.

Old folks

No, I don't mean seniors. I mean really old folks, in their 90's and up.

Old people calls generally fall into a couple of categories.
~Just want someone to talk to
~Are actually sick
~Family called

We had the pleasure of meeting a much older gentleman who's daughter thought he was having a stroke. Fortunately, there was nothing going on medically that was out of the norm for this gentleman. The whole call had us giggling while talking to the gentleman, his daughter shared our humor as well.

EMT: Sir, how many fingers am I holding up?

Old Guy: Yep

EMT: (Louder) How many fingers?

OG: Yep

Daughter: His cataracts are pretty bad.

EMT: So would he normally see how many?

Daughter: No

EMT: Oh.


Everything we asked him, we got a "Yep" in response. Everyone was giggling, even the old man at some point.

These are the old folks I love the most. They may not have a damn clue what's going on, but they manage to make you smile. They don't want anything, they just aren't ready to give up living just yet.

Just a little longer

Just hang tight a little bit longer folks, I should be bringing this thing back to life soon. I'm still dealing with my own demons, but I'll learn my fate in a week. I miss blogging. I miss being able to share some of my experiences.

As is my norm lately, when things seem to be looking up I get another kick in the shins. Either an illness or a step backwards in other ways. This time it's illness. There's nothing that can ruin your day as good as waking up feeling like crap.

I swear I'll get back to normal posting some day. Time to take another dose of meds and try desperately to sleep.

Help out the Colorado's Fourmile Canyon Wildfire victims

I make it a point to keep ads and other things off this journal, but not this time. There's an artist who does some awesome work and has donated her time and effort to do something good.

I'm not gonna make you folks read my version of her info, so let me copy/paste.

Click here to be taken to the order page

I created this special sticker design to help the displaced families (animal and human alike) who are victims of Colorado's Fourmile Canyon Wildfire. You will receive this unique, vibrant and durable sticker in the mail for your five dollar donation. 50% of the proceeds will be donated the the Boulder Humane Society to help the displaced pets, and 50% will go to Northern Colorado Red Cross to help displaced families and individuals.

I'm going to put down the money to order these 2" stickers from printsess.com so that all proceeds go to fire relief. With your donation we can help the mountain communities effected rebuild from the ashes!

Each sticker will be 2" tall and only $5. The design is beautiful. I was able to catch the tail-end of watching her stream it's creation online and I'm very impressed.

So, please help spread the word. A link-back, a repost, anything is appreciated to help her sell out so we can raise more money to help the victims of this fire.