The Spin of Life

This is the life!

2011-12-16T23:16:00.000-08:00

It's morning: I'm sleeping after working all night long, I'm not sure how long I've been out, I just got the news a few hours earlier about the possibility that I may be laid off from my job, I don't know what the outcome will be yet but I'm clinging to a glimmer of hope, Still I laid awake wondering how I would support my family should the worst come..

10:15 AM I'm finally fast asleep, The tones go off on my pager which I left on full volume since I'm on call to respond for the next 12 hours. My wife and daughter were playing in the next room, BEEP BEEP BEEP.... "Engine, Batallion, Respond on a 'Fire Other' at ____ Machinery" followed by a bit of information and an address. I peeled myself off of the ceiling, rolled out of bed and threw on my FD coveralls, I sprinted down the street to the fire station, threw my turnouts on over my coveralls and jumped into the engine.. Our chief had already turned the engine on and opened the bay (Its much faster for us to run in through an open bay door and get into our gear than it is to run through the living quarters and into the bay) "Morning Chief! What have we got?" He laughed and said, An oil and water evaporator fire, Workers called the station and asked us to respond non-emergency. (A laugh was shared because our protocols don't allow us to respond to any fire in a non-emergency manner) Workers haven't been able to put it out using several extinguishers and 9-11 was notified. We waited another minute for a few other volunteers to show up and staff our engine and we rolled out lights and sirens blaring. -"This is the life" I found myself thinking while I was buckling into my SCBA and prepping to go play. While en-route we discussed our options as a crew and decided to pull a trash line and bring our supply of engine fire extinguishers.
(A trash line is a 100 foot section quick roll used for quick fire attack on simple fires like dumpsters, vehicles and situations that do not require longer lines for fire attack)

Upon arrival we could see a thick black plume of smoke coming out the side of a machine as well as out of a chimney chute at the top of the machine, The fire itself is contained inside the machine and hasn't extended to either of the buildings. We mask up and go on air, about this time our Battallion shows up and takes over command, We have our trash line pulled and hooked up but not charged, It appears at this point as though we can tackle it with our extinguishers, My partner and I each grab a 20 lb Class B powder extinguisher and prepare to spray as our 3rd firefighter opens the hatch exposing the burning oil inside the machine, As soon as we start to spray, fire shoots out of the chimney and balls up into a 30 foot tall ball of flame, surprised, both of us quit spraying for a minute and the flames die down, we go at it again this time knowing what to expect, Our 3rd firefighter repositions himself and opens the hatch but that didn't stop his turnouts from getting a 'badge of honor' as we call it- That is the fire was so hot that it melted the reflector stripes on his arm- The turnouts did their job and kept us all safe from the heat, 30 seconds later my extinguisher is empty. We are called off to re evaluate how to better tackle this fire, The machine is then moved further away from the buildings and the trash line is charged, We decided to cool the machine for a few minutes by spraying a general fog pattern around the outside of the machine with the hatch closed and oil still burning inside.. Once the machine had been cooled, We stepped toward the machine and I took over the job of holding open the machines hatch while our other firefighters sprayed extinguishing powder inside the hatch (and subsequently all over me for that matter). A few minutes later our fire was finally out, We stayed and watched the machine for the next 15 minutes or so to make sure it wouldn't reignite.. Overall this fire emptied 2 of our 20 lb extinguishers and 2 additional 5 lb traditional powder extinguishers. This fire was a different experience than most in that it was mostly contained, However this was the first time in a live emergency that I've seen multiple balls of fire rising into the air some 30+ feet. As we cleaned up and headed back to the station we shared our experiences from this call, The general train of thought: "This is the life!" I had completely forgotten about my job worries and I had a huge smile on my face.. I LOVE what I do!

An image similar to what it looked like when we started spraying our extinguishers on the fire.

Black Friday a HUGE disappointment

2011-11-25T23:43:00.000-08:00

I went out early with my wife to hit up a few Black Friday sales. We headed out as an entire family excited for what we were going to be able to grab together and hoping to have a bonding experience. The race started out at Wal Mart where we stood in line hoping to grab a few big title DVD's for 2 bucks, No real issues here, That is UNTIL I see a woman over in the gaming section who had been pushed down, She is laying on the ground across a cardboard pile of Xbox games, the contents of her purse, meds, phone, etc scattered across the floor.. I could not believe what I was watching as people attempted to roll her over to get to the games underneath her and nobody stepped up to offer their assistance to this woman who was very obviously in need of someones helping hand.. I could barely make my way over through the crowd of people throwing elbows and walking over anyone who didn't have the strength to push through the crowd. I didn't make it and luckily a few good people stepped up and helped the woman to her feet. I doubt that she got the items she was after. My only thought at this moment: "When did the need to save a few bucks on a game overcome our natural human ability to show compassion to someone in need".. I was literally blown away.. The next terrible experience came as my wife and I left electronics and headed over to TOYS to find an item that my daughter had fallen in love with and sat down in the isle to play with for 10 minutes a few days prior, It took us standing for 30 minutes before we were able to move at all towards the toys section because people with carts were blocking the isles and would not move their carts stating that they "Don't want to lose their place in line" This is where my wife stepped up, and I love it! "MOVE" she yelled, a variety of negative comments came her way about how shouting wasn't going to do any good, They didn't want to lose their place in line for items that wouldn't be going on sale for another 2 hours... An older woman in front of us in line had been asking very politely to have a few inches to squeeze through for several minutes and nobody gave her any attention, It wasn't until my wife shouted that people began to recognize another simple need.. It didn't take much to move the carts and let those of us who just wanted to get through room to squeeze by. I stepped in when people started yelling at my wife saying that "Shouting wasn't needed" by saying something along the lines of "Well, Asking politely wasn't working very well for any of us, Was it?"
Wal Mart on Black Friday: I won't EVER be returning.. That is unless I return as an EMT on a Truck or Ambulance..

Next we went and joined my brother in line at Shopko, We had fun standing in the freezing weather for the next hour and a half waiting for the doors to open, It wasn't until about 10 minutes until the doors opened that I again saw a general lack of respect or decency by people attempting to save a buck or two.. The lines wrapped around the building in both directions. We were near the front, At 10 minutes to, families and people started gathering in the parking lot in front of the doors giving no respect to anyone who had been standing in the freezing cold waiting in line.. People were getting roudy and a chant was started by everyone in line. "Get In Line! Get In Line"... The people in line behind us grew more roudy and I saw several people come up and start calling people out: The doors opened and the rush came in, My pregnant sister stepped up, stood there and started calling people out directly.. I wanted to stay there and make sure that she was going to be OK but I was being pushed through the door: My wife stopped in front of me, planted her feet, and put both hands up on the standing theft detector systems she was standing between. In front of her 3 young girls had been pushed over and she was trying to protect them.. In the meantime and in an attempt to join my wife in slowing the crowd, my hand was smashed between the doors and is still swollen. Once inside the madness seemed much more organized than Wal Mart, Still I was disappointed at the reaction of people in general..
We finished our shopping experience at Kohls with the family, standing in line and laughing at jokes we were telling and this was the best experience we had all night long- Perhaps due in part to the fact that door-busters were already inside.. We were at Kohls for what seemed like endless hours but made friends with the people in line around us, Overall: Kohls wasn't bad, Just terribly boring..

To top it all off: I was on-call through out the remainder of the day- Every ambulance in the valley was out simultaneously due to a huge demand for EMS services, I ran several calls related to Black Friday, and a few other general medicals.. I'll sign up to cover EMS for Black Friday any day, But count me out in the future when it comes to any shopping!

I want...

2011-10-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

Right now, I want more than anything in the world to be able to provide a good life for my family.. I've got a decent job, but with this job, I don't get to see my wife too often.. I work graves, she works swings and I find myself sitting here at work everyday reading stories from my favorite blog. "Firefighter/Paramedic Stories" http://firefighterparamedicstories.blogspot.com/ Stories of an experienced firefighter paramedic working in the California bay area near where I went through paramedic school. I'd LOVE to meet the author of this blog and hear some stories face to face, This guy is living my dream, Every bit of it...

Currently I love what I'm doing.. Moving to Utah gave me the opportunity to practice my skills with what I consider to be the best volunteer department in the state.. I love being a part of a great volunteer fire-department and having weekly contact with the local group of professional firefighters at both fire and emergency medical scenes. NLFD has provided me with opportunities to get hands on experience as well as to take additional classes like ADO (Apparatus Driver and Operator) Pumper and ADO Aerial allowing me to be certified in the pump and engineer operations of our Engine and Truck.. With all that though, I'm still in a bit of a stand-still and it's getting... OLD! I have completed all of the requirements needed for National certification as paramedic, The only thing standing in my way right now: The money and vacation time I need both to be able to take the NREMT Test.. I came home to Utah to finish my field internship with Utah's busiest paramedic rescue company after going through a year of classwork and Emergency Room clinicals in the bay area. The things I saw and experienced only added fuel to the fire and got me even more excited about the career I have chosen. I found out just a couple of days ago that I'll need to travel back to California and test where I took the course, This requires money and vacation time.. See where I'm going with that? There is not a doubt in my mind that I'm going to do what it takes to achieve my dreams of working with a busy fire-department as a firefighter paramedic, Busy being the key word (Eventually).. Nobody other than myself could stop me from making it happen...

What I want more than anything and only second to my families happiness is to be a successful firefighter paramedic working for not just any, but a busy fire department, I want to clip in at the raised tip of a 75-105' aerial ladder and watch as water flows over a giant defensive fire operation, I want to be able to place someone who is in a dangerous position into a position of comfort and safety when they need it most, I want to be a part of helping out my community in a time when they need help the most, I want to reach the point where all I have to do: is do what good medics do without over thinking many of my EMS calls. What I want .... What I NEED.. is to be able to take and pass the National Registry of EMT-Paramedics exam, Get a job, (Anywhere) and start working with patients on a transporting EMS agency.

While I look to the future to fulfill these things, Its the present that is keeping me grounded... My family is the most important thing to me in the world, I'll do anything to be able to provide for them and watch them smile. My favorite parts of the day include coming home from work in the early morning hours and snuggling up to my sleeping wife and when my daughter comes in to wake me up with a gentle kiss on the cheek saying "Daddy's Awake!" The fact of that matter is: I'm completely imperfect, and I make mistakes all the time, I probably make more than my fair share of mistakes this day in age but I learn from them and I believe that is what makes me better, it makes me want to push myself that much harder to become better and the motivating factor of it all to me is my family... That is why I am doubtless that I'll succeed when I'm given the chance at working as a professional firefighter paramedic, and I can't wait for that opportunity to come around!

Would be burglers deturred:

2011-10-10T00:45:00.000-07:00

The following is a true-story: This is a story that I have NOT shared with my mother yet because she frantically locks up her home every night just to avoid such situations: If you know her, I ask you to please NOT share this story- And.. Hopefully she doesn't read my blog:

I work a graveyard shift at a local Juvenile Justice center for troubled youth. This is a job that I am certainly excited about because it is above any pay grade that I've been able to get locally in a downed economy plus it comes with excellent benefits for my family: The downside is just that: Its a graveyard shift.. I get to sleep with my wife 2 sometimes 3 nights a week and at this point we've both grown somewhat accustomed to sleeping alone and hogging the bed. At any rate, as a result of working the graveyard shift, I sleep throughout the day and I often get much less sleep than desired: Sleep that I happily sacrifice to see my daughters smile, I also still carry a personal fire-department issued pager with me throughout the day and I respond accordingly to emergencies during the daytime. I am "On-call" to respond to fire and medical emergencies several days a week, Something that I LOVE doing and would sacrifice sleep for any time - any day...
I live in an apartment complex directly across the street from my fire department and as a result I often make it there quickly, however this complex has its downsides: One being that kids run around and play in the park next door, We have single-paned windows and our room is right next to the parking lot and local storage sheds.. (Don't get me wrong, I love living there and most days I can sleep through the noise) However on one particular day this last week, I was absolutely exhausted and I chose to leave my pager at home and go to sleep in my parents dark basement where no light or street noise for that matter can get in for a few hours of sleep before I had to return to work..
There I was; Sleeping like a baby in the spare basement bedroom: I hadn't let anyone know where I was because I didn't wish to be disturbed... I was woken up to a doorbell ringing, which I ignored twice until it rang a third time. Reluctantly, I threw the covers off the bed and went to the front door of my parents house thinking that something must be important, "Maybe Amy needs in" I thought to myself, I opened the door and stood behind it for a second, expecting Amy to just walk in, It was then that I noticed a gray bag of tools sitting on the doorstep and a skinny unshaven man standing on my parents doorstep, It appeared as though he and I were both perplexed at the situation, I observed him reach down and sluggishly attempt to cover his bag of tools and then I managed to mumble through my bagged eyes and half awake mentality the words "Can I help you?" Still perplexed the man looked at me and introduced himself as "Stan." Stan was soliciting services for a local lawn chemical company, He quickly handed me a card with his name and company info, gave a brief although not very thorough statement of his services and then he turned around to leave without offering anything to sign up for; having worked sales before I began to grow suspicious, Nobody comes door to door selling subscriptions to a service and leaves before even asking me if I'm interested in that service... I watched him grab his bag and walk back to a truck parked on the corner across the street- He didn't knock on any more doors, and he jumped into the passenger side of a trashy white truck with what I assumed for a brief moment was another salesman.. I didn't really think much about it until I tried to lay back down to sleep.. I got to thinking about his tool-bag, I used to work maintenance and I like to think that I'm familiar with tools- I haven't seen these types of tools before and I began to recall the entire situation... "What does a lawncare service salesman need with a bag of tools?" "Why didn't he try to actually SELL me anything?" "Where was his company shirt" I asked myself these types of questions for a few more minutes. It all seemed quite fishy to me now. I began to recall a situation a few years ago when my parents had a vehicle parked out front of their home and somehow over the course of an evening, thieves had managed to steal all 4 tires and rims off of that vehicle and had the car propped up on rocks! I decided I'd figure it all out in the morning...
I looked over the sales card that he gave me and decided to call the number the next morning. "______ Lawncare" a woman answered.. "Hi, I received a card yesterday from a salesman for your company, I just had a few questions regarding your service"... (Long pause).. "Yesterday" came the reply" "Yes, Yesterday, A gentleman named Stan came to my parents door selling lawncare services and I just had a couple of questions about the services".. (2nd LONG Pause) We don't have any salesmen in the field anymore, and Stan no longer works for the company, Are you sure it was _____ Lawncare" "Yes, This is the card I recieved, It was pulled out of a stack of cards for your company" Again came the reply "Well we no longer have any salesmen out in the field but I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have".. "Strange, but I got the info I was looking for, thanks for your help" and with that our conversation came to an end... I have since come to the realization that somebody was about to attempt robbing my parents home, and I would assume judging by the size of that stack of cards handed out that their home wasn't his only attempt." I have no way of knowing for sure... Perhaps Stan was out there and bitter towards his ex company... Who knows... Luckily I have yet to hear any stories of anyone in the immediate neighborhood getting robbed, and perhaps my conclusion is off: But.. My advice: Lock your windows and doors when you're not at home because I live in a small community where crime is few and far-between and I think that the lawncare was just a cover...

The Pipe

2011-09-23T00:59:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I've taken the time to sit and blog about anything- Its not that life hasn't been treating me particualrly well, Mostly its that I've been preoccupied with other things that I've felt were more important and writing has taken a distant second to anything else:
I finally received a letter allowing me to test for National Paramedic Licensure and I couldn't be more stoked about the opportunity, However, I couldn't be more nervous either.. I'm sitting here at work, Its nearly 2 AM and I've got 6 more hours in my shift, I just started a new job that I plan on keeping until the opportunity to become a professional Firefighter Paramedic comes along for me. Currently I'm working for the State with troubled youth, and the bonus to working the Graveyard shift is that I have PLENTY of time to study and prepare for the NREMT skills and written exam...
I've also had the opportunity to be a part of a paid-call fire department where I have kept up my skills and hopefully learned a thing or two about life and emergency scene management. So: What's new? Why did I decide to sit down and write an entry that doesn't have much of a point into a blog that virtually nobody reads... Honestly, Its because I got an email asking me to post a few guest articles from a Paramedic recruitment site online based out of the UK and it reminded me that I've even got a blog. Now; I'm not much of a writer but I figure its time I get my thoughts back down on paper...

Here goes nothin...(You really haven't missed out on much) Sitting and reflectin on what to write is a bit beyond me, Its been 10 MONTHS since I last posted and for the most part those months have been great, Brooklynn (my daughter) turned 2 and we celebrated her birthday, She wakes me up with a kiss on the cheek every morning and its my favorite part of the day.. My two best friends moved on to bigger and better things, Both of them now carry the name of "DR" with them everywhere they go and landed jobs that are seemingly perfect, My congrats go out to them! I hope to join you guys sometime soon, Not that I'll ever bear the name of "Dr" but simply that I hope to be living my dreams and working as a full time Paramedic, Firefighter.. The new job is great, and I've got to get back to studying for that NREMT exam, I might as well use the time I've got... I'll attempt to write more quality posts and share stories soon.

I Wish You Could See: The Life of a Firefighter / Paramedic

2011-01-16T16:29:00.000-08:00

I have often searched my soul to find the words to express to my family and friends how I feel about what I've dedicated my life to: As a Firefighter, Paramedic the things I experience and see in life shape who I am and how I react in certain life situations. I don't know who the writer of this poem is, But I give them my respect for finding a way to begin describing what makes us who we are and why we love what we do:

I WISH YOU COULD

I wish you could see the sadness of a businessman as his livelihood goes up in flames or that family returning home only to find their house and belongings damaged or lost for good.

I wish you could know what it is like to search a burning bedroom for trapped children, flames rolling above your head, your palms and knees burning as you crawl, the floor sagging under your weight as the kitchen below you burns.

I wish you could comprehend a wife's horror at 3 a.m. as I check her husband of 40 years for a pulse and find none. I start CPR anyway, hoping to bring him back, knowing intuitively it is to late. But wanting his wife and family to know everything possible was done to try to save his life. I wish you knew the unique smell of burning insulation, the taste of soot-filled mucus, the feeling of intense heat through your turnout gear, the sound of flames crackling, the eeriness of being able to see absolutely nothing in dense smoke -- sensations that I've come too familiar with.

I wish you could read my mind as I respond to a building fire, is this a false alarm or a working fire? How is the building constructed? What hazards await me? Is anyone trapped? Or to an EMS call, "What is wrong with the patient? Is it minor or life-threatening? Is the caller really in distress or is he waiting for us with a 2x4 or a gun?"

I wish you could be in the emergency room as a doctor pronounces dead the beautiful 5 year old girl that I have been trying to save during the past 25 minutes. Who will never go on her first date or say the words, "I love you mommy" again.

I wish you could know the frustration I feel in the cab of the engine or my personal vehicle, the driver with his foot pressing down hard on the pedal, my arm tugging again and again at the air horn chain, you failing to yield the right-of-way at an intersection or in traffic. When you need us, however, your first comment upon our arrival will be, "It took you forever to get here!"

I wish you could know my thoughts as I help extricate a girl of teenage years from the remains of her automobile. "What if this was my sister, my girlfriend or a friend? What is her parents' reaction going to be when they opened the door to find a police officer with hat in hand?"

I wish you could know how it feels to walk in the back door and greet my parents and family, not having the heart to tell them that I nearly did not come back from the last call.

I wish you could feel the hurt as people verbally, and sometimes physically, abuse us or belittle what I do, or as they express their attitudes of "It will never happen to me."

I wish you could realize the physical, emotional, and mental drain or missed meals, lost sleep and foregone social activities, in addition to all the tragedy my eyes have seen.

I wish you could know the brotherhood and self satisfaction of helping save a life or preserving some one's property, or being able to be there in time of crisis, or creating order from total chaos.

I wish you could understand what it feels like to have a little boy tugging at your arm and asking, "Is mommy OK?" Not even being able to look in his eyes without tears from your own and not knowing what to say. Or to have to hold back a long time friend who watches his buddy having rescue breathing done on him as they take him away in the ambulance. You know all along he did not have his seat belt on. A sensation that I have become all too familiar with.

Unless you have lived with this kind of life, you will never truly understand or appreciate who I am, we are, or what our job really means to us....
I wish you could.

--Author Unknown

Why 2010 was A Bitch!

2011-01-01T12:49:00.000-08:00

Last night I posted my last facebook status for the year 2010 and I couldn't have been happier to do so, The status read simply: "Dear 2010: You were a B!+@& I hated you. You'll be remembered as the toughest year of my life." Forgive me for cursing in my title, I could think of no other way to describe the year: I censored it on FB but here I feel that I don't need to as you readers know how I feel about cussing. Now, I'm about to explain why to me; 2010 was a Bitch:

2010 started for me with high hopes and dreams, I spent last New Years Eve with my wife, daughter and in-laws. I was working part time at REI, A national chain of recreational equipment stores in Marina CA near the beach while also looking forward to Paramedic school, ER Clinicals and an Internship to finish it all out, I've been waiting for as long as I can remember to make my dream of becoming a Paramedic a reality and living with my in laws allowed me to make this become a reality. Living with my in laws was a great blessing - No Rent.... However it wasn't at all easy, We had our challenges living there. (I'll spare you the details)

It was on January 12 of 2010 that I realized the year was going to be a Bitch, On that day I finally started Paramedic school, I was given a 1300 page textbook (The fattest one I've ever seen) along with 2 other books; a drug book and a pill book, we were expected to learn and memorize all the drugs in the drug book as these are the drugs that paramedics use daily in practicing emergency medicine, and we were expected to read and have a good understanding of the top 200 most commonly prescribed pills in the US with their effects on the human body. (At first we had to memorize our drugs verbatim out of the book or off of the sheets we were given for each drug but as time went on and our knowledge grew we no longer needed to know them verbatim). I've never EVER enjoyed reading and as I gazed down at my 1300 page book I realized I was in for a long long year, Not only was I expected to read this book, I was expected to have a good understanding of its pages and I would be quizzed on every chapter with major exams equivalent to that of a final on each section. We were quizzed on something (Drug knowledge, Reading, Skills, Etc) at least every day. Our lead instructor Brian asked us all to introduce ourselves and share our thoughts with each other near the end of day 1, It was at this point that I really realized that I was in deep but I also couldn't have been happier. As my turn rolled around I stood up and said something along the lines of "I'm Derek Green, blah blah blah, and I expect 2010 to be the hardest year of my life"... Little did I know!!!!

It was a little over an hours drive from home to downtown San Jose where I would be attending paramedic school. Over the course of the hours I spent driving I would eventually rack up more than 10,000 miles over the year driving to and from school - At about 20 MPG, That was around $1500 in gas just for school alone, OUCH!! I spent the vast majority of my time at home upstairs in a bedroom where my wife and I kept all of our stuff, It was crowded with a queen bed in the middle and 2 small desks side by side up against the window where I would study and keep my laptop. This was "MY" space, It was our bedroom, but to me it was a glorious getaway, to me it was a place where I could have my alone time, a quiet place where I could read, study and just be in peace. Unfortunately, It was also like a cage, After a while I started to spend more and more time studying, and relaxing in that room which caused me to spend less quality time with my wife and daughter. I figured one thing out that I seem to have forgotten, I like my "me time" and I enjoy being alone with my thoughts.

The trend I created of studying and not doing much else continued for most of the year between working at REI, going to school, and studying I really didn't do much of anything, I had opportunities to go skiing in Tahoe area for free that I didn't use and I probably passed up all kinds of fun adventures because all I was able to focus on was how bad I wanted to be a paramedic and how much time I needed to spend studying, Thankfully I have a great wife who would force me to get out of that room and go play with her and my daughter Brooklynn, in fact my favorite memories of 2010 will no doubt include Brooklynn coming upstairs and opening the door while saying "Daddy? Daddy? Daddy!

When I finally finished the classroom portion of paramedic school, I celebrated by jumping right into my ER clinicals and spending about 50 hours a week working in a busy ER for a month, I loved it, however as soon as I completed my hours at the ER, I spent a few weeks with my family, then jumped ship and moved back to Utah where I spent the next 3 months or so doing my paramedic level internship with a local Fire Department. Amy and Brooklynn stayed in California because I wasn't going to be around much and I'm still looking for work. I spent nearly 1/4 of the year 2010 away from my wife and daughter and (THAT) if nothing else, was a Bitch!

I did enjoy alot about the year 2010, I had a great time getting to know my in laws and family in California better on a more personal basis, My daughter turned 1 and began to walk, speak, and understand things. Watching her grow up kept me sane and I loved every minute of it.. I'm still not 100% done and I've got plenty of studying to do in order to pass the National Registry exam for paramedic licensure, but here's to a better 2011!

Healthcare vs Culture: My thoughts on the matter:

2010-09-30T15:49:00.000-07:00

Recently I've been spending a great deal of my time working and experience the Emergency Room. As part 2 out of 3 pieces toward becoming a Paramedic, I've been required to spend a minimum of at least 160 hours (3 or more 12 hour days) in the Emergency Department where under the direction of a preceptor and emergency physician, I triage patients, start IV's, take vitals, push medications, chart my findings, and whatever else needs done. During this time I've been able to see a lot of different things, I'm not a great writer, but I'm going to attempt to put into words the beginning of my experiences there and how it has shaped my way of thinking;

During my first few days taking shifts at the ER, I came across a letter written to President Obama by a Dr. Roger Jones who is an emergency physician. (You'll need to read the letter for the rest of this post to make much sense) The letter states simply this:

Dear Mr. President:

During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone. While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"!

During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one pack of cigarettes every day, eats only at fast-food take-outs, and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer. And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture" a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me". Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.

Respectfully,
Roger Starner Jones, MD

As stated above the letter, I came across this via a facebook post from a friend of mine and having seen several "Medicaid" patients with similar surroundings as Dr Jones mentioned and "luxuries" of a wide variety, I immediately re posted the letter on my own facebook account with the statement that "I could not agree with this letter more." A few of my close friends quickly noticed the letter and we began discussing the matter publicly, Now that I've spent my fair share of time working in the emergency department and actually getting to know my patients on a personal level - often times even checking in on some of the more severe ones in the ICU after hours, My outlook on Dr Jones letter has completely changed, and although he raises a few good questions, I really can't agree with the way he chooses to state his thoughts.

What I do agree with:
Many medicaid patients come into the ER with what could be called "luxuries"
As a nation, more needs to be done to cut down addiction to alcohol and tobacco.
Irresponsibility should not be rewarded.

What I do not agree with:
The so called "luxuries" that many patients have are compromising the quality of health care available.
The government alone is responsible for fixing both our culture and healthcare crisis
Fixing the "culture crisis" will cause our nations health care issues to disappear entirely.

I chose to work at my specific ER from a plethora of bay area hospitals for a few specific reasons, One reason is that the community surrounding me is one that has been struggling with gang activity and poverty while at the same time, million dollar homes cover the hillside. The ER with which I am affiliated is also a community clinic for low income families and the uninsured. My reasoning for choosing this ER is because, here, I have had the opportunity to see a wide variety of medical patients come in with differing conditions, I have had the chance to assess these patients and become familiar with how patients with a wide variety of medical conditions present and exactly how these conditions are treated. The chance to work with a variety of medical patients will no doubt help me when I get out into the field and get to treat patients of a medical aspect. We also get our fair share of trauma in this hospital, but lets face it, trauma is easy... Control the bleeding, stabilize the patient, and transport to the hospital for proper treatment, and now for me to stay focused on my thoughts regarding Dr. Jones letter:

I certainly agree with Dr Jones point that we as a nation are suffering from a culture crisis and as well as a healthcare crisis, however I do not necessarily believe that fixing one or the other will immediately fix the other, rather, I think that these 2 crisis' need to be addressed individually, and collaboratively we will begin to see progress in both directions. It is my opinion that the culture crisis to which Dr. Jones was referring also stems from part of a financial crisis which often times rewards irresponsible behaviors and actions, I think more time and effort needs to be put toward a quality education in budget management on any level of income, I believe this would be a great start to fixing the culture crisis. -I can't help but think of a patient I had the other day who had just been released from prison, He was on a psych hold because he mentioned that all he wanted to do was get back into prison since while he was there, he didn't have to worry about where his next meal would come from, and he was willing to do almost anything to get back inside.

Dr Jones mentions that many of his patients use medicare to pay for their healthcare while at the same time having in their possession things like gold teeth; tattoos, cell phones with R&B ringtones, Brand name shoes, etc. However as my friend Sam pointed out to me: " I think it is fair to say that Dr. Jones did not ask his patient what the actual cost or relative "newness" of these objects was; instead, he made assumptions." Dr Jones then goes on to cover that many of these patients also have access to beer, cigarettes, and a days supply of nourishment in the form of fast food, These are often the types of patients who I have personally seen coming into the ER and using medicaid to pay for their medial services, since reading Dr. Jones letter I have been paying close attention to these patients and I've been impressed, It seems to me that most of the time, They've worked quite hard for what they've got and who am I to judge them or how they pay for their healthcare because they've got a sweet ringtone, tattoo, etc?

I also see a lot of prison inmates come in, I've never bothered to ask why they were in prison or jail, and these patients are often some of the most kind and understanding patients that I've had the pleasure of working with. I've seen patients come in under the custody of police officers who were simply looking for a day out, and I've seen them come in on the brink of death and I have medicated patients who didn't speak a word of English, Either way, Every patient I've had the pleasure of working with had ended up with the same quality of health care, regardless of their stature in life and I truly believe that this is how it should be. I am currently uninsured myself because as a student I can't afford the cost of good family health insurance, and while I am confident and grateful that I can still get health care when I need it, I don't agree with the idea that health care should be free to everyone and anyone, There are those who need free healthcare, and there are those who do not. What I do agree with is that health insurance needs to somehow be made affordable to as many people as possible. This is another topic for another day; What I'm taking out of all this is that if we keep rewarding irresponsible behaviors without properly educating people, we won't see any problems fixed in either of the crisis brackets mentioned above:

That's my 2 cents on the matter, Thanks for your thoughts so far! I'll get back to posting regularly shortly

(To see what my friend Sam has to say on the matter, click this link:)
http://oldbuddysam.blogspot.com/2010/09/foreigner-in-strange-land-dr-roger.html

Medic School DONE

2010-09-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

I finally finished paramedic school, That is to say at least, I finished the school part of paramedic school. The steps toward becoming a paramedic consist of 3 parts, 1) Didactic which is the school part where we sit through lectures and are taught the skills needed for paramedicine, 2) Clinicals where we spend time working in the Emergency Room starting IV's, working Codes, and getting exposure to sick patient, and finally 3) The Ambulance Internship which consists of a minimum 480 hours in an advanced life support ambulance running calls and making patient contacts under the supervision of another licensed paramedic preceptor...

I can't express how relieved I am to finally be done with the didactic portion of paramedic school, I feel like I finally have time to hang out with my wife and play with my daughter. I feel like she's been growing up while I have been sitting here, reading out of a 3000 page medical book and attempting to retain as much information as I possibly could.

I'll admit, I've been neglecting this blog for a while, Now that I am starting my clinical rotations I hope to be able to share some of the stories that I'll have from clinicals and my internship before I take the test and become a Nationally Registered Paramedic. Keep in mind that for privacy concerns, I will be changing some things up such as names, etc but the stories that I'll be sharing will ultimately remain the same.

STAY TUNED, This blog is about to receive a face lift.

Words to my daughter:

2010-09-01T11:39:00.000-07:00

Dear Brooklynn: Its Dad... I'm terrible at keeping any kind of a journal and I probably never will take the time to write my thoughts down, Life is short and precious, I'm not sure what it is that I really want to say, but I feel like I should have some kind of a record of my thoughts: I guess this blog will have to do for now: I just wanted to say a few things, Firstly I'm so glad that I have you in my life. With a year having come and gone I can't believe how fast you are growing up! Its been more fun than I could ever attempt to put into words watching you grow and learn. All the way from rolling over to running outside I've been there, laughing and smiling. Now you've got a huge vocabulary for a 13 month old girl and I can't stop smiling when you're around. Last night you kept me awake until 1 AM but I didn't mind a bit, You were really tired but being your stubborn self (I think you get that from me) wouldn't go to sleep, so you stayed on my lap and watched TV with me until you finally fell asleep. Its the small things like this that make my day. I haven't been able to play with you as much as I'd have liked these past few months as I've been upstairs studying and reading but it always made my day when you'd come upstair and poke your head through the door saying "Daddy!"

Now that I'm done with the tough part I'll be around to play with you more than a few hours a day, and I couldn't be more excited about it! We're not out of the woods yet: The toughest part is going to come in a few weeks when I move to Utah for my internship while you and Mom stay here, Financially it makes the most sense but I'm not looking forward to being without you two girls: Soon enough I'll be completely done with all of this and I'll be home to play with you and watch you grow more often than not. You're my inspiration for all of this, The more I learn the better I feel and realize that being your daddy is the biggest blessing I've ever been given.

Smiles and Sales

2010-08-03T09:49:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, Life presents itself to you with a little gift, Something that without a doubt will make you smile. For the most part and the last year of my life or so, Life has presented me with smiles through my daughter. Brooklynn turned 1 a few weeks ago and I can't believe how fast the time has gone. It blows my mind how quickly she's grown and how much she is learning. She already knows so many words, "Bottle" "Daddy" "Mama" "Diaper" "Kitty Cat" "Doggie" etc. She also knows several things in sign... In a world where I currently spend lots of time stressing about completing paramedic school, studying, and my work schedule, She always manages to make me forget the stress and puts a giant smile on my face.

Now; I could go on for hours about the many reasons why, but this time, A new and completely unexpected thing put a smile on my face... In a few short months from now, I'll have to leave my wife and daughter behind for 6-10 weeks as I plug out my paramedic internship with Provo City Fire back in Utah. I've got lots of hopes for how things will work out in the end, However one thought that's going to help me deal with not having my two girls around me is ultimately my other 2 favorite things in the world: Fire/EMS, and Skiing.

So what you ask about this brought a smile to my face recently? Well, Once in a while you find a deal that just can't be passed up, a GREAT deal! I found such a deal recently when I was out shopping with my wife for some nice used stuff. What I found were 2 pairs of ski boots at an AMAZING deal. (I wish I could divulge the details here, But I'll keep them to myself) first, A pair of Lange Super Blaster's and second; A pair of Dalbello Krypton Cross ski boots imported from Italy. I've read several different reviews of each product and both seem great to me, However one thing that I haven't been blessed with is the ability to choose things. (And my wife hates it because I dont' like to make any decisions). Both pairs of boots are equally comfortable, So; I'm throwing this decision out to the crowd. Let me know what you think.

The Lange Super Blaster Boots are built with a new 102mm last and were developed by scanning tens of thousands of feet. By utilizing Lange foot scanning technology to provide an anatomically correct last, which works in conjunction with the see through orange shell design. Perhaps my favorite feature is the buckle that allows two way motion via a cable for walking and standing mode. This boot is designed for Advanced to Expert skiers and has 4 buckles where they Dalbello only has 3.

The Dalbello boot offers a more versatile adjustability with smooth and progressive forward flex dynamics, A softer flexing tongue and “landing gear” anti-shock footboards. This boot's heel retention offers three buckle technology, as opposed to the traditional four locking the heel in place. There is no walk or stand mode in this boot.

Ultimately, I think my mind is already made up in just the writing of this post, However, I'd still like to kno what you think, Has anyone ridden either boot that can offer up some thoughts?

Grown Ups: My thoughts on the movie.

2010-07-05T13:04:00.000-07:00

My wife and I don't get out as much as we would like to these days, However this 4th of July weekend, We went on our first double date since last years 4th of July. We had a good time and laughed - Alot... To achieve this, we had to forget that we were adults for a minute and bring out the kids inside of us. We went to see "Grown Ups" - Adam Sandlers new movie. The movie is a far stretch from the classic humor found in Happy Gilmore and in my opinion, Sandler has yet to make a movie I have enjoyed as much as Gilmore... I did however enjoy watching Grown Ups considering the way that I grew up with my small close group of friends and looking to what we might actually be like when we are all nearing 40 years of age...

I'll try to do this without spoiling the movie for anyone who wants to watch it. Grown Ups is a story about
five friends who reunite after 30 years for a fourth of July holiday weekend and pick up where they left off. It is a comedy starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, and David Spade.

The movie begins with a scene of 5 kids who ended up winning a basketball championship together as a team, Collectively they all have a high degree of respect for their coach. After years have passed they all receive a phone call that their coach has died and they attend his funeral then head to a lake house where they share lots of their own childhood memories, dragging their wives and families with them. Each of the kids has a problem that they are presented with that ranges from obesity to being so spoiled that they don't know how to do things for themselves. During their time at the lake house these 5 friends are reunited with their inner kids and reminded of what it means to have close friends and family.

Adam Sander's character is an extremely successful Hollywood agent with snobby kids who don't want to do anything but play video games, Going to the lake house was his idea as a chance to catch up, play and hopefully bring some peace to his spoiled family. Chris Rock’s character is a stay at home father who's mother-in-law has huge unsightly bunions, farts a lot and is unsatisfied with his life as a father and provider. Rob Schneiders character is a hippie like guy who is married to an old woman who chooses to drink laxatives while the rest drink beers, She is filled with wisdom and is the sight of many scoffs and jokes towards the elderly. Kevin James also plays a father who feels the need to portray financial success to his friends only to find out later that he's struggling in this economy like many of the rest of us. He is also the recipient of several fat jokes. David Spade plays the guy who just wants to get wasted and sleep with different girls; A typical character for him.

During their stay at the lake these 5 friends re establish the relationships they had as kids and find themselves getting into all kinds of trouble while showing their kids how to have a good time. They find a rope swing near the lake and Kevin James' character goes out for a swing while failing to drop into the water and coming back only to smack into a tree, I'll admit, I laughed, Hard... I have done that myself.. My friends and I used to go swimming both during the day and at night all the time and I couldn't help but recall the time we drove about 50 miles south one night to find a swimming hole that we'd only heard about up until that point which included a rope swing that I failed to properly swing on leaving me with bruises and a few small scars after smacking into the tree... Jame's also spends plenty of time eating KFC and walking around with a chicken bucket over his head with holes cut out for his eyes; Reminds me of a time when my friends and I regrettably stole a bucket of KFC from a family who was out for a picnic of their own (Read that story as written first hand by one of my best friends here) http://thistoolslife.blogspot.com/2009/05/teacher-regrets-stealing-bucket-of.html

Arrow Roulette is a good name for a game where they shoot an arrow into the sky and run away laughing as the last person standing in the circle wins the game, They fall into piles of poop and every one of them takes at least some kind of spill... Reminds me of when my Dad gave me my first bow and arrow set, I think I lost more arrows shooting them straight up and watching where they'd land than I did shooting into the giant target he'd build for me out of stacked cardboard. What kid didn't shoot an arrow into the sky?

They take a day and head to the local water park where they all have fun with their kids but the kids get tired of waiting in line, so they teach their kids how to sneak past the line and go straight to the front, Again, I'll admit that I laughed at the thought because it reminded me of the times when my friends and I would go to the movies downtown and we would send one person in to open the back door and let the rest of us into the theater; Not exactly something that I'm going to teach my children to do, but nevertheless, a memory that made me crack a smile, My friends and I tried to pull that kind of stuff all the time.

The movie seems like a great excuse for Adam and his comedic friends to hang out and have a good time while filming, I can only imagine how much fun they actually had offset. I was happy to see that in the end the message of the movie was to realize that winning isn't always important and to see that Family and Friends are the most important thing they have, I left with a smile on my face wondering just where me and my friends will be 20 years from now, what kind of life experiences we will have to share with each other and if we will still have the kind of friendships we have now.

Despite all the negative reviews I read online, I'd recommend this movie to any one of my friends, This one is going into my DVD collection, and I'll probably end up watching is with my friends!

Where will you be in 2 years?

2010-05-25T18:48:00.000-07:00

Chances are that this is a post I'm not going to share with many readers. In fact I'd be really surprised if anyone who doesn't really know me reads much past the first paragraph of this sentence, More than anything, This is my pathetic attempt at keeping a bit of a journal to come back and look at later as well as attempting to keep my family and friends clued in to my life.. Life has been crazy recently, With medic school taking up more time than ever, We just started diving into Cardiology. I'll be the first to admit that as much as I hate it: I LOVE IT (Cardiology that is). Its quite fascinating to begin understanding why the heart beats the way it does and what the electrical impulses mean to the body. My next BIG stress factor is trying to find an internship, As of today I've only got 36 more class periods to go before its time to do this stuff for real: I'm super stoked, and super nervous about that, I'm in the process of seeking out a Preceptor and an Internship if anyone can point me in the right direction.

Studies aside, I've been quite stressed out recently, Living with my in-laws so that I can have study time hasn't been easy but despite that it has been advantageous: I miss the days when Amy and I had a place and friends of our own and long for the day when I'll finally be working and we'll have a home and a family life of our own again. I feel like I'm getting older and older without much progression in life, Work hasn't been giving me the hours I've needed to pay the bills and I didn't score nearly as high as I'd have liked to on my last general aptitude fire exam leading me to wonder for a few hours if I'll ever really get to fight fire professionally like I've always dreamed for a living. With bills stacking up and studies seeming to fall behind, I just take my time out to play with my daughter and re evaluate where I am standing, Sometimes I feel like she's the only person who loves me no matter what, She doesn't care what my test scores are or what mood I'm in as long as I sit and play with her for a minute. It always makes me feel better, This brings me to my next point...

Yesterday at school, A new billboard was posted in the corner of the hallway near my classroom, A giant advertisement for National University (The Uni which espouses Westmed College's Paramedic Program) The sign read "Where will you be in 2 years?" It then went on to describe the available degrees one could achieve within 2 years, However, Personally; It got me thinking, What's 2 years? In the span of a lifetime, 2 years is really quite small, It certainly won't take me 2 years to earn my Paramedic license from where I'm standing right now, I found myself pondering this question all evening while looking forward to 2 years from now with hopes and expectations that by then I'll have a job as a professional Firefighter Paramedic, own a home, and be settled into life, Maybe even have another child by then... Who Knows!? The thought that hit me the hardest was the fact that I needed to stop and enjoy the point of life I'm in right now: I am learning and loving every minute of it and despite what was written above, I realized that I really don't have much to complain about...

Going back to this concept of 2 years: I also thought back to just a few things I have seen and accomplished since 2 years ago today: I entered and graduated from an elite Para-Military style Fire Academy, Passed the quarter century mark as a man, Grew up just a bit after watching one of my best friend's get his ankle nearly crushed by a rolling boulder (for which I tried my best to apply my EMS skills), Moved my family out of state, and entered Paramedic school, However the most important thing that has happened to me in these last 2 years is that I became a Father, and hopefully the kind of husband that I probably should have been all along.. Who knew that my daughter Brooklynn would bring so much joy into my life? I never could have imagined all that I was missing out on before she came into my life. Its the small and simple things that make my day and keep me sane, Hearing B say "Dad" with pronunciation on the second "d" sound, Watching her try and take her first drunken attempts at crawling to now racing me across the floor toward any destination in the house, Sitting on my shoulders and smiling away as we bounce and walk, Pulling herself up to a stand on anything she can get her hands on, Playing in the pots and pans drawer... I could literally go on and on....

I guess the point of this is post is that I can't believe it took a giant stupid sign to make me realize that I'm happy where I'm at with my life right now, I don't know where I willl be in 2 years, But I've got no doubt that I'm going to be happy with myself at that point and the things that I accomplished... Thinking about it, Time flies, 2 Years really isn't that long, so why do I catch myself whining about how long it is taking me to reach my dreams, They'll come true for me because I'm not going to stop until they do....

Truth About Manhood.

2010-05-04T12:08:00.000-07:00

With school and all the other junk I have to do I haven't been blogging as much as I'd like to, As you'll probably note many of my recent posts have been about things I've learned while in Paramedic school. For this post I want to focus on one of the other things I established this blog to write about...

This post is going to be about Manhood and Fatherhood in general... A few things that other husbands and fathers out there may not want their wives to actually know... So; Wives, Women, Ladies: Read up...

My experience is that Men for the most part actually LIKE to clean things, Especially appliances, Fridges, Stoves, Dishwashers, AND One appliance in particular, Yep... GRILLS! It is my belief that men are hardwired with an empowerment to remove anything stuck on, charred on, gummed up that inhibits the proper use of something, Anything really, This empowerment extends far beyond simply fixing or cleaning something and goes into the ranks of politics, projects, relationships, Etc.. I guess the point is that we like to see things work the way we think they should.

Believe it or not: I would go as far as to say that there is the inherent point of view in most men that it is within our responsibility to chisel, scrape, degrease, dissolve, scrub, polish, and clean anything until it works like we think it should... Men like to know how things work: I've often been guilty of taking something apart only to rarely remember exactly how to put it back together, but that hardwired determination to have something work as it should and to make that happen lies somewhere in the core of every man, and it DOES include cleaning.. This characteristic is most likely developed as a part of the maturity that is needed for a successful marriage and fatherhood.

The sad fact of matter is that simply; Men are easily distracted and many things often get in the way of our doing these things but when we finally get down to it – We don’t stop until the thing is devoid of any rust or food remains or gunk, all rust has been solved, and it’s sanitized and smells fresh.

(Ladies:) It may take some coaxing, but when it happens; Watch the magic and be greatful. (A little Tip:) Show a man the tools of the trade and you’re one HUGE step closer to getting his head in the refrigerator for something other than a snack! I mean come on, What guy doesn't LOVE tools? Brushes made of metal wire with blades as wide as a hand, chemicals that require protective gear, Etc. These aren’t “gadgets”, they are just some of the more gritty weapons a man has within his arsenal for the care and protection of his family! Cleaning a grill is like a playground for most guys; Tough tools, concentrated solvents, volatile fuels, FIRE! What more could a man want when it comes to maintenance?

There is a great sense of satisfaction that comes with turning something from gunky and gross to clean. For me it comes down to man vs machine, and I win every time: Especially when the appliance is mine! Now; If you are a Man reading this and thinking of calling B.S. on me right now, I challenge you to go take a look inside your oven, fridge, microwave... Now tell me that you actually aren't thinking of cleaning them up yourself, Is is not worth your time to clean it if not only for the sake of your family's health?

My wife was born with a great cleaning instinct in the first place so I don't often find myself needing to clean the grit and grime off an appliance, However when that chance arises, I'm often glad, Happy even, to get the job done as long as I have the proper tools and time.

How do Paramedics know what steps to take to save a life?

2010-04-06T11:51:00.000-07:00

In a way: Para-medicine is almost a game. No 2 calls will ever be exactly the same and that among other things is what I LOVE about this field of work. I say that Para-medicine is like a game because we are called to a scene and then expected to figure out what is wrong with a patient ("A Differential Pre-hospital Diagnosis") and then to treat our findings accordingly but how does one go about figuring all of this out? Growing up I had seen several accidents and incidents in which Paramedics were called to the scene to help someone in need and I used to always wonder how they knew exactly what steps to take and questions to ask to find out someones problems. The answer lies in the very basics.

At the beginning of both EMT and Paramedic school we are given a "Skeleton" that will lead us into what we need to know. These skeletons are the National Registry Standard for EMT and Paramedic certification. Starting with a medical patient who calls 9-11 because something is bothering them such as difficulty breathing, Chest pain, or any other variety of medical calls, We as Paramedics use these skeletons to direct our way of critical thinking and can then ask questions accordingly.

Within the "Skeletons" I mentioned before are lots of Pneumonics that help us to remember the steps we should take to come to a differential field diagnosis of the problem so that we can treat it while getting you or your loved on to the hospital. A few of the most common Mnemonics include: ENAMES, GRC, ABC, OPQRST, and SAMPLE. I will follow the acronyms with very basic questions that sometimes get asked; These questions and mnemonics are used only to lead us where we need to go and then more detailed questions are asked of the responsive patient.

ENAMES: ENAMES are the questions we ask of ourselves before we consider entering a scene and providing any treatment. E: Environment, Is it safe? N: Number of Patients we have: A: Additional resources, Do we need any? M: Mechonism of injury, or Nature of illness, What is it? E: Extrication: Do we need to remove this patient from their current environment? S: Spinal Precautions, Do we need to take any spinal precautions? (SP's would be taken in any case of major trauma, or falls)

GRC: G: General impression of my patient, How do they look? R: Responsiveness, Can they answer my questions? C: Chief Complaint: What is the reason they called 9-11?

ABC: In any situation, The first thing we will assess is the A: Airway, We need to make sure that any patient has an open and patent airway, this is often established when a patient is able to speak to us and tell us how their feeling, If the airway is not established, The first thing we will worry about before we advance to any other treatments is opening the airway and making sure that our patient has adequate ventilation's. If an open airway is the only thing that can be accomplished then that's all we would treat. B: Breathing, A normal adult breathes anywhere between 12 and 20 times per minute, The 2nd thing we assess is a patients breathing pattern and respiration's. C: Circulation, We check for a pulse, with it's accompanying rate and rhythm. Often times Paramedics may choose to get a set of Vital Signs (Pulse, Blood Pressure, Temp, Respirations, etc. during ABC)

OPQRST: This Mnemonic is used primarily to determine someone's pain and to help us understand what might be causing their pain. O: Onset, How long ago did this start? P: Provocation, Does anything make this pain feel worse or better? Q: Quality, Describe your pain for me. R: Radiation, Does your pain radiate anywhere?
S: Severity, On a scale of 1-10 1 being low 10 being the worst pain ever where do you rate your pain? T: Time, Has this happened at any other time in your life? These simple questions will tell us a-lot about what kind of pain our patient is having and what additional questions we will need to ask to figure out their problems.

SAMPLE: S: Signs and Symptoms, These are both what we can see and what the patient is complaining of. A: Allergies, Are you allergic to any medications? M: Medications, Are you currently taking any medications? P: Past Pertinant Medical History, Are you now or have you recently been seeing a Dr. for anything? L: Last Oral Intake, When was the last time you had anything to eat? E: Events Leading Up To, What were you doing before and when this happened?.. SAMPLE is the most commonly used mnemonic in a medical patient scenario because it helps us to understand the patients history.

Don't be surprised if a Paramedic asks you if he can assess your body from head to toe during, before or after asking a few of these questions. In many cases we will do a head to toe assessment just to see if perhaps anything else is bothering you. As I stated before these are just the very basics of the Paramedic skeleton that we use when assessing a patient during a medical call, There is so much more to a patient assessment that I couldn't even try to cover it all here. The answers to the pieces of the puzzle lie within this skeleton and can lead us into proper treatment. If you call 9-11 because you believe something is wrong, Chances are you will hear a Paramedic asking you questions that lead off of this skeleton. What you probably won't hear is the questions stated in such a basic way as each paramedic eventually develops their own "Groove" and style for a patient assessment, However, You'd better believe that we all know this skeleton inside out and backwards because we all fall back on it from time to time and using these steps is how we are going to figure out what is wrong with you.

Trauma calls aren't much different from Medical calls, We follow a very similar skeleton of steps and mnemonics however with trauma we will start with a head to toe assessment and control any major bleeding or life-threatening injuries that we see.

I was caught by our lead instructor with my butt on my desk and my feet in my chair chatting away during our lunch break and as a result I was able to run a scenario in front of everyone. I was dispatched to a 21 year old female who was losing blood through a very abnormal and heavy flow, because I was a male, she didn't want to talk to me and was very reluctant to answer any of my questions. This scenario challenged my way of critical thinking and ultimately forced me to fall back on the skeleton and thoroughly think through how I was phrasing my questions and what I needed to have her do to help me understand what was wrong with her while still attempting to maintain a somewhat decent level of comfortability for my patient.

EMS Pocket Guide Pack: Patient Assessment Handbook / Pocket Reference for the EMT-B And First Responder 2e / Drug Guide for Paramedics The Paramedic Learning Series: Patient Assessment

Medic School II

2010-03-17T14:48:00.000-07:00

So much for my 2010 resolution to blog more; I've decided that I'm going to focus my time on passing Paramedic school before I worry too much about anything else. I'm currently about 3 months into my "Didactic" portion of Paramedic school and I'm still loving almost every minute of it.

Recently I had the option of doing my Labor and Delivery clinical rotation at Valley Med, I was able to assist in the delivery of 4 babies and scrub in for a C-Section surgery. Valley Med is a learning hospital, (If you don't want to read about my L and D experiences, Feel free to scroll down to the next paragraph) So; here is what I learned. Babies don't wait until morning to come, I went in for my rotation from 11 PM to 7:30 AM, I figured I'd have trouble staying awake but that wasn't really the case as every room had somebody in it for most of the night. I had the opportunity to apply pressure while several patients babies were delivered and then to clean, weigh, and evaluate the babies. A few of the babies needed to have their lungs suctioned and as we were wrapping them up we would rub the babies skin and watch the skin color change to a natural shade of pink. Standing in for the C-section was one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life to date; I stood near the Dr's as they cut open their patient who was in for her 4th C-section, As they performed their jobs they were able to explain to me exactly what they were doing and what organs I was looking at; I had NO idea what kind of force it took to pull a baby out of the uterus, My eyes must have looked like gumballs as I watched the Dr put her arm almost up to her elbow inside this womans abdomen and fish around until she had a comfortable grip on the baby, Then she pulled it out clutching him like a football. The baby was taken into another room, evaluated and brought back in to meet Mom then taken to the Nursery, I chose to stay in the OR and finish watching the surgery, This woman had chosen to have her tubes tied, and watching the Dr's sew up the incisions as they again explained what I was looking at was indeed a very memorable experience. On my way home I stopped to buy my wife a boquet of flowers because as of 7 months ago that day She'd given birth to my first Daughter Brooklynn via C-section, Again: I had No idea what she'd just gone through; No wonder she was in so much pain for a while!

IV's is a skill that we are all still trying to master, I've always thought it funny how a good vein can seem to dissapear as soon as we get ready to poke it. A small piece of background for anyone who doesn't know how an IV works, We have a needle with a plastic catheter over the needle, We use the needle's bevel to pierce the skin and vein the advance it just a bit further and then advance the catheter and remove the needle, The plastic tube is left in place and hooked up to the IV tubing for medication administration. We have a rule where if you poke someone you get poked in return, My turn to get poked quickly came and I wasn't at all reluctant to give up my arm; That is until the person poking me didn't advance the needle far enough to advance the catheter so I felt the catheter pop my vein and then it proceeded to fold over on itself inside my vein completely occluding any bleeding and causing a small embolism, (As shown below after being pulled out) All I could do was say wow and laugh. I let him try again on my other arm and the 2nd shot was no less than perfection.

Apparently Every now and again, Our program director pops in to remind us all that we don't know crap yet and we have a long long way to go before we earn that "P-Card" We've recently been learning several of our ALS (Advanced Life Support) skills such as Airway intubation, and IV Drug Therapy. We were tested on Airway and IV skills, I managed to pass them with a degree of confidence only because I've spent my time practicing and memorizing.. Airway intubation really isn't the toughest Paramedic skill that we are learning but it is one of the most important as keeping an airway - (Even if it's a Basic Life Support Airway)is the most important thing we can do for any patient. I've included a video at the bottom of this post that we were shown during our airway lecture on endotracheal intubation, Its quite fascinating.

Medic School:

2010-01-28T11:36:00.000-08:00

When I set up this blog, I had two intentions:
1) I wanted to share the humor that I found in my daily life as a Husband and Father,
2) I knew I'd be starting Paramedic school somewhere and I wanted to be able to share that journey with anyone who might be considering the same - or wondering what Paramedic school entails.

Stepping into a Nationally Accredited Paramedic Program, I have the expectation that 2010 will be the hardest year of my life. Today, I'm full speed into Medic school, We're a little over a month into the "Didactic" portion of Paramedic School, "Didactic" is the classroom portion and it is followed by field internships.

I had the opportunity a while back to run my first scenario in front of the class as a "Lead Medic" - Meaning that I was in charge of the call, My patient and the other Paramedics that were assisting me. I did this as the rest of the class critiqued my work. Here was my scenario: It was a Trauma and should have been easy:

I was dispatched to a Motor Vehicle Collision, My patient had been extricated from his vehicle and was now laying on the ground, He was complaining of difficulty breathing and leg pain. The first thing I did was had one of my medics put him on Oxygen while the other held C-Spine. I began to do a rapid assessment of his body and noticed that he his right arm was broken, he complained of pain when I assessed his chest and his left leg had an exposed femur break. I had one of my medics control the bleeding on his leg as I auscultated (listened via stethoscope) his lungs, The Right lung had no sounds. To keep the story short, I felt pretty good about the scenario (based upon my current knowledge) But: I screwed up and missed a lot of vital things: My mind was all over the place. I learned that we've all got a long way to go, However, More importantly: I learned a TON from this simple small scenario, namely that its not often going to be the same thing and that's why it is important for even the BLS (Basic Life Support) skills to become second nature..

For anyone wondering what Paramedic school consists of: Here's the abridged version of what we're currently going through:
The book we study out of is 2000 pages thick and it comes with 4 additional books, We are expected to read every paragraph of every page and retain what little we can out of reading. We are also expected to memorize (Verbatim), all of the drugs that a Paramedic can legally carry along with what action they perform, Indications and Contraindications, Adult and Pediatric dosage rates, Overdose information, Side effects, etc, Lucky for me, We memorize just a few every week and then we slowly integrate them into our scenarios.

I hope that I don't come across as a complainer because the information that we are learning is simply amazing, I've waited a really long time for my opportunity to learn it and I love it all... (Yes, even the hours of mind-numbing reading)

Gerber Hinderer Rescue Knife: A Firefighter's Review

2010-01-16T12:25:00.001-08:00

I am a big knife person. I have several scars to prove it, However I can safely say that I have never loved a knife as much as I love The Gerber Hinderer Rescue Knife.
Everywhere I go (Work, School etc) I get comments on how "Sweet" my knife is and as I explain its features the faces of onlookers only get brighter. There are many different knives and multitools which claim to be Fire and Emergency Medical Systems (EMS) Rescue knives (Many of which I have owned) but none that I have seen which live up to the title.

In reviews that I have read earlier I was impressed with the Hinderer's many abilities, Nonetheless I was also skeptical and had to see for myself. I first heard of the Hinderer in 2006 when it first came out and I've been waiting for a chance to get my hands on one until now;

The Hinderer was designed by Rick Hinderer (A Volunteer Firefighter and Knife Designer) It's obvious that a lot of time and thought went into the design of this knife by someone who has spent a lot of time in EMS style pants and turnouts riding in rigs and most likely testing one after another to come up with the best product.
The Hinderer is designed specifically for Fire and Emergency workers:

Features of the knife include a 3.5" blade that is serrated almost all the way up to the tip, an integrated oxygen tank wrench cut into the handle, a window punch, and flip out trauma shears / seatbelt cutter.

A true rescue knife needs to meet several expectations. First, I expect a rescue knife to have the kind of durability that I can rely on to save my own life and the lives of my co workers, and Second, I expect a rescue knife to serve as a general utility tool for doing work around the station as well as rescue work for patients... In order for a knife to be able to meet the expected durability to save the lives of myself and my co workers, I expect it to be able to perform in several different categories:
1) I expect that it can cut through about anything that can trap or entangle a firefighter on the job including wire, rope, webbing, seatbelts, etc.
2) I expect that it would be sturdy enough to use as a prybar to be used during times of "Forced Entry" and when needed.
3) I expect that it has the ability to stand up to the exposures it would have during work as a rescue knife such as water, extreme heat, freezing temperatures and time.
4) I expect it to have the ablility to be opened and closed while wearing gloves single-handedly.

One of the first things I did when I got my Hinderer rescue knife is to go around cutting just about anything I could find: Rope, Webbing, Rubber, Pants, Shirts, Cardboard boxes, vinyl, Wood, and basically anything else that I could get away with destroying. The Hinderer certainly did not disappoint me, It cut through everything I threw in its path with ease, In most cases I was able to simply apply a bit of pressure and the knife did the rest without any kind of "sawing motions" needed.

I've both heard and read of stories where a simply prying job came back to haunt the rescuer by lodging itself in the user. The Hinderer was designed with a blunt rounded tip specifically for patient and user safety; The thick blade made out of Grade 440 A stainless steel stands up to light prying such as paint can lids, door locks, etc.
*Note* To a firefighter, “light prying” means anything that doesn’t require a Halligan Bar or Hydraulic Ram

I tried opening the Hinderer with several different pairs of gloves; It opened and closed with ease while using mechanix gloves and regular leather work gloves. (Much easier than any other knives I have tried) Turnout gloves took a bit of practice but after several tries I was able to open and close the Hinderer using a single hand.

It is a thick knife however I have carried it comfortably in my pant pockets for weeks now and I forget its even there until I go to use it. The Hinderer comes with a 9 piece tool kit, I haven't used it much because I have lots of different "Multi-tools". I am mostly interested in how the knife works. So far, I don't have any complaints, I love it and I'll never leave the house without it.

The "O"Decade

2010-01-11T11:03:00.000-08:00

There has been some argument going on about what we are going to call the last 10 years, I was born in the early 80's and spent a childhood growing in the 90's but the decade that I will remember the most will most certainly be ____? What are we to call the last decade? If I were to submit my two cent's; I'm going to call it "The 0's" ("Oh's as in O-One, and 0-Two etc) So: The decade that I will remember the most will most certainly be the O's.

The O's started out with a fear of catastrophe as all of the worlds computers turned back to "00" in the year 2000, I didn't pay much attention to the matter because I always knew that nothing much would happen and we'd pull through. The 2000 party was a fun and good one, Watching the clock turn into a brand new millennium is not something that a lot of people are able to watch and I feel lucky to have done so, Both of these are stories that I will certainly share with my family and kids every time a New Year rolls around.

I spent the first few years of the 0's in High School finishing out my Junior and Senior year until Graduation in 2002. The stories I could share from High School are endless, I spent my years in High School thinking that having "Fun" was much more important than grades or anything else, A choice that I came to soon regret.

I spent two of these years on an LDS Mission in Ohio and Kentucky, (2003-2005) This helped me to reach my full potential I think as I spent time knocking on doors and providing as much service as humanly possible at every moment.

In January of 2006 I was married to my wife Amy and we've now spent the last 4 years of our lives living and learning together, We moved and lived in Brisbane Australia while she studied at The University of Queensland, Meanwhile I searched for work and got to know the area very well. 4 years passed quickly as we both went to and graduated from the various school programs that we were enrolled in. We moved 6 times in 4 years and with every move got an idea of what we want in our own home someday.

Finally in 2009 we welcomed a beautiful girl who we named Brooklynn into our lives and she's been putting smiles on our faces everyday since July: That's what the last decade has brought for me; I look forward to what the "10's" will hold for my family, We're beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, With this new decade we'll both start careers of our own, purchase a home, and expand our family, We are looking forward to the unknown adventures as well.

Smell Hell

2010-01-06T15:00:00.000-08:00

Frack! Tina has cooked Popcorn in the breakroom AGAIN! Doesn't she understand that she is permeating this entire store with the smell of a movie theater? Why is she oblivious to the fact that other employees work and break here as well as the discreet comments from customers shopping in the area? Sure, She offers everyone within a whispers distance a few popper kernels, but it drives me crazy! I believe that Microwave Popcorn should be banned from the employee breakroom, and even the workplace all together *That is unless you work in a Movie Theater*

I decided to do something about it: I slipped an anonymous note in Tina's work mailbox, "Microwave Popcorn Stinks Up The Workplace" Tina was silent for about 10 work days, I don't know about the time when I wasn't at work; However I know this: The workplace was Popcorn Free, I couldn't have been happier with my silent attempt to stop this problem...
11 Days later, I had a note in my inbox; "You have bad breath, LOL"

... The Popcorn is back!

Skittles "Skit Tels is Really Good"

2010-01-03T17:34:00.000-08:00

I am a big fan of the rainbow, I love to taste its glory on a regular basis. I suppose you could say that (cavities aside) it makes me happy; As a rainbow should. I am of course refering to the Skittles hard candy and their slogan "Taste The Rainbow" I've seen a few good Skittles commercials such as having the ability to turn anything one touches into skittles as well as people running outside to taste the rainbow as its raining skittles after planting them etc.

However, None compare to this guy: I think his ads are the best thing Skittles ever had going for them, Unfortunately, He doesn't work for the Skittles company, I hope that soon changes...

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A New Year & Bluetooth PTSD

2009-12-31T18:35:00.000-08:00

Its the last minutes of The year 2009, Its also been months since I logged onto my blog let alone posted anything, Not that nothing interesting has happened, I guess its just that I decided I'd rather spend my time with my family and spend a little less time blogging.

My wife and I had a date night last night and watched Julia and Julie. That movie got me thinking about my blog and made me want to start posting again, Regardless of the amount of readers that I have I find it soothing to sit down and attempt to put the thoughts and actions of my life into words. Although, If you are a reader, I'd love to hear from you, Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

A few thoughts: As stated, My mission in this blog was to find humor in life. Here is a recent experience I had with a married couple.

I met a couple who were not shy at all about sharing with me the insights of their life: We shall call them Maggie and Steve, Maggie had just overcome a battle with Agoraphobia when her husband Steve returned from Afghanistan. The Doctor's didn't know why Steve would randomly talk to himself, (Possibly Post Tramatic Stress Disorder?) However he chalked it up as a byproduct of the war. Margaret felt that the universe was testing her: Although she never actually saw it happen, she often imagined of the derisive stares and stifled laughter people made at her and her husband as they strolled through town. She was about to succumb to her old fears until she found a broken blue-tooth earpiece in the road. She picked it up dusted it off and gave it to Steve. Careful not to hurt his feelings, She kindly asked him to wear it out when they were in public... I really wouldn't have even noticed these things had they not felt the need to share with me. Still, The thought made me laugh.
There's a married couple that finds a way through a tough time with humor.

The thought also made me think about my own life.. I have it lucky, A beautiful wife and baby girl, A good job, and a good school. In my last post I mentioned that I had to do nothing more than put my faith in God and the future, I even mentioned that in our family Christmas cards. At any rate, Things have finally worked out for me and my family. I am beginning Paramedic school as originally planned in 2 weeks and I can't wait to share the adventures of this life with you all.

I've also decided to give up my anonymity. I figure that the only reason I had it in the first place was to protect the privacy of people and incidents that I might choose to blog about working as a Firefighter / Medic Student, I suppose I also worried about future employers reading my blog and thinking that I had no sense of patient confidentiality should I choose to blog about any particular scene that I come upon as a Firefighter / Medic student, However since all the names are changed, I really don't think I have much to worry about.

Faith in the future...

2009-11-11T01:19:00.001-08:00

Faith in the future...
I suppose these days that this is my pathetic attempt at a journal, My "Therapy" if you will; I don't bother to keep a real one, and I don't think that I have many true readers of this blog. However, recently it seems all that I have been able to do, is place my faith in my God, do my best, and have faith in the future.

Chances are that if you've bothered to continue reading past this point, that you either know me very well, Or you are like me and you wonder what people think and what people do when faced with certain challenges, an insight to one's personal life if you will. I may choose to delete this post in the future but for now its an insight into my thoughts.

"Faith is to hope for things which are not seen" "To have faith is to have confidence in something or someone" "Faith is a principle of action and of power" These are just a few simple quotes that I've chosen to apply to everyday life. In my own personal life, I catch myself often wondering why things happen and answers are nowhere to be seen. As blogged about in an earlier post, I moved my family out to California so that I could start going to Paramedic school, that is until my student loans fell through.... During this move my wife and I have been living with my in-laws who have been generous enough to help us through a hard time, we exhausted all of our money in the move and its been a tough job market. I recently got a sweet job working for a company that I have always enjoyed being a part of with hopes of being able to pay off some of our debts and get back on our feet but its not at all close to living my dreams, its not even remotely in the same field.

I've chosen a career which at times seems almost impossible, Recent statistics show that available jobs vs applicants are at minimum 100 to 1 right now, Looking back on it all, I don't think that I could ever imagine myself doing anything else, I'm happy being a firefighter, It is all that I have ever wanted to be and do, I started volunteering when I was in High School and since then I have taken all kinds of measures to further my own education and career opportunities.

This brings me back to my point, All I can do at this point is have faith in the future, None of us know what the future holds for us, To get myself to this point I have exhausted all my available money and put my family into a higher amount of debt than we would like to be in, but I sit here in the middle of the night asking myself if its all worth the cause that we're hoping for in the end... The only answer that I have to that question I keep on posing is YES!!! It has to be worth it. While I am being careful to enjoy the present and not live for the future entirely; I've got faith set on the future, I don't know what it holds for me, but I know if I continue to give it my all, that something will work itself out, It always has, It's that faith in both God and the future that keeps me going through rough times. I have a simple faith that as long as I continue to do what I'm supposed to do and I keep trying that I'll reach my dreams and I'll be able to look myself in the mirror and be the Father and Husband that I feel like I should be: The kind of man I've seen my own Dad be throughout my life as challenges come and go.

"And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore all things must be done in order" -Mosiah 4:27, The Book of Mormon.

For me, That "Prize" seems to be a full time professional job as a firefighter, and the ability to live my dreams. I should note that I am an extremely lucky man, I have a wonderful wife to whom I owe a huge Thanks who stands by my side and supports me 100% in the decisions that we make as a family and I have a baby girl who brings more joy than either of us could have ever imagined and I consider myself to be blessed.

Stupidity and Job Security

2009-11-05T10:24:00.000-08:00

The title says it all, Need I say more?? This is the reason why I will NEVER have to worry about NOT having a Job as a Firefighter / EMT.

... Gotta love Drunks and Fire

... Seriously, What is wrong with this guy??

... This one takes a minute to load but its well worth your time!

Garbage Burning Fail

FAIL Blog | MySpace Video

Fire doubles in size every minute, If you take or use one of these, Replace it!

... And Lastly, Seriously Folks??? Safety Hazard??

Thanks to the folks at Failblog.org for the images.

Remember when I used to post on here?

2009-10-22T22:14:00.000-07:00

Yeah... Me too. ;0

Was It Toothpaste?

2009-10-06T09:58:00.000-07:00

I met with a man at the bus stop the other day and we began to chat about our lives. Both of us new fathers of beautiful young girls we chatted about the joys of fatherhood and how life can often times throw us a curve ball and send us in a completely different direction than we first anticipated. Our conversation flowed smoothly and it seemed as though we were almost speaking with ourselves. One topic of conversation struck me as blog worthy:

As we talked about our morning and nightly routines, I mentioned that it was usually my duty to stay up late with my baby girl and rock her to sleep, I think it only fair given that I don't have "The goods" to wake up and feed her a few times a night and I usually sleep right through feedings.

"I understand just what you mean, I also put my baby to sleep at night", In fact, He recalled: The other night as I had just finished rocking my baby to sleep so I stumbled up the stairs in the dark, I didn't want to turn any lights on for fear that she might wake up so I stumbled around and finally put her in her crib, at this point my wife was fast asleep and I didn't want to wake her either, so I stumbled my way into the bathroom still dark to brush my teeth and I grabbed the small toothpaste tube out of our travel bag and squeezed it onto my toothbrush and began brushing, It wasn't long before I realized that the foam that usually tastes decent in my mouth had an extremely unfamiliar taste to me, So I turned on the lights and I realized that I had accidentally placed my wife's vaginal itching cream on my toothbrush, I spit it out immediately and started gagging before I could manage to find the toothpaste and listerine to rinse my mouth clean of the chalky aftertaste.

I was about to laugh my butt off but then I realized that he might not yet find the story to be funny, so I held in my laughter until after our converstaion was through.

For those of you who know me, You probably know that I don't ride a bus and by now may have figured out that it was and is in fact ME who put my wife's itching cream on my toothbrush and rubbed it around in my mouth for a while before realizing what had just happened. I figured the story would sound more entertaining from the point of another person so I fictionalized a small story. However at this point now that the chalky aftertaste is gone and I didn't end up with some kind of infection or sickness I do laugh my butt off thinking about it.

NFL Overtime and Sudden Death:

2009-09-16T21:10:00.001-07:00

I am a Sports Fanatic, I can't get enough of watching and playing sports, I'll watch almost any sport that has a good entertainment value and I've been known to play almost any one of them, However I'm much better at Watching sports than I am at Playing them. I'm not sure exactly where it all came from, I didn't grow up in a family that loved watching sports, In fact it was quite the opposite, We'd spend a lot of time in Nature fishing, hiking, and backpacking, but Sports wasn't ever really in the Dinner Table conversation, That is.. Unless you were talking about my Utah State University Aggies. Despite all that, somehow a few of us in the family have developed an undying passion for all things sports, I share this mostly I think with my little brother, We'll call him "B". The first thing to come on when I get home from a long day of work is ESPN's Sportscenter. I spend my time looking forward to catching a good game, Especially come Football season. If you don't like College Football, I pose the question "WHY NOT"... The NFL, Certainly enjoyable but I feel like there is more spirit in a college atmosphere, That all being said, Here's my thoughts on the NFL Overtime Sudden Death Rule:

I THINK ITS STUPID!! For starters, They have a Sudden Death Match: (First to score wins, For Sudden Death Click Here) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_Death
The receiving team on the play is chosen by a coin toss called by the visiting teams captain, The typical defensive argument here is that no matter who wins the coin toss, Its up to offense to drive down the field and the defense to stop them from scoring. This is certainly true however it doesn’t justify having sudden death. If the game is still tied upon completion of a 15 minute Overtime 5th quarter because no team has managed to score, The game is ruled a tie: What's wrong with a tie?? I won't bore you with my theory's of why the NFL has a Sudden Death Overtime rule (Possibly injuries resulting from another full 15 minute quarter) However, I firmly believe this:

The game of Football is a game of endurance and a game that ultimately determines who, on any given day is a better team, In a tie situation, the teams are obviously evenly matched. A sudden death overtime does not adequately entangle this question.

The biggest problem I see with sudden death is that it makes it possible that the contest is determined on the basis of 1 component of the game instead of 3. Football is a contest with 3 distinct components: Special Teams, Defense, and Offense. Both sides in a sudden death overtime engage in special teams. But if the game is won on the first possession, the teams only play either defense or offense. A good football game is not won simply by playing offense, or defense alone but by having a good combination of both. Sudden Death Overtime takes away the chances for each team to have an opportunity to play all three and thus makes the competition incomplete.

I LOVE the way that College Football has set up their overtime system, and I think that the NFL should adopt it. In College Football, A coin toss will determine which team should go first, however, each team will receive an opportunity of possession, starting with first-and-10 from the opponents 25 yard line. A team's possession ends when it scores (either a touchdown or field goal), misses a field goal, fails to gain a first down on the final down, or loses the ball by turnover. As usual, a touchdown by the offense is followed by a try for one or two points. This is then followed by an opportunity for the opposing team to score that equal amount of points, if they don't score, The game is called and it's all over, however, if the score remains tied at the end of the overtime procedure, an additional overtime procedure is played. The team with the second possession in one overtime procedure will have the first possession in the next overtime procedure.

This seems to me to be an equal opportunity for both proving at that point a winner for the time being. I bring this up after watching the 2009-10 NFL Season Opener Pittsburgh Steelers VS Tennessee Titans, The game was excellent and both teams were proving to play at an equal level. Upon completion of the game, Pittsburgh won the coin toss, marched down the field and scored a field goal, an otherwise anti-climatic and boring end to what had been an excellent game. Still, I'm stoked that its finally Football Season again!

1100 Miles:

2009-09-09T12:07:00.000-07:00

Now that my family and I are officially moved to a new state and a new home, I can officially say That will be my LAST Night trip across 4 States in one day. With a new baby my wife and I decided that we should make the drive across the states at night because that way our daughter who is now 7 weeks old would sleep in her car seat and we wouldn't mess up the sleeping schedule that we've worked so hard to achieve so far. We had spent the day at a beautiful large lake up the canyon from where we've been staying with my family, Mostly we went up there to spend some more time with them and give them a proper chance to say goodbye to Princess for a while as we'd be dragging her out here with us. Being at the lake I couldn't possibly pass up the opportunity to spend some time behind the boat being whipped around on tubes at the mercy of my Uncle who was driving the boat and trying to dump my brother in law and I off the tubes, at several points we would catch enough air to land on top of each other and still manage to hold on. I bring this up because it drained my energy but it sure was a blast! Upon staying at the lake for a while we said our emotional goodbyes knowing that it would be months before any of us make the trek to see each other again and I headed home to finish packing up and take a quick nap. We didn't get on the road until 8:00 PM and it was getting dark so instead of risk being stuck on the shortcut that is a back way we decided to take the well traveled interstate system adding about 2 1/2 hours onto our total trip time.

I've been drinking apple juice like mad to replace my Dr Pepper binge-drinking habits so when I got ahold of a few Dew's and Peppers the caffeine actually had an effect on me for the first time that I can remember in years keeping me awake enough to begin the trek across the boring desert. It all starts with miles and miles of salt, a scene that never changes until finally you're out of there.
We stopped for feedings every few hours or so and I would try to catch a cat nap to no avail because of the caffeine. It wasn't until we were about 3/4 of the way there that I got tired so we pulled over and tried to find a room in Reno again, to no avail, There was a huge rib city cook off in town and not a single room in all of town was available. So we continued our trek and eventually made it home, By the time we had reached home I was jittery because I couldn't manage to make myself eat much and all I had done was drink drink drink all night. Adding to the length of the trip was the fact that approximately every 40-50 miles I had to pull over and find a place to pee.

We are finally here and I look forward to the adventures of the next year as I attend Paramedic school and try to raise my baby girl and juggle the responsibilities of being a father and husband. Its going to be a tough year, I'm really going to miss having such great friends and family close by. I look forward to the challenges and being able to blog about the experiences that I'll be coming across in the next year.

Texting and Driving

2009-08-27T22:31:00.000-07:00

Man: I used to text and drive ALL THE TIME, I never thought anything would happen. Thinking back, I'll admit to it, I have in the past been driving while texting. Most of the time the conversations I was holding were stupid and things that could have waited anyway. 80% of the time that I'm texting anyone its usually my wife. My life has changed bunches in the past few weeks thanks the responsibilty of being a Parent and I think about my wife and daughter all the time. As an EMT I've been to a few crashes revolving around texting. Its a problem everywhere. I know that my state has recently vamped up the charges that come against anyone who is texting and driving at the same time. A good call I say.

I recently ran across this video when I googled texting and driving... This video hit home for me, I used to drive this highway on a frequent basis while I was growing up with a few of my close buddies late at night while we were on our way to sit in some hot pots and enjoy each others company.

This is a 15 minute video, But I really think its worth the watch. It takes a lot to grab and keep my attention, However this video did just that, and left an impression long enough for me to decide to share.

Be safe out there guys, Make a change, Don't text while driving, Those things can wait.

Living in Limbo

2009-08-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

Hey Readers,
I have limited access to a computer now days, Its been a while, I'm currently living in a state of limbo with my wife and baby as we wait to find out what the future will hold for us, It will be 1 of 2 things and we're certainly hoping for #1:
1) I will get a job as a Professional Firefighter with a local department that has been volunteer for many years and is now going to a full time professional department, This option has many many bonus's, Such as the fact that they'll help me pay for Paramedic school and we'll be able to stay close to friends and family. In order to get this job, I'll need to pass a physical test called the CPAT (Candidate Physical Agility Test) which consists of several firefighter like activities. I've passed all that I've taken so far but I'm a bit out of shape now days so I need to kick it in the butt.
2) If I don't get that job, We're off to California to attend Paramedic School paid out of my own pocket. Either way I think we'll be fairly happy and I'll give either option my full focus and attention, Still, We hope to get the job.

On a side note, We moved and packed all our crap into my parents garage. There isn't room for a car anymore and who knew that we had so much freaking crap? I hate moving, There's nothing worse, Especially now that we're living out of suitcases and boxes, We don't know where a thing is.. We ordered a Penske truck and I drove it to where we are staying now, I can't understand why this 26' truck was $150 and the 16' truck was 377$ but I'm glad we got the big one because somehow, We managed to fill it up.

Of course as blogged about here
"http://thespinoflife.blogspot.com/2009/05/pizza-proud-sponsor-of-moving.html"
I bought Pizza for the crew. Thanks Guys~
I'll try to keep you all posted but for a while, Life kind of blows.

Science: Gravity+Physics=Thrills??

2009-08-07T10:32:00.001-07:00

I am a Thrill Seeker, I'm certainly no math genius, Nor do I claim to understand the laws of physics much at all, I would love to give this a try, However, I'm not sure if I'd be able to trust my friends to get the calculations exactly correct. Living for and working in Emergency Medical Services, I've seen plenty of stupid acts and responded to several serious falls. Were it not for 100% Pure calculations in this example here, This guy would have been seriously hurt!
I tip my hat to these German Scientists and to the man brave enough to try flying. This video is pretty amazing. Check it out!

Adventures in Parenting, Fatherhood

2009-08-06T09:18:00.000-07:00

I sit here at my computer trying to stay focused and working, I'm quite tired. As a Father, I don't have the shall we say "Goods" to feed my baby girl, So I don't have to wake up every time she is hungry to feed her, I can generally stay comfortable and sometimes even sleep right through a night feeding. I make up for this time every few days when Princess decides she doesn't want to go to sleep, Take last night for example, Princess had just finished feeding at 1 AM and didn't want to go back to sleep, Empress had already been awake feeding her for the last 45 minutes, so I took my turn playing with my daughter. The first 15 minutes are great every time because she's just eaten and is happy, I place her between my legs looking back at me, and we have some Daddy Daughter time. When she gets fussy, I pick her up and start making the rounds, I have no idea how many laps I make at night walking from one side of our apartment to the other but it keeps my girl comfortable and happy until she can fall asleep again so I don't mind doing it one bit. (Maybe I should get a step counter) We walked from 1:15 until 2:45 AM when she finally fell back to sleep. I had a great post filled with humor that I was thinking about as we were pacing back and forth, Then I fell asleep and I can't remember it much anymore.

During our walking time last night, I went to change her diaper, As I was doing this I didn't really think too much about making sure that she was done pooping, I simply stuck my finger in the side of her diaper to see if she was wet or poopy as we were walking and my finger came out dirty, So we headed to our changing station and I began my duties. As soon as I removed her diaper, She pooped again, (Now: These are baby poops) Baby poops have a watery consistency, It splattered all over our changing station, washing machine, mirrors and a few other surrounding structures, Laughing, but trying not to wake my sleeping wife in the room next door, I cleaned up and laughed at the thought of this now happening to me because it had already happened to Empress once before.

My wife Empress and I are learning parents and we love every minute of it. We couldn't possibly love our baby girl more, Nor could we possibly be a happier family at the moment. I firmly believe in Karma, I think that if someone does good in the world around them that good will return to them. Princess has been sleeping very well during the night, However I'm afraid that Empress and I may have jinxed ourselves by boasting about how well she sleeps, Instead of the 4-5 hours of nightly sleep we've been boasting about, Last night we only got about 2 at a time, Still... I wouldn't change it for the world! I've never felt this way before. Fatherhood is amazing. As far as my cussing is going from the last post, I think I'm doing well, With one exception, I went golfing with a buddy of mine and I didn't play well... I'll leave the rest up to the imagination. I must admit though: I don't think that time on the golf course should count.

Cursing: What's in a word?

2009-08-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

With parenthood, I have recently noticed come LOTS of changes.. Changes within our lifestyle, as well as changes from within.. First off, I apologize to some of my readers, Recently I haven't had much to blog about except for parenthood because as stated in a few recent posts, My wife and daughter are still the only thing that I can manage to think about. I tried to bring a bit of Humor to this post with this Jeopardy Photo taken off the TV and a few small stories:

One of the changes that I'm trying to make myself is to cuss less. As a Firefighter, EMT, Husband and Father, I've developed quite a mouth, I have lots of friends and family that cuss and honestly, I'm personally not really even offended at the crudest of words when I hear them anymore, I've even found myself using them from time to time. (I don't use this as any kind of an excuse) Sadly, I doubt that this will last very long. I'll certainly keep you all posted.

In a nut-shell, I've recently made this decision to try and cuss less because of my baby girl, I don't want her growing up in a home where she will learn these words. I'd hate for some of my girls first words to be "Shit" or "Damn". I don't make it a goal for myself to quit swearing entirely however because I've made that goal a few times before and fallen quite short. I don't know if I'll ever be able to quit entirely. For me, I guess I've yet to find anything that helps me vent my frustration in a moment's notice like throwing out a few cuss words will, Even better, I think they drive home the extra emphasis when trying to make a serious point.

In a short story, When I was just a kid, My Dad built cabinets in a shop in our back yard, While hanging out with him in the shop, he was moving a cabinet from one spot to another and dropped it in between. The cabinet broke, scaring the hell out of me, and I heard my dad scream the words "Damn-it!" Later that morning, I was back inside the house playing with my set of tool-toys Dad had bought me and I purposely dropped them while screaming like Dad "Damn-it!" Mom wasn't very happy, and I got to scrub out my Dad's tongue with soap. These memories make me smile, But this is what I'd like to try to avoid with my baby girl, I don't like the taste of soap but I think if I managed to teach my girl a cuss word, Like my Dad did, I'd have to pay the repercussions for it.

I have a high deal of respect for people who don't curse. For example: I have a close friend who broke his ankle in several places in a freak accident while hiking in the wilderness, My other friend and I managed to make a stretcher out of our sleeping bags to get him from where we were at to a point where it was flat and near the trail, There I provided what limited medical care I could for him while waiting for our other friend who had run out of the trail to get in touch with Search and Rescue to return and get him in the late late hours of the night. His ordeal lasted for 8 hours before S&R were finally able to get him out of the canyon and into a hospital bed. I bring this up because he went through all of this antagonizing pain all without swearing or cursing Once!

Everywhere but the diaper.

2009-07-29T09:36:00.000-07:00

I have a great wife! Now that I'm back to working everyday and our baby girl still isn't sleeping through the night, I offer several times before going to sleep to wake up and take the baby if she needs to be awake for a while. However "Empress" (My Wife) knows how much I love my sleep and never wakes me, She leaves that up to our baby. I get to spend most of my time with our girl during the evening when Mom decides she needs a nap, Although I recently slept through this encounter at 3 AM, She shared this story with me last night, It made me smile, and also wish in a strange way, that I was a part of it. Perhaps its just the story telling itself that makes me wish so.

We have a sheepskin rug next to our bed, Its nice to wake up in the morning and rub our toes on it. At some point during the night, Empress woke up both to feed and change Princess's diaper. "Being half asleep and changing diapers does not mix well" She told me in the morning. Curious, I began to wonder what had happened, and as I looked down I noticed that our sheepskin rug wasn't there anymore. Apparently, As the story was told to me; Empress, being exhausted from an already long night picked Princess up to feed her, and rock her back to sleep all without noticing that one leg of the diaper wasn't secured and it was loose. Empress put Princess back to sleep set her down in her bassinet, she felt something wet as she walked towards the bathroom to wash her hands but didn't think anything of it until she made it to the bathroom and noticed poop all over the side of her shirt, Empress then returned to the baby, picked her back up and noticed just a LITTLE bit of poop on her clothes but none on her body and none in her diaper.. This poop managed to make it ONLY onto Mom and our Sheepskin Rug as she was trying to rock Princess back to sleep.

Our rug now sits in the hallway, Folded up, We're not really sure how one gets a sheepskin rug clean, We'll most likely have to send it out.. Now Honey, I know you're probably reading this, Let me know if I have the story correct, Since I slept through this whole story, To my own knowledge I have it correct, Also... As I say each night. Feel free to wake me, Although I've also had my share of being up with Princess during the night, I'll happily do it more often. I'd love to take my turn staying up with Princess at night. Its like "Shift Work" I LOVE being a Dad and I still can't get enough of my baby girl!

1 Week

2009-07-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

Wow. My baby girl is a week old. I really can't believe its been that long since she was "Plucked" from her home in the womb and handed to me to be held and cleaned up. For now I'll use a friends idea and call her "Princess" Its crazy to think time has gone this fast... She's by far the most amazing thing to have ever happened to me in my life. Its funny how in one second life can change forever, It will NEVER be the same for me and my wife again, This thought alone took me quite a while to get used to. I've never been one to enjoy "Change" or rather, to deal with it well. I had the nervous poops for about 4-5 days and was feeling anxious about what our future held. Now that its been a week, I'm feeling great, I feel like I'm starting to get into some kind of a routine and honestly, I couldn't now, nor can I imagine how I ever did live without this "Change" of love, responsibility, and respect I have for my wife and baby. There are many other changes that have happened in my heart and mind, None of which can properly be put into words on a blog.

The first few nights in the hospital seemed to be a breeze, I guess I'd forgotten that we had a plethora of Dr's and Nurses available at any time to help us put Princess to bed and answer any questions we had. When we finally got to bring her home, we were both filled with excitement as well as nervousness. I can't even really put how I felt into words at this moment. For some reason, both Mommy and I had the idea that we'd come home and put Princess to bed in her bassinet near our bed and actually SLEEP on our comfy bed... Not the case, In fact, The opposite really. Princess decided she wanted to look around and stay up all night! We didn't sleep much at all. Night by night she is slowly getting better at sleeping, Possibly because we do as much as we can to keep her awake when she wakes during the day time.

I'm sitting at work right now, Thinking about my wife and baby girl, All I really want to do is be home with them, I don't want to be stuck here in this hell-hole, I'm actually trying to figure out why I am still here, Its a temporary job taking calls through the summer and I've been here 3 hours, Not 1 call yet! I still have a hard time concentrating and staying focused on anything. I can't wait to get out of this hell hole that I work in and get back to two things; 1) My wife and baby girl. And 2) Actually moving towards my dreams again of being a Fire/Medic.

Fatherhood

2009-07-22T09:57:00.000-07:00

Wow. What a week it has been! I'm a father, I can only say that I really didn't know it was possible for my heart to hold so much love for someone, or something. I have of course heard stories about this love, and I'd been told many times that I would surely experience it, However, With that being said, I really didn't know it was going to be like this! I close my eyes and the first thing that I can see is my baby girls gorgeous face, I can't get her out of my mind, I can't focus and can't concentrate on anything else, I want to watch her every breath, and every movement, I don't want to miss a thing. She has spent as much time as possible with us in our room for this very reason.

At a week and a half over-due, My wife and I were certainly ready for her to come, I sit here at work for just a few hours today while my wife and baby are still at the hospital recovering from what can only be described as a really tough pregnancy and birth, Again, I can only think about them. We checked into the hospital on what was Saturday evening with no dilation and were given drugs throughout the night to sleep and to assist in opening my wife's cervix, Finally at about 9:00 PM Sunday evening after nearly 24 hours of waiting, She had dilated to a 1, I won't bore you with the whole story here online and I'll stick to the basics, about 5 hours later she was finally dilated to a 10 and it was time to start pushing.. We pushed together for 2.5 hours, After that amount of time, My wife had no more energy and the baby was in stress causing her heart beat to fall with every push, She was stuck in an anterior position (Facing Up) and couldn't make it past the pelvis. While consulting with our Dr, We made the decision to go ahead and get her via an Emergency C-Section.

In the freezing cold operating room, I sat near my wife's face and spoke with her throughout the operation to keep her calm until it was time to watch my baby get delivered, I stood up and peeked over the drape as she was delivered, It didn't take long, My eyes welled up with tears and I could barely speak, I looked down at my wife who also had tears in her eyes at the sound of our baby girl screaming, "She's here" I said nearly balling out of pure joy. That was all that I could say. It was now 5:00-ish Monday morning. I then went with the baby into a separate room where she was cleaned up, weighed and all that fun stuff. I couldn't really concentrate and I didn't get as many pictures at the moment as I'd have liked, I could barely hold myself together as I was handed my girl for the first time and I was told to take her in so that Mommy could see her. I then went with our girl to a different floor to be with her in the Nursery while Mommy was sowed up. This was probably the hardest hour or more of my life, I enjoyed every second of being with my daughter and watching her look around while sitting under the new baby warmer, However as I'm sure you can imagine if you haven't already experienced something like this, I couldn't enjoy it as much as I'd have liked because on the fore-front of my mind was my wife and how she was doing with the remainder of her surgery. There can be many complications with a C-Section birth, It was a while before she made it down to our floor and her final recovery room. Thankfully, Everything turned out great for us!

We sat in labor for over 36 hours in total. She's here now with us and along with all of the love and joy that I feel, I must admit, Its been a few days and I've been flooded with all kinds of additional feelings of anxiety and nervousness. I'm now responsible for another human life! I considered at one point going to look for adult diapers because I have what I have nick-named "The Nervous Poops" and I haven't really had much of an appetite at all. I only hope that I can be as great of a father to my family as my father has been for me.

To my baby girl; I don't know if I'm even going to be maintaining this blog by the time you can read, But if I am, I can only hope that this post will still be here for you to read, I've never been good at posting my thoughts into words but I look forward to every challenge that I will face while I am raising you. I can't even begin to put into words everything that I feel when I hold you and look at you. Its the greatest thing I have experienced so far in my life! I can't wait to get away from work and back to you soon. I LOVE YOU!!!

"Trauma"

2009-07-18T14:49:00.000-07:00

I can't wait for this show! For anybody who is wondering: This is my dream in action. Someday in the future, I want to land a job with San Francisco Fire Department, This show is going to be AMAZING! I'm Really looking forward to my next ride-along with my cousin at SFFD. NBC'S "Trauma" is going to be amazing, and I can only hope that they manage to catch just a little bit of the spirit of what and why we do what we do. THIS IS OUR LIFE!

WTF!?

2009-07-14T14:15:00.000-07:00

Today, As I was taking my lunch break, I walked over to the mall food court nearby, On my way there I walked past a good looking woman who was wandering around the parking lot as though she was looking for something she had lost. I went in, bought my Chinese take-out and continued to walk through the same area on my way back to work, This woman then approached me and our conversation went as follows:

Her: Hey, How's it going?
Me: Good, and you?
Her: Good, Do you think I'm Hot?
Me: Sure, You're a pretty woman
(I start to walk towards work again)
Her: Well, The reason I ask is because..
(Now walking beside me)
My friend and I make Porno's online and we were wondering if you'd want to be in one with us?
Me: Uh... Seriously? I'm married, No Thanks.

At this point I sped up my walk to work without looking back and I'm still in disbelief that this happened here... To me... Obviously now I'm back at work and blown away that this even happened... Period.. I'm actually quite grossed out by the thought of it. What the hell is this world coming to?? Seriously, WTF!?

The boring-ness that is waiting.

2009-07-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

As of recently, I really haven't had much to blog about. My life has been pretty dang boring, My wife is now past-due with our first baby and for a few weeks now, we've been sitting and waiting almost dormant for our baby to come. We take walks and watch a bit of TV but haven't done anything really interesting, or fun in a while. I can't wait for my baby to come. I'm ready to face the challenges that come with fatherhood.
On a brighter note, My wife and I finally broke down and bought a newer car. We have been driving a piece of sh*t Toyota Camry since we got married, This car sat in a garage and aged without getting many miles at all on it until we inherited it. Now, We've put plenty of miles on it and its nearly dead, The A/C doesn't work at all and no matter what I do, It costs money to keep running.
The thought of leaving my wife and new baby stuck in a car that could break down at any minute with no A/C at all scared me quite a bit, Especially the part of not having any kind of A/C in 100 degree weather to keep my car cool with a new baby. So, We broke down and bought what I found to be the sportiest family sedan we could find in our price range.

We decided on this sporty Mazda6, This car satisfies our every whim, Its definetly got the get up and go with a sports-car like feel that I require, and the family room and reliablitly that my wife requires.. We're pretty happy about this purchase.
And now, Back to this damn waiting game. I'll keep you posted.

Great Cartoon!

2009-07-07T13:26:00.000-07:00

I have had plenty of free time at work today and I have enjoyed looking at several different types of cartoons including left handed toons by right handed people, and this guys' cartoons

I laughed pretty hard at this cartoon, thinking that their faces were priceless, and if my name were "Derek" and I was stuck in a fire, This might just be the reaction that my close buddies would have.... But I hope that it never comes down to that and I never get stuck in a fire, Even when running into burning buildings is my life's passion and choice of career.

Joy Riders Dump Vehicles:

2009-06-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

Well, It has been over a week since I have sat down to blog about anything, I suppose one could say it was a busy week, But in reality, That would be an over-statement, Although it has been busy and filled with excitement, I've had plenty of time to get on here and blog, I just haven't bothered to. I guess I figure that nothing really "Funny" or "Cool" has happened this last week. However, I figure I'll share with you some recent local news:

Speculation has it that a group of teenagers have stolen TWO cars over this last weekend and ended up dumping them off of cliffs at then end of their "Joy Ride" in what could only be described as "spectacular fashion"..

Both cars being SUV's and in both cases, rolled right of the edge of a large cliff in the local mountains, I can only imagine how this must have looked to a group of teenagers, Pretty dang sweet I'd imagine, but with extremely dire consequences, I almost have no doubt that we will soon see a video show up on "Youtube" and find another piece of the "Idiot" gene pool as described in my last post... (Police are currently investigating)

This makes me think of a few things, 1: I wouldn't ever dream of stealing a car and pushing it off a cliff, OK.. OK.. I might have a dream about it but I'd never ever do it in reality! 2: I grew up with a love for pushing boulders off of cliffs and watching them take out trees and shrubs on their way down, A feat that can unfortunatley land some, such as a close friend of mine at a local hospital with a broken ankle, (Forcing us to realize it was time to grow up) 3: A time when once, my friends and I dreamed about blowing up his broken moped up the canyon... We ended up not doing most of these things because of safety issues, which brings me to my point, What is it with teenage hell-ism these days? Stealing and wrecking cars, for fun, Blowing up bags of poop in a microwave at 7-11, etc... These things are far worse than anything I'd have ever thought about doing as a teenager.. And I thought I was a pretty hellacious kid...

Source: http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=6981995

Fire Safety Fail

2009-06-22T09:47:00.001-07:00

The following is courtesy of www.failblog.org, A great way to kill time and get some laughs.. Sometimes, however, The gene pool of idiots will show up and become a hit on the web... Idiots like this:

I see this as a form of "Job Security" for myself and other Firefighter/Paramedics like myself...
Need I Say More??

Time Magazines "The Storm Over the Mormons"

2009-06-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

As I stated in my brief profile, I am a Mormon, I recently noticed an artice in Time Magazine on Mormonism and I figured I'd blog briefly about my thoughts on that article, If you don't want to hear it, Skip this post and read again in the future:

I went to the Dr with my wife yesterday for her weekly checkup and I came across an article in Time Magazine that struck my eye. "The Storm Over the Mormons" was the title, Being a Mormon myself I figured I'd read it and see just what this article was about, and how accurate it was. To my surprise, The article was fairly well written and I felt that it explained in a very brief way the overall stance on Mormonism and Families. There is a lot to understanding Mormonism and this article barely scratches the surface as the author indicated as he began to describe "What makes Mormon's different" and there were a few words the author chose that I might not have chosen but I'm impressed at his overall unbiased opinion,"Even as Mormon's have become more prominent, they have struggled to overcome lingering prejudices and misrepresentations about the sources of their beliefs" The article focused mainly on California's Proposition 8 and the contribution that Mormon Members placed, also mentioned in the article were 2 of the things that set Mormons apart from other Christian teachings: I'll attempt to summarize the 2 things that this article pointed out.

1) We believe that we existed and lived with our Heavenly Father before we came to this earth as his "Spirit Children" and that this earthly life is an interlude for learning, and testing. We believe that upon living a righteous life, We will be able to return to live with our Heavenly Father and that we will be able to continue learning from him and becoming like him.

2) We believe in a modern-day prophet. Websters Dictionary defines Prophet as "a person who speaks for God or a deity, or by divine inspiration". We believe this exactly, As Mormons, We believe in a current-day prophet, a man who speaks for god by divine inspiration, Currently this man is President Thomas S. Monson.
-"The LDS (Mormon) faith makes much of free will, and each believer divines his path privately with the help of reason, prayer, and the holy ghost"
- The article made reference to a claim of "Blind Obedience" to the prophet, I would have to say that i both agree and disagree with this claim, I agree because I have prayed and asked god for myself if President Monson is a true prophet and I feel that my prayers have been answered in a way to confirms to myself that he is a true prophet, Believing this, I am willing to follow his counsel, I dont' think in that way that I am "Blindly" following the Prophet. "If I believe that the Prophet is a true Prophet of God, and I disregard his counsel, what does that say about my belief in God?" ... I couldn't have said it better myself.

I think a 3rd thing that differs is the fact that we as Mormons believe in a book of scripture called "The Book of Mormon" -Hence the nickname "Mormon", This book is another testament of Jesus Christ, We use it as a companionship with the Holy Bible, This book of scripture is a compilation and history of the people in the America's and thier teachings of Christ from ancient scripture. I mention this briefly because it was so briefly mentioned in the article and I think its another thing that makes us stand out, Just as we do with the Prophet, We are asked to pray and ask if this is also a true book of scripture.

Overall, As I stated earlier, This article was very well written. I should point out that the Mormon Church DOES NOT OBJECT TO SAME SEX RIGHTS! A Statement released by LDS Church leaders said this: "Allegations of bigotry or persecution made against the Church were and are simply wrong. The Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage neither constitutes nor condones any kind of hostility toward gays and lesbians. Even more, the Church does not object to rights for same-sex couples regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches."

In my own opinion, One of the major reasons for Mormons standing up and campaigning for Prop 8 has several reasons, One being the chance that the Church could lose it's tax exempt status if it refused to perform gay marriages. (This is not contained to just the Mormon's, All Church's are Tax Exempt.) I have several Gay friends, and I would never in a million years hope to offend or push my beliefs on them. I just wanted to put my two cents worth in with this article.

Again, This blog isn't about Religion, or Politics, Its about my daily life and the things that I encounter, It is intended to be mostly Humorous and Stories from my life in EMS. However, If you want to learn more about the Mormon Church, Feel free to contact me and I'll send you more free information,

Time Magazine, June 22, 2009 Issue. www.time.com/mormons

Officer Down!

2009-06-15T16:00:00.000-07:00

I have driven past a billboard several times in my recent journeys and travels with my wife and one billboard in particular managed to always catch my eye. It is a billboard that was posted by The State Highway Patrol, The billboard, Used to grab peoples attention about drunk driving always caught my eye and a good laugh thinking of what someone could do with such a billboard.

I grew up playing several pranks which shall remain un-named for now on the general public with a few of my close friends, and I can't help but think, that back in our rebel days, This is exactly something that we would certainly talk about doing and unfortunately, we never actually got around to doing anything this big.

Above is a picture of the billboard titled "I see you Drunk Driver" It has a mannequin on the top, Dressed in Highway Patrol clothing... It has always been obvious to me that this particular guy would be subject to some kind of genius prank, and or vandalism as he was fully dressed in Highway Patrol Gear, First his badge, his cap and his clothes were stolen. Possibly a disgruntled driver who received a ticket, or a teenage kid looking for the opportunity to play the prank of a lifetime. As I stated earlier, It began when trooper was violated by having all of his clothing stolen, Highway Patrol then replaced the said clothing and bolted the trooper down to keep him there. It couldn't be done... Our friendly drunk driving trooper was shang-hai'd and taken completely off the billboard despite Highway Patrol's efforts to bolt him down.

Above is what is left of the billboard, Highway Patrol has no intent of re applying the trooper. Who I ask, is left to watch for Drunk Drivers?? Whomever it be.. I say Props to the guys who had the balls to take this trooper down! ..... I also have to laugh at the fact that UHP has handed some punk 2 free Highway Patrol Uniforms... Ah, The things that could be done!! Hands Down, Hilarious!

Source: http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=6827241

Kobe Bryant VS Michael Jordan?

2009-06-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

Kobe vs. Jordan: Who honestly cares? It will never happen, and if it did Jordan would win! Seriously, Go ahead, Ask Phil Jackson (Lakers Coach) Who he would rather have on his team, I doubt that he'd say Kobe. Whether you ask this question based upon individual ability and skill, ability to win and compete, or anything concerning anything involving the team or teammates... Michael Jordan wins, Hands Down! Now, I bring this up because I think Kobe Bryant has an attitude problem. In fact, Its not even so much that I hate the Lakers as I do Kobe Bryant.. Here's why:

1) People say it is unfair to compare Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, I say Kobe brought this comparison upon himself when he changed his number from "8" to "24" saying he is "One better than Michael Jordan" who served an NBA Career under the number "23".

2) No doubt Kobe does have great talent, But he also has an attitude problem. Like the "King's" of many other sports, Take Tiger Woods for example, Who keeps winning, and I can't find a person who doesn't like him, I assume it's because of his attitude towards the game, He doesn't brag... Kobe on the other hand has been heard saying such comments as this on a regular basis "These young guys are playing checkers. I'm out there playing chess" and "I'm One better than Michael Jordan"

3) Frankly, I just don't like the man.. I think he plays cheap ball and doesn't deserve a Title, Its no help that The Magic although they play very well are spoon feeding it to the Flakers this year.

4) I should also mention that I think as Kobe gets older, Lebron James gets better and better at 23 Y/O, But he has a big attitude problem as well. Here are a few recent Statistics comparing the two players, Granted, Kobe's career isn't over yet fellas...

Percentage of 50+ point games against teams with winning records
Michael Jordan: 71%
Kobe Bryant: 35%
Record in games with 30+ shot attempts
Michael Jordan: 72-57 (.558)
Kobe Bryant: 33-43 (.434)
Percentage of points scored on two point field goals
Michael Jordan: 72%
Kobe Bryant: 59%
Career PER
Michael Jordan: 27.91
Kobe Bryant: 23.57
Highest PER season
Michael Jordan: 31.71
Kobe Bryant: 27.97
Seasons with 30+ PER
Michael Jordan: 4
Kobe Bryant: 0
Seasons with 28+ PER
Michael Jordan: 7
Kobe Bryant: 0
Seasons with 25+ PER
Michael Jordan: 12
Kobe Bryant: 3

Good for laughs

2009-06-08T14:24:00.000-07:00

Well: I really haven't had much happen to me over the weekend. My wife and I got feeling sick and are trying to avoid actually getting sick so we really didn't even go out much, We have hopes that we just over-ate or something. Good news is that we are both feeling a bit better now. Anyway, Since not much happened aside from what's been said, I thought I'd share some laughs with you. I wish to hell that I could take credit for this photo, I don't even know where it was taken, but I laughed my butt off and thought y'all would enjoy it as well. Enjoy!

....................NASTY!

Dumpster Diving

2009-06-05T10:11:00.000-07:00

On a quick side note: A friend of mine sent me a picture that I have to share, Its similar to my last post regarding how the Male Penis looks like a monkey's face while in Cross-Section. This picture he sent me is of the Female reproductive system in Cross-Section. It looks like Strongbad. He made it himself, and I laughed my butt off. This should help me as well. Thanks for sending it to me Sam! I hope you don't mind that I shared it.
Moving on to my original post for the day, I went for a run last evening at about 7, It had been a really rough day and I was feeling the pressure, I left my wife the keys and took my phone which is also my MP3 Player, My idea was to run as far as I could until I got exhausted hoping to take my mind off the pressures of work, school, and providing for my family, On my way though, I ran past a suburban townhome community and saw several teenagers dumpster diving for their own form of "Gold". I tried to stop and take a picture but when I was seen they scurried away pretty quickly. This did remind me of a simpler time when my friends and I used to go dumpster-diving on a regular basis. Here are just a few of the gems that we found in local dumpsters.

1: We had a Frito-lay factory just a few miles from where we grew up, The "Chip Dump" as we called it always held gems for us, From packages of uneaten "Oh Boy Oberto" Beef Jerky, To Cases of unopened Tostitos Salsa, and an endless supply of expired chips of all kinds. Never had to buy chips during our time living there. In fact, We actually filled up our High School locker with these chips and made a few bucks every now and again hacking them off to teachers and students..

2: We found a dumpster filled to the top with K-Mart brand Sugar free sodas in every flavor. We quickly started diving here and filled the back of my buddies Honda CRX as high as we could with soda, then we gave them out for free at school the following days becase we couldnt' drink enough alone.

3: The Twinkie Factory.. We tried this one a few times and were almost never successful until one day we managed to find a bunch of Ho-Ho's and Twinkies at a distribution center..

4: Thinking of a time when I had to dumpster dive on my mission, One Elder had accidentally thrown away another elder's backpack, We weren't able to find it, but we did find a bag filled with all kinds of free coupons for dinners, so we split them up and ate for free for nearly 2 weeks.

There are plenty more stories I could share, But most involve the "Chip Dump"... Seeing a group of teens dumpster-diving made me laugh

"It looks like a Monkey's Face"

2009-06-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

I'm currently in the process of again taking Anatomy and Physiology, I find this stuff absolutely fascinating, The things that the Human body is capable of and the way that it works will always fascinate me. I am only in competition with myself to score the highest grades possible, Although I recenlty performed very poorly after taking one of my Exams that I had spent a minimum of 25 hours memorizing and studying for. Oh well, I hope and pray to do better in the future and I had to get that off of my chest via this "cheap form of therapy" that I have taken up in blogging...

In other news, We recently reviewed The Male and Female Reproductive System, and my professor who I've really come to hate made us all laugh by posting a picture that I doubt I will ever forget onto the overhead cam. In reality, He's 100% correct, I don't know exactly where he got the picture from because it's not in any of our study books, and he claims that he doesn't remember either, but he has kept it around for a while. "The Male Penis, while in cross-section view, Looks very much like a Monkey's Face" He stated while posting this picture to the overhead cam.
I've come to the conclusion that he is correct, Upon viewing this, I had a good laugh, The similarities of a "Monkey's Face" and the "Penis in cross-section" are in fact, Very Similar! This no doubt should help me remember the mico anatomy layout of a cross-sectioned Male Penis.

Bikes, Wrecks, and Missionaries.

2009-06-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

Saturday evening, I had the chance of responding unofficially to an Auto-Ped accident. This would be dispatched as a 1040 P-I a little later on. Although I didn't actually witness the accident, I got there very shortly after it had happened, and before any Police or Ambulance personnel were there. Being an EMT and having a LOVE for all things EMS (Emergency Medical Services) Needless to say I pulled over and quickly ran to the child laying on the street and established myself as an EMT. "I'm an EMT, What's going on here?" I stated while kneeling to the few people who had at this point surrounded the little boy who had been riding his bike across a busy street and been hit by a vehicle coming to a stop. "He's been hit by a car while riding his bike" a larger woman stated to me. "I'm a Paramedic" the woman also stated. "Great, How can I help you then?" I stated back to her. We began to work side by side for a while on the child, who had pinpoint pupils and a large lasceration on the back of his head. "I have a latex allergy, and no gloves" she stated, where upon I thought something along the lines of "Oh good hell woman, He's an 8 year old boy, How tainted could his blood really be?" and I held a clean towel pulled from an onlookers vehicle to his head with my bare hands while at the same time attempting to also keep C-Spine (An EMS acronym meaning head straight due to possible spinal injury.) He was about 8 years old, and had a backpack on, We removed the backpack so he could lye more comfortably and put a blanket over his torso. A few minutes later, we established what his name was and we were able to squeek a bit more information out of him aside from just moaning. Of course, It also wasn't long before a pile of onlookers showed up follwed by 4 police vehicles with gloves who then started taking eyewitness accounts of what happened. 2 bystanders established themselves as Dr's, But not what type, which allowed for us to continue what we were doing until the ambulance company arrived and took over for us. I hope this little guy ended up OK, Things seemed to be picking up as the ambulance took him to the hospital.

On another note, This got me thinking and reflecting on how much I used to enjoy riding a bike. Its been quite a while since I've jumped on a bike myslef, As a kid, my friends and I would bike to the local Wal Mart and into town all the time. It seems that from the time I turned 16 and on, I haven't really set foot on a bike much at all, With one BIG acception... I served an LDS Mission in the Middle-Eastern United Stated. You know, You've all seen them I'm sure, The 19-23 year old guys who ride their bikes Everywhere while wearing suits, white shirts and ties... We certainly know that we look really dorky while doing it, I had people point and laugh all the time, Didn't bother us much though.. As missionaries, our primary source of transportation was biking, We would often ride as much as 50 miles a day, Some areas were given cars, however we were only allowed to drive a certain amount of miles in a month, so bikes still seemed to be the primary source of transportation.

I thought I'd share a few funny stories with you from MY experiences on a bike during my LDS Mission. A quick note: "Mission's" are divided into large area's called "Zones" and then subdivided into area's called "Districts" and subdivided again into individual areas. One funny experience I had was with a guy we will call "Elder B" "Elder" is a title given by the Mormon church to all missionaries, Like "Bishop" Etc.. Elder B was transfered into a new area of the mission but he had previously been in all areas with cars and walking used as transportation, So we gathered as a district to build him a bike out of all the broken ones that had been left behind by previous missionaries. Upon completion of building him a nice bike out of parts and pieces we were all pretty happy and decided to go for a ride with Elder B to teach him how to ride a bike, As we all started to head down a large hill, I was shortly behind Elder B on my own bike and I watched him pull the LEFT hand brake, This handbrake is attached to the FRONT tire, Something we forgot to mention to him.. He went flying over the handle bars and into a pile of bushes, The sound of him screaming like a little girl had all of us chuckling, and those ahead turning around. Elder B had sprained both wrists while landing and was forced to learn how to again ride a bike while wearing a brace on both wrists.

Another story that makes me smile, is one where we had an overweight elder in our zone, who had twice fallen off his bike and made the Medics come and evaluate him. Everytime this happened he was faking injuries and found to have none, He was a very overweight elder and didn't want to be in a biking area because it obviously required lots of excercise. This result got him what wanted, but not completely, He had wanted a transfer out of a biking area and back into an area with a car, He did get transfered but he was transfered into an area that required the most excercise because it was purely a walking area, Downtown... After serving in this area for 6 months, He had lost plenty of weight and it was his time to go home.

These stories make me smile, I certainly have had my share of Missionary bike wrecks, Going over the handlebars and into an icy muddy puddle while attempting to ride in the snow, etc... The one thing sticks out most in my mind is how THIRSTY we got as missionaries riding bikes in the hot sun, So I hope that the next time you see LDS missionaries, Either out on thier bikes, or knocking on your door, That you will at least honk and wave, or offer them a cold glass of water, I can't even express how happy I always was to just get a honk and wave, or be offered a glass of cold water on a hot day!

Japanese Dolphin Cruelty

2009-05-30T07:39:00.000-07:00

Something needs to be said: When I established this blog, My idea in writing stories was simply to share the humor and joy that I found in my everyday life, I wanted to be able to write about the funny and humorous things that I experience as I live my life as well as share stories from my time spent as a Father, Firefighter and EMT. While at work yesterday I was shown a video by one of my co-workers which I found to be quite disturbing, At first I wondered if something like that could actually happen, And while, As and EMT and Firefighter, I often have to put my emotions aside and do my job to the best I can, I was hit pretty hard by the idea that this is actually happening.

I am in no way a vegetarian, and I do believe that some animals were put on the earth for the purpose of meat, but I warn you, that some of the images in the links and videos here are disturbing, and I hope that I won't lose readership by blogging about this sensitive subject, I told myself that I'd stay away from subjects like this on my blog when I started, and you'll have to forgive me as I stray from the usual because, SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE SAID:

In Japan, Thousands of Dolphins are brutally slaughtered every year, Japanese fishermen use fishing boats drive long steel poles into the water and bang on them, messing with the sonar of the dolphins, this herds them into a small private cove where they are kept in nets together to "Tenderize" their meat, and are then herded into a smaller cove where they are brutally slaughtered. "Once trapped inside the cove, the fishermen kill the dolphins by slashing their throats with knives or stabbing them with spears. The water turns red with their blood, and the air fills with their screams." Fishermen say that the dolphins are killed quickly and humanely but this is an outright lie, What really goes on is completely savage, It is said that The Japanese believe that the more cruel an animal dies, the better its meat will taste.

Dolphins, in my opinion are human-like sea creatures, These dolphins often have more caring and human-like characteristics than some Human people do, This is shown where and when dolphins are un-willing to abandon a family or clan member that is hurt, Which is one of the reasons that make this so cruel. "We don’t kill the dolphins primarily for their meat. We kill them as a form of pest control" - Japanese fishermen stated. It's simply a matter of the fact that they see dolphins as "Pests" because they eat fish. What makes matters worse is the fact that Dolphin and Whale meat is tainted with Mercury and not fit for Human Consumption, However, it is being sold to Japanese schools and fed to school children. I should mention that the Japanese citizens are completely unaware of the fact that they are eating this meat because they are not being warned about it. Much of the dolphin meat ends up on Japanese streets as counterfeit whale meat which is considered to be a delicacy in Japan.

Recently, A group of Journalists won a media award for exposing this crime and cruelty to the world, By utilizing hidden camera's they were able to expose the truth. I think this award is well deserved and I firmly believe that something needs to be done!

I hope that you will visit http://www.savejapandolphins.org/ to learn more and find more information for yourself. SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE.

Pizza: Proud Sponsor of Moving

2009-05-28T10:35:00.000-07:00

Last night as I got off work, I went to pick up my wife from School, and I was informed that a close childhood friend of her's was moving because they had decided to get a cat and she had volunteered my services in helping them move to a new apartment for the evening, At first I was a bit upset, having JUST gotten off of work and then I remembered, that this friend of hers was the ONLY person who had the willingness to drive 35 miles into the middle of nowhere on a cold winter morning and pick us up from a small random car body shop where our rental car had just been towed because I had been pushed off the road into the center divider of the freeway by a semi-truck who decided to pull into my lane, (That is another story) At any rate, upon thinking of this, My attitude towards helping him and his wife move changed, and I actually wanted to be there returning the favor that I felt I owed them.

I have actually helped dozens and dozens of people and families move since I've been a child, and this is the first time that I can remember actually being happy that I was the "go-go guy" for the large complicated furniture when it came time to get it out the door and into the truck, Being a big Tetris player myself, I also found it fun to try and puzzle all of the pieces together inside the U-Haul. I continued to enjoy myself as we loaded, and unloaded load after load of furniture and boxes into the newer, but smaller apartment of theirs.

The stairway into the new apartment was narrow and steep, at the bottom it had a small landing pad that led directly into the door, Several pieces were difficult to move into the apartment due the lack of pivotal direction, One piece in particular was hard to get in, A tall and fat couch, This couch took up the entire width of the stairway and when stood on it's side, was just a bit too large to fit into the door without pivoting sideways, This took us quite a while, as 4 men tried to push and pivot the couch into the living room, After about 10 minutes, We managed to get it in, The expression was the same from all the guys, "Oh-Yeah!" we all said in a Kool-Aid Man type of voice, This continued throughout the evening as we managed to squeeze pieces of furniture into doorways and past tight corners.

After nearly 4 hours, this friend we were moving for ordered 4 extra large Papa John's Pizza's and we all sat in the living room furniture that we had worked so hard to get in, eating pizza, laughing and enjoying each others company. "I was going to get ready made 5 buck pizza, and then we managed to get that couch in, and it became Papa John's for sure!" He exclaimed at the site of us laughing and sharing. This brings me to my point, Pizza, has been there for nearly every move that I have ever been through to feed the crew, Pizza, is portable, easy, and delicious! Moving, as I stated, is proudly sponsored by Pizza.

Dad's Know Best

2009-05-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

The blog article below is one that I fealt was pretty important and although not too funny as I had promised with this blog, Still very interesting and important for Fathers, and Future Fathers. I hope you will excuse my lack of professional writing and humor in this post, I feel like these points given below are really important for myself, and they will no doubt have a huge impact on how I will raise my baby girl, It may be long, But.. It's a good read (I PROMISE) I haven't given much thought to what I would write and this is the topic sticking out most in my head right now, It doesn't have too much humor, but to me it was a Hell of a thought and I decided to share it.

This past Memorial Day Weekend, I was quite bored, Given the fact that I did NOT get a day off like the rest of the country, I spent time at work, reading, and B.S-ing online, by the time I got off work, my pregnant wife was just arriving at work for her last shift before our baby girl comes. I got home and wondered what I should do, Having not been home all day myself, she had already taken care of all the needed housework and sorting before she went to work leaving me without much to do. Sure, I could have turned on the TV, but I decided not to because as I've briefly blogged about earlier, There are better things I can be doing with my time.

I picked up one of my wife's many pregnancy and parenting magazines (Something that I usually choose to ignore because I figure I'll just learn how to be a parent along the way). At any rate, As I was reading and learning mostly about what MOM'S need to do to prepare for babies, I ran across an article titled "Father's Know Best" This peaked my intrest immediately and it brings forth a good point, I figure since most Dad's are probably in my boat and are not reading Pregnancy and Parenting magazines, I'll attempt to share in my own words what I found to be true from within this article.

1: Babies Cry... Crying is something that babies just do, I suppose it's their way of speaking, Who among us doesn't like to listen to ourselves talk a bit? Babies do too! Let them cry sometimes. Crying is natural, and although Mommy's may tend to think so, A crying baby doesn't mean she's doing a bad job. Diaper Boy/Girl will still love them as much in the morning.

2: Roll with it.... It's nearly impossible to actually tell what's going on inside a babies brain, and by the time you actually do, you'll have a new dilemma to deal with. Playing things by ear usually doesn't bother Men, But it most likely driving the woman in your life crazy! Help them remember that babies are stressful, and playing it by ear is an OK thing to do.

3: Babies don't always need the boob.... It becomes the mission of a father, or future father in my case, to learn the essential duties of a housewife and mother, such as how to feed, wrap, quiet and rock your baby to sleep. In time they'll prove essential as Mom needs a break and Dad becomes Mom.

4: Babies like things topsy turvy.... This one is my favorite, I have no doubts that my wife will be afraid that I'm going to "Break" our baby girl, However, In my experience, and according to this article, Babies (Who can easily support their own head's) will squeal with delight when they're being tossed in the air, swung between one's legs, or held upside down, Just be sure to grasp them by their torso, NOT the arms.

5: Babies like a mess.... Babies love to make messes, It actually encourages their stimulation, and learning, Allow them to make messes, (And to the men) offer to clean up afterwards, Encourage the mothers to get down and make messes together, Why Not.. Right?

6: Babies will survive another person's care.... Dad's can generally leave a baby in someone else's care and know that the baby will be fine, this task is never as easy for mothers, Its important for Dad to help Mom understand this, Be there with her for as many of these "Firsts" as possible, I.E. Day Care, Babysitter Etc.

7: Babies don't do things like the book.... Like in my own home, "How To Manuals" of all kinds are piling up on the coffee table, I haven't even looked at more than a few paragraphs in any of them up until recently, No doubt they'll make great references. However, As the article I was reading points out, also as I think, Its important to just follow your heart, Dad's need to be the half of this "Team" that sticks to the basics, Feed, Burp, Change, Sooth, Rock, Rinse, and Repeat.

8: You Needn't become your parents.... My parents did a great job raising me, I was the first, and I dare say "Experimental" child, I love my parents and praise them for the job they did, However I will certainly do some things different for my children, Mom's are the same way, They need encouragement that they also won't make the same "Mistakes" their parent's did. Talk about the good things you are doing together.

That's about it, Again, I apologize for the lack of humor, I read this article this weekend, and it has stuck with me all weekend at the forefront of my thoughts so I figured, What the hell, I'd blog about it.

Reference: "Fathers Know Best" -Chris Napolitano, Fit Pregnancy's Mom & Baby Magazine Summer 2009

A True Scooter -ist? You Decide

2009-05-23T07:18:00.000-07:00

I was once told that in order to be a TRUE Scooter-ist, One had to have a bee fly up their shorts while riding. Well, I am proud to announce that Today, I became a "True Scooter-ist." I love riding my red scooter, although I'd really rather be riding some kind of motorcycle. There is a certain sense of freedom that comes from riding a scooter around town with the wind blowing through my hair, my eyes welling up with tears from my speed, It's almost as if the road seems to unwind and reveal it's darkest secrets to you, and in this economy, who doesn't love a ride that gets anywhere from 65-90 MPG? I know that I try to pinch and save every penny that I can. At any rate, Today while I was riding my scooter to work, I had a bee fly up my shorts and get stuck in the layer between my underwear, and the shorts themselves, I could feel the bee squirming around, He was probably freaking out almost as much as I was at the thought of being trapped there. I imagine the bee actually looked something like this picture below."The last thing that I want to happen is to get stung in my 'area' " I thought.. The site of my pulling immediately over and doing a dance must have been quite funny to onlookers and those driving around me. I only wish now that I could have seen myself doing what I now call the "I have a bee in my shorts" dance. Lucky for me, I didn't get stung, and the bee made his way out with my coaching.

Work is key to life longevity

2009-05-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

As I was driving through town last night on my way to bring my wife dinner at school, I couldn't help but notice an old woman cruising down the sidewalk in a power seated lawnmower, with the blades still running as she cruised across the road and up onto the sidewalk again, I couldn't help but think to myself that this was quite a funny site, I wondered just what she was doing. "Does she realize that she is mowing the sidewalk, and where was she going?"
I thought to myself. I had to find out! I pulled over to the side of the road to watch her and as I sat there, I tried to discreetly take a picture with my cell phone while she went past me. Alas, she stopped just in front of my car and bent down to pick some weeds out of the crack in the sidewalk.. As I sat there, holding my cell phone sideways and leaning over towards the passenger side of my car taking photos, I realized all at once that I'd been busted, (Notice Face in Picture) I had all of my car windows rolled down due to a broken A/C and she caught me snapping pictures.. I tried to get myself out of it by initiating a small but insightful conversation, I thought about asking if she knew where "Some" street was and explaining that my "Phones GPS" wasn't working correctly, however, that is not how our conversation went, I actually learned something from this woman.. Our conversation went as follows.

Me: "Hi, Where are you headed?"

Her: "I'm off to dump my grass."

Me: "Would you like me to help you?"

Her: "That's a nice offer, but I can handle it."

Me: "Those buckets get quite heavy when they're filled with wet grass, Are you sure I can't help you unload them?"

Her: "No, Thank you, but I really enjoy getting out and mowing my lawn once a week, You know, If you stay busy with work when you're my age, You'll be living well too"

Me: "How old are you if you don't mind me asking?"

Her: "I am 86 years young!"

Me: "That's great! I'll have to follow your advice! Where are you going to dump your grass?"

Her: "I dump it here in this empty field, I don't have room for it anywhere around my house."

Me: "Where is your house?"

Her: "Just down the road a bit."

This is a picture of her grass dumping site.

After a few more words, I concluded our conversation, and allowed her to hop back onto her lawn mower and head to her grass dumping site, not far from where we were conversing. On my way home, I decided to take a different route to see if I could find out exactly where she lived. I wasn't sure what I'd be looking for, Perhaps her red riding mower, and some fresh cut grass.. As I turned onto the street several blocks earlier than I had on my way in, I noticed she was still outside, squeezing out the last bit of sunlight while weeding her flower garden just outside, 3 blocks away from the site where she went to dump her grass...
Driving home, I had a few laughs, and thought back on what she said, "She's probably right, If all of us spent a little more time working in our yards, and playing outside, We probably would live a little longer." It seems now days that many of us spend too much time sitting in front of the tube watching TV and being couch potatoes... I hope that we can learn from this lady's example to squeeze out every bit of joy we can from life.

Blogging

2009-05-21T12:27:00.001-07:00

Hi, I recently decided that I would start a blog that I am going to fill with random thoughts and events that happen to me throughout my days and weeks as I go to school and attempt to live my life as a Mormon Father, Firefighter, Paramedic Student, and Outdoor Enthusiast. I'm not sure what I hope to get out of establishing a blog, but I hope that it will cause me to read more often, and to consider the joy that I find in everyday life. I hope to be able to share funny stories that I come across as well as things that I find interesting in Humanity.
I thought I'd start with something that I recently saw a few months ago, This is a local Bowling Alley called "Fat Cats" Its supposed to be an awesome entertainment center, but in reality is just a place for losers to hang out and go bowling. This advertisement in what I would consider to be the "dating capitol of the world" probably lost somebody their job.