EMS NEWS

We were in the unusual camp when my wife and I were married. We spent about 20 minutes planning the ceremony in Vegas (which was awesome by the way.) and had our reception dinner at In-N-Out burger.

We also didn’t have an engagement ring.

We stopped at Albert’s Jewelers about 6 months ago to get a nice big rock. Nice jewelry doesn’t come cheap, of course.

We’re paying a car payment each month for about 10 more months to pay this sucker off. Then it’s time to get a Prius to offset the $4 a gallon gas.

My wife and I are having a bit of a squabble about cars.  I have my little 2006 Corolla that gets 40mpg and has XM radio and she wants it.  She wants me to take her 2000 Grand Prix.  It’s a nice car, but I’m used to my peppy little go cart.  The Grand Prix does have a wood dash kits though so that makes up for the lack of XM.  The go cart is safer so I’m inclined to let her have her wish, I’m just not sure how the insurance situation is going to play out. 

The XM will have to come with me I’ve decided.

This is pretty far removed from paramedic related happenings, but my car is important to me.  I recently decided that I’m going to start doing as much of my own maintenance as possible.  I’ve learned how to change my own oil, which saves me $30 a pop.  I want to start rotating my own tires, but it’s just so much work without Ingersoll Rand air tools.  You know, like, and air wrench to get those lug nuts off.  I’m just not enough of a masochist to pry off 20 lug nuts manually.  Not to mention I’m sure I’d tear the heck out of them.

I did manage to wax my car before winter hit, so hopefully the salt won’t do much damage this year.

Today is the first day we’ve had in a while that hasn’t been below freezing, and I plan on taking advantage by washing my car.  I’m even going to wash it at work.  EMS has it’s privileges.  I might get brains on my jacket, but I can wash my car on the clock. 

I’ve been working on the Corolla a lot lately.  My mom wanted to know what kind of auto accessories I wanted for Christmas, and I told her some ramps so I can work underneath the car.  I’m gonna be quite the handyman someday.

I was supposed to spend tonight with Corrin at the holiday party in Indy, but the weather had other plans.  Once I heard there was freezing rain I decided I better leave before it gets dark.  It was sleeting as soon as I left, but the roads were okay til I hit lafayette.  Then I started noticing people coming from the north with their hazards on, so I figured something bad must be going on.  Then I noticed I seemed to be floating on the road and promptly slowed down to about 30.

There was a green Lumina in front of me.  He made the mistake of tapping his brakes on a frozen bridge and slid into a ditch.  It was complete ice from there on in, and there were accidents all over I-65.  I got off the interstate and drove over to 41, which wasn’t much better, but at least there weren’t as many semi trucks. 

I snapped a few pictures, as safely as I could.

My poor car is completely covered in ice!

So, it took me almost 4 full hours to get home.  When I finally did get home, I almost fell over because the parking lot and sidewalk here are covered in ice, too.  I had to shuffle all the way inside.

My car has a few little dings and scratches on it after 2 years.  It’s a black car so everything shows up really obviously.  Theres a scuff on the front bumper from when I caught it on some road construction, and a dent above the driver door from where I had to jimmy it open last winter.  (Oops.)  If I had some body shop supplies around I could bondo it, sand it down and paint it back to new.  Unfortunately, I think the poor little Rolla is just gonna have to suffer on.

I know my little Corolla is 2 years old now, but I still think of it as new.  It’s all black, so I worry that leaving it out in the sun all day is doing to turn it gray eventually.  Worse yet, I worry that the dashboard will crack from all the heat.  I don’t really have any choice since I live in an apartment complex with no garage.  Sometimes on really hot days I’ll deliberately park under a tree to avoid the sun.  Then the birds come.

All of these problems could be avoided if I bought a Dashmat or a car cover.  A lot of people only think of car covers for expensive cars or exotics, but my Corolla is expensive to ME.  So I should probably take better care of it by protecting it from the sun as much as possible. 

I’m gonna get my initials monogrammed onto a Dash Mat. 

Some day I hope to be driving a nice big ambulance that I don’t have to refuel twice a shift.  Most ambulances are based off big vans and SUVs and get somewhere around 8-10mpg.

I get around 40mpg in my little Toyota, but a little car isn’t an option for a big family.  So if you need size and good fuel economy, (not to mention feeling a little greener), look for a new SUV Hybrid at a source for information on EVERY hybrid SUV available today. There are resources for new and current owners of green SUVs, including forums, reviews, videos, and pictures. 

Make the right choice, don’t settle for under 20 mpg! 

I’ve heard from several people at work that Ford has stopped making ambulances, and that you can’t even get parts right now, due to a lawsuit between Ford and Cummins Diesel.  (I believe.)  Considering every ambulance I’ve ever seen is a Ford or a Freightliner, this is pretty wild.  I’m going to do some investigation, and I will keep you informed.

This came about because we blew the head gaskets on an engine with less than 10,000 miles on it.