EMS NEWS

I’m officially addicted to the History Channel show Gangland. I just watched an hour on the Vice Lords, and last week was an episode on the Mongols Motorcycle Club. Right now they are showing an episode about the Bloods in L.A. I’m amused primarily because I don’t have to deal with gang violence in my neck of the woods.

I have had one shooting in my EMS career and that was while precepting with a much bigger department. I can’t imagine working a city like Lawndale, IL, and having to deal with trauma on a consistent basis, or having to take out travel insurance to go to work in south central L.A.

Although I wouldn’t mind a LITTLE bit of excitement instead of picking old ladies up off the ground all day long.

Part of my anniversary gift was a big surprise to me! I’ve been talking about going back to Disney since we went in October. The Magical Express bus and the sand-bottomed pool at the Yacht Club Hotel made a good trip into a great trip. I’m not sure about wandering around Animal Kingdom or the Magic Kingdom again, but I love Epcot and Typhoon Lagoon.

We haven’t booked our hotel yet. I want to go back to the Yacht Club solely because of their wonderful pool, but we’re going to need some good hotel deals, because right now it’s about $300 a night there. I’m spoiled.

Thanks to Michael Oosting, we once again managed to have a free night out at the racetrack. I had been reading that Mike Oosting just broke a record, having surpassed 3000 wins, so I decided I was going to bet on him as long as his horse wasn’t too terrible. He won 3 of the 7 races we stayed for!

The last race we were down to $4 between the 2 of us, and managed to win $44 thanks to Mike winning with a 7-1 horse.

Last night we made the rare decision to order pizza delivery since Cor didn’t get hom from work until 8pm. Never being ones to do anything in proper portions, we ordered 2 larges and a full order of breadsticks. So I’ve now eaten pizza 3 meals in a row. And that will most likely be 4 by tonight. I’m gonna need a colon cleanse at this rate.

I want a bike this summer to lose some weight.

Various news outlets are reporting that Sen. Ted Kennedy was just rushed to the hospital after showing signs of a stroke. He is 76 years old now, so it was just a matter of time before something happened. I’ve never been a particularly big fan of his, but he must be doing something right to win re-election all this years. He did endorse Obama before it was popular, leading me to believe he didn’t like working with Hillary in the senate. That must have been some awkward discussion at the dining room furniture.

This will probably be the end of his political career if it was indeed a stroke.

We’ve had some luck with our wiener dog in the past few weeks. We’ve managed to teach him sit and lay. We’ve also found that he does much better at night when he has something to occupy himself with. On that note, we ordered him 3 toys all purporting to be “smart toys”

They all operate on the concept of releasing a treat after a certain action is performed. Two of the toys were defeated almost immediately by sharp wiener dog teeth.

The third toy is a plastic bottle with a rubber rope hanging out one end that dispenses treats when the rope is pushed in and the pulled back out. Almost like bar faucets for goodies. So far he has not managed to figure out the trick to it, but it has kept him fixated for over 4 hours. $10 well spent, indeed.

So we busted out the credit card tonight to order pizza. It really says a lot about the state of things when $30 for pizza for two requires a third party to vouch for your ability to pay.

We have 2 savings accounts right now, and one of them has a decent amount in it, so I’m told. The sad reality is that we’d be out on the street in 2 months if one of us lost our job.

Once I get a second job (soon) we are going to be in full-on penny pinching mode so we can move on out of this area!

I’m a pretty big advocate of nursing homes. Most of the calls I go on are the end result of someone not being able to take care of themselves. People can’t walk, too weak to get up off the bed, etc, etc. Most people have some kind of term life insurance but no one thinks ahead far enough to get long term care insurance. I know I’ll have it before I get too old. Either that or “40 calibur bullet” insurance.

As I mentioned earlier, we put a $500 deposit on a new Prius (2009) because the demand is high enough they know they have you screwed. I think it will be worth it because gas probably won’t be going down anytime soon and the 2009 Prius is rumored to be getting 15% better gas mileage than the current version.

We are still waiting to see what options are available. I really want a navigation system, bluetooth, and keyless ignition. I’m also a big proponent of rear spoilers. My Corolla has one and the Prius will be no different. I think cars looks naked without one.

We got our government tax rebate in the bank yesterday and it was spent before the day was done. We didn’t splurge on Hilton Head rentals or anything, but we did put some money down on a new 2009 Prius to try and offset the $4 a gallon gas and we spent $300 on new clothes at the Gap outlet. (But we saved over $220)

Add to that my laptop breaking and we’re done stimulating the economy for a while.

I am usually pretty good about bringing pens to work. It’s the only piece of equipment I carry with me. (That’s right. No scissors or stethoscopes or rescue knives or any of that whacker stuff.) When a tone drops, I whip out my bic pens and write the address on my hand. We speed to the call and I write down all the important info and use the pen to extract some blood for the glucometer. It’s a nice little system I have.

Until I forget a pen.

My poor laptop bit the dust so I’m on my big clunky desktop. I’ll keep you updated on this breaking news as it happens.

I’m a bad blogger.

My wife totally outclasses me when it comes to blogging.  I admit it.  I start strong, and then lose interest or topics to write about after a few months.  It’s hard coming up with interesting articles that relate to EMS.  99% of the work I do is extremely uninteresting.  (Unless you like stories about old people falling down.)

With that in mind, I do want to start writing again.  Partly because I am out of school and have more free time, and of course, I like the money that comes from blogging. 

On a completely unrelated note, I’m watching Terminator 2 right now.  Do we have any action heros anymore?  Ever since Arnold took office, there’s no one around that fills his shoes in the movie world. 

I am quite ready to quit my job in private EMS hell.  It feels like I’m working for two companies.  My first job is responding to 911 emergencies for our contracted towns.  The second is being a taxi for government aid recipients that call our private number.  I need to call Branson hotels to book a vacation. 

It’s bad enough constantly being on edge for a 911 tone, but it really drive me over the edge at night when the phone rings to drive 20 miles to take someone to dialysis. 

I don’t think I ever properly informed the blogosphere that Corrin’s ring is finally fixed and back on her finger. 

We shopped at Albert’s Jewelers to pick up the ring.  After a few days it became apparent that there was a crack in the diamond.  I’m pretty sure that diamond rings aren’t supposed to crack, but this one did somehow.  We took it in, and they offered to “fix” it, which didn’t sit well with us.  Then they offered to exchange the diamond. 

When they finally found a replacement stone, it had a big honkin crack in the center of it as well.  We were told this was the same grade diamond we had picked out, but I’m not making Corrie wear a damaged diamond her whole life.

So they took it back to find yet another diamond.  After another week, they said they had one picked out.  I went to look at it, and it looked like there was snot suspended in the middle of it. 

So finally this time the store offered to upgrade the diamond so we were sure to have a stone we were happy with.  It finally came in, and we love it.  I don’t have a picture handy at the moment but it’s really big and really shiny.  Two of the most important qualities in jewelry.