Opportunity arises...

I can't seem to remember if I had any posts last year about me coaching baseball last spring, then again, I can barely remember what I did last week. Anyways, last year, one of my good friends Shawn, was approached to coach the Pomfret Middle School's baseball team. Shawn and I were opponents in high school baseball(Shawn-Ellis Tech, Me-Putnam), joined the fire department together, took many classes together, and we both work as dispatchers on 3rd shift(Shawn-UConn Storrs, Me-QV). He took the job, but he needed some help so he asked me to be his assistant coach.

We had a good season last year with the Middle School kids, and ended up tied for 2nd place in the division. I then decided to concentrate more on getting enough sleep during the day or working overtime, and Shawn ended up continuing his season coaching American Legion for Tri-town(Woodstock, Thompson, Putnam). Well, he has just informed me that he is one of two finalist for the head coach position at Putnam High School, my alma mater! He will be finding out either tomorrow or sometime next week if he has the job, and has asked me if I'd like to continue to be his assistant coach. I told him of course, but seeing that I still need to take the coaching class to get my certificate, I can only help out with practice and book keeping. But I'm hoping to find an upcoming class, and who knows, I may possibly be coaching a Junior Varsity squad. I was really looking forward to spring, but now I'm REALLY looking forward, and of course I will update this situation as it happens...

"Let it freeze so we have our own hockey rink..!!"

I'll try and paint the picture here. Over the past month or so, we've had lots of snow and very cold, if not freezing temperatures here in Connecticut. Looking at our firehouse, our apron and left side of the parking lot is paved, including a small driveway that goes to the rear of the station. To the right side, once it gets past the Tanker's bay it turns to dirt, and goes about two and a half car lengths until it meets the woods. Years ago, there weren't as many members as there are today, so the area gets used frequently now. In fact during meetings and trainings, we sometimes have to double park in the dirt section.

Well, the town highway department has been plowing the dirt section as best they can over the past few months, but obviously they can't drop the plow all the way down because it's dirt, of course! So the snow and ice, has become even more ice(walk-able but it's still ice). Well with yesterday's storm bringing lots of snow, then lots of sleet, then lots of rain, it's all been plowed into even larger snowbanks. Of course with all the rain, and the dirt section being on a lower grade than the rest of the parking lot, all the water drained onto the dirt section, and the ice "floor" and snowbanks acted as a dam.

The water had built up to where it was quite impressive amount, running the entire length of the dirt parking section(approximately a foot of standing water). While we were outside the station tonight after playing cards(pitch to be exact), we were debating whether we should let it freeze over or un-dam it. I made the suggestion that we let it freeze, as there were two trees to the back of the snowbanks that would make an excellent hockey goal. But to my dismay, everyone else thought it would be better to drain the "pool" so members who were unaware of said puddle/ice rink, wouldn't slide across it and crash into the snowbanks. DARN I SAY!!

So one of our younger members, "Jacko", donned a pair of bunker boots and a shovel. Sorry, technically they were the second pair he grabbed, as the first pair he grabbed were out of service "utility" boots, with a leak in them! HAHAHA, "How's the water Jacko??!!" Anyways, he knocked out a hole in the back of the snowbank and it was like the Colorado River Rapids! The water had receded back several feet towards the woods within a few minutes by the time I was leaving the station. I luckily had my camera in my truck tonight, so I snapped some pictures. I apologize for the poor quality of the photos. It was a rather tough shot, with it still raining the flash was ineffective, along with it being night, and the glare from the street light at the edge of the road. Sorry, but enjoy some laughs...

Our pond...


Jacko in the background digging a trench into the woods...


Assistant Chief Manis checkin out the situation...

Power and Back Pain....

Honestly I haven't had anything relevant to post lately. I've just been working, and sleeping, maybe an occasional call with the fire department here or there, but mostly uneventful. Tonight for training, we were supposed to have a CL&P(Connecticut Light & Power) representative come out to the station and put on a class about how their system works when an incident comes in, how they are handled by the call center in Berlin, and then the dispatch center somewhere else in the state. It was supposed to be a presentation like the one I heard a week or two ago from the New England Regional Supervisor, at the local Quinebaug Valley Chief's meeting. That's when some chiefs and line officers "ripped the guy a new one." Well, this time it was supposed to be a more local supervisor, and my Chief, Dave, decided to invite Thompson Hill, Attawaugan, and some members from all the way down in Gales Ferry to attend this CL&P class/meeting.

Local fire departments in the area have a big beef with CL&P, because there is an established policy for emergency responders to use for downed wires/telephone poles. Priority 3 is non-life threatening(tree and wires down), Priority 2 is possibly a life threatening event and/or hazardous situation(wires down and arching with fire, or working structure), and Priority 1 is immediate life threatening situation(any fire with entrapment, or an MVA with pole and energized wires down over vehicle, etc). CL&P is supposed to give dispatch and estimated E.T.A. for all incidents other than Priority 3. But even for Priority 2, they've been rather shady, as far as giving e.t.a.'s! Well, my chief should have pushed this CL&P manager or supervisor for an E.T.A., because the guy never showed up!

So, we had a little training/discussion for a half and hour, and then went home. Nothing strenuous was done, yet I have no idea what the heck I did tonight, because it feels like I have a slipped disc in my back under my right shoulder blade, and it hurts whenever I move or during inspiration. Could someone please take the serrated steak knife out from behind my shoulder blade! THANKS!!! I'm hoping that a nice days rest during this snow storm today will do the trick, and I'll wake up feeling great and ready to go... I'll keep ya posted...

What to do, what to do??!!

So last week when the extreme cold weather hit CT, my Durango started having a noticeable vibration between 60-70mph on the highway, along with the creeks and pops from my suspension and leaf springs when getting into a frozen car. The vibration wasn't enough to shake the truck or pull to one side when I let go of the steering wheel, but it was enough to make me notice it. It seemed like it was coming from the front passenger side, and seeing that I haven't had any problems at all with it, I took it to Kelly's Tire in Putnam. Kelly's Tire is an old "mom and pop" garage in town that's been open for many decades and the family has used since I can remember.

In talking with Dennis Kelly, and describing the vibration as best I could, he suggested starting with the less invasive treatment with getting the front tires balanced seeing that that's where I said the vibration was coming from. After having the work done, the vibration was less noticeable over the next few days, but increasingly got worse over the course of the week. Well, this past morning I took it in to get the rear tires balanced, after I had noticed there were no tire weights on the right rear tire a few days ago. Thinking I would be good to go, I waited till the drive to work tonight to take it on the highway again, and again, the vibration is less noticeable, but still there!




The engine and transmission is purring like a kitten, and I haven't had any problems at all with it since I purchased it some two and 1/2 years ago. I'm at a loss, and can only guess that either there's something wrong with my suspension, or my rear end is starting to let go. My dispatch partner Travis, also has a Durango, although it's a few years older than mine, there is a difference between them. His Durango is 2WD with a 4WD switch, while my Durango is constantly in All Wheel Drive with a 4WD selector switch. Maybe there is something minor wrong with my vehicle but I'm thinking the worse, and started debating whether or not I should look into getting a new vehicle. Don't get me wrong, I love my Durango with it's third row seating and all it's options (minus a sunroof), but I can't help but worry about getting stuck with it until it's depreciated in value to where I lose money.

I've made all payments consistently on time, over the past year and a half and I'm wondering if I would be able to get financed for a new truck at a decent price. Considering the way the economy is, and with the auto maker's bail out, I would think it's a buyer's market, and maybe they'd be willing to work something out. The only problem is that I want a new Dodge Ram, and back in 2002 when Hayleigh was born, my ex-wife and I had a combined payment for our vehicles over $1,000. I had a brand new Jeep Wrangler Sport 4X4, and we managed to get rid of her sports car, but we tried to keep my Jeep, and due to her pregnancy I was the only one working at the time. We couldn't afford everything, so I voluntarily repossessed my car, which was financed through Diamlyer-Chrysler, who is the main Dodge finance company. I'm not sure if they will be able to work anything out for me, and I'm thinking I may be denied, but I figure it's worth a shot. Wish me luck, I'm gonna go shopping on-line right now, dreaming and drooling...LOL

Yesterday was past history, today is new history...

Weekend update...

So this weekend started off with the usual getting out of work Friday morning and taking a nap before picking Hayleigh up after school, for the weekend. We hit the Lisbon McDonald's on the way home for a snack, and so Hayleigh could play on the playscape. We then headed up to Putnam, and went over Rene's house. We hung out for a bit and then piled back into our cars and went out to dinner at the Golden Greek before hitting the Killingly Cinemas to see Paul Bart, Mall Cop. The combination of a heated theatre, dark lighting, and my warm coat did me in, as I ended up dozing off for a bit. Granted there were a few funny parts, but all in all, it was a boring movie, and not as funny as I thought it would be. We then called it a night and went our separate ways, and I got Hayleigh home and into bed.

Unfortunately, I wasn't as lucky as she was, as I had promised the Bates' that I'd drive them to the airport for their early morning flight to Tampa, FL. to visit family and go to Disney. They had been planning the trip since summer, and Hayleigh and I were supposed to go with them, but I ended up backing out due to expenses. So, me being used to working the midnight shift, I had tried to nap several times, but kept waking up in fear of being late. I woke up at 00:30, 01:30, 2:15, and then decided at 03:00am to just stay awake, and headed over to their house at 04:15. We packed up my car and headed off to T.F. Green airport in Warwick, R.I. and got there with plenty of time to spare despite the flurries and 15 below temperatures. I then drove back home and stayed awake, got Hayleigh up and ready for dance class and drove to Norwich around 10:45. Class got over around 12:45 and we drove back to Putnam for lunch.

We then headed back out to Warwick, as Hayleigh has gotten 100's on every single spelling test during the school year. So I surprised her with a trip to "Kids Anarchy on Kool-aid", better known as Chucky Cheese. We spent a few hours there, and then drove up to North Smithfield, RI to eat at Papa Gino's, and then went to see "Hotel for Dogs." She had a blast and we got home around 9:30p.m. and proceeded to pass out from exhaustion. Well, at least I did...LOL

We then woke up this morning and went through all of her toys, organizing and throwing out what she didn't want anymore. I dropped her off at 2pm so she could go with her Mom to a birthday party, and went home to pass out some more before coming into work tonight for an overtime/holiday shift. So far, it's been a crazy shift, with an unexpected large snowfall in the area, which left our CAD screen with so many calls we had a scroll down bar to look at some of the calls. Normally, I've only seen that type of screen when either a large damaging storm hits, a large fire, or, at times, during busy day shifts...

On a side note, I missed a double fatal, head on crash in my district because I slept through the page, along with a mutual aid structure fire to Thompson, and a flooded nursing home ("533" for Linda's notes..LOL) due to a broken sprinkler head.

Also, remember my last post where I stated I was getting to be forgetful? Well, this recent extreme cold spell had caused a picturesque scene at the Cargill Falls in town. Every night I drove by the intersection of Pomfret Street and Kennedy Drive, I kept thinking to myself, "I need to grab my camera and take a picture of that, it looks awesome." The falls were causing a huge mist cloud, and with the below zero temperatures, everything had a frosty white-like film that covered everything, as if it was frozen whipped cream. The normal ambiance lighting that the town set up years ago was highlighting everything, beautifully. Yep, I kept forgetting my camera, and tonight it was gone!!! I almost wish the freezing cold weather would come back, but who knows...

"A new year.... new fire officers." Great, JUST great!!

I would have to say 95% of the fire departments in Eastern Connecticut is volunteer. Some of those volunteer fire departments have chiefs appointed by town officials or board members, and stay chief until they either retire, die, or just step down. Line officers such as Captains or Lieutenants are then appointed by the chief and his assistant chiefs, etc.

Now, the other half of the departments have elections. Some annually, some every two or three years, but either way, they have elections. This way to me, seems to be a hindrance, because in my mind, in order to move a department forward and being pro-active takes more than a year, or two, or three to see the progress. To me, voting would be a popularity contest at times, and in some departments there is a maximum amount of years that you can serve as chief. Granted, you'd be bringing new ideas and new ways of thinking into the department by elections, but you'd also possibly have differing opinions between administrations(much like politics).

So, most departments that have elections have theirs in January, figuring "it's a new year, let's have new officers." So we in dispatch now have to look forward to dealing with some brand new, "green" fire officers on the radio. It tends to provide many entertaining shifts, where these new officers wouldn't like the "ribbing" or "poking fun" of them at dispatch when the microphone is not keyed...

And on a side note, one thing that has really annoyed me, is a certain department which will remain un-named who establishes incident command for everything, and I mean EVERYTHING! Most departments will only establish command for certain calls, such as fires or moderate/severe car accidents, but this department will establish command for a nose bleed! If I was ever to become a member there, and get elected by votes to be their chief, that's the first policy I would change after my inauguration, DAY 1 of my term! But then again, some of their members wouldn't like that and vote me out of office the next year. LMAO...

Flight of the Conchords.....Accappella??!!

I believe I've mentioned it in previous posts, but one of my favorite acts lately, has be the New Zealand Folk-Comedy duo called Flight of the Conchords, otherwise known as FOTC's. They were even given their own show on HBO. Well, being bored at work again, I was surfing youtube and found many coverbands, and several high school students performing many of their songs at their talent shows...

This is one of the origionals...


and this is a version performed by a Duke University accappella group...


I thought it was pretty good...

Mumbling 101...

Just a few thoughts, seeing that I really can't think of anything major to blog about...

1. Why is it that during the day, I'll hear songs or see something and think to myself, "I need to look that up online when I get to work tonight." Yet, I get to work and forget what I wanted to look up! Apparently I need to start keeping a list...

2. When you start thinking to yourself, that you need to keep a list of something, is that Alzheimer's Disease starting to kick in? And is there any evidence of long term exposure to radio waves and radio frequencies, contributing to forget-full-ness, cause I could definitely take that to the bank!! LOL...

3. Hayleigh called me this evening while I was half awake, before she went to bed. She's so smart and normally talks like a 10 year old, but everytime she calls me on the phone, she talks like a 3 year old. "Hi da-da, I luv you and misssssss you! I can't wait to seeee you Fwi-day!" and it melts my heart...

4. Funny how the years go by and kids grow up fast, and they start to think of you as a secretary... "Daddy, tell Memere when she get's back from the store to call me! BYE!!!"

5. I have several friends that work at the Mohegan Sun Casino, either in dispatch or on the Fire Department. Apparently, due to hard economic times even the Casino has to make changes, and all employees are taking a pay cut! I feel bad for all my friends about the paycuts, but I'm also thankful that they're not getting laid off like the rest of the country...

6. The best job security is to be employed in the Public Safety fields. We're open 24/7/365, and we'll never go out of business...

7. The Powerball drawing on Wednesday is up over $100,000,000 with a payout of over $85,000,000 after taxes. Why do they list it as a $100 million jackpot, when technically you'd only get 85? Why don't they just say $85 million dollar drawing?!!

8. I bought my winning $100,000,000.....sorry, $85,000,000 ticket yesterday. I have already figured out everything that I want to do, and there's a lot of money left over. Obviously I need to think of more things to do and buy! LMAO

9. When you are having a boring and extremely slow night shift at work, make sure to be-friend a fellow dispatcher/blogger/southern belle on Facebook, so you can chat the shift away and entertain each other...

10. People really can have super powers!! Superman breath is pretty cool, but X-ray vision would be much better... (Inside joke)

11. In watching "The Bachelor", I'm wondering if they, or BBC would make a show for me over in the UK? They could call it "The American Bachelor." I can see it now, 6 weeks in the UK, 26-30 Brittish and Scottish lassies to choose from! Of course, this would be after I won my $100,000,000 Powerball jackpot, got into shape, and finally got a tan! HA!!! In my dreams...... I'll never tan!

12. I'm dying to get more tattoos, but of course an unexpected expense has come up! My Durango needs a major servicing, and now there's a vibration in the front end at highway speeds...

13. Not that I watch Leno a lot, but I was wondering tonight what's going to happen to Kevin Eubank and John Melendez when Leno retires, and Conan takes over. I can't picture Max Weinberg and his band working with either of them...


14. I'm the type of person that hates confrontation, so I'm not sure whether to give criticism, or to keep my mouth shut and let someone learn from their mistakes. I normally do not do it teaching firefighting classes, but at the firehouse and at work, I feel it's not my place to say anything...

15. Try listening to 8 hours of Minnie Mouse and tell me how you feel afterwards...LOL

It's as good as done...

So I've decided that I'm most likely going back to Scotland in July. 2009 is being called "Scotland Homecoming" by the entire country, where they are having nation-wide events happening throughout the year, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns' birth. Robbie Burns is the famous poet, and national bard, and is probably the first, if not the second most popular person from Scotland, along with William Wallace of Braveheart fame.

Thanks to Claire, she had forwarded me a website listing all the posted events going on during the year, and amazingly enough, there is an event going on at the end of July in Mauchline, which is a stones throw(okay, maybe a bit further) away from Cumnock. I'm hoping to save up enough money for the flight, a rent-a-car, and a weeks stay at the family inn/pub. I know that if I tell the family that I'm coming back over, they'll insist that I stay at Aunt Irene's and Uncle Stewart's again, but me being my typical self, I wouldn't want to inconvenience them. I still feel that I owe them for my last trip where they would barely let me pay for anything, so I almost wish I had a ton of money so I could pay them back. I'm sure that the plane tickets from Prestwick to Heathrow wasn't cheap for my Aunt Sadie, and paying for lunch did not make up for that!!

So barring any unforeseen expenses, I'm hoping to make a video diary of my 2nd ever overseas trip, to Bonnie Scotland!!

Dispatch Part Deux...

Again, a quiet night at QV leads to boring post about work. Last post I partially described our dispatch center that we commonly refer to as "the closet." Closet, meaning the small office on the 2nd floor that was transformed into our dispatch center, several years ago when the CT State Police decided to enlarge the Troop D dispatch center, and moved us upstairs. So here's some pics...

This is a pic of Position #2, which I normally inhabit on the Mid shift. The top two screens are the 911 system, the bottom two screens are the CAD, the third one from the left is the Orbicom/radio system, and the last one on the right is just my laptop. Notice my container of "life-blood"(Dunkin Donuts coffee) next to the keyboard. LOL


This is a shot towards Position #1 which is on the right, and Position #3 to the left of the window.


This is a shot of the "Main Tower" Orbicom screen. Each module is a radio frequency, and we can either use the touch screen, the mouse, or below the monitor is a normal push-to-talk button "base."


Some of our radio towers use microwave links, rather than telephone lines to communicate between dispatch and the towers. These tower modules have the four little boxes on them, where we can select frequencies from a scroll down list.


This is the cross-band tower screen, which other dispatch centers share with us. They have to be changed by DTMF, meaning we have to punch in a code to change the frequency of those towers.


A shot of the Med Patch screen, which controls the med radio for our regional hospital, Day Kimball, in Putnam.


One of our toning screens, which have the fire department and ambulance tones sorted by regions. North, Northwest, South, Plainfield/Canterbury, Killingly, Brooklyn, and Southwest.


Our CAD mapping system...


This is our "Snack Shack" which is about 5 feet behind me...


This is our management office, lol. Also below that is "Position #4" which is the only one company computer that has internet, used for company related business. It is always on, used for the VOIP system with Rhode Island, and www.iamresponding.com. It allows first responders to call in "responding", which has eliminated third party answering services for ambulance corps, and has reduced retones for the fire departments and ambulance corps...


AND FINALLY!! Here's Shayne, who is my partner tonight, seeing that it's an overtime shift for me. This is pretty much what we do on third shift, grab a spare chair, use it as a hammock, and either watch tv or surf the web on our laptops...


Hope you enjoyed this post...

"So what does Erik do at work?" you may ask...LOL

I'm having one of those nights where I'm wide awake, mope-ing around the internet because my life is rather boring, and I can't think about anything to write about. It's tough to think of something to write about that will entertain or keep someone else interested in reading it. Lately I've had a few other bloggers that are employed in my line of work(other than Linda), read some posts and send comments, so I figure, maybe post about my job.

Taken from QVEC website...
Who We Are

Quinebaug Valley Emergency Communications, Inc.(QV), is a non-profit corporation that was founded in 1974, to establish and administer an improved emergency notification and dispatch system in Northeastern Connecticut. We receive 911 emergency calls, dispatch the appropriate agency (fire and/or ambulance organization), transfer calls to State and local police departments, and provide continuous radio communications throughout our 17 town area.

The QV dispatch area: 519 square miles , includes 99,700 permanent residents and contains 37 fire departments, 14 ambulance agencies, 2 municipal police departments and 2 State Police agencies.

In large measure, our responsibility is the management of communication. Our office at the State Police Troop ‘D’ Barracks includes sophisticated radio communications equipment which links us to local, regional and State-wide fire networks and hospital emergency rooms and even to the National Defense Warning System.

I think JDF(our manager) did a good job briefly summing up what we do.

I'll give you just a quick list of departments and radios that we deal with here at QV...

(12) Radio towers: Thompson, Union, Brooklyn, South Killingly(MAIN), Griswold, Voluntown(Ekonk Hill), Hampton, Mansfield, Tolland, Plain Hill, Franklin, and our small back up tower behind the State Police Barracks here.

Each tower has a variety of radio frequencies on them depending on the area departments, ranging from Low Band, (VHF) High Band, and (UHF)Ultra High Band.

Toning Frequency: 33.80

Operating Frequencies: 33.44, 33.64, 33.72, 33.74, 33.76, 33.78, 33.88, 33.90, Danielson Highband, Putnam Highband(back up for WA), Statewide Mednet frequency, Statewide dispatch-to-dispatch, Rhode Island Inter-city(their form of statewide), and (VOIP)Voice Over Internet Protocol system, which is an online radio system with the State of RI. Our UHF system uses two main frequencies, and is "trunk-based" to have 16 different radio channels with different (PL's)private lines, branched off the two main frequencies. Basically, the whole system uses two frequencies, but with different PL's programmed, so that there is basically 16 frequencies that the responders can use, but either way they all are received here at QV on the two channels. We manage the med-patch radio to Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam for all incoming ambulances, and have a radio link to the State Police console downstairs, which is nice because we don't even have to pick up the phone to talk to them. We also have an I-TAC base radio, a MED-SAT(satelite) phone, and the NAWAS phone(North Atlantic Weather Alert System). Oh, and we also have a bendix mobile radio in our computer tower with several hundred other frequencies programmed in, just in case for back up.

Agencies we dispatch for:

Station 9 (Chaplin)

Station 12 (Hampton Fire, Hampton/Chaplin Ambulance)

Station 16 (Scotland Fire and Ambulance)

Station 24 (Baltic Fire and Ambulance)

Station 53 (Voluntown Fire and Ambulance)

Station 54 (Lisbon Fire and Ambulance)

Town of Griswold
Station 55 (Griswold Fire)
Station 56 (Jewett City Fire)
Griswold Ambulance

Town of Killingly
Station 60 (Williamsville Fire)
Station 61 (Danielson Fire)
Station 62 (Attawaugan Fire)
Station 63 (Dayville Fire)
Station 64 (East Killingly)
Station 65 (South Killingly)
K-B Ambulance

Station 67 (Sterling Fire)

Station 68 (Oneco Fire)

Station 70 (Pomfret Fire and Ambulance)

Station 71 (Eastford Fire)

Town of Woodstock
Station 75 (Muddy Brook Fire)
Station 76 (Woodstock Hill Fire and Ambulance)
Station 77 (Bungay Fire Brigade)

Station 79 (East Putnam Fire)

Town of Thompson
Station 81 (Community Fire and Ambulance)
Station 82 (West Thompson Fire)
Station 83 (Quinebaug Fire)
Station 84 (Thompson Hill Fire)
Station 85 (East Thompson)

Town of Brooklyn
Station 90 (Mort Lake Fire and Ambulance)
Station 92 (East Brooklyn)

Station 93 (Canterbury Fire and Ambulance)

Town of Plainfield
Station 94 (Moosup)
Station 95 (Plainfield)
Station 96 (Atwood Hose)
Station 97 (Central Village)
Moosup/Plainfield Ambulance

and finally the AMR paramedics that serve our 17 towns
QV Medic 1(24hr coverage), QV Medic 2(0800-2000), and QV Medic 3(1700-0100)...

Whhhhhheeeeeewwwww........and believe it or not, I typed that all off memory! LOL

I think the next one I do on dispatch, I will take some pictures...

Not a good start already...

So far I've managed to oversleep, and be 15 minutes late to work for my overtime shift. This is probably the third time over the past year that I've done it to the Shanyne, whom I was supposed to relieve at 4:30pm. I told him that to make up for it, to come in next Monday morning at 9:30-10:00, as that's the next shift he is supposed to relieve me, but he keeps saying to forget about it.

Interesting note from my last post. Work did end up being a doozie last night, as around 5 am., a house blew up in Griswold, which we took like 20-30 calls on, and dispatched Griswold, Jewett City, Voluntown, Lisbon, and the Taftville FAST team, along with Griswold Ambulance for standby. We'll that opened a can of worms, as a brief rain shower had gone through the state about an hour before that, causing severe ice conditions in the area. So, on the way to the fire, Griswold Ambulance decides to slide head-on into a tree. This must have been the back breaker, as we then recieved several medical calls in that area for slip n' falls, and your usual medicals. This caused us to use Lisbon's ambulance twice, and a bunch of American Ambulance BLS and ALS units. Jewett City's ET-156 was held back to cover Griswold's fire house during the fire, and ended up flying back and forth across the town of Griswold as the lone First Responder medical coverage. Next thing we know, they sign off at a slip n' fall in Jewett City, and the officer starts screaming over the radio. Apparently when they got out and started treating the patient, the truck continued to slide down the road past them and crashed into, and over a stone wall!!

Eventually the town highway department got out and started to sand the trouble spots, and Jewett City was able to get their truck off the stone wall. The wrecker had a tough time getting the ambulance out of the woods, but was later successful after a few passes of a sand truck. All in all, it was a crazy end to a shift, things worked out okay, and we managed to get through the big "C-F", (cluster f@@@). No wonder why I overslept this afternoon...LOL

Start of the week, not sure if it's good....or bad?

Well, apparenty we're starting off the first full week of 2009 with a bang tonight, as an hour into my shift, I took a call from a gentleman in Moosup. It went a little something like this:

Erik: "911, what's your emergency?"

Gentleman: "Yes, I live on Snake Meadow Hill Rd. in Moosup. I just heard a vehicle go past my house at a very fast rate of speed, proceeded by a huge bang. I'd like to talk to the Plainfield Police." Obviously he couldn't see or confirm an accident, so calls like that get transferred to the appropriate police department to investigate.

So I transferred the call to PPD for them to check it out, and waited for the callback from the police requesting services. In the meantime, my partner, who is familliar with the town of Plainfield said calmly, "Someone went down the hill, blew the stop sign and went into the huge stone wall that the guy across the street put up to protect his house."

Two minutes later, sure enough, "We need an ambulance to...", so we dispatch Moosup Fire and Moosup/Plainfield ambulance and sure enough, "Car 294 to QV, we have one car into a stone wall, one patient for transport, minor injuries."

Luckily, it wasn't a serious call, and it's been a decent start to the shift. I also found out when I came in, about my overtime shifts. Our supervisor would email out the schedule in microsoft excel format with open shifts highlighted. The old way they they distributed the overtime was by emails and alpha-numeric pages sent to the part-timers throughout the month, and any leftovers were given to full-timers by seniority rotation. Our supervisor finally realized it was taking a lot of effort to fill shifts, so he finally switched it to "everyone email in their availability for the open shifts with any preferences before the 1st of the month."

So I email all of the shifts I'm available for back to him, minus the weekends I have Hayleigh, and just wait to see what I get. I figured I wouldn't get that many this month, because of the overtime and holidays I've worked the past two months. Well, I was mistaken. Four overtime shifts including eve's tomorrow for a double, and a "holiday worked" shift on Martin Luther King Day! I'm honestly worried about tax time, as I'm not sure if I'll get a big tax refund check, or who knows, I may need to pay into the government seeing that I've probably worked enough overtime this past year to put me into another tax bracket... LMAO

Happy 2009 everyone!!

I recognized this as one of the video presentations at the Tam O'Shanter Experience, near the Robbie Burns Cottage in Alloway. I think it's pretty cool that everyone sings a Scottish song, every New Year's Eve...LOL



May you all have a great year, 10 times better than the last....