Whew, that was a bad one!

Whew, what an evening we had tonight. Severe thunderstorms rolled through part of our area and the calls became quite overwhelming. Power lines were causing fires in trees, people were crashing their cars, transformers were exploding (no, not ones like the movie “Transformers”), trees were blown down and alarms were going off all over. At one time, we had over 40 calls in holding – which, when you pride yourself on less then an 8 minute response time, can be very frustrating.

People were angry, some cussed, some yelled, some hung up and called back to cuss and yell some more. I was stationed back in the Fire Pod and I have to tell you, I never felt so useless. Usually I know enough to take a deep breath and concentrate but tonight it all slipped out of control before I had a chance to do that.

I think it was the woman who lost her 2 yr old boy and thought he had fallen into the canal that set the tone for the rest of the calls. She found him a few minutes later, safe and sound, but it had been a bad call up until then. She was screaming and crying so hard that I had a hard time getting her to listen to me that in order to help him, she had to calm down and tell me the address. She was vacationing here so just finding that out was a huge production. I was so very thankful the kid was ok but I think the call made me jumpy which then made me nuts when the shit hit the fan.

There were more calls then any of us could handle and I’m suppose to pick up the rest of the groups slack. I had so many calls coming in that they had to help me plus dispatch the calls. It isn’t something they are happy about doing. We have an “emergency rule” where, once things get out of hand we don’t do our scripted emergency dispatch questions. We get what info we can and hang up. The supervisor, who was sitting on his ass doing nothing, didn’t put the emergency rule into effect until we were in the last throes of the storm. By then it was too late to do any good.

Though I do not consider myself a rebel by any means – and I wasn’t the only one in the Fire Pod doing this – I put the emergency rule into effect for myself long before he made it “official”. Hell, there were just too many calls and we were swamped. I told the supervisor afterwards, as did my buddies, that he had waited too long and we had invoked it ourselves. I’m sure we will hear about it but he should have been on top of what was happening rather then playing video games. It wasn’t like we didn’t send him messages saying we needed help – all he ignored or didn’t even check.

I’ve had two other days when it was hell like today was. I don’t look forward to brush fire season anymore or the severe storms down in South County. My house, by the way, didn’t even get enough rain to wet the street!!!

{sigh} I hope tomorrow isn’t like today.

Answer to my sisters done fall out

Let me give you the wonderful story to “My sister’s done fall out”

I got a call from a man – I’d say in his early 20’s. He said he needed an ambulance because his sister had done fall out.

I, being literal of course, asked what his sister had fallen out of?

He said “she didn’t fall out of anything – she done fall out on the driveway.”

I said “You said she fell out of something on the driveway?”

He said “No bitch, I told you my sister’s done fall out.”

Quite perplexed at this time – I told him I didn’t understand, was his sister injured? Had she fallen? What had happened?

I said “I’m sorry sir, I’m not understanding. You said your sister fell out of something on the driveway.”

After a few more explosive words that I dare not repeat here, he handed the phone to a woman who told me that:

HIS SISTER HAD FAINTED IN THE DRIVEWAY.

The “done fall out” meant, in his world anyway, that she had fallen out of consciousness. You can’t imagine how badly I wanted to tell them that it would have been a lot easier if he had just said, “My sister fainted in the driveway.”

Yep…the calls we get on 911…

I bought a Car!

I want to thank everyone who sent me emails and encouraged me to buy the car. My son is old enough to take care of himself and I have to look after my needs – you were all right about that.

It is so damn hard, you know? You see your child struggling and you want to jump in to make life right for them. But if you do that, then you aren’t letting them learn from their mistakes and pay the consequences. This year has been a real lesson in that area.

So I bought myself a 2005 Nissan Sentra that I just love. I test drove it today and filled out most of the paperwork. Have to finish up the paperwork on Friday and pickup the car. They are even giving me a full tank of gas! I know, they are making a lot of money on the deal so what is a tank of gas to them? Not much but it is a lot to me.

I’ve already been checking my work schedule to see what little day trips I can take in it in two weeks while I’m on vacation. I’m thinking the zoo for sure, Fort Myers to see my brother for sure – that is all I’ve come up with so far but I’m so looking forward to it.

Thank you again to everyone who encouraged me to keep pursuing a different car! Sometimes I get so caught up in what is going on with others that I forget to pamper myself now and then. We all need a little pampering now and then…more now then then though.