Dispatch

Today on my 12 hr shift I finished the book “Dispatch” by Bentley Little. I have read several other books of his that were better, more intriguing and just outside the edge of the realm of possibility leaving the person wondering “what if”. This book was not one of them.

Today’s book was far, very far, from his best work. It was slow and undeniably boring. More then once I was tempted to not finish it but I finally managed to trudge through to the last page. As an indicator of how bad it was – I put it down for two days – something I rarely ever do. Once I start a book I read as late as I need to get it finished the same day. If I put it away, then it failed to hold my interest or engage my imagination.

Sorry folks, this is another one for the “not recommend” heap. It is about a man who likes to write letters – has a gift for writing letters to enhance his own happiness even at the expense of others. On a whim, he could ruin lives and have people killed simply by sharpening his quill and writing a letter.

After awhile he realizes he is an evil person and unable to control the darkness he has let loose within his soul. Even after the death of his friends and his mom – he can’t stop writing letters that are designed to ruin the lives of others. He engineers the death of his father and literally kills someone else but still has to write, write, write.

May I just say again – the book was damn boring.

More Training

This afternoon my supervisor told me I was starting dispatch training in January. I’m ready and hope I get good instructors – in other words, patient ones. I think it will be interesting stuff and the new system should be up and running by then.

I haven’t worked on my worksheets lately because I worried I’d forget everything by the time I’m trained. Now that I know a time frame, I can start doing them again, studying more and drive south county.

Yes, I’m nervious but I also think it will be a nice change of scenery. Course, I’ll forever end up in the firepod but at least I’ll have an actual station to spread out at.

No, it doesn’t change my plan to move home to Iowa – I still plan to do that. I did get a note from an old friend up there who said the dispatch center is going to become like ours – where one place dispatches county, fire, law, and the university. That means they’ll have limited openings and all the current people will get the jobs so no 911 positions there for awhile.

Pet Peeve #12

Pet Peeve time again. I see no reason why grown people can’t pick up after themselves.

Today at work I went into the bathroom and there are used paper towels on the floor beside the garbage can. There is no way a person could not notice they dropped the towels on the floor. How can they, in good conscience, walk out of the restroom leaving them there?

Our building has no children and it happens to often to be an accident. It irks me to know end. I dry my hands, use the towel to wipe the top of the sink, and throw it in the garbage can provided right there by the sink. It isn’t difficult – anyone could do it…honest. I’m not superman or even super clean like my sister but I won’t let others pick up after me. It’s disgusting.

Blue Christmas

I’m not going to lie – I have the blues tonight. I usually get them starting around Halloween and keep them through the holidays. Each holiday is a little worse – Thanksgiving will be bad but Christmas will be worse. New Year’s Eve will be the light at the end of the tunnel.

Each year I think the holidays get me worse then the year before. Right now, Halloween is barely pass and I’m already as blue as I was at Thanksgiving this time last year.

We talk about Christmas decorations and who is giving what for presents this year at work. People talk about their families coming in from far away, how they’ll have a big dinner, etc. It all just makes me feel worse. I participate and smile – save the crying for when I’m alone.

This year I am determined to be moved back to Iowa before the next holiday season. Even so, this decision does little to relieve the blues now.

Crashing

We had a young man the other day who did a hit and run on a car at one intersection. He zoomed off leaving the other car crippled but the people inside alright.

Less then a mile from that accident, he lost control of his jeep. He went up into a driveway and rear ended a car sitting there, pushing it into the garage. He was thrown from the jeep and landed inside the backseat of the other car – he came through the roof.

Needless to say, we airlifted him to Tampa but I don’t think he was going to make it. He was severely injured. They believe he was drinking and driving – which accounts for why he didn’t stop at the first accident.

Today we had a motorcyclist who was going too fast, lost control of his motorcycle and skidded down the highway. We had to airlift him too and again, we don’t think he was going to make it. From the paramedics we learned that he had blood coming out his nose, mouth and ears…never a good sign. They believe he was also drinking and driving.

My son has been found guilty of drinking and driving twice now. I tell him all the time that it is not worth his life or the life of someone else. I think he finally got the message and has wised up. Now he takes cabs if he goes out on the town.

It scares me how many people do drink and drive. Back when I was dating Gary, we had a woman hit an car, which hit a car, which hit us. The woman was very drunk – was even bragging to the officers about how much she had had to drink that day. They figured out from the velocity in which she hit the first car that she had to be going 90 in a 35 mile zone. We were all lucky.

Maybe someday places will get wise and make their customers go through a field soberity test before letting them get behind the wheel. I know, it shouldn’t be up to the bars to assure their customers are using common sense but it would help save the lives of sober people who have to share the roadway.