Memories…

Siting around reminiscing about old calls today…you know, the ones that really stick out in your mind. One of the many I have stored is back from my days as a “Melrose Misfit”. We ran an alarm at a facility that supplies, maintains and empties dumpsters. They have a large bay floor where they dump all their trucks so the garbage can be compacted and shipped off. Well, the call was around midnight and it was pitch dark. The ticket stated “fire alarm..water flow”. Well when we opened the door, it was like opening a flood gate only it wasn’t water running out… it was RATS! THOUSANDS of em. Ewwwwwww! Makes my skin crawl even today. The good news is that now that we are over here in “never never land” we don’t have to see much of that anymore. Even though we’re still in the city, so far; I only spotted 1 RAT and I found him just yesterday. I don’t know why but, for some reason; the “RAT” incident is stuck in my mind today. But hey, they’re everywhere…sometimes even in places where you’d never expect em. Anyhow, today’s our last before 4 day break. Kinda busy but ok. The morning started out with a trip down to the garage. Yea… I just love sitting down there out of service. I guess for some it’s almost like being back in kindergarten and going on a field trip but for me (especially for petty, minor BS or nothing at all)it can put lives at risk and wastes our department’s money and resources. The good news about today’s trip??? We weren’t broke after all and didn’t miss a run while being checked out. So we got back on the road and back to work. We were a man short today because Opie is still off and our local “Glow worms” aka Haz-mat team had a big drill out of town. Why do we call em “glow worms”? Well, they do play with all those nasty chemicals etc. plus…well they just look like a glow worm in their special little suits… See? Well, because of being a man down, we took a fill in from down at the “Deuce”. I gotta tell ya.. I love hearing a strong Brooklyn accent and Jim Mone aka “the Yank” has one. We also had another fill in of sorts in that we had a Medic student ride along. Kinda different from the norm today because our student works for our brothers out in the County. Here’s a shot of “Newman” I bet today was a lot different from his regular shifts in the County. He had to work with me for starters plus, we mowed the grass today. You see here in the city, WE mow our own grass. In the County, Parks and Rec come out and do it. Heck the County even pushes their snow in the winter..we get “West Va. backhoes”…SHOVELS (no offense Gherman) LOL. But hey, Newman jumped right in and never complained. Thanks for the good work today brother. DARN..there’s another RAT… a “cheese eating RAT” at that. What did I tell ya…they’re everywhere! Anyhow, we had yet another special guest today. Chris Price dropped in to update us on some local inspection work he’s doing in our 1st due. YES… Chris won his Grievance procedure and got his job back! Congratulations brother and welcome back! I mentioned we mowed the grass and after that, we did a little gardening and washed the rigs. The garden is looking really good…can’t wait for some of those fresh home…errrrrrr station grown tomatoes. The weather was beautiful but HOT so we flagged down the Deb’s Lemonade girl for some cool refreshments. We’ve caught a few runs, nothing major or overly exciting. I did get called “Doc Holiday” today which got me thinking of the movie Tombstone. Val Kilmer playing Doc is one of my favorite roles (2nd only to Robert Duval and Tommy Lee Jones in Lonesome Dove of course). Kurt Russell also did a bang up job as Wyatt. I can quote most of the movie but like everyone, I have my favorite scenes. When I get mad, this one always comes to mind…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0ndsXVaPwc]Here’s one of my favorite scenes of Doc as well…
http://www.youtube.com/get_player
Ok, enough cowboy movies stuff. To wrap things up here tonight I want to give a “shout out” to one of brothers over on that “other” coast. WAIT WAIT WAIT! “Shout out”? Hell, I’m about as redneck as they come. Let me give him a “Holler”! LOL. Anyway, it appears our west coast brothers did a little work today.. Schmoe has a
great Blog that I follow regularly. I have him linked over on the right side bar or check out todays post HERE. Trust me.. you be hooked! One of my favorite posts of his is from back in 2009. You gotta take the time to watch this video.

Would ya look at that!!! @#&%@!$%^*@$^#$##@* just where and when you least expect em…DAMN RATS.
That’s all folks.. we’re off on 4 day in the morning. See ya back here on Memorial Day for the dreaded Monday, Wednesday Friday cycle. Until then, you know what to do. Stay safe and in house. Oh yea..and look out for those RATS.
Captain Wines