Category: work

219!

I had an incredibly hard call at work today. The type of call that reminds me how brutal we can be as a species. If you know me, you know I am an optimistic person. Always have been. I live to see the best in people. It is calls like today’s that shake my faith in that belief.

219 is our code for stabbing victim. A woman called telling me her boyfriend had a psychotic break and stabbed her. What I didn’t know is that he had stabbed her 5 times in the chest and side. I normally don’t take calls very hard as I have a pretty thick skin. Being in the biz, you develop a knack for shrugging it off as a defense mechanism.

That said, there is a time between sending the help and when the help arrives that you are left in a sort of limbo zone. This zone can be a few seconds or up to a minute depending on what else is going on. It is in these moments when the helplessness overwhelms you…knowing help is on the way and powerless to do anything until they arrive. Moments when the caller on the line lays all their hopes on you to save their life.

Today was such a call. This woman was crying out to me to not let her die. I stayed calm and did my best to keep her calm and reassure her help was on the way. She was brave under the circumstances, remained relatively calm, and stayed w/me the whole time. The entire call lasted 10 minutes but that 10 minutes was like 10 hours. Then to hear the police struggle w/her deranged boyfriend in the background only aggrevated a very intense situation.

No matter how hardened I get from taking these types of calls, I find I can’t shut all the emotions out. I’ll probably nevery hear from her again. But, I don’t need to. I can sleep good tonight knowing I did the best I could w/o fail. If she dies, my conscience remains clear.

Job Hunting?

Today is the last straw! I’m updatinig my resume and starting to look for new work. I love my job but the BS is so deep I’m getting out before I lose it.

I’m so upset at the moment, I could spit nails. W/o rehashing it at this moment, it was significant enough to make me tell a manager to go to hell right in front of everyone.

So if you know anyone who needs a exec. level assistant or project manager, drop me a line!

Work Hell

I love my job but the constant petty harassment from our management staff is taking its toll on me. I joined the Union to help reform the problem but I just don’t know if I can last that long. The constant daily petty harassment is slowly nawing away my stamina.

We are entrusted with answering emergency life and death calls on a daily basis yet somehow we can’t be trusted for anything else. Management for our building loves to try and control our social behaviors with every rule imagineable. They actively seek out people for the tiniest infraction regardless of whether said person is actually plugged in doing their job. And don’t get me wrong, we need rules to keep order and professionalism. However, when someone is doing their job, LEAVE THEM ALONE!

For anyone not in the know, I work for the Police/Fire dept under th City & County. That means I’m a civil servant. That also means I can’t be terminated by the whim of a managed. I can criticize all I want. Not to mention, if they fired me, I’d park my trailer house (or someone’s) right in front and have every news station in the 9 bay area counties broadcasting my drama on the 6:00 news.

But I’m not bitter.

Random Tidbits

Lets see, not much to report today. Mostly random crap that I feel worth mentioning.

First, Republic of T had a great post regarding the Shiavo case and the Democrats total lack of a voice during the whole process. While I’m normally of the mindset that the “christian-not-right” drive more people to my side than against with all their madness, it would be nice if more than a few Dems. would grow a spine and voice an opinion once and awhile. As I’m writing this, I am thinking originally the Democrats probably thought it was a non-issue and the fact that the republicans latched onto it w/such fervor caught them completely by surprise. As a result, the Dems. are caught w/their jaw open staring in total disbelief at the sheer ignorance of the republican party. Well, thats my hope anyway.

The BCC contest this past Thursday went well. We got 3 more really good contestants. *I’ll have photos of the contest posted by Sunday on the BCC site. There are two more preliminaries to go before the finals so any of you locals who are having thoughts of making a go of it, get off your duff and get down to The Powerhouse next Thursday. You can even download an application to compete here.

TH’s family is in town for the weekend so I won’t get any solo time w/him until at least Monday. I know it is selfish to want him all to myself but at least someone I know has good family ties.

roblog is doing a bit better in his drama as of late. I’m very happy to hear that. I’m trying to squeeze in another lunch in w/him so we can catch up.

I think I discovered a way to create a static html/php page using a plugin I found for WordPress. WTF you say? Static just means its one page instead of several. It would make it much easier for me to copy/past code into the layout of the new template. Thats is kind of low priority right now but I promise I’ll eventually get to it.

I’ve been hitting the gym sporadically but I’m almost back into my normal routine. I’ve lost some strength all over but not as much as I had feared. I got a nice pump today from my chest workout and that put me in a good mood. *G* The eye candy today was better than usual as well.

I was released on the fire side at work which means I can work solo over there now. *We are in the process of taking over dispatching from the Fire Dept.* The down side to that means I’ll be back on the PD side Monday and no more getting off early.

I think thats about it. No deep thoughts today. Just sort in the moment.

Blech Reloaded

I’m still feeling very icky. I thought I was doing better and then last night I had a low grade fever and super sore throat to go w/the coughing. Ugggh! I called the doc and they plan to squeeze me in tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, my voice hasn’t completely come back yet. I’m not going to work today either. Maybe giving the ole voice box a break will do the trick.

The domain is still in flux. Sometime between now and tomorrow it is supposed to be completed. Today would be perfect as I’m off and have time to kill. Daytime TV is sooo overrated. 😛

Double Ugh!

I’m pulling a 16 hour shift today. Two 4 hour sessions w/the first starting promptly at 7:00am and then my regular 8 hour shift. I am beat! The first to teach the incoming academy class and the second for my CPR recertification.

I didn’t really plan it that way. I signed up back when I still had Fridays off. It didn’t really hit me that I was working 16 full hours until I got to work this morning. Technically, I’m not allowed to work more than 12 but since I’m spanning several shifts, no one noticed. *g*

I’m still icky but not coughing quite as much today. I’m hoping I’m back on the mend. I’m sure my long hours today aren’t helping at all. I hate Hate HATE being sick. Can you say CRANKY!?

Ugh! / Ramlings

I’m miserable sick today. I probably shouldn’t have come in to work but I’m here now. I’m in fire training and they have a particularly snotty supervisor on the overlapping day shift. She got her fill of me today after she incorrectly gave me a brief nasal toned speech on an error she thought I committed. I think it surprised her as I am usually very polite and jovial. She’ll think twice before she uses that tone w/me next time though. [1]I say that now, I’m sure she’ll whine to one my sup’s who will have a “talk” w/me. . . whatever

I got a follow up from the clan today. The funeral went over well and no one made an ass of themselves. That was a total surprise. However, Aunt Holy-Roller did make the funeral after all. She was ganghawled by the whole family for her attitude and pissy remarks in the email to my brother. Apparently, word got out she was playing goody two shoes and they weren’t having it. I’m led to believe she burst into tears at the wake after the umpteenth family member gave her an ear full. Gave me a nice warm fuzzy feeling.

So, I’m left w/my sorrow and anger right now. I’m super cranky today but managing to hang in there.

A super huge THANK YOU to everyone who sent their thoughts, prayers, and kind words about my father. I am forever grateful for it. Being someone who has never had any close family ties I’m sincerely touched by the support of strangers and friends alike.

References

References
↑1 I say that now, I’m sure she’ll whine to one my sup’s who will have a “talk” w/me. . . whatever

Missing Blog

My apologies I’ve kinda been neglecting the blog this week. Been in a so/so mood since getting back from TX. Probably just need to recharge my batteries.

I’m looking forward to meeting Brat tomorrow. This will be our first in-the-flesh meeting so I’m all excited. He was one of my first blog buddies when I finally ventured into blogging last year. He sounds like he has a busy weekend lined up so I hope he manages to squeeze me in.

Been a bit busy this week as well. Monday & Tuesday are a bit of a blur. I think I was on auto-pilot. Wednesday, was I worked a short day. I’ve started Phase IV of Fire Training. (WTF you say?) San Francisco has a unique agency. When you call 911 for Police/Fire/EMS, the person who answers can help you. We don’t transfer you off to anyone else. We are one of a very few agencies w/the universal call-taker model. However, agencies all over the country are flocking to our Comm center to check it out. We took over Fire/EMS call taking 2 years ago. The last phase (phase IV) is taking over the Fire/EMS dispatch side of things. I’ve been detailed for the last two days. The bad part is I had to switch from evenings to mornings for the classroom part of the training. My body hasn’t been very happy about that. Hasn’t added to my mood one bit.

This is my first sat/sun off and I’m sooo looking forward to it! I finally get to have a semblance of a social life again. Wahooo!

Steady Decline

I was right in the middle of a patting myself on the back for being elected Union Treasurer and Steward at work when the phone rang. Talk about a mood killer. Apparently, daddy-o has taken another turn for the worse. I guess my brothers aren’t giving me all of the info on his condition. Somehow, its gone from just having cancer in his hip to having cancer in his hip, abdomen, and prostate. I was none to happy to discover all the new info this late in the game. My father has gone back to not knowing where he is. Both of my brothers think he is in the last days and urging me to hurry home.

Well, the flight is booked for Thursday. No thanks to my so called friend George, at twice the cost. I had to max out two credit cards. UGH! Shame on me for depending on someone else I guess. George works for an airline and had offered to let me use one of his buddy passes so I’d have more flexibility on dates. Well here it is the week before and he keeps blowing me off.

So rather than call him yet again to firm up, I booked the tickets myself.