YEEE HAAWwww… zzzzzzz..

My weekend was an tumultous alliance of adrenaline and narcolepsy. Worked 19 hours on saturday at the football game and afterwards. (But I got to stay in Ann Arbor all night, finally. Woo!) Went home for an early-morning nap and then back to work for 8 hours, then up to South Lyon to sleep for a few hours until I went on duty for a 24 at the station. Thankfully, the station shift proved to be nothing like the hell shift that I worked a couple weeks ago. I actually got a chance to get some reading, sleeping, and station chores done.

This senior medic business is a little stressful. I think that being responsible for everything that happens during my shift is making me paranoid about all the little things that I never used to worry about. Added to that is the fact that I’m now responsible for training and evaluating new and uncleared employees. I’m sure things will settle down as I adjust to it, but in a lot of ways, it’s like starting all over again.

Many, many thanks again to Mom and Dad for coming up on Friday to help with the house. The back room looks tons better and is noticeably less drafty. And the garage… I can walk through it! Wow. Lots more to be done, but it feels good to actually get some things accomplished.

The Funk Brothers

Just watched a documentary called, “Standing in the Shadows of Motown”. It’s been sitting on top of my TV for a good month now, but I just hadn’t found the time to sit down and watch it. Monday night, I tossed it in as I was eating dinner and checking email… my jaw hit the floor. When the movie was released, I had heard that it was about the musicians behind the Motown Sound. I never realized the volume of music or volume of talent that statement entailed. Yet again, I find out that I had no idea how much the city of Detroit has contributed to American culture.

Observations

This should probably be a continuing thread, but I’m not sure what order they’d go in until I got them all written down. Hmm… maybe I should invite other people to contribute to it. Anyhow, here’s the one for today:

Ever notice how telling a friend that things are going well with a girl is like walking into the ER and saying to the staff, “Boy… sure is quiet in here.” Both comments are likely to attract the attention of and subsequent audit by whatever deities control the universal distribution of good and bad luck.

Okay, so maybe the analogy is generated by a certain perspective, but you get the idea.

More deconstruction

More work on the house… tearing out someone else’s work. Seems a shame that someone initially invested a lot of effort to build up what I’m tearing down. Well, I guess they were happy with the job they did. I’m not quite so content. And I’ll completely understand if the next owner decides to tear out all the work that I’m doing right now.

Oh, note to self: In the future, remember to brush teeth prior to putting on dust mask. That musty smell is not JUST the smell of an 80 year-old house.

Promotion

I found out yesterday that I passed my promotion test/interview with HVA. I am now a senior paramedic.

Come to think of it, that’s kind of scary.

HHPPotD Part 2 – Retribution

Justice is served. This is the only time I have ever celebrated the work of the parking enforcement people. The car shown below was a habitual and particularly bothersome offender. It was obvious that the driver got to work early and intentionally took up two spots closest to the walkway and entrance. There’s being a clueless driver, and then there’s being a jerk. But I got to work today to see an addition to the vehicle… a ticket. Finally. I don’t like to gloat, but [nelson] “HAAA haaaa!” [/nelson]

F = m x Aspirin

So I spent most of the weekend beating the snot out of the 5 cubic yards of 23A crushed limestone that now lies spread over the walkway to my house. Turns out that rocks don’t really have sinuses or mucus membranes, hence no actual snot was produced. But it seems that rocks appear not to enjoy getting pounded and compressed very much. In fact, they appear to dislike it so much that they start pounding back with a viciousness very nearly, or exactly the same, as that which was imparted upon them. Actually, it isn’t as bad as it would seem. Rocks apparently aren’t very social creatures, so neighbors, friends, and associates of the particular rock taking (doing) the pounding are perfectly content to adopt a “lassez faire” policy, leaving the rock in question to fend for itself. Which it did. I was forced into a strategic retreat and a re-evaulation of my battle plan.

I think the conditions of the operation necessitate the use of more indirect maneuvers. I shall employ elements of stealth and subterfuge by retiring my primary weapons and exchanging them for what appears to all other eyes as a plate of rations, a bottle of beer, and a television remote control. Then I will wait patiently for my enemy to acknowledge the futility of resistance and arrange itself into a perfectly-level, perfectly-settled rectangle of the exact dimensions of 3′x36′.

HHPPotD

That would be the “Honorary Handicapped Parking Permit of the Day”. Bad parking seems like an epidemic around the Arbor Lakes Buildings, and in the Building 1/3 lots, the lot is always full… so it’s not like it’s easy to go and find another spot. Either through ineptitude or inconsideration, the winners of these awards have parked such that their vehicle occupies more than a single parking space. Here’s the first one:

Requiem for Tios

Alas, Tios has slipped from grace. Chips have gone from free to $1.50, any more than one cup of hot sauce is $0.50 each, free refills have disappeared as well as the competent waitstaff. Ah well, I will miss my tuesday tacos.

Eh, they were cold today anyhow.

And then there were three

Kevin and Sara decided to introduce their son at 16:49 this evening… about ten days early. Guess part of it’s our fault for poking and prodding the baby trying to get it to “perform” last night. Anyhow, cute kid… working on getting all the right shapes back in all the right places.
Oh, I suppose I should include a pic of dad, too.

UPDATE: After I posted this, they decided to give the kid a name: Mason