back from Quaker Country

Actually, Lancaster was more Amish than Quaker, it seems. Anyhow, we really lucked out with weather. Sunny and mostly warm the whole time. On monday, we had a nice relaxing day, hanging out with the family in the morning, then to the Lancaster Brewery for lunch and off to Intercourse for some shopping/touristy stuff. I just can’t get over how beautiful that area is. Every house is on a hill and has a view, and every town is like a railroad model when viewed from afar. I suppose that’s not entirely coincidental.
Oh, I also did my first geocaching excursion.

lazy day

Spent yesterday wandering around downtown Philadelphia. We skipped the line for the LIberty Bell, but saw a few other interesting things… St. Joseph’s and St. Mary’s churches, Old Town, Betsy Ross House, Polish American Cultural Center (closed, unfortunately), and the Fireman’s Museum. Then we met Drew and Lisa and some friends at Dave and Busters for a night of video games and crowd-fighting. It’s impressive to wander around Philly and see the history of the country, even though it’s only a couple hundred years old.
Today we slept in until 9, went to Mass at 10:30, then came back and vegged out the classic John Cusack movie, “Better Off Dead”.
A few pics from yesterday’s adventures:
Me at the Polish American Cultural Center:

Marie at the Irish Immigrant Memorial at Penn’s Landing:

Me playing fireman at the Fire Hall Museum:

Marie near one of the tallships docked at Penn’s Landing:

Philly Cheesesteaks for lunch

Out in Lancaster, PA now. Marie and I spent the day driving yesterday and managed to make it in 9 hours (including a 1-hour) lunch break. Unfortunately, we ended up with a Hyundai Sonata instead of the Mazda 6 that we had requested from the rental agency. (At least we were smart enough not to take the Pontiac Sunfire that they tried to pawn off on us as the “same class of car”.) Ah well, the Sonata is not a bad car and it has a sunroof, which was a nice bonus.
Off to Philadel_phia this afternoon for some sightseeing and then to “Dave and Buster’s” to celebrate Drew’s birthday. I’ll be taking my digital camera, so I should have some pics to post later (or tomorrow).
Here’s some stuff for Dad:
GPS route log
GPS waypoints
GPS track log
Not sure how to import/display/use these, so you’re welcome to play with them.

Offroad

Since my knee surgery will take me off the road for a couple months, I applied to the (lack-of) communications center, which includes 911 call-taking, and fire and ambulance radio dispatch. I found out yesterday that they’ve accepted me, and I’ll start my orientation on March 25. It’ll be an interesting experience and change of perspective, since road crews have about as much love for dispatchers as junior high school students have for substitute teachers.

traditions

Finished my first batch of the golden nectar of the gods! No, not Sam Adams Boston Ale. Down-home, southeastern Michigan maple syrup! Got two pints of the stuff, and actually, I over-concentrated it. As soon as I took it off the stove and poured it into the mason jars, it started crystalizing. The only problem with it is that due to the smells and taste-tests, I’m hungry constantly.

too comfy

Marie and I went furniture shopping yesterday, starting at one end of the price spectrum (Ann Arbor ReUse Center) to the other (Tyner Furniture). I won’t mention how much I spent at either place, but suffice it to say that they were an order of magnitude difference. At the ReUse Center, we found a couple of “Oh! That’s cool!” items and picked them up… a nice solid end table, and an old-school wood stereo/turntable cabinet (with wrought-iron hinges!). At Tyner, I was shopping for a new couch and recliner. Let’s just say that when I found the right furniture, it was sort of a religious experience. I think that my credit card actually leapt out of my pocket and into the salesman’s hands. I can’t believe that I’m this excited over furniture… but it’s just so unbelievably comfortable!!!

Good thing Marie was there to help with picking out the fabric… I had no idea how many choices there are.

Here’s the recliner (different color though):

Soy Norte Americano.

Okay, I admit it. I thought it would be gross, but now I’m totally hooked on soymilk. It actually does taste good… same consistency and similar properties as milk. But it won’t spoil for months instead of days. And it doesn’t result in the side-effects that have made some people (in)famous.

asleep on the job

Well, I *thought* I was resting comfortably the other day when I took a nap in the ambulance while sitting at a coverage point. It took me until later in the day to realize that I had dreamed about the patient that we had just taken to the hospital. In my dream, when I suctioned out his tacheostomy site, I caused his lungs to collapse and ended up killing him. Kind of a freaky dream to have. I think it’s the first dream in which I caused harm to a patient.

Raise on up!

So back in the fall, I was promoted to senior paramedic, but the company has this strange policy of not paying employees as senior medics until they accept a full-time senior position. What this means for part-time folks is that you have to wait until the person who is next in line accepts a senior position. Thenm, you both get the pay raise. In my case, the person next in line has been unable to get a senior shift due to there not being any available. In the meantime, I’ve been working many many shifts with new and uncleared (from the training program) medics and lower-licensed (EMT-B and EMT-S) personnel (meaning that I have to do all of the calls that are ALS during any given shift.) Luckily and thankfully, the VP of Eastern Ops has decided that to bypass certain policy roadblocks and enable me to get my raise, he’d offer me a senior position, which I promptly declined.

Everyone wins. I keep the same flexibility of working part-time but with a significantly-improved pay scale (approx 20% increase), and the company gets… well… the same thing they’ve been getting.

Oh, and I think I’m going to apply to dispatch also.