Stumbling Around The Writer's Block

Time Out In Time Part 2

2009-03-03T09:23:00.000-08:00

So with a shake and a whirl, our magnificent time machine settled down in an unknown corn field. The door dropped opened and as soon as the incomplete combustion gathering near the door had cleared, the three of us stepped into the day.

“Wow, it’s beautiful out here,” I breathe deep and take in the cool, clean fall air.

“It is,” Erik agreed, “but in all honesty, how do we know we’re not still back in Southwick?”

“Outta my way, Doorstop!” Mr. Ty bellows as he gives Erik a shove.
Erik says, “Oof,” and manages to be less in the way.

“We’re not going to see anything standing around here jaw bonin’.” Mr. Ty leads the charge and strides towards an open road, “Come on, the game’s up here.”

Just then a resonating crack of the bat rockets through the scene and the roar of the crowd can be heard. We are definitely not still in Southwick. I feel a chill roll up my spine and when I look at Erik, his eyes are really big.

“How freakin’ cool is this?” I squeal.

“I know,” he was giddy, “we’re going to meet Honus Wagner.”

“Meet?” Mr. Ty snipes, “Nobody said anything about meet. These are ball players and they’re busy playing ball. You get to stand to the side and watch and if that ain’t good enough for you then I got a smack up side the head that will make it fine.”

“Okay, no watch is good.” I mumble.

“Oh yah,” Erik adds, “watching is way more than we ever expected.”

“Good attitude.” Mr. Ty looks back for a second, “Who knows,you two might just turn out to be workable after all. God knows I can teach anybody anything as long as they ain’t already convinced they know it all.”

“We know nothing.” I’m quick to agree.

“Yes, nothing.” Erik sings.

“What’s with talking like a Kraut?” Mr. Ty is not amused.

“Oh nothing, I just naturally go there. Not sure why.”

“Yah and maybe I was too quick with the praise. God knows, if I have one fault it’s that I can be too quick with the praise.” Mr. Ty seems very serious and yet Erik and I must work hard to resist laughter.

Fortunately it got instantly easier when we turned a dog leg in the road and came upon the source of the bat cracks and crowd roars. Before us laid an imposing wood structure that rose out of the ground and leaned against the clouds. The air smelled of popcorn, leather and cigar smoke. Cheers and jeers intermingled and Erik and I found a new skip in our step.

“My God that’s beautiful.” I exclaim.

“Like the Thunderbolt of baseball stadiums.”

Being escorted by Mr. Ty meant we were able to skip the turnstiles and enter through the players’ door. No one seemed to notice our outdated garb as no one seemed eager to make eye contact with Mr. Ty or anyone he was near. Easily we zig zagged through the catacombs of the stadium until a square of bright light appeared. We were drawn like butter on a lobster.

“That’s the playing field, isn’t it?” I asked while pointing at the square of light.

“It sure is,” Mr. Ty stares ahead. It’s the only time his face has looked friendly during our whole adventure, “so why don’t you two tourist head out, grab a seat and wait for me. And try not to let her cause any trouble.” He accusingly points at me, “Dames ain’t really encouraged to cheer or hoot.”

“I’ll try to keep my hooting down to a minimum.”

“Now see, that’s just the attitude....” he starts.

But Erik interrupts, “No we’ll both keep the hooting down.” Mr. Ty and I exchange glares and Erik drags me by the arm to the square of bright light.

Unsure of where exactly to sit, we decide to mingle with the SRO crowd. As you can imagine, no matter where we stood the view was as amazing! We were, after all, watching the 1909 World Series.

“Hey, who are those guys over there?” I point to a contingent of straw hat wearing men.

“Not sure, why?”

“Because they seem sinister.”

“Sinister?”

“Yah sinister and angry and that’s just weird. I mean who comes to a baseball game and stays angry?”

“Not many unless...” Erik’s voice fades.

“Unless what?”

“Unless they’re losing a lot of money or something.”

“Huh?”

“Gamblers,” Erik explains, “this is 1909. The game is loaded with them.”

“What are you talking about? The Black Sox scandal doesn’t happen for another 10 years.”

“I know but the Black Sox scandal was such a small part of the gambling problem. The World Series’ games weren’t the only ones that got thrown. Games got thrown everyday. Not too mention guys giving away meaningless battles for incentive clauses.”

“You lost me with that.”

“You know what an incentive clause is, right?”

“Sure, players get money for certain statistical achievements.”

“Right, only in the early part of the century owners held a monopoly on players and could pay them crap. To make it seem a little less like crap they’d throw in these unattainable incentive clauses. Players couldn’t complain because the money was offered but they knew they’d be kept from reaching most of them. Like managers would bench a guy who was a few hits short or skip a pitcher who was a few strikeouts away.”

“Nice.”

“To get around it, players would feed each other opportunities to attain the milestones needed for payouts.”

“So pitchers would give guys meatball pitches to slam.”

“And fielders would hold up on making plays. Not too mention guys giving away at bats to give pitchers wins.”

“So it sounds like the early statistics of the game can’t really be trusted.”

“Probably not. Even at the time, a lot of guys would keep their own stats to counter management’s bogus numbers. So who knows what the early numbers really were.”

“All righty then, it’s time to go.” Mr. Ty reappears on the concourse and there’s something hurried in his approach, “Come on, let’s go!”

“We’re leaving?” I ask with a confused look on my face, “But it’s only the seventh inning. I never leave a ballgame early, even in the rain.”

“Well let’s put it this way, I’m leaving. You wanna stay, you’re more than welcome.”

“No, 1909 does not seem like my kind of time.”

“The women’s rights issues?” Eric queries.

“No, no NESN.”

“Ah, yes. Well than we better run because Ty’s gone.”

“And it looks like that’s why.” I point down the concourse at a gang of suspendered men raging their way towards us.

“Holy crap they’re ugly.”

“And big. Come on, let’s boogie.”

Erik and I take off and blast our way out of the stadium. Once we hit the wide open dirt road though, we realize we may not exactly know our way back to the time machine. A bit of panic rolls through us.

“We can not get left behind in 1909. I’m Irish. This was not a good time for my people.”

“You’re worried about being Irish?” Erik looks confused, “What about the whole gay thing?”

“Oh that’s not even an issue.”

“It’s not?”

“No, there were no gay people in 1909. We weren’t invented until the sixties.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“THERE THEY ARE!!!” the big ugly men scream, “GET ‘EM!!!”

“Okay, well this is no time for a Stonehenge reunion,” Erik yells, “let’s go.”

“Stonewall and I’m right behind you!!!”

Time Out In Time

2009-02-12T09:31:00.000-08:00

Okay, here it is. After long agonizing hours of pondering what to entertain you with, I've fallen back on two tried and true staples: Baseball and Time Travel. See if you can discern the subtler themes.

“Okay, What are we going to call this little adventure?” I ask as we sit down to pen our travels.
“I don’t know,” my partner Erik adds, “but change the font. I like the one that looks like typewriting better.”
“Are you kidding?”
“No, why would I be?”
“Right,” I question, “when would you ever be kidding? Okay, is this the one you’re looking for?”
“No, the one that looks like typewriting. Like the screenwriters use.” Erik swats at an imaginary bug, “Get this crap off me. I don’t like it,” he changes his voice to do a M*A*S*H joke, “I don’t like it at all.”
“Okay Corporal Captain, how’s this?”
“Can’t see enough. Give me a larger sample size.”
“Nice, getting all Sabermetric on me.”
“Okay, yah, that’s it. That’s the one I like, now I feel like Julius and Philip Epstein. They wrote Casablanca.”
“Great segway as they’re also the uncles of Red Sox brainchild Theo Epstein and here we are after all telling a baseball story.”
“Good follow but I do believe what we’re doing here is so much more than just a baseball story. After all, what is the poetry of baseball if it is not that the game itself mimics life? It’s always so much more than what it appears to be at first glance.”
“Okay, you’re getting a little philosophical for a roofer.”
“I’m also a second baseman.”
“Well that explains it better. So what is our bigger story here?”
“Oh I don’t think we should give that away right from the start.”
“Leave something for the dramatic question?”
“Exactly.”
“So let’s try this. This is a story about two people named Erik and Carney, who found a time machine and took it for a spin. How did they find a time machine, you ask? Well it happened one day when....”
“Whoa whoa whoa,” Erik interrupts, “what are you doing?”
“What, I’m telling our story. We agreed I’d narrate and you’d provide comic undertone.”
“And impersonations.”
“We didn’t agree on that.”
“But we need to agree on this, we can’t tell people how we found the time machine. Remember, because then we’d have to kill them?”
“Oh yah, we don’t want to have to do that.”
“No, too messy.”
“In any font. Okay, so what’s important then is this...Somehow you and me...uhhhh......”
“Came upon.”
“Yes, came upon a time machine and well, no one from this modern time comes across a time machine and doesn’t hop in it for a spin.”
“Michael J Fox ruined us in so many ways.” Erik seems forlorn, “We are a lost generation.”
“Anyways, there we stood, Erik the roofer, a modern day pirate if you will and...”
"Whoa whoa whoa again,” Erik holds up his hands in protest, “whoa.”
“What?” My patience grows thin with interruptions.
“I got no problem being a pirate but I need to make this clear, I am not wearing a puffy shirt.”
“Did anybody say anything about wearing a puffy shirt?”
“No but even the hint of having to wear a puffy shirt definitely warrants proactive behavior.”
“Fair enough but trust me when I say, I am not the puffy shirt type,” pause for dramatic effect, “at all.”
“Okay then, carry on.”
“So there we were, the pirate and the medic, standing on the precipice...”
“Is precipice another word for linoleum because I believe that’s what the floor was actually made of?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
“So there we were, standing on the precipice of time, staring it coldly in the eyes and laughing at its limitations. We for the moment were immortal and our travels merely subtext.”
“Wow, you’ve really committed to a tone there. Are you going to be able to sustain that for the whole piece?”
“No actually, that took a lot out of me.”
“Well feel free to dial it back some. We are talking to a baseball crowd after all. You know, the people pleased with the mastery of ‘hey batter-batter.’”
“Yah you’re right. How’s this...”

So there we were somewhere in Southwick where Erik and I had come across a time machine. Generally being of the belief of “what the hell could go wrong?” we jumped in and began our journey.
“Maybe it’s one of those gizmos where you have to push in two buttons at a time to start it.” I offer.
“I’d believe that if I could find two buttons. These are more like wing nuts.”
“Hmmm, you know, maybe this is a sign. I’ve always lived by the credo that you should never start something you don’t know how to stop.”
“Well worse comes to worse we still got this big red panic button over here.”
“Boy OSHA’s every where, huh?” I search for an owner’s manual in the glove box, “Hey look here. There’s a switch marked TECH SUPPORT.”
“Well all right. Switch it on.”
“You got it.” PHERRRERRRRERRRRR WHIRRRRRRRRLLLLLLLL SHAKEKEKE SHAKEEKAKKEEKE PHERRRERRRRERRRRR WHIRRRRRRRRLLLLLLLL

“WHOA”
“YOU’D THINK TECH SUPPORT WOULD BE A LITTLE LESS DRAMATIC.”
“WHAT????”
“A LITTLE LESS DRAMATIC.”
“YOU’RE RIGHT, A NEW PNEUMATIC PROBABLY WOULD HELP.”

“Hey!!!” A gruff voice proclaims, “Who dare wake me from my restful slumber?!?!?!?”
Erik and I look at each other as we ask in unison, “The Great and Wonderful Oz?”
“No idiots, Ty fucking Cobb. But you two morons can call me Mr. Ty.”
“Mr. Ty?” I may have giggled inappropriately.
“Yah, that’s right,” he snapped, “Mr. Ty.” He turns to Erik, “So I take it that it was your bright idea to bring the skirt?”
“The skirt?” Erik looks at me and laughs, “Oh no, she’s no skirt. She’s more of a...”
“Tough broad.”
“Yes,” Erik points into the air, “she’s a tough broad.”
“Thanks, that’s so much nicer than skirt.”

“Yah yah honey. Could you just go get us some coffee?” I blankly stare. “Hmmm, yah I heard times had changed. Something too about the president being an actual ni...”
“Nigerian?” Erik quickly offers, “No, I think he’s from Illinois actually.” And in an pale effort to continue the diversion he adds, “So about the wizzenstang, is ours supposed to be connected to the thing a ma bob?”
“What? Spit it out kid, what is it you really need?”
“Tech support,” I answer, “we flipped the switch for tech support. We’d like to take a little trip through time.”
“Oh so you’re looking for a getaway day. Sure, that’s what I’m here for.” Mr. Ty begins fiddling with wing nuts, “But there’s something you nitwits need to know about this baby. This is not your ordinary time machine.”
“You mean there’s such thing as an ordinary time machine?”
“Yah,” I agree with Erik, “they all seem pretty special to me.”
“No, some are different special. Like this one. It only takes you through baseball time so no trying to go back to meet Napoleon or Caesar.”
“Or Cleopatra?” I drool. Erik looks confused, “Come on, Wendie Malick proves Egyptian chicks are hot.”
“Yah I’ll give you that.”
“Anyways,” Mr. Ty interrupts, “where do you wanna go?”
“I don’t know.” I look at Erik, “Where do you wanna go?”
“I don’t know. There’s so many good choices.”
“Seriously, I always wanted to see Jimmie Foxx hit.”
“Or Dizzy Dean pitch.”
“Or Willie May’s catch.”
“Don Larsen’s perfect game.”
“Oh my god, how are we going to chose?”
“Listen to you two,” Mr. Ty cuffs our ears. “I haven’t seen such indecision since watching DiMaggio pick out shoes for a date with Marilyn.” We each say ow.
“You still whining about your ears?”
“No,” I explain, “that was harsh, railing on Joe D.”
“Blah.” He waves me off and gets to wing nut whirling. “And I’m not waiting for you two mental midgets to make up your minds. I’m picking destination one, so just sit back and shut up.”
“So where are we going?”
“World Series, 1909. The Flying Dutchman still owes me twenty bucks.”
“Wow,” I calculate, “that’s gotta be like a hundred bucks, modern money.”
“No, it’s like twenty bucks. He borrowed it last week.”
“Holy crap time machines mess with world economics.”
“Shhh, don’t tell anyone.” Mr. Ty winks, “We got everyone convinced that it’s the damn liberal’s fault. Now hold on. The ride gets bumpy from here.”
PHERRRERRRRERRRRR WHIRRRRRRRRLLLLLLLL SHAKEKEKE SHAKEEKAKKEEKE PHERRRERRRRERRRRR WHIRRRRRRRRLLLLLLLL

“WHOA”
“THIS IS GOING TO BE ONE CRAZY RIDE.”
“WHAT????”
“CRAZY RIDE.”
“YAH, I DIDN’T KNOW HE HAD A LAZY EYE.”

TO BE CONTINUED

2009-01-16T19:04:00.000-08:00

Want to feel powerful?
Use kind words to lift the spirits of others

Just a thought...

2009-01-15T06:23:00.000-08:00

Consider everyday
that you are living in the glory days
of your future.

So I think I got it now...

2009-01-14T15:10:00.000-08:00

Apparently the trick to this whole blogging thing is to do it a lot. Some even say daily. I don't know, that just seems like excess to me. Besides, coming up with fresh material every day would be tantamount to generating a forced rant. "Forced rant?" you ask and I answer, "Yes, forced rant." And while most of my friends would tell you that I could pull it off, even I recognize that a high percentage of my rants sound great in-studio (metaphor for my brain) but not quite so interesting once you hear them.

The other thing is, I do write every day and late into most nights. But my ideas come in the form of fiction and turn into longer stories. I just can't imagine anyone wants to experience the tedious process of me developing a story over the course of days. Imagine getting hooked on a character or developing plot line only to have it unceremoniously cut out of your life because of "artistic rights of decision". Isn't network television cruel enough? Must blogs also rip out our hearts and punish them for the lone sin of caring too soon?

See, now this is starting to sound too much like a rant. Can't have that. Moving along, I've decided to challenge myself creatively with this blog stuff. I'm going to develop a short story and instead of useless daily rants I'm going to offer less frequent posts that will tell a story. And I'm really going to go for the cliff hangers . Be prepared to be dazzled and say, "Whoa!" at least once.

EMT or Paramedic:What's The Difference

2008-08-11T16:34:00.000-07:00

So it’s a busy Saturday afternoon, you have the kids piled in the back of the SUV and a stack of errands to do before you get home to make dinner. The traffic on Boston Road is slow and tedious and nothing seems to be going well for you. All of a sudden you hear the wail of a siren and see a burst of bright lights in your mirror. You pull to the right side of the road and stop while the Wilbraham Fire Department Medic 2 flies by you. As you watch the white box with the red stripe go by you wonder to yourself, “What exactly do they do in the back of that thing?”

First off, thank you for pulling to the right and STOPPING. It’s dangerous and difficult enough to drive an emergency vehicle without having to jockey for position with every vehicle that fails to move to the right and stop. It’s very frustrating as you try to deal with vehicles that don’t see you, don’t hear you or just plain ignore you. Cars pull out of driveways and side streets without looking. People pull over but don’t stop, forcing you to drive along side them while you try to avoid oncoming traffic. That’s why everywhere but on a divided highway, traffic coming at an emergency vehicle is also required to pull over and STOP. Another good tip to keep in mind, if everyone in front of you is pulling to the right and stopping, it’s probably not so you can go by. Check your rearview mirror and make sure an emergency vehicle is not waiting to pass.

Now back to the original question, what exactly do they do in the back of that thing?

Wilbraham Fire Department is located at 2770 Boston Road. Not only do we provide fire prevention, suppression and education but also we, like many area fire departments, provide our citizens with emergency medical services (EMS). In other words, we run the ambulance. Some local cities and towns are provided EMS by privately owned and operated ambulance services. For instance, American Medical Response (AMR) covers Springfield and Holyoke. Private service providers offer very competent and timely coverage; however there is a certain personal touch that goes along with a fire based service in your own community.

Ambulances have a history that date back to Civil War times. We’ve come a very long way from creaky wagons and bumpy horse trails. Today’s EMS provider is not simply “an ambulance driver”. Many months and sometimes years of training go into making emergency medical technicians (EMT) and paramedics.

There are three levels of training for EMS personnel. Everybody begins as an EMT-Basic. EMT Basics attend a three-month program to be taught basic life support or BLS. Locally the program is available through Springfield College, STCC and Human Services Training Consultants out of West Springfield. The course is designed to make you proficient in CPR, use of the semi automatic heart defibrillator and airway training. You learn bleeding and shock management, splinting, oxygen and oxygen delivery devices, and cervical neck and spine immobilization. Newly introduced skills include use of epi-pens for allergic reactions, administering aspirin for chest pain, assisting a patient to use their own nitroglycerine or asthma inhalers and the paramedic assist program. While learning these skills, students also become familiar with basic anatomy, physiology and medical terminology so that the EMT is able to accurately and concisely give reports to nurses and doctors. Ten hours observation in the Emergency Room rounds out your training. Students not only must pass the classroom with a 70 average but also need to pass a written and practical exam administered by the Commonwealth. Students then become certified as emergency medical technicians

An option after becoming comfortable as a Basic is to go back to college to become an EMT-Intermediate. There are a couple of EMT-I courses offered locally, most notably at Springfield College and through Mary Lane Hospital.
Intermediates begin their training with a semester of classroom lecture and hands on skills training. More in depth training is provided on the anatomy and physiology of the airway and respiration. Students are trained to use a laryngoscope and endotracheal intubations (like on ER when they “tube” the patient) as an option for airway management. Much detail is focused on to understand the pathophysiology of shock and how to optimally manage it using oxygen and IV therapy. Intermediates are drilled to become proficient at patient assessment. Many times illnesses or injuries are identified in the field (our word for prehospital) but they’re out of the scope of our training to resolve. Then it becomes our job to accurately report to the receiving nurses and doctors what we’ve found. This can greatly decrease the time between the patient becoming sick or injured and receiving definitive care at the hospital. The second part to becoming an EMT Intermediate is to spend a set number of hours at Baystate or Mercy Hospital. Your time is spent in the ER assessing patients and starting IV’s under the watchful eyes of the nurses, PA’s and doctors. The rest of the time is extremely challenging as you head to the operating room to intubate surgical patients under the tutelage of experienced anesthesiologist.

Not everyone chooses to become an EMT Intermediate. Some folks stay at the Basic level and are quite comfortable at that level for their career. Some brave souls however, choose to move on to paramedic school and the challenges it presents. Locally, Springfield College offers a two-year program. Paramedic students are refreshed in their basic skills and taught IV, advanced airway and patient assessment techniques similar to those that are taught in Intermediate school. During the first semester students begin to become acquainted with pharmacology. Not only are medications learned but also their uses, contraindications and how they work with the physiology of the patient. Semester one flows right into the summer session. That’s when students begin learning Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS). In depth study of the anatomy and physiology of the cardiac and respiratory systems goes hand in hand with learning how to use newly acquired pharmacology knowledge. By the end of the summer session, students’ ability to identify and treat cardiac, respiratory and stroke patients is second nature. Third semester is a continuous review of classroom and practical skills while learning new subjects such as, special needs of the geriatric and pediatric patient, overdoses and poisonings, psychology and many other necessary subjects that round out the professional paramedic.

A semester is spent at an approved facility, most likely Baystate Health Systems, doing a series of clinical rotations. ICU, CCU, psych, ER, Pedi ER, OR, Infants & Toddlers, OB/GYN all provide the student the opportunity to learn necessary skills while being monitored by experienced nurses, doctors and Physician Assistants. Another semester is spent riding with more experienced paramedics, to begin putting all the knowledge gathered to good use for patients.

So the next time you’re pulled to the side of the road, stopped, and one of our town’s ambulances cruises by you, think to yourself, “what’s going on in there?” Is a heart patient being monitored with 12 lead EKGs, being given medication to treat a heart attack? Is an accident patient being stabilized through splinting, airway management and pain control medications? Is a child receiving asthma treatments to not only help them breathe easier, but receiving one on one TLC from an EMT, EMT-I or Paramedic who is well trained and calmly reassuring both child and patient.

One thing is for sure, in Wilbraham, it isn’t just an ambulance driver whose only hope is to drive fast to the emergency room. In Wilbraham, it’s one of the well-trained, professional firefighters who are cross-trained to deal with any emergency.

As always, Acting Chief Fran Nothe and the members of the Wilbraham Fire Department are there for you in fire safety and good health.

Front Page

2008-08-11T15:17:00.000-07:00

At the end of 2003 I was finishing my fifth year as a firefighter/paramedic with the Wilbraham Fire Department. I was always bugging the Chief for extra projects to keep me busy. One day he came to me and asked me to write a fire safety article for the local newspaper, The Hampden/Wilbraham Times. If I did a good job I could expect to write a new one every week.
I was thrilled. Not only was it added responsibility but it was a chance to productively combine my two loves, writing and emergency services work. I also knew I would have the chance to share important messages with a broad audience. My first article was the very dry but necessary: Woodstoves and Chimneys Need Special Attention This Time of Year. Oh yah, quite the page turner. I'd like to think I successfully imparted a wise message but I fear I may have just provided extra fuel to more fires buring in unsafe flues. I won't blame my material though. There had to be a way to get people crazy for home safety lectures. If Dana Carvey can sell choppin' broccoli, I could bring fire education to life.

I'll admit the urge to get scandalous reared its amoral head. I considered presenting my lessons as tales of horror gone terribly wrong. "Your child just cut his leg off but YOU NEVER TOOK THE TIME TO MAKE A FIRST AID KIT!" But I resisted. I would find a way to sell my snake oil without actually making anybody drink it.

I'm happy to say more lively articles followed as I steered readers through the maze of home oxygen use, how to bike and swim safely and my personal favorite: "My House Is On Fire-Now What?"

Every Thursday I would trek down to Town Hall to pick up a copy of the new Times and flip through really fast to see which page my article had landed on. A good week meant I stopped flipping around page 15. An average week meant I made it to 26+. A bad week would have me flipping through the paper twice because the first time I missed it posted above the classifieds.
Imagine my surprise when one Sunny afternoon in May 2004 I picked up my Thursday copy and didn't have to flip at all. I was on the front page! Other than the fact thatI ran up and down the corridors of Town Hall screaming, "I made the front freakin' page!" I was speechless.

So here's the article as originally printed. Is it truly front page worthy? I don't know, it really may have just been a slow news week. What I do know is that for seven days I was on page one and they can't take that away from me! I saw my byline and article everywhere I went in town that week. It was in the pharmacy, all the restaurants, the library, on the desk of the guys who work at the dump and in the can at the firehouse. I had arrived!

Cowboy in the City foreword

2008-08-09T14:16:00.000-07:00

Before the beginning…

…and probably at the end too…

It was late…and it was getting later…My life was careening down narrow windy roads completely in the dark and constructed by blind corners…Careening is a subjective motion…You can feel it standing still if you’re dizzy...But when you feign control careening is fun...
...sitting next to the Almighty Kelly O’Brien it was intense….
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This is the story of a 24 y/o GWF who grew up wanting to be Johnnie or Roy who then grew up and met Kelly O’Brien… who was way cooler than Johnnie or Roy could have ever hoped to be… and suddenly it all made sense…There is no feeling more liberating than the realization that one has stumbled upon their destiny… Now I’m scared to think where else I could have turned up…There are so many fine lines in life…friend-lover…lord-devil…blah blah blah…and you can end up in the strangest of places for a 16th of a degree’s difference in fate’s line…I was a 16th of a degree away from a life as doomed whiskey tango… Now I don’t believe there is anywhere else to be…anywhere else would not be as true... I thought I was applying for a job…what I got was a new perspective…I began to see life for what it isn’t….I saw it from the bottom up…I liked the view…In fact...I have grown afraid that they might try to take it away from me and if they did I don’t know what I’d do…
...ours is not a profession…it is a religion...

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...and I think all religions are basically the same…They all teach that the world sucks and it’s because evil kicks good’s ass…The only chance good has is the Gods…The Gods who have the right to say anything they want because whatever they want is right...

...they are Gods and that’s what Gods do...

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I believe in the God of EMS…he is a he right now…but Kelly O’Brien is giving him a good run for his money… I’m able to believe in the God of EMS because I have seen him in action… This is a god who can be fair... sometimes he just chooses to be a bastard…However…fair is fair and at least he doesn’t care if you call him a bastard when he deserves it…

…I don’t know how Kelly will feel about being called a bitch…^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The God of EMS operates on certain rules...I share them as I figure them out or as they are shared with me…only a few are allowed to the inner sanctum…Ariel taught me my first rule…be careful what you wish for…because you will get it...Like if you wish for a code because you’re bored you’ll get a pedicode…and for some strange reason looking at a dead kid and knowing you wished for it kinda sucks...Ariel also explains that there’s a special Angel for drunks...kids and EMTs…Sometimes I think Ariel is my Angel…I mean with her by my side I have carried a lot of drunks…cried with a lot of kids and drank with a lot of EMTs...

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Ours is a religion passed through stories told well…you are taught respect…respect for yourself…respect for your patients…most importantly respect for learning…One reason we share the rules as we figure them out is because nobody knows all the rules yet…maybe collectively we can come up with a complete set…Dark nights are the best time to learn...Sit next to the almighty Kelly O’Brien in florescent truck stops…under the neon glow of the light bar...and listen to her as the stories pour out…They tell our history…a history loaded with heroes…leaders...goats and devils…

All religions have a book that explains the rules…the book also outlines punishment for failure to comply…Some people might think regional protocols are our bible…but they’re not…we have no such book… because no one can tell you how to feel holding a dead baby…sometimes it just gets to you and no one holds it against you if you go home and stay there...So like any good religion…guilt is all the punishment we ever need...

...bless me Hoppy for I have sinned…

So now I’m going to tell you some stories...parables if you will...and this is how they came to be... I listened to all their stories…I lived a good portion of them myself…I paid attention to the details…I remembered how everything felt… Everything you read is true…it happened to somebody…if you can feel it you know how we felt…

...we’re just people too…^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It’s scary when you realize that somewhere along the line you sold your soul to the devil…We all heard the story and we all know how it ends…you enjoy the promised ride and then get pissed because the ride doesn’t last forever …yet we fall for it every time…Sometimes when I’m really enjoying some sick thing I get to work with I wonder “...why am I having so much fun…how did I get lucky enough to be here...” …I always forget the part about how much it’s going to cost…Some kids sell their soul to get backstage at a rock concert…I sold mine to get behind the tape on crime scenes…to approach the bench for the Commonwealth and to witness autopsies with homicide detectives…

....and the chance to work with Kelly O’Brien…

Looking Back

2008-08-09T14:11:00.000-07:00

Once I was the talk of town
And people came from all around
Saying, "Today we'll see her."

Now I'm all alone, standing in line,
Nothing to do but play with time,
Hoping someone remembers.

Once it was worth it but now it's vain.
It's like being lost in the rain,
All wet with no where to go.
Some say, "Well that's show biz.
Sorry kid, that's just the way it is."
Sorry is one word I know.

As a kid I dreamt so muchOf being a star,
big time and such.
But when push came to shove

All I was left with
Was a long list of "if's"
And "maybe I should have's..."

God Bless America The American Dream vs. American Industry

2008-08-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

Imagine you're floating along on a calm, balmy ocean day. Your head is thrown back on the comfy edge of the inner tube and your feet dangle lazily into the warm ocean surf. Your warm, floating security makes you oblivious to the fact that you are totally on your own and hundreds of miles from the nearest life station. Who cares, you're doing just fine. Suddenly, a helicopter hovers above you in the clouds, painting shadows on your body where there was once pure sunshine. A loud crisp voice falls on you from the loud speakers battling above the whap of the blades lacerating the clouds. "You are in danger!" it informs, "A swarming school of SHARKS is headed your way! You must leave the water to ensure your safety!" Your body whirls into action. You struggle to remain on your inner tube. Blood vessels dilate under the surge of epinephrine and your brain becomes engorged with blood. Thoughts of impending demise have caused your cerebrum to swell against the walls of your skull. A life rope drops in front of you. You can no longer hear. You're blind and unable to focus your eyes. An inner strength comes over you and you instinctively cling to the rope. As it pulls you vertically and perpendicular to the horizon you look down to see the swarming school of sharks passing below your feet. Twenty feet below your feet now separates you from a horrifying, painful death. Thankful for your security you kiss the rope and inwardly reward each member of the team that saved you. You're flying free when you notice you're dropping vertically and at an increasing speed. The line's been cut. The helicopter is flying away from you. You hit the water with an excruciating slap. Your left leg breaks in two places and your right leg snaps in three. Blood spills into the water and the savagely swarming school of sharks turns its frenzied rage on you. The copter safely lands on shore. It is thankful it didn't let you drag them down to death. They never knew your name. It was an impersonalized experience for them; it was the most terrifying nightmare of your now ended life. True, as things stood, you would have died anyways. The helicopter made no difference. But what if you were to find out the helicopter invited the sharks to begin with. In fact, they were working together and had the whole plan concocted to get you. Oh well, too bad for you. "You should have stayed in the pond, back floater!"

American Dream versus blah blah blah

2008-08-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

In May of 1996 I graduated from Holyoke Community College with an associate’s degree in Science. I have never used that degree to find myself meaningful employment but yet I still treasure it as one of the most enlightening experiences of my life.

As I highlight in Cowboy in the City, I came to my adult years as a pretty naive, suburban chick. My ideals and morals were shaped by a conservative upbringing that left me constricted in view. Thank goodness for education! Sitting in classrooms, participating in discussions led by the motivated and progressive professors of HCC challenged me to open my mind. Slowly, new ways of seeing things came into focus. Most importantly, I realized that the large problems in the world have been around forever and will never be solved with quick judgments and clichés.This piece was the opening to a term paper I wrote for Urban Sociology, a course that teaches how cities are formed and an overview of the of the socio-economic layering that results. It's where I learned the concept of vertical disintegration I quote in "Cowboy." It's also where I developed the bitter taste for corporate politics that soon ruled our lives. The characters in "Cowboy" have to deal with their small local ambulance company being bought by a large international corporation who forces them to merge with their heated city rivals. I learned it and then I lived it. In keeping with good form, then I wrote about it!

What is most special to me about this piece though, was the comments the professor wrote on it when he corrected it, "Did you make this up or take it from some source? If the first, well done, if the latter, you should have given the author credit!"Wow, can you believe it; I wrote something so good he didn't even believe it was mine!

Looking Back

2008-08-09T10:23:00.000-07:00

Now before you get all harsh and judgmental on my wee bit of prose you need to know one important fact, I wrote it when I was fifteen years old. Not sure where my worldly, looking back on it perspective came from but I did read a lot of Dickens as a child.

It is also noteworthy to add that this was my first published work. Long before the days of the Internet, when you actually had to read trade journals to understand a business, I used my allowance to subscribe to every publishing related magazine available. One day a card came in the mail with the invitation to enter a poetry contest and win the chance to be published! I was thrilled. There was no entry fee and I could submit as many works of poetry as I wanted. I had many in my collection to choose from as I had spent that entire summer banging out poems left and right on the raggedy old typewriter I had picked up at a tag sale for $15. In the end I decided I wanted to pick just one so as to make the strongest statement of my young literary career.

Later I was heartbroken to find out the contest was nothing more than a way to get a bunch of people to buy a book with a bunch of other people's poems surrounding their one. I remember my father coldly laying out the harsh facts to me. However, his pragmatism didn't stop me from begging him to buy me a copy of the anthology. Maybe it was a scam but that didn't change the fact that for the first time I could see my words in black and white and on a page I could bookmark for easy future reference!

Door open...proceed with purpose!

2008-08-09T09:31:00.000-07:00

I plan to post samples of my writing. You will find them to be diverse in style and form and they span a lifetime of my creation. I also want to share stories with you about the people and experiences that went in to writing them.

My first entry is the foreword to my recently completed novel, "Cowboy in the City." I became an EMT-Basic in 1992 and started working for a small local ambulance company. The hours were long and tiring, the pay sucked and nobody ever appreciated a thing you did for them and yet I have never had a better job-ever!The best part is I wasn't alone. I found an entire culture of workers who shared this upside down version of the world and excelled in managing its tragedies and storylines. I made friends with some of the most complete human beings you'll ever meet and I am honored to be able to tell their stories to you.

"Cowboy in the City" is currently unpublished. I am early in the process of finding a publishing agent. Similar to when I first climbed into an ambulance equipped with training but zero experience, I find myself at the foot of a tall mountain. I would appreciate any guidance or information you feel comfortable sharing with me about the process.

Door's open...proceed with purpose

2008-08-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

Hello World! It's been awhile since I updated. I won't bore you with the reasons why. I had the privilege of attending the "Springfield College 20 year Paramedic Class Reunion" last week. It was crazy to stand in a room filled with so many of the characters I chose to write my novel about. I took the chance to fill everyone in on the book's creation and potential publication. I'm glad to say everybody seemed excited that someone had taken the time to document that block of our history.
To the new people in EMS, the way it is now is the way it's always been. That's not true though and hands down the old way was better!Watching the slide show reminded me of how cool those early days were. Not only was our profession young and just getting off the ground, but we were too! And most of the photos in the slide show accurately portrayed the youthful confidence that we exuded. Sometimes our individual egos made for interesting "conversations" but over all, after time has passed and judged us, we all share the thought that we were part of something special.
I spent this passed Saturday with an attorney interested in being my publishing agent. His number one question was, "why did you write the book?" That's easy! The people and times I wrote about were by far the greatest I've known my whole life. I don't want to get stuck in time and exist solely for my "Glory Days" (boy, the older I get the more that song bugs me) but I also believe those days should not be forgotten. We weren't perfect and I think my book amply points that out, but we were willing to do some pretty crappy things no one else wanted to go near. And we learned to do them with skill, compassion and professionalism. A lot of cool stuff goes on in the back of that ambulance trying to pass you! My friends, my heroes, are the ones who got this great big giant puppy off the ground. I came in a little later and rode on established coat tails. I believe writing my book is a sign of respect and awe for them. Maybe you could just pull to the right and let them go by!