A new day

Calls have picked up for us. House fires seem to be occurring more often. This makes me realize that I could use done cardio. Not that I can't work... but if I'm going to work a bottle, swap out, take a drink, and then run right back in....I should do a little more activity. I have the curse of wanting to make sure things get done the way they're supposed to. I find myself running back in when I really should be outside cooling off. Maybe I should remember that I'm not 18 anymore. 

I'm all about bringing new people in as long as they're here to participate. The more people we have to work with, the better we will be. We are starting to see new members come in, some of them are female. I'm all for female firefighters. With proper training, they can become very valuable assets on the fire ground. Some would be pessimistic about females in the fire station, because of bad incidents in the past, but I tend to end up attracting crazy chicks even when I'm not at the fire station. I doubt it's even because I'm a fireman. I've been looking at my job there and what I actually do. I realize that I'm one of the only ones in my position that will take the initiative to help someone learn something new or conduct training at off times. As an officer, you're looked up to as a leader. The things you do or don't do determine what kind of leader you are. These actions can help or hurt you, you have to decide. 

I'm no stranger to being thrown into a situation I've never been in before or having to fight a fire alone. I can remember an evening in Alabama where I used to live. The Fd was dispatched to an abandoned mobile home on fire on the side of a road. Since nobody responded, I decided it was my duty to go take care of it, even though I was supposed to be going to dinner with my mom and fiancé at the time. Since I had not yet been cleared to drive the engine there, I took the brush truck. I figured that if I needed more water or a bigger truck, i could always call for mutual aid. I ultimately put the fire out by myself, but was back out there later that night. I'm pretty sure someone kept setting it. Same department a few weeks later, I responded to a house fire on the engine. Shortly after leaving the station, one of the newer firefighters realized that he was missing his gloves and couldn't make entry. The newly appointed lieutenant quickly chimed in "hope you can pump the truck!", to which he replied no. "Better see If you can borrow some gloves from somebody, cause I'm going in!". Really dude? "I'll pump the truck" I said with some discontent. Everyone else on the engine either didn't know how or didn't want to because they wanted to fight the fire. Jumping into this was in the best interest of the situation. Up until then, I had never pumped a truck on a house fire before. I would quickly get a crash course in pump operation by getting my ass handed to me with levers to pull, gauges to watch, lights to pay attention to, the house to keep an eye on, and my radio to listen to. I got a little overwhelmed, but held it together and after learning some new things, successfully pumped the truck on my first serious incident. 

This past weekend, I responded to a forest fire. I decided to respond the engine since I was aware of the area and how long it would take us to get up there. Forest fires in that area can grow quick. It wasn't long after I arrived that I was thrown into command so the other guys could go put out a fire. Okay! Doesn't bother me! It quickly occurred to me that we wouldn't be able to catch this one. Luckily, I had already called for the forestry department. I knew that it would catch a good patch of fuel and take off. I couldn't be more right, because not long after that thought passed through my mind, it did just that. I then began directing units to other areas for structural protection. No houses were lost, no property was lost, and no one got hurt. I would have to say that this incident went well under my command, which surprised me. I must say, with each passing call, I get better at doing the officer side of this. 

Sometimes we are given situations that we must direct under pressure. How we react to being under pressure determines factors in leadership. Some people can handle the stress and control, some people can't. These people are usually okay with having little to no responsibility. Your real leaders will rise to the top, even the unrecognized ones. As leaders, we have to be able to recognize upcoming leadership and be a light on their path. These new leaders will be our right hands when we are wearing the white helmet and they will replace us when it's time to put down the bunker gear. These guys and girls are the next generation of firefighters. 

Not on home field

I was recently asked to work a shift at another station in another part of the county. I accepted since I was available, could use the money, and was familiar with the area. I didn't mind the shift at all. We ran a couple of calls and even had a house fire. Not having anyone around to talk to was a bummer, but I always seem to get by. I even got to try a burger joint that I had been wanting to try since they opened. I would say that I was pleased with my 24 hours. 

Being there quickly reminded me how fortunate I am that my department has the participation that it does, with or without our requirements. When you're one of 4 people on a fire scene...you find yourself doing even more multi tasking. Thankfully, the fire supervisors actually enjoy running calls and doing a little working here and there. They were a welcomed hand that day. 

I would have to say that, even though I enjoyed my shift and some new scenery, I quickly realized that I wasn't on home field. I had no clue where anything was in the station, where to shower, where to sleep, or even what more was expected out of me other than what I already knew. It was like starting a new job where you work alone all the time or going to a new school. I knew hardly anyone there. I checked all my trucks, ran a couple calls, and spent the rest of the time wandering around aimlessly while doing little odd jobs to keep me awake and busy. I guess what bothered me most was that I was more unprepared than I thought. I had more questions than I had answers for, and I had quite a few answers. Maybe it's time I did a little more learning. 

I've been realizing more lately that I'm trying to juggle so many things at once In my personal, professional, and department lives altogether. I've tried to plan for so many things with such little time that I end up rolling things over to the next day. This causes more suffering in my personal life than anything. My priorities are still in line, but there's not much room left to relax. No rest for the weary I guess, or maybe it's just to keep me moving and active. Either way, all things cease when those tone drop! 

My beach chick is back, yet again. Only this time, it doesn't seem permenant. I have, however, gotten more information and truth now than I ever have since asking myself all these questions. In a nutshell, she's a woman and women are crazy. She wants everything and at the same time, has no clue what she wants or when she wants it. I'm just gonna keep doing what I'm doing and if it happens, it happens. 

The fact of life is, you're never going to know everything. There will always be room to learn and make improvements. You're also going to notice that nothing ever goes accordingly to plan, something is gonna get jacked up. What's important is how you deal with it. Sometimes you can take what you're given and roll with it. Things will work out somehow, it's not going to be all bad all the time. 

Have faith, and keep fighting the good fight. 

Winding down

In my particular department, we have a required minimum of response to calls that we have to meet. When you look at a requirement such as this, everyone tends to automatically think of the negative aspects. They think about making requirements of volunteers and about how it seems more like work than a hobby. When you look at it from an officer's standpoint, this ensures that enough personnel respond to emergencies at any given time. Those that argue that requiring us to have a minimum standard will say that this will deter us from wanting to volunteer. I feel this to be false. I'm going to run calls whether or not I have a requirement. I did it when I was the only person working a fire, and I'll do it all the same with help. 

My department is testing various participation methods this year to give the department a first had look of different options. I can already see that not may ppl are as dedicated as a few of us are, myself included. Maybe it's because I enjoy it so much an that I may have found my passion. I've never really understood completely, but for some reason, I've always made the protection and safety of my community a priority. Since the age of 18, I've always been ready to go at the drop of a hat. Ready to pull someone from a mangled car or man the hose on a house fire. Some of my proudest moments were tearing down the street in a fire truck on my way to a call. These days, everyone has gotten a little more safety conscious. In the eyes of safety, this is a good thing. 

In the interest of a positive image and public information, we created a Facebook page. I figure that most everyone uses Facebook anyway, it should be one of the easiest ways to get information out, people in, and generate support for the department. Our calls have went down lately. I figured we would be running ourselves ragged before it was all over with, but as it turns out, it wasn't all that bad. It would seem that the tensions we've had have subsided...for now. Back to normalish operations. We have hit pretty hard on our preplans this month. We are hoping to have every business preplanned before the end of the year. Time to go searching every nook and cranny. 

The volunteers have had a little more responsibility dumped on them due to some events. You can already tell who is up to the task of handling responsibility and who is not. It's nothing to frown upon, not everyone is up to the task. This is a point that leaders are realized. These men and women step up to challenges and take point amongst a team of their peers. Everyone gets into this business for different reasons. Some get into it for fun, some for education and experience, and some for novelty. When you find a person that is here for all the right reasons combined, you find the potential for leadership. 

Things won't always stay the same way. In this business, you have to be able to roll with the punches dealt to you at a moments notice. Your training and knowledge can be put to the test at the drop of a hat. Keep up on your training and remain at the ready. 

Keep fighting the good fight. 

Stability

Calls are starting to pick up. Where averaging anywhere from 3 to 5 or 6 calls a day on a good day, areawide. Since I bought my pick up truck, I haven't had the complete opportunity to install all the lights that I had purchased after I bought my truck. My intention was to hide many of my lights as possible to give my truck a sort of undercover look. Keeping with this intention and making sure all of the wiring is done as professionally as possible have proven to be quite a task working alone. This project has taken me roughly 2 1/2 weeks to complete due to my work schedule with both jobs, but I'm finally finished.

It seems that not only Congress and the Senate can divide a unity, but when your administration and the county governments are beginning to really clash, You begin to question which one is going to win and what outcome may derive from it. Me, personally, I've dealt with one hostile takeover in my "career" already, I don't really want to have to deal with another one. Watching the battle royale go down between my administration and the County administration is kind of like watching a debate between Republicans and Democrats. You know that the two sides are going to dig their nails in until the other one gives, both are gonna stay really pissed off, and until things are resolved...it's only going to get bad for your people. Personally, I see it as a relationship. Even though it's simply a professional business relationship, there are still two sides to the argument that need to come to a desired ending in favor of the people. With any relationship, there's always some sort of sacrifice to be made, I think that a compromise on both ends would be ideal in this situation to come to a happy medium so that we can all get back to doing our jobs. 

Thinking back on something that happened this weekend made me remember a story of a call I went on a few years ago. It was in the late evening hours on a weekday, My girlfriend at the time and I were returning from somewhere we had gone down the road. We were getting ready for bed when I realized that my radio had been off the entire time it took us to walk from the truck to the apartment. I immediately turned it on, just knowing that there was a call I had missed and that everyone was returning to the station. Quite the contrary, in fact. My department had been called to a house fire and the central end of the area that we occupied (The larger portion of what our area is now). They had not yet arrived on scene, so I had a working fire that I was able to go to. Getting out of city limits, when you can't run lights, is a pain in the ass. The fire didn't consume too much of the house, but the heat damage that was done to the inside was enough to make it  uninhabitable for the rest of the night at least.  Conducting overhaul on this house prove to be a difficult task because of the materials that the walls were made out of. The person who had renovated this house placed sheet rock over the existing plywood walls on the interior. This was made quite apparent of the ceiling as well when one of the firefighters nearly popped his shoulder out of place trying to pull ceiling down. The floor, however, wasn't as structurally sound as the walls and ceiling were. This was found out the hard way. 

I was helping out with overhaul, which was going about as well as a snail race in the winter. Someone had already made a nice hole in the floor near the front door because of the aging material and high heat of the fire that had already been put out. We were told, as we were coming in, to avoid the hole that had already been made. We listened. The next thing I know, I am waist deep in the floor looking up at my other two firemen that I had brought in with me...wondering how the hell I got there. No big deal though, I wasn't hurt and neither was anyone else. I'm guessing that one of the firemen heard the wood break behind him and realized that I had fallen through floor, because he turned around and frantically came over to me almost hollering "are you okay are you okay?"  Yeah, dude, I'm fine... chill, just help me the hell out of the floor. You could tell that he hadn't been in the fire service all that long from his reaction. Had that been anyone else that I normally worked with, they would've had to pick themselves up off the floor and quit laughing before they were able to help me out. 

This past weekend, we responded to a medical call near my house. Everything was going like it pretty much normally goes on a medical call where the patient can walk to the ambulance on their own. I positioned myself outside, on the porch, in order to assist the paramedic with his escort of the patient to stretcher. I felt part of the porch give under my weight when I stepped in between two of the porch frame boards. Figuring that it would give even more to add weight to the already aged wood, I took a step sideways to keep so much weight from one certain area. Escorted by the paramedic, the patient stepped out onto the porch, heading for the stretcher. 2 steps from the front door, I felt confident that the porch itself was going to hold up to the weight, at least for the short time that we were going to be on it. I was wrong. Without warning, the half of the porch on my end separated from the house. Keep in mind, we are about 5 feet off the ground. My side of the porch dropped about a foot and a half, hanging on by a thread at the other end. In a situation like that, you can't really prepare yourself to take evasive action unless you hear the wood break from under you beforehand. You just have to roll with the punches and pray to God that the ground is soft. 

When it looks like things are taking a turn for the worse in your organization, you must remain a team. Without teamwork, we may not be able to complete the objectives as effectively as we would if we were operating normally. Teamwork is key in the fire service. You have to know beyond a shadow of the doubt that the man that you is going to have your back. Keep this in mind when things seem to be going downhill for your organization, or for a particular set of firefighters inside the organization. Look at it like that porch. If built right, if things are held together tight enough, the structure will be sound against weight. If the structure begins to lose its integrity, if things begin to separate....the structure will collapse under enough weight. Just as that porch caved under ours. 

Until next time, Keep fighting the good fight. 

-Lt Will

Humanity

The world today is nowhere near what it used to be. Our society is far from a model one. Sometimes, things happen that compel people to give from their hearts and pockets. A sincerely wonderful gesture for someone who may have lost everything. 

Sometimes, people are put in extraordinary situation and are able to prevail. Last night, we were called to a home on the southern end of our area or a possible house fire. I was the first to arrive on the scene. My first sight was what appeared to be ten feet of flames coming from the roof. I knew, already, that this would be no easy job. 

The fire spread rapidly to enough of the house that an inferior attack was not a good idea. We set up fire crews at the front door, rear, and side of the house to contain the spread and knock down the now heavy flames. Once those were knocked down, we were able to go in and cool the hot spots inside to keep the fire from restarting. This all took us 3 hours. 

I had heard, while on scene, that a man had passed by and saw the fire. He stopped and beat on the doors and windows until he was able to get a man and child out of the house. This all happened right before I drove up. Things like this have a tendency to renew your faith in humanity. Had this man waited another minute, these two may not be alive today. This man saved the life of a father and son, a true hero. There still are good people in this world. Good people of the world, keep fighting the good fight. 

Lt Will-

Memory

Every time I watch the end of Ladder 49, Backdraft, or attend the funeral of someone I know (firefighter or not) I always somehow return to the thought of my own funeral. The questions of "Who will be there?", "What stories will they tell of me?", "Will I have left behind a lasting memory?"

Where it's probably not a goo thought to have, it really doesn't bother me to ponder these questions. I can only hope that I'll be able to look down and see the support from firemen that I've met along the way as well as family and friends. I can only hope that stories and laughter will be shared rather than tears. But that hopes to be a ways away. 

One thing you don't want to do in this line of service, concerning family, is leave things undone. You want peace to be made, loving words to be said, and faith in all those who cared about you unquestioned. Your family and friends should never have to wonder whether you cared for them. To this day, we still tell stories of our past chief. How he used to show up on calls early in the morning with his tshirt and forestry pants. We were convinced that he always slept with those by his bed. We tell stories of how we would be summoned into his office cause we had done something dumb, or tell stories of how much he preached about safe driving and be the first one to scratch a truck or put it in a ditch. All fond memories, all laughs. That's how I want my memory to be. 

Fighting the good fight

We all deal with our emotions in our own way. Some of us are very outward with our emotions, swearing at the heavens or crying into our pillows. Some of us, however, are very inward. We keep things to ourselves for as long as the walls will hold. If we are lucky, the emotions will subside and things will return to normal. The one real time that I had a problem was when I tried to explain to my daughter that her little cousin wouldn't be coming home. Trying to choke up those words proved to be a very difficult task. That's probably the only time that I was glad to have her mother there. To this day, I haven't shed a single tear from the loss of my nephew, I'm not exactly sure why. I figure it may be because I shed enough over the years and my tank is dry. To be honest, his passing didn't bother me that much. I can only guess that it was because I never got the chance to really know him, I had only really gotten to see him once for about ten minutes because of the hours in the NICU. What bothered me the most was to see the hurt inside my sister. Nothing bothered me more than to see my family hurting. There were days thereafter where I would have moments of complete heartbreak. Then, it was like a calm came over me, and I would go about what I was doing. Members of the Fire Department were very supportive to my sister and brother in law while the officers on my shift at work were very supportive to me. It was this support that made me feel even more like "family". On the day of the funeral and even in the days after, I found comfort in my sister's smile, I felt a weight lift off of my shoulders when she laughed, and I saw the weight lift off of hers when she would try to make others laugh too.

Through all of this, I think we've all come a little closer to god. We've found a church that we really like and fits our personalities very well. My sister has now become very involved with the March of Dimes and their fundraisers, which helps her a lot. Through this organization, she has gained even more support from those around her and have inspired those with similar stories to get involved as well. 

December 1st, I took office as Lieutenant. I had waited for this for 9 long years. In that time, I had some pretty crummy leaders. Some were a lot better than others, but some were just bad. I made a promise that I would be the best officer I could be. I would help others achieve their goals, take time to train others on what they were interested in, be available whenever possible, and go the extra mile. It's not like I have a life anyway. My medical classes had been completed before the new year, but with all that was going on and the fact that it was going to cost me $100 to get my national registry and state license, it had to be put on hold. In early February, I completed and passed my national registry test and gained my state EMS license. I was now able to answer medical calls in my county. I had been running medical calls on the fire truck for years, watching how everything goes, but now I was able to respond from home. I am rather glad that I got all that practice years ago, I went into this new field with experience and knowledge ready to take things on. Even today, I'm learning new things and new ways to help the ambulance crews that run with us. It's an awesome feeling to know that you've learned a new skill in order to better aid the people you work for and with. 

Being a rural fire officer in small department was easy back in the day. Your job was to be the leader inside and on incidents. You were the leader on scene if none of the other officers were there. These days, a fire officer is not only the leader on the hose line and interior team, but he serves in an administrative function as well. In my department, we have 4 battalions that each have a captain and 2 lieutenants. Your lieutenant is your first officer contact, he is your company leader. He takes care of the problems you may have with things that are going on, hands out directives and punishment from superior officers, and (in our case) keeps up with your participation. Some officers even have a responsibility inside the department such as maintenance, inventory, training, and so on.  Being an operational leader only is almost not an option anymore, you must also put in work and extra time for the department to run smoothly depending on the size of your department. 

Every volunteer firefighter knows....you could be sitting at home watching TV, eating dinner, or sound asleep looking forward to your day off tomorrow when, out of nowhere, the tone fires off and someones bad night just turned into your passion. This particular night, I don't remember what I was doing, but I remember that it was ten at night and I had just finished eating not long ago. Just about ready to turn in for the night, the tones roll. It sound like a typical medical call or maybe a fire alarm at one of the hotels or apartments at first.....then the dispatcher says "commercial structure fire".  Wait, WHAT?? Commercial buildings can be bad. They are designed and built different than a house, so there is way more to be mindful of. There is also no telling what may be inside the building. Fortunately for us, this was a restaurant. Had it been the Waffle House, I'm sure a lot of the guys would have been crying. Since command consisted of myself and 2 other lieutenants (because the battalion chiefs wanted to play), we divided the responsibility into ops and accountability. I took the front side of the building, directing a team of highly educated firemen to perform minor tasks. My partner directed roof operations and kept track of my progress. Command, in any variation, can be stressful, but can also give you a feeling of reward. 

The beach chick was peeking around again by then. I knew that she seemed right for me, but every time it felt like we were getting somewhere, I would be an idiot and go after something else that looked good. The more she seemed to come around, the more I would realize it. I had came upon a couple of other opportunities that proved to be bad choices at the time, which I was able to avoid. When you live where I do, people get creative about how they burn things. I once ran a mobile home fire that the man had set intentionally in order to burn away everything that wasn't metal...he went to jail for that. It also seems like people pick the day that the wind is blowing 40 miles an hour to burn their limbs and branches that fell off their tree on the last storm, then wonder how it could have ever gotten that far out of hand. Kids, they do it for fun. I'll bet if I threw their xbox in the fire, they wouldn't light any more. One of the strangest ones so far was a woods fire one afternoon. This old man decided that he wanted to burn an old, dead tree in his yard but did not want to cut it down and cut it up....so he lit it standing up. Maybe it would have went better had the wind not been blowing at all. We were able to stop the fire in the woods from getting further out of hand, but needed to stop the source before another fire started. 60 gallons of water later, we decided that this tree fire wasn't going out so easily. Instead of using the farm equipment the old man had, he decides he is going to cut this tree down....while its on fire. You, my friend, are what keeps paramedics employed. We actually called an ambulance for this guy in case the tree fell on him. Luckily, the tree came down without incident and we were able to put it completely out, but that was definitely one for the books. 

For as much as women like to complain about the men that they date, some of them will lie their ass off when they find a good one. For me, they were all from the same county. It seemed like almost every woman I found from the county just north of me had flat out lied to me about some of the most important things, things that could NOT be overlooked. It almost makes it impossible to trust people when you re handed lies like these. It wasn't just those girls either, it seemed to be quite a few of them that I was interested in. Maybe I just like picking the wrong ones. In my 22 months at the police department, I had grown to love the guys I worked with. We were quite a good element. I had also grown to hate my job. Essentially, I was one person doing the job of 5 people...all the time. Fault seemed to fall on us when something went wrong, even though our leaders saw fit to pawn responsibilities on us during day shift. I had decided enough was enough. I was tired of running myself ragged while constantly being promised that help was coming, I was tired of admin having problems with us but not willing to fix them, and I was tired of being told that my job was at stake. One of the hardest things I have ever done at work was to tell my supervisor, a guy I would rather work with over anyone else, that I was leaving. What made me feel a ton better was that he told me I was the best officer he had ever had working in the jail for him and that the department would be losing a great asset. It made me feel good that I had done my job well enough that I earned those compliments from him. In early April of 13, I left my job at the jail and went back to my previous department in dispatch. The money was better and I was looking at more opportunity and less worry. 

In the fire service, you often hear about things going on in other parts of the country. It sucks knowing that others in your position are working their ass off only to lose the battle before winning the war. The closer things are to home, the more they can have an impact on you. Mid April, 2013, a fertilizer plant in a small Texas town called 911 for help with a fire in their plant. Responding crews had no idea what was about to happen. Shortly after the initial attack on the fire at the West Fertilizer plant in West, Tx, the fire spread rapidly into storage areas inside the plant. The chemicals inside these storage areas, after a period of time, ignited, causing a chain reaction that led to an explosion that leveled some homes and caused countless damage to others in the area. A middle school, nursing home, and apartments also fell victim to the explosion. All of which were occupied at the time. When I listen to the radio traffic from this, even today, hearing the words "firefighter down" doesn't come easy to my ears. It's never something you want to hear on your radio...ever. 

At 27 years old, father of a 6 year old, and looking for a good woman...I needed to get a bigger truck. Rolling around in a small body Chevy was getting cramped. I despise loan notes, but in order for my daughter to have more room and to fit the possibility of more children, I decided to upgrade to a full size crew cab truck. My small pickup also had some issues with it that made me fixing it almost pointless. Going from a small, gas saving truck to a gas drinking full size will hit you hard in the wallet. Everything is more expensive; tires, gas, toys, etc. It also seems to promote marriage proposals. That's all fine and good when its just a joke with someone I'm friends with. When it comes as a serious sentence from someone I've wanted for years and then turns into "you would be good for me" and "I want you in my life"....its a whole new ball game. Like the person I am, I gave in and let myself believe that she was actually going to be mine this time. I couldn't have been more wrong....I was let down again. 

In my area, we are offered part time work with the FD when the paid firemen need time off. This allows us to make extra money and we get to do the same thing we would normally be doing for free. I had finally put in the paperwork to be able to do this in order to help out the paid guys at my department. In these experiences, I learned that being a paid fireman may actually be what I want to do. My mind still isn't made up. We are often requested by organizations and businesses to perform minor public relations details for children. We  usually jump at this request if the personnel is available. When offered, we try and sit down and have a meal with the people we do these things for. It warms our hearts to have the support of our community and to know that we are making a difference in these lives every day.

In the fire service, you sometimes attend funerals of people you don't even know. You do this to support the brothers that you do know and to pay respects to a lost brother. This was the third time in almost 10 years that I've heard "the last call", and it seems to have gotten easier for me. Maybe this is from hardening my outward emotions so much that I barely have any inward, or that I just did not know the guy nor had any emotion invested in the situation. Don't get me wrong, I was sympathetic, I guess I've just been broken so many times that emotion doesn't come easy for me....until it comes to a woman. On this note, beach chick was back again. This time, she came up to my work, in a rainstorm, to tell me that she wanted us to be together. OK, enough procrastination, I was doing this once and for all. I had to know if we were going to be good for each other or not. Things were great, her and I were working slowly, but coming along nicely. I felt like things were finally falling into place, I wanted no one but her. 

In our area, and in areas like ours, we encounter countless accidents on county highways. Most of these accidents are minor or require little medical aid, but on rare occasions.. we encounter accidents that impact us hard. These accidents are some of the most horrible things you ll ever see in your life. Some of these folks respond to these accident scenes and see their own families in the people that their either trying to help or trying to cover. I've ran my fair share of fatality accidents, they re no fun. These things stay with you too, for the rest of your life. I can honestly say that I can take you to each and every call that I've ever responded to and what happened. Keep in mind, 70% of all firefighters are volunteer. These people receive no pay for the things they see, do, and respond to. They do it for the love of the job and the love of their community. On the medical side, there's not many more stressful situations far from a child in distress. The few I have dealt with have left an everlasting impression on me for life. 

Things on the love front were steadily climbing, this seemed to be one of my good choices in life. I just knew we were going to make it this time. On the one year anniversary of my nephew's birthday, my sister made plans for a group of us to go to the Ronald McDonald house in New Orleans, where they had stayed while he was in NICU, to cook for the residents there in a tribute for his birthday. All those that were staying were so glad to have the company, humbled by the story, lifted every one's spirits, and were glad that we made something different that night. I believe it would be something good to do for others on a yearly date that means a lot to all of us. 

About a month and a half after trying to make this round work, I began to get the idea that my beach girl was giving me the slip. She would go days without texting me, and even then, wouldn't say much. I went to visit my dad one Saturday after he had been put in a New Orleans hospital for blood clots. If he was about to go downhill, I wanted my daughter to be able to spend more time with him. Leaving Daphne, Al that evening, I text her to chat with her like normal, only she didn't seem like she was talking normal. It would be weeks before I learned that she had found herself another boyfriend....and didn't bother to say anything to me. I was heartbroken again. I didn't let this keep me down for long though. I kept busy with the fire department, work, friends, and the one walk I do every 6 months with a friend from school, not like it helps my fitness any. It only took a month, however, for her to come right back to me with the same old lines. Did I learn? NOPE!! Never do! This time, I actually got myself into a committed and almost loving relationship with this girl right before Christmas. Shortly after the new year, she slid off again and eventually broke up with me, this time. A few weeks after, she decided she was not sure about her decision and proceeded to come around again wanting me in her life. That didn't last long either. 

We have come to current events. I know I've left off stories and other items, but I'm sure I'll come back to those here and there as I go. Remember this, If a high school 17 year old drop out can land a city government job, be a successful fireman, raise a 7 year old girl, handle heartbreak after heartbreak, see tragedy, horror, and loss regularly, and still come out on top...the same man in the shoes I was in almost 11 years ago can too. Set goals, do good things, be a positive image, and lay off drug and alcohol abuse. You can succeed if you put your goals in the front, do the right things, and work hard. You may not want to be a fireman, but doing something good for someone else that can never repay you back is one of the greatest things you can ever do in your lifetime.  Keep fighting the good fight, guys. 

Lt Will.