For Everything There is a Season
Tis the season for giving.

My father is extremely disciplined with money. When I was a child I was taught the value of money at an early age. While other kids were out spending theirs on bubblegum and trinkets I was stashing mine away in the vase on the hall table.

By the age of six my father took me to the bank and let me open up my first savings account. I accounted for every penny that passed through my hands and attempted to learn how to compute interest earned.

Now keep in mind this was the 70's. I did not receive an allowance. Every cent I garnered was earned. I weeded the garden for the lady across the street. I sold greeting cards. I ran a lemonade stand on the corner of my block. I went to the local strawberry patch and picked fresh strawberries to resell for a profit.

By the age of 8 I had accumulated $75.67. At the time, 1978, this was an astronomical amount to a kid. My friends were in awe and I was unanimously appointed secretary/treasurer of the neighborhood club. This was no small accomplishment.

In the summer of '78 I spent most of my afternoons at the baseball park watching my brothers play ball. One afternoon there was a lady passing out flyers and posting them around the concession stand. It was a picture of a little boy with a paragraph beneath. The little boy had cancer, leukemia to be exact, and his parents couldn't afford his treatment. They needed money.

The next day I had my mother take me to the bank and I promptly withdrew the entire $75.67 and had them place it in Ryan's fund. I didn't understand why, but my mother cried the whole way home.

Now being older and wiser I understand my mother's tears. It was the selflessness of the act. She knew that money was important to me, yet I gave it away without a thought. Sometimes I believe only a child can give in such a way. As adults we give, but rarely do we give until it hurts, myself included.

I encourage myself and others to remember the story of the widow's mite whether you believe in religion at all. He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury; and he saw a poor widow put in two copper coins. And he said, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all the living that she had."


And the season for thanks...hence THANKSGIVING

Never take for granted what you have as shown via Mikeeeee's story. Always be thankful. AND THANK YOU MIKEEEEEEE.

Name: Mikeeeee
URL: http://www.livejournal.com/users/mikeeeee
E-Mail: mja2001@sbcglobal.net
Comment: Hey RDD, as promised...

How do YOU think I did in my board interview with Rohnert Park Fire Division?

Stace almost died after breakfast earlier in the day (before we even went to sleep that night).

We left Denny's at 4:30 am. End of a long night of Birthday fun for a friend. I walked Stace to her car, hug goodbye (yes, even though we would see each other in... 10 minutes at home lol this is important as you'll see later on in the story), and off she went as I sat in my truck playing with my scanner listening for anything interesting and to scare the tweekers surrounding Denny's, for fun.

*CRASH* at about 60 feet away form me on the freeway next to Denny's. I go to the fence line and see the smashed up car in the ditch next to the Denny's fence. I can't jump it safely, but I realize the onramp to the freeway is where it happened, and I can be there in 30 seconds or less, so I take off *safely* to lend a hand. I start looking for Stacey (I knew she was there, don't ask me why, it was the Northbound onramp and she should NOT have been there, but I was looking for her). I see her and I see a comfy spot to pull over and get my gear out. I see smoke so I get the extinguisher along with my trauma bag.

After I approach the car I glove up and I get the woman to get out from behind her car. I thought it might slip in the mud and pin her or me, so I stayed back until she came to me. I didn't want to NEED rescuing myself. She comes to me dazed with a face full of blood, but I figure she's ok with how she is to sit on my tailgate versus laying down. Then I hear she flipped over, and I start to second guess. After she started to pass out on me, it was time to take her to the ground for her own protection. While holding C-Spine, I lay her down with Stacey's help and a 3rd person. I transfer C-Spine ASAP to Stacey when her head nears the ground. I can't get a pulse since she's twitching her wrist a bit. I grab my ears and listen to her heart and lungs, she's ok on both counts. The lac on her forehead was about 3 inches long, made her head look almost dented. My gloves were slippery with blood. LOW AND BEHOLD, VERIHEALTH SHOWS UP in a type 3 rig... I have 2 more EMT's and part of me thinks they'll be taking charge since they're uniformed and driving a rig... no. They look like deer in headlights, and they don't even have a trauma bag. "You've got more in your bag then we have with us..." THEY HAD AN ENTIRE AMBULANCE, and I had more supplies then they had. WTF??? Note to veriHealth... GIVE YOUR MEDICS A TRAUMA BAG, YOU DUMB FUCKS. BLS trauma bag will help 95% of your "walk up" patients.

ANYWAY, I bark out orders not even realizing that when I have a scene, I REALLY HAVE THE SCENE, I want a bottle of sterile water, C-Spine collars, a notepad/pre hospital care forms (which they didn't have) and additional lighting. There is no command vacuum when I'm on the scene and it's mine. I may not always make the correct choices, but you can trust I believe it's the right thing to do at the time and I don't show fear. Truth is I thought she might stop moving/breathing at any time with a spinal injury or the head trauma that could've had a sub-cranial bleeder putting pressure on the brain. BUT to her and to the people around me she was ok, we're helping her until we're relieved, she was in the best hands possible, no danger to her at all because we're the best caretakers ever. It doesn't matter if that's not reality, it was reality to her and my "team".

Anyway, I have Stace transfer C-Spine to the female EMT, and the male EMT becomes my scribe. We get into the particulars of her care and then the real medic crew shows up from Sonoma Life Support. I give them my data and formally transfer care. From that point forward I become a bystander and I just watch her get the Strip/Flip treatment, backboard, load, and go to Santa Rosa Memorial... 7-9 minutes total time with the Patient. Someone jacked my Maglite. That pisses me off just a hair, but it's ok. I did my job, I'll go get a better one.

Stace was there because she took the wrong onramp. She wanted south, not north. She figured she'd go up one exit and turn around. 2 seconds faster and that car that FLEW over her roadway about 7 lengths ahead of her, would've landed IN her little Metro, killing her in a fast, horrible way. That's why I say that hug was important in the start of this entry. I always do that good bye hug or kiss, "Just in case". It's just in case you never get to say goodbye or I love you again. This is exactly why I do that. YOU NEVER KNOW. In this case it delayed her departure by about 2 seconds... Just enough to be missed by a flying car.

I went home, fell asleep by 5:30 am, woke up at 2pm, went to my 2:30pm interview reminded inside that THIS is what I love to do, and blew the review board away with a stunning interview. I think getting to the next step is a sure thing. In the end...

Firefighter/EMT Allen.

Yeah, I can do that.