Cool Free Stuff

I have T-Shirts, can cover and hats from Phoenix Extraction Tools. They are some pretty cool stuff. I am doing a drawing to give them away. I have only two t-shirts and 5 hats(of each style) and few can covers. If you are interested send me an e-mail by Monday the 29th. I will announce the winner on Tuesday the 30th.
Good Luck.

Chris Falcone (picture unavailable) has his Birthday on July 28th. Happy Birthday!

Rebecca Griffith celebrates her Birthday on July 27th. Happy Birthday!

Susan Stype (top) and Crystal Morris share July 22 as their Birthday. Happy Birthday Ladies!

Angel Aponte celebrated his Birthday on July 20th. Happy Birthday!

Matthew Straschinske celebrated his Birthday on July 19th. Happy Birthday!

Terri Eubanks celebrated her Birthday on July 17th. Happy Birthday!

Karen Thompson celebrated her Birthday on July 16th. Happy Birthday!

Dickey Stevens call

As you have heard by now a coach was killed last night at the Dickey Stevens Baseball field. Initial reports from Fox news was that it took MEMS over 10 minutes to respond. The truth is much different, in fact we have spent much of the day debunking rumors.
The truth is that when the first base coach was initially hit the team trainers, and eventually three MEMS Paramedics as well as least two MDs and several nurses came to the field to help with the coach, however no one had notified MEMS dispatch that an ambulance was needed. Finally sometime into the call a PCSO Deputy who was on scene called the county dispatch and asked that a MEMS unit be dispatched because a player had been hit. He asked that we meet in the parking lot where we would be directed to the patient. The MEMS unit was in house at station 8 and responded to the call. Total time from call to patient was two minutes and fifty three seconds.

Channel 11

A word for stressful times

It seems that no matter where I go these days I hear people talking about stress. I listen closely as people talk about the future, what it holds. It seems that we focus more on the the fear rather than the promises the future. I came across a writing the other day that made a lot of sense to me, if fact it was one of those writings that really struck home. The writer said:


Nothing in life is to be feared.
It is only to be understood.
When you dare to face the things that scare you,
you open the door to freedom and success.

Most of your obstacles would melt away if,
instead of cowering before them
or procrastinating about dealing with them,
you make up your mind to walk boldly through them.

Don't be afraid to take the steps you need to take
to make those positive changes in your life.
To fight your fears, you must act.
Your fears increase when you wait, put off, or postpone.
If you understood your situation enough,
you would never be afraid.

The attainment of your dreams is but a determined action away.
Successful people take action.

Company Meetings!

In a recent BLOG I wrote:
Hold Company Meetings these are voluntary, but we will pay you if you attend. It is worth the money to get you together to talk and share with you, the “state of the union"
We are working on a list of dates and will be posting them here as well as in the forms of Memos, pages.
I will give the agenda, and if you would like to see something else addressed, please drop me a line.

The meeting dates and times have been set they are as follows:
Tuesday July 24th at 16:30
Wednesday July 25th at 16:30
Thursday July 26th at 07:30

The agenda includes:
* Staffing
* Pay
* PTO

Set Your Parking Brake!!

Another good reason to set your parking brake!
On Monday BLS unit 73 was sitting at a scene, in park with the keys out running. The crew was inside when a person came up to them and said, "Is that your ambulance that hit the two cars?" To which the crew said, WHAT!
What we have discovered is that a cable, and a piece in the steering column have failed to the point that the unit appeared to be in park, but was in reality in neutral. The unit rolled and hit the cars.
Please remember when out of your running unit set the parking brake.
1. To avoid this kind of problem.
2. To ensure that the unit is on high idle.

On the lighter side

So we are retiring for the night, when Debbie says, "you hear that, someone is on the roof" I grab the gun and go to the back of the boat to see a raccoon sitting at our back door looking at us. Only he is not alone, he is on an outing with his five brothers and sisters. (a total of 6!)
We shared this story with all the neighbors and after a meeting on the subject we decided that a live trap was the answer. We would catch the family one by one and 'relocate' them.
Tuesday at 3AM Bailey wakes me up, "Dad I think something is in the trap" We get the flash light and sure enough, a raccoon in the trap, but the interesting thing is one of his brothers or sisters is outside the cage trying to get the cage open, in fact trying to untie the rope that holds the trap to the dock. I choose to go back to sleep.
At 6AM I get up to find the little fellow still in the trap, but more interesting to me is that his brother or sister has not left his side, they are sitting side by side one in the cage, the other free. I run the free sibling away and sit back from a distance to watch. In just moments it comes back and sits by the cage, as if to say, "I am not leaving you behind"
I am not prepared for this kind of decision at 6AM, what to do "relocate" or release the trapped animal. About this time my neighbor comes out of his boat and ask, "what do we have"? I relate what I have observed. He ask what are you going to do? I said, I know this sounds weak, and is not helping our problem, but...I am thinking of letting him go. My neighbor give me a knowing smile. As I release him from the trap, my neighbor says, "I didn't see a thing"

Writer's Block?

I haven't written in a while but it is time, to communicate to you. I have been around as many of you as I can lately, asking questions, answering questions etc..

It is no news flash that we are in difficult times. Pressures of staffing, heat, broken units, increased run volume and then we wake up to the Director of Homeland Security Department saying he has a "gut feeling that we may be attacked" gas prices rising and the list goes on, we are all feeling pressure. How do we face it?

As I meet with you I hear a lot of false information and some down right scary rumors. I guess I should not be surprised, after all when information is craved, even wrong information fills the void.
While the list of questions are long, two of the top questions that I am being asked are:

• What are we doing about our staffing needs?
• How can we raise our pay?

Several things are in place to meet these two needs. We will start a class of new hires on the 23rd. Our in house Paramedic class will test soon, and we are preparing for a new Rookie School.
How to fix pay? This will take more than I can write in this small space. It is something that we are working on with great fervor. The Board has a subcommittee looking at several ways to address the issue, We have already raised the issue with the communities we serve.

What I would like to do is this:
Hold Company Meetings these are voluntary, but we will pay you if you attend. It is worth the money to get you together to talk and share with you, the “state of the union"
We are working on a list of dates and will be posting them here as well as in the forms of Memos, pages.
I will give the agenda, and if you would like to see something else addressed, please drop me a line.

Justin Farmer has his Birthday on July 13th. Happy Birthday!

Andy Bates Birthday July 12th. Happy Birthday!

"All other days have either disappeared into darkness and oblivion or not yet emerged from it. Today is the only day there is."

-Frederick Buechner

Latisha Johnson has her Birthday on July 8th. Happy Birthday!

Tate Hamm has his Birthday on July 5th. Happy Birthday.

Sarah Nellis has her birthday on July 3rd. Happy Birthday!

LIsa Glaze has her Birthday on July 1st. Happy Birthday!