A common run at my firehouse in Queens was “Unconscious in Vehicle” which generally involved a parked livery cab with the driver inside sleeping. One early afternoon when this run came in we assumed we’d be waking a harmless napper, but instead found a car angled into the curb and dipping forward on the axle of a destroyed and removed front tire. We thought, perhaps, the jack had collapsed and someone was trapped underneath, but a quick cheek to asphalt survey proved this not to be the case. And so we approached the driver’s window, looked inside, and were stunned by the hilarity of the scene. Continue reading ‘The End of a Beautiful Affair?’
Monthly Archive for May, 2005
One of my favorite moments in the firehouse kitchen was the time Nicky poured some milk into his coffee, watched it curdle, and said, “This milk’s rotten.” Resto was sitting at the table when Nicky said this, and had frozen, one of the last spoonfuls of a large bowl of cereal midway to his mouth. We all turned and looked at him. He put the spoon back in the bowl, slowly stood up, walked to the garbage can, and dumped what little cereal was left. Then we all cracked up laughing, except Resto. Nicky said, “How could you not know that milk was sour?” And Resto, who has a slightly chubby reputation, said, “I thought you guys had fish last night. I thought you ran the bowl through the dishwasher with the fish dishes.” That’s why I love Resto. Because he’d eat his cereal even if it tasted like fish.
Look’s like the Nav’s writing is starting to spread around the web a bit. I occasionally take a look at who’s linking to the WB. I came across this trackback today. Glad to see people are turning to WB for more than just my rants on emacs ;-)
“The Paradox Of Choice: Why More Is Less” (Barry Schwartz)
So this is one of the books I plowed through while down in Key West. It was a quick read and gave more substantive form to some ideas that have been floating nebulously around in my head for several months now.
Several months ago I posted about how my music library had grown so large, I wasn’t sure what to listen to and that post kicked of an internal dialogue that is captured nicely by the book’s sub-sub title How the culture of abundance robs us of satisfaction.
[oof. i’d written about 1,200 words on this book but my blogging client decided to play zen trickster on me and teach me a good lesson about impermanence. Either that or a lesson about why not to use a blogging client as a word processor ;-) ]
I remember one time as a probie (first year probationary firefighter) in Queens, I was awed by the courage of Jimmy F. who tried to sneak in a shower on duty, being filthy from a previous run. The tones went off and I was amazed to see this streaking firefighter covered in soap suds sprinting for his bunker gear. At the time it took all my nerve just to take a shit on duty, for fear of being interrupted mid-release. Now when I shit on duty, I lay strips of toilet paper across my pulled-down pants, and get a laugh in the kitchen sometimes when I impart this wisdom to the guys, “You’ve got to start with five strips across your pants before you let it fall.” Believe me, I’ve been sitting on that john too many times when the tones have gone off. It’s speed-wipe and run, because no matter what we’re out that door in thirty seconds flat. Lives are on the line… or more importantly (just kidding?) my reputation. I don’t want any turn-out waiting on me. In the fire department, a reputation, good or bad, follows an individual and sticks to a company. As the saying around the kitchen table goes, “You can build a thousand bridges, but suck one cock and you’re a cock sucker.” No offense to cock suckers. It’s a saying that’s a bit off color, as the firehouse kitchen often is, but you get the point.
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