Monthly Archives: February 2010

A few of my favorite things (P365 – February 19)

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My apologies for the poor quality photo, but it has a story.

This evening as I was driving home from my day full of Boring, Important Adult Things I realized I hadn’t taken any photos.  Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I noticed this nestled in the lee of a pair of storage trailers along Route 1 in Newburyport.

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It combines three of my favorite subjects:  classic fire engines, white fire engines, and old GMC trucks.  In fact, I have an affinity for Howes as well.

All I had was my cell phone, but I took the picture on the theory that ‘a bad photo is better than no photo.‘  Hopefully it will still be there when I can get back with my big Nikon.

Call for submissions

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Notes from Mosquito Hill is proud to host this month’s edition of the Handover EMS Blog Carnival, but I need submisisons!  The deadline is Monday, February 22 at midnight.  I currently have two submissions and one “Eep, I forgot!”

One of the two submissions is from a new blog, so there’s definitely something to anticipate!

I know the EMS blogosphere has been very busy with the Chronicles of EMS lately, leaving us on the back burner.  I’ve been following it with interest, too. But let’s not forget some of the other things that make this community great.

In keeping with the season, this month’s theme is “Passion,” but with a slight twist. Of course there is the obvious meaning: please send me stories of situations where the patient’s passion, or your own, was the focus of the situation.

Here’s the twist:

For the open submisison section, I want to see your best passionate writing. Some of my favorite medical blogs are incredibly well-written and evocative. The subjects may sometimes be mundane, but the storytelling can be exquisite. It’s obivous that the writers are passionate about their subjects. For a few examples, check out Epi-Junky, Siren Voices, Trauma Queen, or my own ‘best-of’ tag.

Let’s see the the best you have to offer, regardless of the subject!

Questions, comments, and of course submissions can be sent via the contact link. Deadline February 22, 2010.

Mack505, out.

Fifteen hours

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Fifteen hours in, and we haven’t turned a wheel. I’m starting to go crazy. My New Year’s resolution is to stop being superstitious, so I’m no longer afraid to utter the word ‘quiet.’ I do however believe in mathematics, and probability says we’ve been sitting still too long. Something has to happen, and soon.

The television has been on all day, but we’re not paying any attention to it. At least the Winter Olympics provide a more interesting backdrop than the usual drivel. I’ve cleaned out my email inbox multiple times. I’ve caught up on all the blogs I follow. RP and Almost-a-Medic have been playing video games for an eternity. I’m half way through a book on my iPhone Kindle app, and I’ve had to charge the battery twice. I would write for the blog, but my Muse is nowhere to be found. Apparently she’s out partying with all my patients.

Finally the tones drop and we’re off, dispatched for a patient with a partial airway obstruction. Except it’s not. We take the patient with a sore throat to the emergency room, because that’s what we do. The patient’s mother admonishes him, “Dad could’ve driven you. What did you call them for?”

Back to quarters and an attempt at sleep, but the work is still out there waiting for us.

Twenty hours in. Chest pain! Chest pain for eight hours, with a prior cardiac history. Denial is a killer, but not tonight. Off to Local Suburban Hospital.

Another attempt at sleep.

Twenty-three and a half hours in. Dispatched for a seizure. We find a headache.

* sigh *

Some days the best job in the world, isn’t.

Molson (P365 – February 16)

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The weathermen finally delivered some snow today.  They were very sheepish about the forecast, though.  No panic this time.  Ironically, it’s very heavy wet snow which is destined to cause a lot of problems.

This is Molson, our moose statue.  Shot at dusk, in a snowstorm, backlit by the neighbors’ floodlights.  800 ASA, f/5.0 with a 3 second exposure.

Cognitive Dissonance

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I’m a child of the 80′s.  I spent my formative teenage years listening to pop on the radio.  My tastes were never much harder than the occasional Def Leppard.

(Random side note:  My first car, a VW Rabbit, had no tape deck when I bought it.  Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me” was on the Top Five at Nine every night that first summer.  I listened to it on the way home from work.  Every night.  Yet for some strange reason I still like it.)

Anyway, as time has passed my musical tastes have broadened and hardened.  Bob Seger, Bryan Adams, Johnny Cash, Pink Floyd, Petra, AC/DC, and Dead Season all coexist peacefully in my iPod now, along with a smattering of Grieg, Tchaikovsky, and the Brian Setzer Orchestra.

So you can imagine my smile when I discovered this:

Rock Sugar.  Journey meets Metallica, Warrant does Bryan Adams, and so forth.  Ozzy and Rick Springfield!  They’ve mixed some of my favorite old tracks in a way designed to make me smile and leave my poor daughter very confused.

Fast forward to me, blasting down the highway in my Sensible Adult Mobile, on my way to do Important Grownup Things, screaming Madonna lyrics at the windshield in my best Ozzy voice.

Go buy the CD- they deserve a few bucks for thinking this up!

Hat tip to AD.