“Operations to . . . Mack505?”

I’ve been working the same two shifts, with the same partner, for 16 months now.  I love the cities, and RP and I get along well.  One of my shifts has been stable, but the other one. . .

We entered the city with a spare truck when we got the contract.  No big deal.  Let’s call it Medic 36.  We ran the spare for a month or two, then we were assigned our own permanent rig.  Change #1.

Let’s call this one Medic 37.  We ran it until we got our new rig last fall.  Along the way, however, the company shifted from using truck numbers on the radio to assigning Unit Numbers based on location.  Thus Medic 37 became Medic 50.  Change #2.

We took delivery of our new rig and continued to operate it as Medic 50 until recently.  Then for an administrative reason, we swapped unit numbers with a neighboring city.  Medic 50 becomes Medic 68, and 68 becomes 50.  Change #3.

At about the same time, the company put up a real Medic 9.  I’ve almost answered for them on the radio a few times.  (I have to reiterate my disclaimer: I was using Medic 9 first, but my posts don’t correlate to any real unit.)

So now I’m lost.  Medic 36/37/50/68/9?  I haven’t moved.  I find myself jumping for the radio mic all the time.  Soon the dispatchers may have to start calling me by name.  If somebody put a real Truck 68 in service I’d be completely frazzled!

Maybe I should just transfer to Medic 99.

(But hey, if this is the worst complaint I have, life isn’t too bad, right?)