Take the Shot

ednesday and another week half over?

I don't know it's like the days are SOOOOOO long but then when you hook them all together it seems like the speed of light?  When we look back we don't remember second by second like we do as we are going thru those seconds.  Tic toc, and what is that some new social media thing...tic toc I must google it up to see what it's all about. 

I so wanted to see the meteor shower last evening, but I was  solid asleep by midnight and the sun was high in the sky when I rolled out to the feed the dogs and make coffee for me, I still can NOT do hot coffee, just the feel of that  heat rising up makes me feel ill again, so Im going on with the iced coffee.  Thankfully I enjoy it, 

I did ride my mower around the yard at 9:30 am the grass was at least 8 inches high...so I cut it a little shorter than I normally do since we have rain in the forecast for the next 10 days! It won't be a wash out just afternoon thunderstorms.  We have a lot of rain so far this year.  I have not had my sprinkler out of the shed...I do hand water the garden pots that dry out fast.  Today I picked about 5 asparagus stalks..small ones but good none the less.

Last evening I watched a you tube about fact checking the media.  I get most of my news from NBC and PBS.  I have seen both make corrections when they discover they have not had all the facts when reporting the news...I will not even sit in the same room with Fox News on.  The day I broke my arms I drove myself to the hospital and BACK..it's amazing what you can do with one finger. My right hand, the break was in the carpus area...so I could use a couple of my fingers.  Anyways when I got to the ER waiting room they had Fox News on the TV so I went straight to desk and asked for it to be turned off! She did turn it off, otherwise I would have told her I'd be waiting in the other lobby and she could come find me when it was time for me to be seen.

Fox is not even news, its opinions and heavily leaning toward outright lies.  Pundits are not reporters...Fox was started by Rupert Murdoch an Australian who He moved to Great Britain and started one of those shock newspaper tabloid's,  think National Inquirer... then moved to the USA and took over the minds of the conservatives which is pretty easy to do...jab.

I know I have some strange conspiracy theories of my own floating around but it's mainly coming out of my own thinking not anyone telling me to think that.  I have never been a cult follower and I don't go along with MOST mainstream thinking.  Im not precious or different just mostly stems from being pretty much antisocial and extremely stubborn and independent.

I was a News Blaze writer when I lived in NYC.  News Blaze was an online news magazine and aspiring writers could submit works for publication...and I did that.  I would research my story cite my sources and it was fun and interesting.  My first story was about the Iraq war and how Dick Cheney was at the top of that heap of misinformation...him and his Halliburton company. One of the WORLD'S largest OIL field service Companies....now put 2 and 2 together, it was all about the oil.  Cheney retired from Halliburton with a $36 MILLION severance package to become VP.  Halliburton profited $39.5 BILLION in Federal contracts during the Iraq war...that war was fought for profit. 

So that was my first big story at News Blaze and then I did an Eye Witness account of the 911 tragedy.  I did several stories based on that and on the mesothelioma cases that followed.  This is one I did about the way Burger Giants were sending out a message of bad behavior in their ADs. 




I got so busy when I went to Medic School (an entire year) that I had no time for writing I was always working or studying, so eventually I stopped writing.  These days I think you must chose wisely if you want the facts...I don't always get the truth but if Im getting enough of it, I can probably fill in the blanks...

If life gives me lemons I don't always make lemonade, sometimes I make waves... It does not always help but it makes me feel like I tried to make a difference.  Like when you stop and help that turtle across the road, or you take in that lost puppy and give it years of devotion, or you write that letter to your congress person saying OH NO I don't like that...or you hang up on a phone call because you just don't like the path it has taken. 
Sometimes you have to put what you believe in on the line.  When I worked as  a paramedic doing medical transport for a private company, I was routinely given bad vehicles to go out in.  This one in particular was horrible, the entire front end was shot and it needed rear suspension work too...I can tell you everyone put it out of service and it never got fixed. 

It was one of those box style ambulances 965 was the call number of this "bus" as we called it in NYC...so on that day they gave my partner who is an emt not a medic the keys to 965 we put up with the swaying, the shimming, the rough ride all day then our last call was to transport a neonate of 25 weeks who was on a vent! This baby would be in a life support unit, and I would have a DR riding with me, this baby did not do well in that transport and the DR and I were being tossed like Mexican jumping beans all over the back of that bus with each pothole. 

SO when I got back I told that girl in the garage area to NeVER give me that bus again that I would NOT go out in it...Next morning I get to work, they try to give me 965.  I clocked out and went home. BUT before I did I went to see the paramedic supervisor and he said it's not up to him it's up to what key is on the board blah blah, but in reality it's all about who likes you and who doesn't...So I said no problem and went home.

I got several calls over the next couple of days asking me why I'm not at work etc. and I explained why.  Nothing was done...So I did my research.  According to OSHA you can not be forced to drive a vehicle of a gross weight of more than 10,000 lbs if you deem that vehicle unsafe!! SO I filed a case with OSHA.  

I was assigned a case worker and he said I had a good case, so I asked "what happens if I win my case." You get your job back...ok, but do I get a new bus?? 
So It took 6 weeks for me to return to work...OSHA negotiated for me to have a new bus...BUT on the day I went to see the Supervisor I told her I want a steady regular partner, a regular bus that was in good condition, and NO retaliation from Dispatch, like sending me out to eastbumblefuck at 8 pm when  my shift was nearly over...and I wouldn't start back till 2 weeks later cause my son was graduating college and I planned to fly back to SC for that!

So OSHA called me and told me that my employer had been in touch and laid out the details of my  reinstatement if there was ANY retaliation from dispatch, supervisors, or other employees at all to let him know asap....so I got my job back! The next month I was given employee of the month..LOL.

Yes I was afraid I would lose my job but there was other jobs out there..in fact I had taken a part time job at Linens' n Things 3 days week so I was doing okay...but I stood up for my rights, and my belief system and I felt good about how it went.  

What was it Gretzky said.."you miss all the shots you don't take"...so that bus 965 disappeared from the garage and NO one had to drive it again.  It's probably at the bottom of the East river!

NEXT up the uncapped needle!