I am going to try to do better this week at blogging. It’s been a week since I blogged last and, even though there has not been much going on this last week, I still need to post my thoughts.
Last Thursday evening, I had the pleasure of attending the concert of the Singing Churchmen of Oklahoma. This choir is made up of music ministers from Baptist churches all across Oklahoma . Their music is pretty much old-southern gospel…..with a beat. The concert was held at the Village Baptist Church in north OKC. I had a great time and enjoyed some exceptional music…these guys are great!
After a long day at the office on Friday, I took my wife and daughter out for dinner and then we all crashed at the house and watched TV…..exciting huh?
I was up early Saturday morning to get prepared for a meeting in Hinton, Okla. The State Executive Director of Fire Corps was going to meet with us and his team and go over some areas our team could assist in with their team. We met for around 4 hours on Saturday and went over some information with them. All in all, it was a great meeting and it looks like we have a great opportunity to work with them in the coming weeks.
Yesterday was the exciting day….yes, my day of rest turned into a day full of excited and some anxiety. I was up early Sunday morning, working on the power point for the morning worship service. I woke Karla up at around 7 am, so she could get around and get ready for church. I heard her get into the shower as I still worked, but when I was finished my power point, I decided to check on her to make sure she was getting ready. I went into the bedroom to check on her and she had gone back to bed.
I tried to wake her, but she was not responding. I immediately woke up Gayla and had her come and help wake Karla up. When she did barely wake up, she was barely coherent. Her breathing was normal, but she complained of a severe headache and pain in her side. When I asked her what was wrong, she just replied she was tired and needed rest. Then, she started calling for her mom (who passed away three years ago). I knew then that she was exhausted and needed rest. Since she was breathing ok, I had Gayla stay with her, while I went on to church.
Once I got to church, I still had her on my mind. Our former pastor from many years ago, George Brock III, was going to be preaching during the morning and evening service, so I needed to be there. When I arrived and started to get the sound set up for the service, I ran into a major problem. It seems as if our fan, that keeps the sound system cooled, was not working properly, so the sound system would not stay on. We had to go to plan B.
I only had about 20 minutes to get things working, so I got several men together and we started piecing together a portable sound system to use for the service. We used the mixer from the choir room, the speakers and stands from the fellowship hall…and various cords, etc, from other parts of the church. By the time service started, I had everything all set up and plugged in. As I operated the portable system during the service, I sent Gayla a text, telling her to text me when Karla woke up. About 15 minutes into the service, she called me, in tears, informing me that Karla would not respond. I immediately grabbed my stuff and another church member took me home.
Upon arrival, I checked on Karla. Gayla was able to get her dressed, but she still wasn’t very coherent and still did not know where she was. I called 911 and they sent OCFD and EMSA out. I was not sure what was wrong, but I did notice symptoms of a stroke, so I was very concerned. As the paramedics worked on her, they were able to talk to her and get more information from her. Her blood pressure was elevated and she still had a very severe headache. They transported her to St. Anthony Hospital to get checked out. When she arrived by EMSA, she was more coherent and able to talk. They took her back to a room, gave her morphine for her headache and blood pressure medicine to bring her pressure back down and then took her to have a CT scan done. The CT scan was normal. Her blood pressure finally dropped down and her headache started going away, so they decided it was safe to release her.
The church member that brought me home, brought my truck to the hospital so I would have a way home. Karla and Gayla rode with mom and dad (I had called them and they came to the house) and they took her home. I went by Arby’s and got us something to eat. When I got home, Karla had realized that she forgot to take her blood pressure medicine on Saturday, so that’s why she woke up so sick Sunday morning. We both ate, she took her medicine and went to bed. I took about an hour nap before I headed back to the church. Gayla stayed with Karla while I was gone and our neighbor across the street fixed us dinner. Because of the church service and a meeting I had after church, I did not get home until after 9 pm.
Today, I am working until 10 am. The new fire recruits with the Oklahoma City Fire Dept. will be participating in a live-burn training today. I participated in this several years ago and it was a blast. They actually allowed me to put on bunker gear and go into a burning building. It was so much fun and a great learning experience. Myself and our CFAAA President will be attending this exercise. I am really looking forward to it.
www.centralokreact.org
CERT Training
Monday, January 30, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Boring Week last week
Sorry, peeps, but I have have a very uneventful week last week. It was a four-day work week and all I did was work and go home.....nothing exciting. We had our regular Wednesday night youth service at church and I had my monthly CFAAA meeting on Thursday night. The CFAAA meeting was really weird because it was the first meeting in two years that I have attended where I was not in charge. The last two years, I have been president, so I was always in charge of the meetings. Since I was term limited and not eligible for re-election, I now just serve as the webmaster for our website.
What's really interesting is our first meeting was downtown at fire station #1....and when I got there, I was informed that there was a major commercial fire in NW OKC and many firefighters were fighting it, including some of the firefighters from station #1. By the time we started to eat dinner, the rest of the firefighters got an emergency call, so they left, leaving us there by ourselves. By the time most of the firefighters got back to the station, our meeting was concluded and everyone was leaving. It was an interesting evening.
I had no plans for the weekend. For the first time in a long time, I had nothing planned. I spent my Saturday doing odds and ends and watching TV. Nothing exciting. Not much happened Sunday either, except for some REACT training in the afternoon. Since our team is now doing courtesy patrols on weekends, we decided it was time to have some extra training on what to do when we stop on a motorist assist. We spent about an hour and a half training.
Today, I took an extra day off from work. I just wanted to be away from the office, even though I had nothing planned today. I bought groceries, did laundry, did dishes, played on my computer and watched TV. I probably would have been better off going to work. Oh well.
www.centralokreact.org
What's really interesting is our first meeting was downtown at fire station #1....and when I got there, I was informed that there was a major commercial fire in NW OKC and many firefighters were fighting it, including some of the firefighters from station #1. By the time we started to eat dinner, the rest of the firefighters got an emergency call, so they left, leaving us there by ourselves. By the time most of the firefighters got back to the station, our meeting was concluded and everyone was leaving. It was an interesting evening.
I had no plans for the weekend. For the first time in a long time, I had nothing planned. I spent my Saturday doing odds and ends and watching TV. Nothing exciting. Not much happened Sunday either, except for some REACT training in the afternoon. Since our team is now doing courtesy patrols on weekends, we decided it was time to have some extra training on what to do when we stop on a motorist assist. We spent about an hour and a half training.
Today, I took an extra day off from work. I just wanted to be away from the office, even though I had nothing planned today. I bought groceries, did laundry, did dishes, played on my computer and watched TV. I probably would have been better off going to work. Oh well.
www.centralokreact.org
Monday, January 16, 2012
Interesting!!
I have enjoyed my three-day weekend, even though I did not do much.
I spent all day Saturday at a CPR/AED/First Aid course I am required to take in order to continue with the Central OK REACT team. We are required to keep our certifications up-to-date and, since I was available to take the course, I went ahead and took it. The certification is good for two years. One of our REACT team members is a certified instructor, so several of us just attended a class he had scheduled for workers at a day-care center. That evening, Karla and Gayla went to a Thunder basketball game, so I had an open evening. I just relaxed and watched football.
I spent most of my Sunday at church. I did spend two hours at home after church, but I had to be back to church for a meeting at 3 pm....and instead of driving all the way back home after the meeting, I just stayed at the church. I also had a Sunday School teacher's meeting after the evening service, so I did not get away from the church until 7:30 pm.
Since Monday was going to be a holiday and I was going to be off work, I decided to go ahead and ride with one of my REACT team members after church and do some courtesy patrolling. It's something new our REACT team is doing. We spend 3-4 hours on certain nights, travelling the interstates, looking for motorists sitting on the side of the interstate with their emergency flashers on. We always travel in pairs for safety. We went out Sunday evening for around 4 hours, but only stopped 4 or 5 times. I made it home by 11:30 pm.
Today was Martin Luther King Jr's. birthday. For the first time ever, I went downtown and watched the parade. I was highly disappointed. If anyone ever wondered if there were still racial issues in today's society, all they had to do was attend this parade and they would have their answers. While I assumed the parade would be all about Martin Luther King Jr and all he had done for civil rights, it was more of a parade for those to publicize their political beliefs.
There were Obama supporters in several vehicles chanting, "four more years...four more years," the NAACP had several floats, the democratic party had several floats, the gay and Lesbian pride group had two floats, a church promoting gay Christians had a float and the ACLU had two floats. This wasn't a parade promoting unity, it was a parade discriminating against Christians and promoting liberal politics. I don't think MLK would have been proud of what was done today. In his name, hate, politics and racial tension were spewed throughout the parade.
I really enjoyed the bands and all the children that participated in the bands and flag corps. There were many aspects of the parade I liked, but I was highly disappointed in the racial connotations that were displayed in the parade. I did feel somewhat out of place, since there were very few whites attending the parade. Most of the people I came in contact with were nice, but several just snubbed their noses at me. So yes, the racial tensions are still very high, but the fault does not lie with the Caucasian people. That was proven today.
www.centralokreact.org
I spent all day Saturday at a CPR/AED/First Aid course I am required to take in order to continue with the Central OK REACT team. We are required to keep our certifications up-to-date and, since I was available to take the course, I went ahead and took it. The certification is good for two years. One of our REACT team members is a certified instructor, so several of us just attended a class he had scheduled for workers at a day-care center. That evening, Karla and Gayla went to a Thunder basketball game, so I had an open evening. I just relaxed and watched football.
I spent most of my Sunday at church. I did spend two hours at home after church, but I had to be back to church for a meeting at 3 pm....and instead of driving all the way back home after the meeting, I just stayed at the church. I also had a Sunday School teacher's meeting after the evening service, so I did not get away from the church until 7:30 pm.
Since Monday was going to be a holiday and I was going to be off work, I decided to go ahead and ride with one of my REACT team members after church and do some courtesy patrolling. It's something new our REACT team is doing. We spend 3-4 hours on certain nights, travelling the interstates, looking for motorists sitting on the side of the interstate with their emergency flashers on. We always travel in pairs for safety. We went out Sunday evening for around 4 hours, but only stopped 4 or 5 times. I made it home by 11:30 pm.
Today was Martin Luther King Jr's. birthday. For the first time ever, I went downtown and watched the parade. I was highly disappointed. If anyone ever wondered if there were still racial issues in today's society, all they had to do was attend this parade and they would have their answers. While I assumed the parade would be all about Martin Luther King Jr and all he had done for civil rights, it was more of a parade for those to publicize their political beliefs.
There were Obama supporters in several vehicles chanting, "four more years...four more years," the NAACP had several floats, the democratic party had several floats, the gay and Lesbian pride group had two floats, a church promoting gay Christians had a float and the ACLU had two floats. This wasn't a parade promoting unity, it was a parade discriminating against Christians and promoting liberal politics. I don't think MLK would have been proud of what was done today. In his name, hate, politics and racial tension were spewed throughout the parade.
I really enjoyed the bands and all the children that participated in the bands and flag corps. There were many aspects of the parade I liked, but I was highly disappointed in the racial connotations that were displayed in the parade. I did feel somewhat out of place, since there were very few whites attending the parade. Most of the people I came in contact with were nice, but several just snubbed their noses at me. So yes, the racial tensions are still very high, but the fault does not lie with the Caucasian people. That was proven today.
www.centralokreact.org
Thursday, January 12, 2012
It's COLD!!
It hasn’t been too bad at all this week. I enjoyed being home on Monday and Tuesday evening, just chilling and doing stuff on the computer.
I ordered some new lenses for the light-bar on top of my truck last week. Right now, my strobes are all blue and my flashers are mostly blue. The blue is not as bright and does not show up as well, so I ordered some amber lenses. I was informed by the guy who ordered them for me, that the lenses came in Tuesday. I am suppose to go by his apartment this evening and have him put them in. I am planning on taking all the blue flasher lenses off the front and replacing them with amber lenses…then, I will probably make the four flashers on the back of my light-bar half blue and half amber. I am still not sure yet. It all depends on how many amber lenses I actually have now. I am not sure how many were ordered.
Well, last night, we received our first snow of the year. The flakes were very big, but they just melted when they hit the street. There was a little dusting on the grass, but it was very short-lived. Forecasters originally said we would not get anything because the Arctic cold front was dry….but, once again, they were wrong. It lasted until around midnight, but it did not cause any problems. Speaking of last night, one of our adult youth leaders (along with three of our students from church), stopped in the street to assist a wounded dog. The youth leader left her truck running and was just feet away, when two black males jumped in the truck and took off. They did not drive very far, but when they bailed, they took my friend’s purse, keys and ID (along with a few other personal belongings in the truck). She was able to keep her phone, but they took everything else. I checked with her this morning and there has been no news on her stolen property.
This weekend (Monday) is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It’s another holiday for us, so I will get a three-day weekend. I was going to go ahead and work for one of my co-workers, but decided to just enjoy the day off. This coming Saturday, I am driving to Bethany to attend a CPR/First Aid Certification class. I have to attend it for REACT, so I can keep my certification up to date. I guess that will probably take care of most of my Saturday.
Other than that, it is very cold outside and it’s slow at work.
By the way, I am finally listed on the REACT International website as the Public Information Officer…..take a look.
http://reactintl.org/HQStaff
www.centralokreact.org
I ordered some new lenses for the light-bar on top of my truck last week. Right now, my strobes are all blue and my flashers are mostly blue. The blue is not as bright and does not show up as well, so I ordered some amber lenses. I was informed by the guy who ordered them for me, that the lenses came in Tuesday. I am suppose to go by his apartment this evening and have him put them in. I am planning on taking all the blue flasher lenses off the front and replacing them with amber lenses…then, I will probably make the four flashers on the back of my light-bar half blue and half amber. I am still not sure yet. It all depends on how many amber lenses I actually have now. I am not sure how many were ordered.
Well, last night, we received our first snow of the year. The flakes were very big, but they just melted when they hit the street. There was a little dusting on the grass, but it was very short-lived. Forecasters originally said we would not get anything because the Arctic cold front was dry….but, once again, they were wrong. It lasted until around midnight, but it did not cause any problems. Speaking of last night, one of our adult youth leaders (along with three of our students from church), stopped in the street to assist a wounded dog. The youth leader left her truck running and was just feet away, when two black males jumped in the truck and took off. They did not drive very far, but when they bailed, they took my friend’s purse, keys and ID (along with a few other personal belongings in the truck). She was able to keep her phone, but they took everything else. I checked with her this morning and there has been no news on her stolen property.
This weekend (Monday) is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It’s another holiday for us, so I will get a three-day weekend. I was going to go ahead and work for one of my co-workers, but decided to just enjoy the day off. This coming Saturday, I am driving to Bethany to attend a CPR/First Aid Certification class. I have to attend it for REACT, so I can keep my certification up to date. I guess that will probably take care of most of my Saturday.
Other than that, it is very cold outside and it’s slow at work.
By the way, I am finally listed on the REACT International website as the Public Information Officer…..take a look.
http://reactintl.org/HQStaff
www.centralokreact.org
Monday, January 9, 2012
Here We Go....Another Work Week...
It was another rather busy weekend of cleaning and meetings.
I slept in until around 7 am on Saturday morning. Karla and I had planned on meeting at the church at 9 am to assist in taking down the Christmas decorations in the auditorium. On my way to the church, I had my REACT two-way radio on and heard a call from one of my REACT team members, asking for assistance at a traffic accident. I was heading towards the church and was entering SE OKC and the accident was at NE 10 & I-35. Since I was only 10 minutes away, I responded to his call for assistance and arrived on the scene to help with traffic control. The left-hand lane was completely blocked by a car that had hit some debris in the roadway, lost control and slammed into the concrete median barriers. Her car was not badly damaged, but it would not start…..fortunately, she was not injured.
Myself and the other REACT member had our emergency lights on and blocked the left-hand lane. We also set up some safety traffic cones to alert motorists to slow down. I think we waited for over 45 minutes before two OHP units and one Oklahoma County Sheriff’s unit arrived on the scene. Right after they all arrived, the wrecker we had called, also arrived. Since everything was covered and I was no longer needed, I cleared off the scene and headed to the church. By the time I got to the church, the decorations were all taken down and the vacuuming had started. Since I was there, I decided it would be a good time to work on the announcements for the power point Sunday morning. So, I spent about an hour working on the power point.
Afterwards, I really had no plans, so I headed home and just relaxed for the afternoon. At around 4 pm, I decided to do a circle around the city, on the interstate system and look for any stranded motorists. Some of our REACT units are now acting as “courtesy patrols” and are now patrolling the interstates during different times of the day or night. During the day, we work by ourselves but after dark, we either have a two-man unit, or we have two units follow each other. It’s way too dangerous to have one person out after dark. So, after driving around for about an hour, I did not see anyone stranded, so I headed home and watched football for the evening.
My big day was Sunday. Other than church, I had a REACT Board meeting and a REACT team meeting I had to attend that afternoon. During the Board meeting, I was elected as Chairman of the Board. It was an honor and it will keep me busy, but I am up to the challenge. After our board meeting, we had our team meeting. I was highly disappointed because we only had one member attend the team meeting. We did have a good team meeting, but I was sure tired afterwards. Attending meetings can be mentally draining.
At around 8 pm Sunday night, I joined a telephone conference with the Board of Directors from REACT International. The phone conference had people on it from all over the United States….and Canada. I joined the Board meeting because I was up for nomination to fill a newly-created staff position, the Public Information Officer. Since I am doing this already for my REACT team, I was asked by one of the REACT International Board members if I would be interested in serving in this capacity with REACT International. It is volunteer, of course and it will require a couple of hours a month, but I believe I can do it. After listening in on the Board meeting for over an hour, the time finally came for the REACT Board to vote on my nomination. I had a few of the Board members ask me questions, but in the end, I was elected to serve as their new PIO. They were still having their meeting at 10 pm, but I was ready to go to bed, so I dropped out of the meeting.
http://www.centralokreact.org/
I slept in until around 7 am on Saturday morning. Karla and I had planned on meeting at the church at 9 am to assist in taking down the Christmas decorations in the auditorium. On my way to the church, I had my REACT two-way radio on and heard a call from one of my REACT team members, asking for assistance at a traffic accident. I was heading towards the church and was entering SE OKC and the accident was at NE 10 & I-35. Since I was only 10 minutes away, I responded to his call for assistance and arrived on the scene to help with traffic control. The left-hand lane was completely blocked by a car that had hit some debris in the roadway, lost control and slammed into the concrete median barriers. Her car was not badly damaged, but it would not start…..fortunately, she was not injured.
Myself and the other REACT member had our emergency lights on and blocked the left-hand lane. We also set up some safety traffic cones to alert motorists to slow down. I think we waited for over 45 minutes before two OHP units and one Oklahoma County Sheriff’s unit arrived on the scene. Right after they all arrived, the wrecker we had called, also arrived. Since everything was covered and I was no longer needed, I cleared off the scene and headed to the church. By the time I got to the church, the decorations were all taken down and the vacuuming had started. Since I was there, I decided it would be a good time to work on the announcements for the power point Sunday morning. So, I spent about an hour working on the power point.
Afterwards, I really had no plans, so I headed home and just relaxed for the afternoon. At around 4 pm, I decided to do a circle around the city, on the interstate system and look for any stranded motorists. Some of our REACT units are now acting as “courtesy patrols” and are now patrolling the interstates during different times of the day or night. During the day, we work by ourselves but after dark, we either have a two-man unit, or we have two units follow each other. It’s way too dangerous to have one person out after dark. So, after driving around for about an hour, I did not see anyone stranded, so I headed home and watched football for the evening.
My big day was Sunday. Other than church, I had a REACT Board meeting and a REACT team meeting I had to attend that afternoon. During the Board meeting, I was elected as Chairman of the Board. It was an honor and it will keep me busy, but I am up to the challenge. After our board meeting, we had our team meeting. I was highly disappointed because we only had one member attend the team meeting. We did have a good team meeting, but I was sure tired afterwards. Attending meetings can be mentally draining.
At around 8 pm Sunday night, I joined a telephone conference with the Board of Directors from REACT International. The phone conference had people on it from all over the United States….and Canada. I joined the Board meeting because I was up for nomination to fill a newly-created staff position, the Public Information Officer. Since I am doing this already for my REACT team, I was asked by one of the REACT International Board members if I would be interested in serving in this capacity with REACT International. It is volunteer, of course and it will require a couple of hours a month, but I believe I can do it. After listening in on the Board meeting for over an hour, the time finally came for the REACT Board to vote on my nomination. I had a few of the Board members ask me questions, but in the end, I was elected to serve as their new PIO. They were still having their meeting at 10 pm, but I was ready to go to bed, so I dropped out of the meeting.
http://www.centralokreact.org/
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Just another Day of my Life...
Well, the last few days have been very interesting. At the end of last week, I was informed by my wife that my daughter and her boyfriend broke up. They had been together for 6 months and seemed to be getting real serious. As a matter of fact, about a month ago, my daughter informed me her boyfriend wanted to talk to me. It was assumed he was going to ask me if he could marry her. The conversation never happened and I am glad it didn’t. I found out they had actually been having some problems before Christmas. It makes me wonder why they didn’t break up before Christmas and save their money, instead of buying each other gifts. Either way, it is over with and she is trying to get over it. I know it’s hard for her. At her age, breaking up is very hard to do because it’s not puppy love anymore at that age…it is real love.
Karla had been having headaches for about a month, so her doctor sent her to a chiropractor. We found out today that she had a bad case of whiplash. Gee, it couldn’t be because of the three accidents she had at the end of 2010, two of which she totaled her car…could it? I am not trying to make light of her pain, but it doesn’t surprise me she has whiplash. The accidents she was involved in really tossed her head and neck around. The doctor did make some adjustments on her neck and head today and she told me she was feeling quite a bit of relief already. I am personally trying to better myself this year. I know I snore, so I am starting to use Breathe Right strips at night to see if that will help. I am also going to start using a humidifier, so the air in the house will not be so dry. I have been sleeping decent, but I still wake up two or three times during the night all stopped up. We will see if the Breather Right strips help or not.
Yesterday, I left the office at 4 pm and got on east bound I-40, heading to Best Buy to pay on a bill. As I got on the interstate, I noticed traffic was at a crawl. I assumed there was either an accident, or a stalled vehicle. On that segment of I-40, there is really no shoulder to pull off on if you have a flat, or car trouble. I turned on my CB radio, but got no information. As I got closer, traffic in the right-hand lane moved to the middle lane. Once traffic was clear, I saw a full-sized pick-up truck stalled in the right-hand lane. There was a lady standing beside the truck, on her cell phone. I was surprised that nobody had stopped to assist her. I turned on all my emergency lights and pulled in behind her truck (about two car lengths). As I got on my REACT radio and called for help, she walked up to my truck. She informed me she was out of gas and needed someone to give her a ride to a gas station.
The only problem was, we could not leave her truck on the interstate blocking the lane of traffic. I called OHP on my cell phone and they advised me someone had already called in about the stalled truck. I had the lady sit in her truck and I sat in my truck as we waited for OHP to arrive. Once he arrived, he decided to push her further down the interstate to a shoulder, just to get her off the interstate. Once on the shoulder, we sat and waited. One of my REACT team members was bringing gas to us. The OHP Trooper then advised me the lady’s license was suspended, so he did not want her to drive. He had another call to go to, otherwise, he would have arrested her. She contacted her grandmother to come get her, so the trooper left and myself and the other REACT unit stayed on the scene to wait on the grandmother. Eventually, grandma showed up and the two were on their way.
When you are on the interstate, you never know what you are going to run into. I try to stay prepared and have what I need to assist a motorist. Sometimes, all I can do is sit on the side of the road with my emergency lights on to warn other motorists, while other times I can actually help change a flat or be more useful.
http://www.centralokreact.org/
Karla had been having headaches for about a month, so her doctor sent her to a chiropractor. We found out today that she had a bad case of whiplash. Gee, it couldn’t be because of the three accidents she had at the end of 2010, two of which she totaled her car…could it? I am not trying to make light of her pain, but it doesn’t surprise me she has whiplash. The accidents she was involved in really tossed her head and neck around. The doctor did make some adjustments on her neck and head today and she told me she was feeling quite a bit of relief already. I am personally trying to better myself this year. I know I snore, so I am starting to use Breathe Right strips at night to see if that will help. I am also going to start using a humidifier, so the air in the house will not be so dry. I have been sleeping decent, but I still wake up two or three times during the night all stopped up. We will see if the Breather Right strips help or not.
Yesterday, I left the office at 4 pm and got on east bound I-40, heading to Best Buy to pay on a bill. As I got on the interstate, I noticed traffic was at a crawl. I assumed there was either an accident, or a stalled vehicle. On that segment of I-40, there is really no shoulder to pull off on if you have a flat, or car trouble. I turned on my CB radio, but got no information. As I got closer, traffic in the right-hand lane moved to the middle lane. Once traffic was clear, I saw a full-sized pick-up truck stalled in the right-hand lane. There was a lady standing beside the truck, on her cell phone. I was surprised that nobody had stopped to assist her. I turned on all my emergency lights and pulled in behind her truck (about two car lengths). As I got on my REACT radio and called for help, she walked up to my truck. She informed me she was out of gas and needed someone to give her a ride to a gas station.
The only problem was, we could not leave her truck on the interstate blocking the lane of traffic. I called OHP on my cell phone and they advised me someone had already called in about the stalled truck. I had the lady sit in her truck and I sat in my truck as we waited for OHP to arrive. Once he arrived, he decided to push her further down the interstate to a shoulder, just to get her off the interstate. Once on the shoulder, we sat and waited. One of my REACT team members was bringing gas to us. The OHP Trooper then advised me the lady’s license was suspended, so he did not want her to drive. He had another call to go to, otherwise, he would have arrested her. She contacted her grandmother to come get her, so the trooper left and myself and the other REACT unit stayed on the scene to wait on the grandmother. Eventually, grandma showed up and the two were on their way.
When you are on the interstate, you never know what you are going to run into. I try to stay prepared and have what I need to assist a motorist. Sometimes, all I can do is sit on the side of the road with my emergency lights on to warn other motorists, while other times I can actually help change a flat or be more useful.
http://www.centralokreact.org/
Monday, January 2, 2012
A Great 10 Days!
Well, as many of you can see, I took a 10 day vacation from many things, including blogging.
Today is my last day, so I am taking care of a few last minute things and getting myself psyched up for tomorrow. I had no real plans for today, except to do some laundry. So far, I have done 4 loads of laundry and made a trip to my office to check my emails and see what I had in store for tomorrow. I hate going back to work after being on vacation, just to find tons and tons of work on my desk and hundreds of unread emails. No, I didn't get paid to go into the office today, but it does give me piece of mind, knowing that tomorrow will be an easier day, especially since I took care of several things today.
I did enjoy my vacation. Here is a look back at what I accomplished while on vacation (not necessarily in order). I was able to clear all of our boxes out of the storage facility we were renting and move them to the storage building in our backyard. I moved all of the furniture from our storage building to the storage facility. Most of the furniture and stuff belonged to my sister-in-law, so she has agreed to start paying the rental fee. That's one goal that Karla and I had been reaching for....getting our stuff out of the storage rental and put it in our own storage building in our backyard....goal accomplished!!
Another goal of mine was to move as much stuff out of our garage into the backyard storage building as I could, so we would have enough room to park at least one vehicle in the garage. I spent an entire morning doing this and, once again, I accomplished my goal. Our backyard storage building is pretty full, but at least we don't have as much stuff in the garage. Plus, I threw away at least 6 large trash bags of junk. The stuff that was still good was donated to Goodwill. I made at least 4 trips to Goodwill and got rid of clothes, pots, pans, etc.
Once I accomplished these goals, I finally had the opportunity to rest a little. I never did get at at 5:30 in the morning while I was off work. I would set my alarm for 6 am and then decide (when the alarm went off) if I really wanted to get up or not. Most of the time I did get up early, just because I wanted to make the best use of my time.
I am not a fan of daytime TV, but I did enjoy watching Dr. Phil when I was at home doing chores. One thing I did not want to do was be a TV-aholic. I don't watch much TV anyway, so that wasn't a problem for me. I spent a lot of time on my laptop and spent lots of time on email and FB. When I wasn't home, I was usually running errands, or going to meetings. I did do a ride-a-long with fire station #25 on new Years Eve. It was ok, but we only had three medical runs, making it a rather boring evening. We did get to enjoy an afternoon and evening of football.....and pizza.....and queso and dip. The firefighters were wonderful to me, we just had no action.
I left the fire station at 10 pm and headed out to the streets of OKC. Several of us on my REACT team had decided to "patrol" the streets of OKC and watch for drunk drivers. It almost felt like patrolling for the neighborhood watch again. There wasn't much of anything going on, so I headed in at 12:30 am New Years Day. I spent most of New Year's Day eating, watching football and taking a nap. We also had a great worship service on New Year's Day.
Mom's birthday was yesterday, so we are going to my sister's house this evening for cake and ice cream. We are going to my sister's house because my brother-in-law is still very sick and can't travel.
I can safely say I am happy the holidays are over and I am ready for everything to get back to normal....and ready to get back to work.
www.centralokreact.org
Today is my last day, so I am taking care of a few last minute things and getting myself psyched up for tomorrow. I had no real plans for today, except to do some laundry. So far, I have done 4 loads of laundry and made a trip to my office to check my emails and see what I had in store for tomorrow. I hate going back to work after being on vacation, just to find tons and tons of work on my desk and hundreds of unread emails. No, I didn't get paid to go into the office today, but it does give me piece of mind, knowing that tomorrow will be an easier day, especially since I took care of several things today.
I did enjoy my vacation. Here is a look back at what I accomplished while on vacation (not necessarily in order). I was able to clear all of our boxes out of the storage facility we were renting and move them to the storage building in our backyard. I moved all of the furniture from our storage building to the storage facility. Most of the furniture and stuff belonged to my sister-in-law, so she has agreed to start paying the rental fee. That's one goal that Karla and I had been reaching for....getting our stuff out of the storage rental and put it in our own storage building in our backyard....goal accomplished!!
Another goal of mine was to move as much stuff out of our garage into the backyard storage building as I could, so we would have enough room to park at least one vehicle in the garage. I spent an entire morning doing this and, once again, I accomplished my goal. Our backyard storage building is pretty full, but at least we don't have as much stuff in the garage. Plus, I threw away at least 6 large trash bags of junk. The stuff that was still good was donated to Goodwill. I made at least 4 trips to Goodwill and got rid of clothes, pots, pans, etc.
Once I accomplished these goals, I finally had the opportunity to rest a little. I never did get at at 5:30 in the morning while I was off work. I would set my alarm for 6 am and then decide (when the alarm went off) if I really wanted to get up or not. Most of the time I did get up early, just because I wanted to make the best use of my time.
I am not a fan of daytime TV, but I did enjoy watching Dr. Phil when I was at home doing chores. One thing I did not want to do was be a TV-aholic. I don't watch much TV anyway, so that wasn't a problem for me. I spent a lot of time on my laptop and spent lots of time on email and FB. When I wasn't home, I was usually running errands, or going to meetings. I did do a ride-a-long with fire station #25 on new Years Eve. It was ok, but we only had three medical runs, making it a rather boring evening. We did get to enjoy an afternoon and evening of football.....and pizza.....and queso and dip. The firefighters were wonderful to me, we just had no action.
I left the fire station at 10 pm and headed out to the streets of OKC. Several of us on my REACT team had decided to "patrol" the streets of OKC and watch for drunk drivers. It almost felt like patrolling for the neighborhood watch again. There wasn't much of anything going on, so I headed in at 12:30 am New Years Day. I spent most of New Year's Day eating, watching football and taking a nap. We also had a great worship service on New Year's Day.
Mom's birthday was yesterday, so we are going to my sister's house this evening for cake and ice cream. We are going to my sister's house because my brother-in-law is still very sick and can't travel.
I can safely say I am happy the holidays are over and I am ready for everything to get back to normal....and ready to get back to work.
www.centralokreact.org
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)