I Tell Firefighters Where To Go

I had my first full day running the radio and answering phones. It was a blast! I am really liking the start of Phase 3. There is some comfort in knowing the days of having my calls evaluated and nitpicked behind me. I still make a lot of mistakes, forget to ask some questions, and still understand what the heck the caller is wanting to know. However, I'm still plugging along building those new skills.

There is a lot to be said about organization and routine and Fire Dispatching is very routine. You click on this channel and say this. You click on this button to page these pagers and then click here to sent an alert tone to the firemen. Then you once again click on this channel and say this. Once they say they are on their way you are good to go. I dispatched the fire trucks to seven calls yesterday. Five were medical calls, one was a trauma call, and one was a “man down” call meaning somebody was found lying on the ground. I didn't have any actual fire calls and when there is an actual fire, not just an alarm, things get busy fast. So more learning will come my way. In the meantime I'm going to soak it all in and continue to do my best. I know I am a solid dispatcher. I know I can build my skills to be that way again it just takes time and practice.

On a side note, I get to do my ride-a-long with the fire department next Wednesday. To say I am a little bit excited is an understatement. I am REALLY excited. I hope to be able to go on a call and ride in the fire truck.

In other news, I'm really sore from my activity yesterday. I raked leaves at 6am since that is the only time I had available. It was my late start yesterday and I wasn't to be to work until 9am. With my seven day stretch and then our Vegas trip there was just no time to tackle the many leaves that have fallen from our huge tree. There are still many more leaves to follow. Thankfully Kenyon got home from work and we were able to tag team it. We filled 12 bags of leaves in 68 minutes. Boy am I sore today and my back is a bit uncomfortable.

By 7:30am I had filled two of my three Apple Watch circles and it was telling me I had burned over 500 calories raking leaves. I still had my planned hour workout time at work so I did a leisurely walk on the treadmill while I watched a movie on my iPad. By the end of the day I had gotten the notification that I doubled my activity burning over 800 calories yesterday.

There is awards given to you for various things and there was an award for doubling your activity goal in a single. There is also triple and quadruple awards to be won. I'm wondering if we walk a lot of Vegas if I can earn that triple award. We shall see. I'm not in the shape I one was for walking all day and then walking for several days in a row. But since we both have Apple Watches it might be fun to rack up the activity.

Okay. I had better get myself ready for work. I have a 12-hour work day followed by a MS talk in Boise. It is going to be a long day but at the end of it...VEGAS! I have not even made my packing list yet. I think I'll just “wing it” and relax. After all, it's vacation.