Things to do in Vegas when you're dead - a holiday MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Saturday started out as usual. VWife and I did our usual ‘off to the Big City for provisions’ schtick, and for the first time we went to Franklin VA instead of Suffolk or Betsytown. This might become a regular, because Franklin is mildly closer than Suffolk, and definitely closer than Betsytown.

The big order of the day was the Christmas parade. I rode with the fire department, although I could have also gone with the rescue squad. I was in the basket of our ladder truck with The Jolly One hisself, and an 8 year old sweetie who was a niece of another department member. A good time; and we rotted a lot of kid’s teeth with all the candy that was thrown.

So, while the wife and I were putting away groceries, there was a rescue page just down the road from the VunderLair, and of late, nobody wanted to answer it. LorraineTheBabe was on duty at the station, and I always enjoy riding with her, both because of the eye candy but also because she’s one of the best EMTs we have. I invoked the 3 page rule, and called in. Conveniently, I live along the route she would take to the scene, so I met her on the corner. While I was standing out there waiting, my neighbor in the bed and breakfast asked me if I was out turning tricks. Smart ass.

The call came in as an older lady with bronchitis, having trouble breathing and feeling weak. When we got there, she was definitely having a rough time. LorraineTheBabe did a quick workup, and before we could load her up, we were part of a Pentacostal laying-on-of-the-hands. In retrospect, it probably was a good thing, because she was in serious trouble, and we didn’t know it yet.

About 10 miles into the trip (I was driving), LorraineTheBabe sticks her head through the door and says she called for Suffolk paramedics to meet us along the way, and I should stop at the fire station we pass to meet them. Uh oh… Our patient had a seriously whacked heart rhythm, and it was probably causing what her previous doctor thought was bronchitis. We picked up the paramedic, he got situated, and Lorraine took his truck since he was by himself. We got her to the hospital just fine.

We got back from that call just in time for VWife and I to leave for the parade. She was tickled because she could climb up to the cab of the ladder truck with a little help. As an aside, she got kicked out of rehab last week because her range of motion is better than before surgery…

The parade started around 3, and we were done at 4. That was cutting it close, because I had to be at the rescue station at 5, and for living in a wide spot in the road, traffic sucked. We just got back to the house and I got dressed. Just as I was reaching for my duffel to fill, there was a page for a sick call. OK, Lorraine is still at the station, and threre’s people to ride with her that were at the parade. I took Freya out to walk her, and there was another page for a wreck not too far from the sick call. Uh oh. I ran the dog in and blasted out the door because by definition, a 2nd page is always shorthanded.
About a mile down the road and there’s a third page, for a guy who fell from a roof, unconscious, and snoring :eek: The snoring meant obstructed airway…

Along the way, my buddy Eddie called me and redirected me from the wreck to the fall, and I was to get the truck for that one. When I got to the station, someone had beat me there, and the unit was gone. I went BOH in the NerdMobile to the scene, and along the way, I got a Service Engine light. Oh joy.

The patient way about a sixpack into roofing the shed he was building when he fell. He broke his wrist, hit his back on something on the way down, and was conscious when I got there. Fortunately, the helicopter was dispatched for the wreck and was in the area still when that turned out to be minor injuries treated at the scene. They diverted to us, and our inebriated carpenter was flown to Norfolk to the trauma center.

We wrapped that one up, and I went to the station. Steve the Barber was brought back the unit that went to the wreck, and I took it to go home and get my stuff that I never had time to pack.

About 3 miles down the road, another page, for a sick woman taking a fall in a gas station. I turned around, picked up Steve, and we went to get her.

This patient had a history of anemia, cancer, and high blood pressure. She said she wasn’t feeling good for a week, it got worse in the previus day, and when she went to the gas station, she felt faint and went down, hitting her head. She complained a lot, and was a miserable personality. We transported her to Betsytown, and decided that she’s likely to become one of our hypochondriac frequent flyers.

By this time, it was about 7 PM, and I was HUNGRY. I had Steve stop at a hole-in-the wall Chinese place so I could get something. I ordered and paid for it, when (you guessed it) we got paged again. I left without my damned food, too :mad: It was a long ride, because we were still in Betsytown, and 20+ miles to the wreck scene.

It was a humdinger, too. The guy was going waaaaaay to fast, got off the road into the mother of all ditches, and rolled his pickem up 200 feet into a pine nursery. The entire cab roof was 2 feet shorter and pushed a foot to the passenger side.

Steve and I were the second unit there, so he already had some people working on him. We finished trauma stripping him, and there were a couple of surprises, We left on his boxer shorts, but Mr. Happy kept peeking out to see what was happening. :wink: When Steve took off his shoes to take pedal pulses, he was greeted with 10 toenails painted a very bright red… I covered up his naughty bits, and left the unit to search for possible ejected victims; it was quite crowded in there.

In a 3 hour span, I loaded the helicopter twice. For the 24 hour period of Saturday, there were 8 calls total, with me working 3, and two periods where all 3 units were out making runs.

But that’s not all. I took yet another one last night, for a lady with sciatica so bad her leg was partially paralyzed. I sat in the ambulance 20 minutes waiting for a partner to go along, because I can’t ride alone :mad:
Oh, one other thing: Little baby Cheyenne, the bun in the oven from the “Bob is gay” story was born Friday, on her due date. Seven lbs, 12 oz., 20 inches long, and everthing in their proper place. I stopped by yesterday to inspect her toes… :slight_smile:

22

Gambling doesn’t interest me in the slightest so the casinos were pretty much wasted on me. Gill and 'im indoors spent a bit of time messing around with some of the machines and one of the other guys decided to play in a poker tournament which he enjoyed but lost out in the final nine. Other than that, I don’t think many people did much gambling.

To be honest, we had a couple of days in Vegas to get over the flight then we went rafting and had a few days afterwards to recover - so most of us had essentially booked a rafting trip with bonus Vegas shows either side!

We went to see “O”, “Ka” and “Zumanity” which were all good but “O” was by far the best - some of the others also found time to catch Celine Dion’s show but us three anti-social gits opted for a fun night out doing other things instead.

23

Cirque Du Soleil is awesome. Great pictures! I’m sure you feel all jet-lagged.

Bob, you’re wonderful. And so are your stories.

My house is a lot less full of stuff, but strangely not tidy, because everything in closets and shelves got pulled out and I haven’t finished organizing. That’s today’s task, along with batch-cooking chicken curry, and putting all of the baby’s things through the wash.

Parents of the MMP, how likely is it that my child will be extremely allergic to my minimally-scented high efficiency detergent, and should I paranoidly get some stupid overpriced baby-specific laundry stuff instead?

Oof, I’m tired. Miserable coughing night. I think I’m buying nice safe knock-out cough medicine for tonight. I do not want to be up till three coughing again.

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Bob - awww, baby toes! Squee!

Today I had an interesting conversation with one of my students:

Student: I didn’t plagiarize my paper.
Me: Er … :: points to URL I’ve written on top of paper :: I think you did.
Student: No, no, my SISTER plagiarized my paper.
Me: …
Student: I asked her to help me write it, and she just copied it. I didn’t know.
Me: … You do know that having your sister write your paper is still plagiarism, right?
Student: But I didn’t know she was going to do that!
Me: :: wonders what I have done in a past life to deserve this ::

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Rosie, no need to set your editor’s pen to that last tale. I reread it, and saw every last one of my grammatic blunders…

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Whatever it was that you did, you’re certainly atoning now. It must have been bad. Biting the heads off kittens or something.
:wink:

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My sister plagiarized my paper. Ranks right up there with the dog ate my homework. :rolleyes:

BBBobbio yep, you were right. I loved that one! Hee! Painted toenails. I’m kinda wonderin’… do you see an increase in calls this time of year? Also, it’s nice to know that drunk carpentery is practiced in other parts of the country. Nuttin’ says fun like climbin’ up on a roof with a cooler of beer, roofing tiles and nails,and a hammer. :dubious: Yay for baby Cheyenne! Were you introduced as her “Gay Uncle Bob”? :smiley:

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Fun OP, BooFae, and it’s good to have you back. Vegas is a lot of fun even if you don’t gamble, isn’t it? It brings back lots of fun memories. I used to have to go there for work, and was chronically short on funds, so I used to go out and see the town and the surrounding area. (I was able to drive up from LA, so I had my car available.) Nearly the only gambling I’d do was in places like the drugstore or the carwash, where there were video poker machines everywhere. I made enough to pay for my drugstore purchase, and I made a $5 profit at the carwash after paying. :slight_smile: But mostly I remember the wonderful knitting shop and bookstore, and best of all, Hoover Dam, which we were able to visit back in the days when you still got to go down inside the dam.

As for the Big Ditch, however, the only time I saw that was with the family when Young Tiger was 11 or so, and he scared at least 20 years off my life dancing around the edges of the canyon. He was a very active child, and he’d go around the protective fences and make me insane with worry. Someday I’ll have to visit it when I can enjoy it because that day was probably the single most frightening in my entire maternal career!

Haze, your student stories are hugely entertaining. For us, if not for you!

You do have an eventful life, don’t you Bobbio? I hope your neighbors are properly grateful for you and what you and your fellow volunteers do!

I’m up and contemplating working this morning. Only contemplating thus far, but at least I slept well and feel pretty decent this morning. It’s warmer today, so hopefully I won’t freeze my behind off taking Isaac out to play. Although the weather forecast is for showers, so who knows.

Speaking of Idiots, yesterday Papa Tigs took the Idiots to the school yard, and dear Rusty first had a wonderful time being a dog and sniffing deer trails through the little patch of woods next to the yard, and then proceeded to start digging up golf balls. :dubious: Stupid dog dug up several. Why golf balls, we have no idea. But he was acting like a dog (as Papa Tigs says, “Why not? He’s acted like just about every other animal out there”), so I guess we shouldn’t complain.

Okay, back to coffee and contemplating my navel or something.

29

Wow, VBob - what a weekend! You sure have an exciting life for living out in the boonies!

Thanks for your hard work.

30

I don’t know the odds of tinyninja being allergic but baby skin IS very tender. But don’t buy the pricey baby-specific stuff, just look for the dye and fragrance free detergents. I buy the Cheer Free because Mr. Anachi is sensitive. There are other brands as well. Then, can you cycle your washer for a double rinse? No biggie if you can’t. That should be safe enough.

bobbio, sounds like a busy weekend. Are you an adrenalin junkie??? :wink:

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VBob - Now that there is a busy and interesting weekend. At least you can never say you’re bored. :smiley: But the universe messing with you? That was the polished toenails. This was the universe going, “Hey, watch this for a laugh.”

But you know it’s these unexpected little bits that ultimately keep you sane. :slight_smile:

Hank - HA! The URL at the top of the page is just priceless. I can’t decide if it was this, or the fact that he thought he was off the hook because it was his sister that plagiarized the paper that he was supposed to write, that was worse.

That’s like those drug dealers you hear calling the cops because someone stole their stash. Somewhere in that head is this bizarre notion that the one crime overrules the other, so it’s okay to complain to the authorities about it.

:rolleyes:

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Oh, the URL wasn’t printed on the page. (My student’s aren’t THAT stupid. I think.) I found the website and wrote it on the paper myself. I did that with all the plagiarized papers.

The thing is that this student has been caught plagiarizing before. Her sister wrote another one of her papers for her. I could tell she hadn’t written it though, so I marked it as an F with a “I know you didn’t write this” comment in the margin. :rolleyes: I don’t know why she thought she’d get away with it this time around. You’d think they’d learn.

33

The first time I went to Vegas it was for work, and I wasn’t really expecting to like it. I don’t gamble; I’m not a stay-up-and-drink-and-party kind of person; I don’t generally enjoy crowds and noise. But I LOVED it. I absolutely had a blast. There’s so much to do and see without ever touching a slot machine or black jack table. If nothing else, I could just stand and watch the Bellagio fountains for hours.

That’s a crazy weekend, bobbio! It’s really good that you do all of that. I grew up in an area that had volunteer fire fighters and EMTs, and it’s a tough job, but it’s so important. So thanks.

Good weekend here. My church had a progressive dinner on Saturday night. We started with appetizers at the church then went to different houses for salads and on to other houses for dinner and then to the minister’s house for desserts. I only got lost once and that wasn’t so much lost as just on the wrong road, two roads west of the one I was supposed to be on. Who names two roads that are parallel and less than a mile apart Woodland and Woodhill?? Bah! I got where I was going just fine, but I was annoyed that I’d turned on to the wrong Wood-related road.

Yesterday was our first anniversary so we went out for a nice dinner to celebrate. We tried out Fogo de Chao, which is a chain Brazilian steakhouse. What’s cool about it is that they continually bring around a ton of different types of meat on giant skewers and you tell them which kinds you want. So we had parmesan pork, garlic beef, top sirloin, bottom sirloin, some sort of Brazilian sausage, and other stuff that I don’t remember. And a huge and incredible salad bar that puts all other salad bars to shame. If there’s one near you, I definitely recommend trying it, but with the caveat that it’s a special occasion type place - without drinks or dessert, it’s about $50/person. But very fun.

And then we watched the Holidazzle. It’s this rather odd Minneapolis tradition of having a parade every Thurs.-Sun. night from Thanksgiving until Christmas. In case you’re not aware of this fact, it’s frickin’ freezing in Minneapolis in December. Not exactly sure who thought a parade was a good idea, but there you go. But we watched from the Skyway (aka the Human Habitrail) so we were nice and toasty. The parade was a bit cheesy, but at least we’ve seen it once so we know what it’s all about.

34

Oh, yes. The Wonder Washer will even do timed delay second rinses and stuff. I’ll just wash it and then run it through a second time, and next time I’m shopping I’ll look for a frangrance-free store brand High Efficiency detergent.
Time to dig through the freezer and uncover all Mr. Lissar’s packed lunches so I can stick the week’s supply in the fridge. And have space to put cooked food in after thr freezer’s a bit cleared out.

35

Taxi, I’ve been to the one in Atlanta. Best salad bar I have ever seen! All the food was good and that was the first time I ever had a chocolate martini. Thank goodness my boss-at-the-time picked up the tab!

I’ve never been out west. I would love to go to Vegas to see the shows and sight-see; I’m not much of a gambler.

I did read the end of last week’s MMP last night; I just didn’t feel at all well and went to bed early. I am feeling better today - thankfully, 'cause I have to work 4-10.

Love the EMT stories, BBBobbio! All of my uncles were paramedics/firefighters and they usually had great stories to tell!

Off to get ready for work…

36

Forgive me, Hazel, but I am over here laughing fit to bust over the stupidity of your students. Is cheating like this rampant now? I do remember a few kids trying to copy stuff (usually from World Book) when I was younger, but I suppose with the internet…
I know of a kid who copied a paper for AP English–for some reason this offends me mightily. (not that any cheating is good). She is dropping the course at semester and rightly so–she could have been kicked out of HS. :eek: Her mother is more like “what is the big deal?” which took me aback a great deal, until I thought about it and realized that from her perspective–her older daughter (age 20) is pregnant, works at a movie theater and is barely hanging on at community college–that younger daughter’s inappropriate behavior doesn’t loom all that large for her at present. (I do not agree with this mom, just relating the story).

I just got back from the eye doctor and [del] here, have some glasses; they’ll only cost you about the same as your car note or mortgage[/del]Lenscrafters. Even with the 40% discount via blue cross/blue shield, the cost was insane. But #1 son must have glasses–his Rx changed and also he lost one of his lenses sledding over the weekend.

Great OP, BooFae!–was it neat to see such a different environment than UK? I don’t think you all have any big holes in the ground, do you? I’ve never been to Vegas; I went to the GC when I was 3. Glad you had a nice time.

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Only intellectually. I’ve never been there. Yet.

You have no bloody idea. Once I clear my head of linguistics I’ll share The Reasons I Fired 2007 with you all. I’ve dropped hints here and there around the boards, but I haven’t collected them into one big pink slip yet.

But first: video game time to clear the literature review from my brain so I can go on with the analysis. Halfway there!

38

Right now I’m trying to avoid reconciling my bank statements. Because, you see, between all my financial stuff, I’ve got about NINE things to reconcile.

Interesting and busy story, VBob.

Haze, one of my employees also teaches some kind of English/writing skills class. We also get lots of goofy stories, but no plagarism. I wonder if that has occured to her to look for that. She’s not really a computer/internet person, so maybe I’ll have to mention it to her.

39

I haven’t been to Vegas in a while, and since I don’t drink or gamble any more, I don’t know if I’m willing to make the trip just to see Cirque du Soleil again. My first trip to Las Vegas as an adult, I couldn’t stop giggling, it was so over the top. I thought it was hilarious. I stayed at the Luxor in the pyramid. That was very cool.

When I lived in Arizona, we had multiple field trips to the South Rim. I’d like to visit the North Rim sometime, too.

I got rid of 4 garbage bags of stuff this weekend. I’m very proud of myself. It didn’t make much of a dent in my stuff, but there are places where the floor or furniture is visible now. I’ve decided that if I go slowly enough, I can get accustomed to it, instead of doing it all at once and panicking afterwards.

40

Shadow yay for you gettin’ rid of stuff! Look, it’s tough for you to do and it took you a long time to get all this stuff, so why shouldn’t it take a while to get rid of it? Go at your own pace, I say. And YAAAAAAY again on what you did over the weekend. Sounds like a big step to me!

I’ve been doing some online (on-line?) training today. My brain feels numb. Got me some good learnin’ though, so there is that. :smiley: What am I learnin’ up on you ask? Would you believe insurance? Yep.

Ok, time for a refreshment (non-alcoholic, of course, cause I’m learnin’ up here) and then gettin’ back to it. I wanna finish up this first part this afternoon cause, well, I started it so now I wanna finish.

Later Y’all!