Saturday, August 14, 2010

What was I thinking?

Last vacation post, I promise (unless something interesting happens).
In the weeks preceding our vacation trip I was pretty busy and didn’t have much time to prepare, either my fishing gear, or myself. But I did mange to drop and email off to the Director of the local EMS agency here in vacationland and tell (ok, warn) him that we would be returning this week and I would like to stop by for a visit and/or chat. Last year he and I spent a pleasant half a day riding around in the fly car doing the agency chores and he showed me some of his bigger exposures while asking for my opinion on pre-plans and mitigation possibilities. I very much enjoyed the day, as well as the morning having breakfast with his crews. I’d like to think he got something out if it also, and certainly he was successful in recruiting me to attend an EMS conference in the fall where he was presenting and wanted some ‘friendly’s’ in the audience. (The presentation went well and he was gracious in including me on his discussion panel as ‘someone with good ideas that should be shared’.)
This year, in my pre-arrival email I asked what he thought about me grabbing a little ride time with one of his crews. I thought the experience in a different geography, hospital system, and EMS region might be helpful to me. He dropped me back a quick terse note stating that I was welcome to ride with them anytime I wanted, just show up..
What was I thinking? I am ON VACATION! More importantly, my wife and son are ON VACATION. The last thing they want is for me to say the same thing to them during this singular week of rest is “Hey, I gotta go”. Which is family speak for “I am on duty and I have to run this job.” I do this all the time at home. I think it would be a bad idea to start doing it here and now. It’s bad enough that I spent about 15 hours this week working on my lesson plans and research for the fall training sessions.
I know I was thinking that there would be a rainy day where bad weather would keep us off the water and nothing but reading a book would seem appealing. I thought that would be a good ‘ride day’. But we didn’t get that this week and my better half indicated that she expected me to ‘be around’ and ‘do some STUFF’ together (code words for ‘shopping’).
Going off to spend a day riding an ambulance or sitting in a station seems like a poor idea right now. The week is nearly done, the sun is still out, and I am out of time to fit this in. If I am lucky, I can run into town and see my buddy for a quick visit. I think he’ll understand.
Sometimes I come up with the stupidest ideas.
UU

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