The National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration stated that today’s high temperature was
around 27º F, with the low at 14º F. Would anyone care to take a stab as to
which end of the spectrum we were standing in at 0600 hours?
The wind was
relentless today. From our morning PT up until our final Tower run at around
1420 hrs, we felt like we were going to be blown right out a window. It was
cold, harsh, and louder than hell roaring through the brick windows. Our last
Tower was surreal; it was just a discordant medley of boots stomping, recruits
screaming at the top of their lungs, and the high-pitched moan from the wind. I
was so struck by the intensity of it all that I almost stopped in amazement on
the way down—I did realize at the last second that there were three of the
biggest recruits in the class behind me, and I would have been thrown like a
bowling pin had I come to a dead halt.
So rumor has it
that there’s three new paramedics showing up in the morning. I imagine they’ll
be a) in civilian clothes, and b) just as confused-looking as we were, so I’m
sure we’ll be able to spot them pretty easily.
According to
the Assistant Chief of EMS (whom we met today; he’s essentially the boss of all
the firefighter/paramedics), within DC Fire, we’re pretty much able to write
our own ticket once we’re released into the department. The Assistant Chief,
who is a paramedic/firefighter himself, says that he’s continually pulling for
his higher-ranking PM/FFs for any lateral move that they might want. Whether
that’s a transfer into the armed investigation unit, or a move to Special
Operations/Rescue, there’s a lot of people behind us dual-role providers.
Additionally,
DCFD has a standing agreement with the University of the District of Columbia
(UDC) that if I wanted to go back to school and earn my Master’s in Public
Administration (MPA) or even my MBA, the Department pays for it 100%; I only
pay for books. The classes can be during the day or at night, and they’re
staggered so that they fit into my 24hrs on/72hrs off schedule. DCFD has even sent
people to the National Fire Academy, or to Georgetown for their Certified
Public Manager certificate. There’s a lot that this job can offer me!
It was a very
uplifting day, mainly because of the excellent talk with the Boss Paramedic.
I was thinking
today that I haven’t updated my thisisby.us account in a while. The entire site is shutting
down on February 1st, 2009, and I’ll certainly miss it when it’s gone. I never
made enough money off the advertising revenue to make it worth my while, but I
enjoyed sharing my writing and having others on the site comment on it. I’ll
probably just keep the raw text of those posts around as filler; it’ll be a
nice throwback to the past! Besides, those stories are infinitely more gripping
than some of these posts about the Academy.
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