2 years ago

Two years ago tonight anyone involved with emergency services in the West Union area listening to the Clark County dispatch channel heard on the radio "We've had an accident and I can't find my patient."  Everyone  went "OH (insert word of choice) !" and lit running.

I was in the first firetruck on scene.  At first it didn't look that bad ... until you started paying closer attention. It was the most massive, well equipped, over staffed response to an accident in recent history. It was a classic example of everyone in two counties working together, doing everything they could ... and still not accomplishing what they wanted to happen.

 We lost an EMT / Paramedic that night.  To be honest we lost the heart of the West Union Ambulance Service.  I wrote recently about unintended consequences.  We're still feeling the consequences of this accident.

 It hurts to say it, but I fear we as a community have let Rick's memory down.  It is tough.  I KNOW it is tough.  Because he was a brother / friend / mentor / boss / co-worker. I'm fairly confident he would tell us to get our ___ together and do what we were trained to do.  And get more training.

And evangelize.

I realize that is not the normal use of the word.  But to be honest Rick evangelized the ambulance service.  He got more people involved, heled more people get trained, encouraged more people to be an EMT or Paramedic than anyone I know.


We had folks in training that have never gone back.  We've had folks leave the positions they held with the service.  I'm told some EMT's still won't get back in an ambulance.  We have failed to evangelize ... to interest and involve and train and encourage new people.

I understand.  I really do. Because last winter I took a First Responder class.  Not even basic EMT, just a class on what do I have to do to try and keep you alive until someone gets there who knows something.  Looking at that one class and extrapolating on to EMT and Paramedic the commitment required is almost staggering.  The education and training and time and effort and even money involved just to be a volunteer will cause the normal person to lose interest.

But then again, normal folks don't do stuff like this.

Rick would have been the first to tell you he wasn't normal.  What he would not have told you was he was extraordinary.

If you are reading this and have any inkling of an interest in starting down this long road of emergency services I want to encourage you.  If you say "I just can't because ____" I won't argue with you.  But I'll toss another idea your way.  If you can't do it support someone who is.

For instance, I know a woman in West Union right now studying to be an EMT.  She is driving to Grayville, Illinois twice a week for classes. The financial cost of just going to class, not counting the cost of the education, is staggering.  Find someone like that and sponsor them. Or at least support them.  Slip them a little cash just to help with their expenses. Or if you can afford it underwrite their class expense. Start your own scholarship program.

Rick would be proud of you.

Unintended consequences

I've had this phrase rattling around in my head for a few days so I thought I'd let it get out before it hurt itself. Unintended consequences.  Sometimes we are our own worst enemies, saying or doing things without really thinking them through.  I know I'm guilty of it.  And sometimes I'm not guilty of that so much as not explaining things to others.  I'll use a recent business decision as an example.

A couple years or so ago I bought a Ford F550 truck and gooseneck trailer.

Great truck.  Pretty much did everything I asked as long as mud wasn't involved. ( A friend told me several years ago a 4 wheel drive truck will get me stuck when I'm driving a 2 wheel drive truck.  He was right.) It was great for the seed business  Aman could put 4 seed boxes on it to deliver, haul several with the trailer.  It pulled our camper like it wasn't back there.  But the more I drove it the more I felt that while I enjoyed it, it was not the best vehicle for us from a business standpoint.

Plates cost me about $300 per year.  Insurance on it and the trailer is about $580 a year.  And then there is maintenance.  I think it costs over $50 a year just for the safety tests.  I was spending close to $1000 a year before I turned the steering wheel.  I could sell the truck and trailer and buy a used semi trailer to haul more weight easier.  Plates for a semi trailer are almost free (the money is in the semi-tractor plates).  Or I could do a little modification and pull the gooseneck trailer with a semi-tractor.  Or put a ball hitch in the bed of Mom's truck.  Several possibilities.

A friend told me if I ever wanted to sell it he was interested.  So last week I sold it to him and listed the trailer on a couple online classified sites.  I mentioned unintended consequences? I hadn't really talked this through with Aman.  He saw his seed delivery system going down the road.  Kind of shook him up for a couple days until I explained my idea.

And then there are some other unintended consequences.  I forgot I had committed the trailer to use as a stage October 31 for Light the Night at church.  It isn't sold yet ... but how do I get it there?  More unintended consequences.  And come reunion time next year I don't think the little Dodge will pull my camper very well.  But we'll figure out something.

All this got me to thinking about how often we do things and there are consequences we never thought about.  Silly stuff like the time I cut the tree limb and it fell on the flashing light on the bucket truck.  Or important stuff like how my actions will affect others.  I guess it's been rattling around in my head because I have seen too many folks recently doing things like that, not thinking how what they do is going to affect someone else.  And I so want to NOT do dumb stuff like that.

Summer's over

if you look closely at the photo at the top of the page you'll notice it is that time of year again.  The setting sun is directly down the east and west roads.

Summer is over.

Not that  you can tell it THIS year.  We are done with corn harvest and a couple days from having all fall tillage done until we cut beans.  Oh, and Pup is in love.

Put him in the Magnum with an 11 shank Soil Saver and keep bringing him food.

Oh ---------------------------------------------------------------- !

No, not any pictures.

There is a pipe we put in as a culvert down on the church road.  Probably a 12 - 18" pipe.  Makes a really nice culvert.  I haven't a clue where Dad got it.  I hate it with a passion.

I know, hating an inanimate object is stupid.

I don't care.

My dislike for this pipe goes clear back to the day we put it in.  I was running the loader tractor and Dad was doing the ground work.  He bent over to pick up a log chain and almost passed out.   I convinced him he needed to go see a Dr.  Which led to the first diagnosis of colon cancer.

My relationship with that stupid pipe had gone downhill ever since.

I was mowing a couple years ago and caught the wheel on the Bush Hog

in the end of the pipe.  Jerked the end off the arm and left the wheels in the ditch.  With a rain coming.  Steve Lindley came along and helped me carry the back end of the mower with the loader to the shop.

And today I was mowing roads while waiting on a corn truck to get full (did I mention you can get 46 acres of corn on one truck this fall?) and was watching the light pole when I should have been watching the stupid pipe.  Ruined an 11.00-16 12 ply 4 rib tire.

At least $200 shot to pieces.

EDIT:  Ummm ... I guessed wrong.  $482.01 and there was no service call involved!

I told Mom later I was ready to dig the ^&%## pipe out.  She said go ahead..

I'm really tempted.

Bought another house

Yes, the rumors are true, we bought another house.   Well, sort of.  I won't go into the details online, but basically we are getting the property in exchange for taking care of removing the house.  It sets just east of the Community Center in front of Nash's

It's the area outlined in yellow.  We own what is outlined in red, and farm the ground beside  and across the road from it.  From the ground it looks more like this:

Our plans are to remove the house and make a driveway back to the field.  The house is way beyond repair.  It might have been fixable if the basement wall had not collapsed

The photo really doesn't do it justice.  The actual wall is under about 3 feet of dirt here.The cost of fixing that would have been expensive, but do-able if the rest of the house was not in such bad repair.  For instance, there is a large hole in the roof ... maybe a couple now that I think about it. The big hole was above this cabinet they had stored player piano rolls in

Well, sort of above it. Directly above was an upstairs closet, the old roof, and a roof for an addition all above this. The closet to the left of this was directly above that cabinet upstairs

The coon and 'possum left when people started digging around in the stuff.  I took ownership never having been in the house. I had been told how bad it was, and since our plans were to remove it, the condition did not matter.  A friend would really like to fix it up.  Her husband and I went through it one afternoon.

If you look closely you'll see the window in the picture is totally missing.  Nobody knows for how long.  He came to the conclusion I was right, it was beyond fixing.  We are tossing around a couple other ideas.

Everyone who has been in the house has commented on the amount of ... stuff ... left.  Keep in mind after Cindy died John took truck loads of things to various auction houses and sold them.  He remarried and when John died his widow and her family took everything they wanted, several pickup loads.  Then Knowles came in and took enough stuff for two sales at their place. After that a couple ... I'll use the term "pickers" have gone through what was left.  And then someone else has gone through and pulled anything they felt was worth scrapping out of the buildings.  I haven't been inside since they finished, but I know there is still an incredible amount of stuff left.

To be honest I'd love to have a house there.  Especially during irrigation season.  It would be great to be a quick ATV ride from the irrigators.  And there is a bit of nostalgia.  When we came back home from college our first home was across the road.  But I doubt that will happen.

Weird happenings

Most folks wouldn't believe it and those who know me wouldn't be surprised.  What is "it"?  Weird happenings. I've actually written this in my head several times, but it seems to run away by the time I get to a keyboard.  Probably just as well.

For instance Sunday we did our usual eat lunch at the West Union Cafe with Mom and friends. I had driven to church in the truck because I turned off an irrigator on the way in. We went to the cafe together then went back and got my truck afterwards.  I'm driving down main street and notice all the little orange flags marking the phone lines are going nuts.  Just as I get to where I can see the front of the cafe I see an umbrella fly up on the roof.

This is not just ANY umbrella.  Kaycee and Cheryl put picnic tables out front with probably 8 foot diameter umbrellas over them.  Patio umbrellas, that's the word I'm looking for.

So I decide to stop.  I find Joy Gilaspy and a friend holding on to the other one so it doesn't fly away. Joy a kid.  Little Joy.   I'm thinking "one more gust of wind and this could get interesting." What I didn't see was the other kid's dad under the umbrella trying to crank it down. So we get it cranked down and put inside.  I REALLY wish I'd had the camera ready to take a picture of Kaycee's face when I motioned for her to come outside or when she saw it.

I seem to attract odd things like this at times.  Maybe I should start my own X-File

Just playing

Sunday we had a church pool party at Tom and Charlotte Brown's.  They built their own water slide. 
No, I didn't.  But I got several photos

Some with kids.

and others

and of course we had food