Saturday, January 2, 2010

firefighters and erratic rationality

I should be working on my next article for the Fire and EMS Quarterly . . . that would be the rational thing to do, seeing that it's due in 17 days and the skeletal outline is not much more than a skull, a femur, and a tibia . . . but firefighters, freelance writers, and residents of Northwestern Ontario are not famous for their rationality. I'm all three of those things, so I'm writing in my blog, which makes no money and is a lot of fun, instead of the article, which makes a little money and is a little fun. Following that thread of logic, I wonder if JK Rowling had no fun at all. You know . . . no money = lots of fun, a little money = a little fun, train loads of money = no fun.

Go ahead and say it. My logic = my rationality.

Just when you think firefighters have encountered every kind of bizarre situation possible, you find out you're wrong. Take these guys in Utah for example. I've rescued dogs, cats, sheep, and cows. I have a friend that did CPR on a fish. I'm sure other firefighters have helped gobs of weird creatures. This is the first time I've heard of anyone resuscitating pythons. Next thing you know, someone will want me to do mouth-to-mouth on a rattlesnake.

In Ontario, and probably most of the firefighting world, firefighters are excluded from the "right to refuse dangerous work" legislation that applies to the average employee. The lawmakers figure you knew that crawling into burning buildings was nutty when you signed up, and once you're at the scene and the job needs doing, it's kind of too late to reconsider. I'm just glad that the nearest rattlesnake is in the Winnipeg zoo . . . 560 km away and too far for a Mutual Aid run.

I'm not much into politics or world affairs, and I don't use much blog space talking about them, but when I read about wackos going on the warpath because their religious feelings are hurt, it gets my goat. I may be a wacko occasionally, and I might be considered religious by some, but it's the warpath thing that really bugs me. My advice to these folks? Be crazy, be religious, and learn to laugh at yourself.

The "experts" on blogging say it doesn't matter how often you post as long as you post consistently. I have a kind of half-way (sort of maybe partly) consistent habit of posting a couple times a week. Today, I've invaded cyberspace for the third time in four days. All that to say, don't be deceived into thinking I'm going to change my erratic ways and start writing daily. Sorry, I know it breaks your heart, but it just ain't gonna happen. As you can see, I'm a stickler for good grammar too.

I'd better buckle down and put some meat on that skeletal outline of an article. Even erratic bloggers have rational bills to pay.

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