Artsie Fartsie

I have, for as long as I can remember, been very "into" music. In every way. I love to listen to good music. I like rock, some country, jazz, blues, some hard rock, some ska, fusion and pretty much whatever. I am not picky on style. I can only handle so much hard driving heavy metal, then i just need an ibuprofen or 2 to control the throb in my head. Rap to me is NOT music. It is simply a way for people who cannot sing to express their opinion. I am OK with that, they can have it. I just do not listen to it. I feel I am pretty eclectic when it comes to my listening habits. While I have openly detested country music over the years, I find myself enjoying some of it more and more. I like a song to tell me a story, make me think of what is valuable to me...things like family, faith and the future.
I have never been a very artsie fartsie kind of person. I am not into poetry or modern art. I have avoided it to some degree. But, I do recognize the need for it in society. it makes people look introspectively. I recently took part in an event at my church called "The First Poel remastered". We did one similar a few years ago and it went well, but we decided to do it again with a slightly different feel. My son, Sam, was asked to participate as the sole child in the event. I felt honored that he was asked. He has a history of being very talented and capable of public speaking. He was to be the little drummer boy. We were to help him write his own script. It was kind of a modern spin on a classic story. I procrastinated writing it, but in the end it was pretty good. He did an amazing job with the delivery. I was very proud of him. He memorized the whole thing. Every adult who had a part in it brought a copy of their poem with them to the stage. Sammy did not. He made it a point to have it down before ever taking the stage. I was amazed.
As I get older, I more so appreciate the arts. While they have always been a big part of my life, I find myself being more open to new forms. I look forward to see what my kids will do with the arts. I am hopeful. My eldest daughter plays bass guitar and can harmonize like no one else. She can hear harmony and sing it with the best of them. She is only 11 years old! I am sure she will go as far as she wants with that talent. Molly, my baby, pretty much sings al day long. As she learns control, she will to be a force to be recconed with. Yep, someday we will have our own theatre in Branson! HAHA! or not...

Hello?

Just visiting, seeing if there are any comments here. Guess not. On and on I go, bantering about my life. Well I am going back to LaCygne to work. After many weeks of hard thinking, I decided to drop out of the race for the supervisor job in Crawford County. I decided that I really do not want the headaches. I work my shift up north, then I go home. I can work a few hours down here to fill my time and make extra money, then just go home....no beeper, no one calling. Pretty great deal. So I am content! WOW! How did that happen? If you have never had a job where you carry a pager around and your employer pretty much calls you in everyday, then you do not realize the significance of NOT having one to carry. The past year has been pretty cool in that my income has risen, my stress has gone down and I am not working as hard. I pulled a shift at the Pittsburg station yesterday, we ran from 9am till 7pm non stop. I ran more calls in 1 12 hour shift yesterday than I have in a month in LaCygne! Big difference. Well, till next time. DJ

And the point is?

I swear that some people just like to hear themselves talk. I work with a guy who has an opinion about pretty much everything. He is also very willing to share it even if you never ask. He also has a lot of great ideas on how to get rich, but never puts legs to them, therefore is living under the thumb of having to work for someone else the rest of his life. I have a goal of being independent of any employer by the time I am 40. I will be there in 4 years. I truly hope to capitalize on some of my own business ideas and be able to support my family without having to punch a clock. While I do enjoy being able to help people, I do eventually want to get out of EMS.

Why not just conform to the norm and hold down a job like the rest of the world? I don't know...I just know that this country was founded on people who would not accept the norm, people who refused to be told what to do and who and how to worship. Some call it rebellion, I just call it an adventurous spirit. ironically I am posting this to my blog while at work on an 84 hour stretch after being told I have to pick a shift extra to work or I would be drafted...hence my desire to change the situation. Till next time... DJ

What is normal?

Many people in America work an 8-5 job. Home in the evenings and to bed by 10 without another thought to the day that has passed. My week is a bit different. Bear in mind that this month is supposed to be my "normal" month. What is normal? For me it is a schedule of 48 hours on shift and 96 hours off. This gives me about 8 hours of overtime each week. While it is not a bad living, it tends to not quite make the grade as far as making the bills go away. Lets face it, life can be very expensive. Dr. Bills, house payment, you name it. Thus, I work another job. I work part time for my former employer, Crawford Co. EMS. They need help and I have some free time while my kids are in school. I am also running around doing different business things.
This week I worked Sunday night 12 hrs, Monday I worked on eBay stuff, shipping, organizing, etc...Then had to go to work that night cuz a guy at works wife went into labor. I ran down a repo job first then I worked from 8p till 6am. Tuesday I started by driving home and then to the church where I led chappel at my kids school. That was fun. I then went home and began to clean out my garage. I went to work Tuesday night at 8 and got off at 6am so I could make it to work in Lacygne by 0800. I get off at 0800 Friday morning and go strait to Chanute to watch my kids play soccer in freezing temps. (hope for rain). Saturday I have a setup for my PA system business. I have to set up a PA and lighting for a student association event. I have guys coming Saturday afternoon to jam. It is like therapy. Then my week starts over Sunday night. I work from 8pm Sunday till 8am Thursday morning. Then I work 8pm Thursday to 5pm on Friday. Whew! Then I have Friday and Saturday off. I think I will just hang out at home. Maybe have a garage sale.

So what is normal? I have NO idea....DJ

My paid prison

Not to complain, but I have been at work for the past 60 jours and have 36 yet to go. Due to scheduling conflicts and our department being down a medic, it has this week created the need for me to work 2 back to back 48 hour shifts. That is 96 strait hours. I have never done that before. So far, we have not run any calls. We have not done anything but clean around the quarters. I am in my little room today. It is like a 13X13 cell with internet, digital tv and playstation. It is kind of like one of those white collar prisons. Where those criminals go that commit non violent crimes of a financial matter. While the key difference is that I am being paid overtime as of midnight last night. That makes it all worth it. If I were a single man, I would do this al the time. But I am not, I am a man with a beautiful wife and 3 incredible kids at home. I miss them. I really cannot wait to get home. Only 34 more hours to go.....

Another bump...

Well, the word came down...a guy who has only been a medic for a year and only applied for the supervisor job in Linn county 1 week before the interviews got the job. Why? I am not sure. Everyone thought I would be a shoe in. I had the other two supervisors rooting for me. While I am not happy with this turn of events, it really does not matter. I know God has a plan, no matter how much I try to alter it, He is in control. He is ultimately in charge of my destiny.

On to politics....I have never been very outspoken about my political views. This election however has brought out my opinions in a way that has never before been seen. I was undecided until after the democratic national convention. While Barak Obama had a lot of good things to say, I am convinced that that is all it was, a speech. I do not believe that he really knows what to do. Good plans are one thing, but having the know how to impliment them is another. I am a fan of the McCain-Palin ticket. John McCain has been in politics for many years, he fights for what is right for the country as a whole not for lobbyists. Sarah Palin has proven herself to be a strong leader both as a mother and governor. My respect lies with her. While I think that vice president is a step down for her, I think she will do good things for the country. Bush is an idiot, he has no idea how to run a country and needed to be impeached 5 years ago. I know far too many people who have been to Iraq who still have no idea why we are there. While I do not think it is a good idea to pull out of Iraq, I do think we need to begin to have our presence there become more functional. Why are wew paying to rebuild a country that we blew up? Why do we not make THEM pay for the rebuild. Make them do the work, while we concentrate our forced on border patrol and aiming our guns at the murderous killers who sneak in to kill americans. Send a few hundred special forces troops into Iran to shoot their radical islamic president and park a few hundred nuclear warheads at their border. Send them a message that says... If you do not stop making bombs, we will deliver one to you...personally. Blow up Tehran with a 100 megaton bomb, wipe out anyone who chooses to stay and make Iran a resort town for american tourists! For a people who claim to be a peaceful religion, those muslims sure tend to lean toward violence. You cannot meet agression with weakness!

I say vote in McCain, let him lead the military into right decisions, bring home our troops and strengthen our borders against illegal immigration. I am all for anyone who wants to enter our counrty to better themselves, just do it by the book. Send ALL illegals back to their respective countries. Make a policy of no return for the first offense. If you are caught illegally, you can NEVER come back. If you are caught again, you go to prison. They should be forced to work building windmills to be put up all over the midwest to power the future.

Ok, stepping down now...I am sure no one is reading this anymore at thispoint. If so, great. Now you too can disagree with me...DJ

Giggin again

I have been a mobile DJ on a part time basis for about 10 years. I stopped for a while, but decided to get back into it to make extra cash. I figure, I got all of the gear, may as well let it make money for me...right? Anyway, this weekend, my son helped me out with one. He is 9. I pretty much set up everything, but he helped by running the lights. He played on my laptop at times, but mainly he just danced around behind the DJ booth and made me laugh. He does this "robot" dance that is just hysterical. We had fun. However, it wound up going later than we thought. We did not leave until 1am. I had to be at work this morning in Pleasanton at 5:30. This means that I would get to bed around 2 and get up again around 4 to be there on time. So I decided just to stay up and drive up to Pleasanton last night. That was a long drive. I really love it whenm my kids want to hang out with me while doing some of these gigs. I really hope they move on and get a degree in nuclear medicine or something and never have to rely uon doing this kind of work. I don't consider it work though. I am a freak for music gear and love every aspect of sound system design and installation. I wold really love having a business that does that....oh wait..I do! HAHA. Yet another thing I find myself doing....till next time. DJ

Going home

Well, here I am at the end of my LONG week... only 24 more hours and I get to go home! I look forward to just bing home. I have some recording projects I want to do, I need to paint my barns and just chill with my kids. I am off till next Sunday. Then it all starts again. Back to work. Hopefully my schedule will ease up soon. The whole "supervisor" thing is also looming. I am not sure how it will go, but I am optomistic. I look forward to spending some time with my family, playing games with my kids and just being home. DJ

A week to remember

Well, my week has been insane. From Sunday to Sunday, this week I will have worked 120 hours in uniform. Not counting doing a DJ gig and some repo work. I am already beat! I have tomorrow 24 hrs and Saturday I do the gig. Sunday and Monday I am back in Linn county working. When it is all over, I have 5 days off. I am still waiting to hear about either Supervisor position. I should have interviews for both in the next week to 2 weeks. I am hopeful yet content. God will decide where He wants me. I will go wherever. Tonight I am working in Pittsburg. I am guessing we will be busy, so Iam going to check out now. -DJ

A chance to catch my breath

Well, my pro audio business is in full swing now. This is a busy season for it. Lots of weddings, festivals and the like. We had a gig at the Old Settlers festival in Arcadia, KS this past weekend. We set up on a ball field after a night of rain. It was a muddy mess. We ran lights, sound gear and set up my stage. It is a 30 ft trailer that works perfect for this use. All of the sound gear fit along with the band. I was there for several hours each day. I made the decision to break down the gear and trailer it in my enclosed trailer for the night due to the possibility of rain on Friday night. Boy was I glad I did....It was soaking wet everywhere! We broke down the rest of the gear the next morning and hauled it across town to the community center for the next evenings concert. Molly, my 8 year old decided to come. There was a hard rock band playing that night. It was SO loud you cannot imagine. I had to control the vocal levels only. The band had their amps cranked and I nearly died... Molly had my ear plugs, so I had to just suffer through. It all went well and we made some $$$. Also we booked another gig in November. Should be cold.... Anyway, things are good except that my computer is dead at home and I have no internet access. I can only use my laptop at work. I will try to post as I can to keep folks informed. Later - DJ

Toopid Tuppy!

It baffles the mind to think that even the most intelligent dogs can be so stupid! Our beloved Jack Russell/Rat Terrier mix is a funny little free spirited dog who pretty much does as he pleases because he has not been much trouble for us. The breed is known for high level of intelligence and adapts well to routine. We have been able to let him out from time to time during the day to play with the neighbors dog. She is an Alaskan Husky. It really looks funny, Cali (the husky) is about 5 times larger than Chilly (our pup). They frolic and wrestle all day until Cali is put up. Well, the other day, out "Toopid Tuppy" (stupid puppy) and his little girlfriend decided to go and play on a busy street and get themselves picked up by the dog catcher. So now we have to go to court and pay a fine. He just earned himself a life sentence in a dog pen. Freedom is NOT free. It costs about $80!

I love Rock and Roll.......

Well, our band "Busted Luggage" had our first gig on Saturday night. It went well despite the rain in the air. The clouds parted and God let the rain hold off till after we got all set up, played the gig and tore down the PA. It started to pour right after we finished loading! HAHA!
We call ourselves "Busted Luggage" and here is why....All of the band members come from different backgrounds and have different pasts. We decided that we just needed to not only leave any baggage that we bring at the door, but to smash it and not pick it up gain. Hence "Busted Luggage". I know, it is kinda far fetched, but we like it. It is mainly just for the joy of playing music and writing new songs, but I am having faith that God will do more with it. I am NOT going to try to make it big or anything like that, we are just using it as a forum to worship and rock out from time to time. I have been studying Blues and Jazz guitar lately and really have enjoyed learning it. It really helps with my playing. I look forward to future jams with the guys and doing some recording. Well, gotta go...God bless. -DJ

A new day

Well, I went to work last night cuz the guy who was working was not feeling well. I had the chance to get 12 hours of OT by sleeping...who wouldn't do that? Anyway, I have been thinking. Today is a new day from yesterday. The bible says that God's mercies are new every day. PRAISE GOD! Often my attitude needs His mercy! Sometimes, I get down on my situation and think, "is God going to come through and provide like He said He would?" Then I read where the word says "My God shall supply all of my needs according to His riches in glory." here is my take on that scripture...
He has promised to supply our NEEDS not our wants. This means that He will indeed give us what we need to survive and to be productive. Often we tend to think that if things are not as they once were, then we no longer have God's favor. I tend to think that way too, but then God shows up in my prayer time and reminds me that my NEEDS are being met according to His will, not mine. Anything short of having the faith to trust God to supply our needs, constitutes dependence on ourselves. I choose to enter the new day with my hands out of my pockets and held open to God, who if we are paying attention, is indeed putting everything we NEED right into those outstretched hands. -DJ

Drummer Boy

Today was the first Sunday that I played the drums at church. It was fun! I have been practicing for only about 2 years! I already play guitar and lead worship, but I have always wanted to be a drummer. I have a LONG way to go, but I think I held my own. I have been doing online lessons to learn technique. I watch youtube videos and take what I see and apply it to my practice time. I have been doing the same on the guitar and have managed to improve in that department as well. I have been focused on learning blues and jazz chords as well as lead guitar scales. I really enjoy it. My current job allows me to do a lot. I have formed another band and we have our first gig next weekend. We call ourselves "Busted Luggage". It makes reference to leaving the past in the past. Taking the baggage that we carry into new days and smashing it to make room for the new things that God has for us.
I submitted my name in the kitty fro the CCEMS supervisor's position. I just put it into God's hands. I am way better off this time. I love where I am, so not getting the job will not hurt my feelings. I guess when you are indifferent, yo don't stress over it. God will provide whatever we need. I have faith for that. I will continue to post as often as I can, if only for my friend Krys. She is awesome! I hope to see her and her family again soon. God bless- DJ

Delima

Here I am writing in the land of no comments again...but oh well, it it kinda like therapy. Anyway... I worked fro Crawford County EMS for 13 years. My career had many ups and downs. I made several good friends and a few not so good ones. More good than not. I made a difference in the lives of several people while working and I feel good about that. I believe that I am good at being a medic. I still love doing it. Now I work for AMR ambulance in Linn County Kansas. I love it there too. I have made some new friends over the past 9 months and have enjoyed doing what I do there as well. There is now a supervisory position open in Crawford County. I had applied for this job twice before for various reasons. I was passed up because I did not "sell myself" enough. My downfall being that my beliefs would make that difficult. You see, I don't believe in self promotion, I think one should be promoted based on their accomplishments and performance. In the world of reality though, you have to be able to sell yourself so to speak, if you want to move up in a company.
I have owned and operated my own successful business for over 10 years and know full well how to talk to people and also how to motivate them. I am not afraid to be harsh when I need to be, but I like to treat people the way I would like to be treated. I love my current job, but feel that I can make a difference in a supervisory role here. Therein lies my problem. What should I do? I am torn between 2 places.
Here is the breakdown: Pros and cons
Linn Co. AMR
Pros - Great schedule 2 days on 4 days off, no call back (nobody calling you when you are off). Decent pay for the region, low call volume, laid back work environment.
Cons-$350 a month for insurance, $120 a month in gas to travel to work and back. Unknown future with the company. Contract is up in 2 years. Plenty of political back biting. Little or no chance for advancement or pay increases.
CCEMS-
Pros- Familiar system, I know people well, Decent pay (for supervisors). Having the ability to make things better, low travel expense. Fixed station, free insurance for the whole family, better insurance as well, KEEPERS retirement (which i paid into for 13 years). Computer documentation, not long form hand written.
Cons- Backstabbing can be bad, way busier, many more calls. Frequent forced overtime if on call. Having to carry a beeper everywhere.

You can see how deciding what to do would be hard. I write this only as a way to work it out in my mind. I still am praying for wisdom, seeking a multitude of council and thinking hard. What to do, do I apply and see what happens? Do I stay where I am and hope to have a job in 2 years if AMR pulls out of the area? Hmmm... Any feedback would be appreciated. If you have made it this far in reading this post, you are truly devoted. Thanks. DJ

Divorce

I write this blog today with a heavy heart. My friend has suddenly found herself in the midst of a divorce and bitter custody battle. A week ago, there was simply talk of a mutual separation. Now, her husband has filed for divorce and custody of their 3 shared children. Obviously she is not in the greatest of moods at the moment and is asking my opinion. I have given her the biblical perspective on divorce but it has not seated well. I am praying for the best in this situation. She has been evicted from her house and a restraining order has been issued barring her from her home. I know, pretty jacked up. As I understand it, her husband has been in an unfaithful relationship for some time now. Overall bad deal. I hope things get ironed out soon and that the kids do not have to bear the brunt of the divorce.... - DJ

New songs

We had the songwriting clinic on Saturday. When it was over, I wanted to keep going. I just love hanging out creative people. We went over a few tips for writing songs, how to put all the elements together and lots of great stuff. Harold Forbis and is wife Lori came down and did a great job. We took a few lines of text that Obi had written and turned it into a new worship song. I could do that everyday. I plan to keep writing songs as much as I can. I want to record them and preserve them on some form of media to make sure they are available. I look forward to hanging out with the Forbis' again. I plan to travel to Kirksville as soon as is possible to do so.

I am back at work today and have been a bit busy. That means we have had 1 call so far. That is busy for this station. Been reading in Daniel today. I have been meditating a bit on the dream of Nebachanezer. He had a dream that Daniel gave an explanation for. He wound up loosing his kingdom until he could give glory to God. After he was able to do this, he was restored to power and his kingdom was successful. I have been thinking about what it will take for some of us to give God what is due... I am guilty of this as much as the next guy. I try so hard to make things happen for my family and people who are in need. I often don't trust God for things, I simply try to do it myself. It is like I think that God does not want to be troubled with the little things that we have. The deal is, He does want us to ask Him for even the small things, He wants us to ask him and have faith to believe that he will deliver. So with that, I have decided to do just that. Today I am praying for my wife to be healed from her persistent headaches. it is not a little thing to her or myself, but some may see it as such. God does not. He WILL heal her. I believe He can and He will. - DJ

Flowing Juices

Well, There is a song writing clinic at our church this coming Saturday. I am excited for it. Harold Forbis is coming down from one of our sister churches. He is the author of many worship songs that are out there. We are going to be working on how to write worship songs as a group. I am always up for a new learning experience. I have been writing a lot more lately. I have been inspired to write songs about life, kids and my desire to be a better Christian. I have the ability to come up with good riffs and chord progressions. I gravitate toward my friend Joe for lyrical support. We have written some good stuff in the past. Someday, someone will hear them and maybe be touched by them. I also aspire to market some songs to the music biz. It would be great to be able to write a few hit tunes and make royalties off of them for years to come. I mean, the guy who wrote "Hey Hey We're the Monkey's" is a millionare! Why not? I can do that. hehe. My dream however is to make a living while making music. Not likely, but most dreams are not. I look forward to what new songs come from this clinic. I am hopeful that we as a church will be able to express the call and purpose of God without having to use borrowed worship songs. Bring on the prophetic songs! Bring on the new day without crutches! -DJ

A powerful message

This past Sunday, Scott Squires gave a message that I will not soon forget. He titled it "Hunger and Hope, Keys to productive Faith". As I sat there listening, I began to question my own hunger. In fact, God had spoken to me before the sermon during worship practice saying - Are you as hungry as the deer that pants for water? Are you even remotely desperate enough to say that you are hungry at all?
We have been being challenged to get into the word and learn it, understand it and keep it in us at our church. I have always had trouble maintaining a steady reading habit. I mean any kind of reading... It is not that I cannot read, I just do not enjoy it. I will often commit to a reading schedule, it will last a couple of weeks, then it fades away. I put bibles all around me. I have one in my car, my truck, my van, even on my phone and of course on my laptop. The internet provides free versions all over the place, esword is a downloadable bible program that costs you nothing! Still, I read only a few verses a week. There is no real good excuse, I am not looking for one. I am simply being real.
Scott spoke about "encounter moments". He explained that what God does is plays tag with us. We gather in meetings, listen to worship songs, praise and a good message, and maybe God , through these emotional experiences will tag us. This tag causes us to chase Him down in the word. I have to say that I have been tagged. I am seeking Him out right now. I am looking for Him. I am in the word. I am committing to finding Him there. I know He will play tag with me as long as I continue to play it with Him. - DJ

Back in Bidness

Well, the summer trips have come to a close and the real world has come knocking. I found out that AMR has filled the schedule in Linn Co. to keep from having to pay overtime. So that means that I will be set at 48 hours a week. It is a mixed blessing. While I wil enjoy the time off, the pay checks will be getting ever smaller. I am very resourceful though. I have many business ideas and have implemented several already. I repo cars as you know, I do sound for bands, DJ and now am getting into the property reclamation business. It should be good I think. Looking forward to getting that aspect of my business off the ground. Along with my eBay adventures, I think we will be OK. God provides in many ways. He provided me with business opportunities! Till next time - DJ

Ahhh!

Been in Oregon all week on vacation. it has been wonderful. I never knew that this state was so beautiful. We went to the beach and had to wear jackets and made sandcastles in 60 mph winds. it was nuts! The Pacific coastal waters this far north are quite fridgid. We just put out feet in.
We ate some good food, we also went to Mt. Hood. It is a beautiful pile of rock I must say. Not quite as majestic as the Rockies, but stunning none the less. We also could see Mt. St. Helens. We traveled into Washington state as well. We ate chinese food in Vancouver and came back. It counts though. We've been there!
We fly home tomorrow. Looking forward to getting home. Gotta few repos waiting on me to do them, so Tuesday will NOT be relaxing. More like insane running! Gotta go. Gotta play Settlers of Catan again. Great game! - DJ

Another crazy week

Well, last week was no different for me. Monday brought about the end of my work week, or so I thought. We quickly got knee deep in remodeling our back entry way. My friend Jesse and I tore down the walls, re-sheetrocked it and rebuilt the window and hung new siding on the exterior. With the nice weather we decided to take advantage of it and paint the exterior of the house. Once the windows were taped up, the paint sprayer did the rest. We painter the whole house in about 3 hours.

Michelle had a teachers conference all week beginning last Wednesday. That put her out of town on our 16th anniversary. So on Tuesday evening after working on the house all day, I decided to take her out to dinner and a movie. It was fun, but I nearly fell asleep at the dinner table! We went out to Jim's steak house and ate well. We then went to see "Get Smart" at the theatre. It was funny.

Michelle left out early that next morning and we were back at the remodel. We put a second coat of paint on the walls then did some cleanup inside in prep for the floors. First though I took the kids to the pool all afternoon on Wednesday. Needless to say, I got burned! I have a killer sun burn all over my back. It was fun though. the kids really had a great time. Wednesday night was our normal homegroup meeting in our barn. I know, sounds strange, but it is remodeled into a large open floor plan apartment building for guests and my studio. God gave me an answer to my question of "what am I supposed to talk about tonight?" He did so in the form of a book called "The Answer". How ironic ! Anyway, I read a section about loyalty from the book and we had a great discussion about it.

Thursday came and me and the kids started the clean up process. We cleaned a bunch of the construction stuff up and I started on the floor. Laid a new sub floor, prepped it for the new laminate only to find that the laminate flooring had been dropped at some point of it's life onto something round. This caused a huge divit in the tongue end of the flooring, rendering it useless!
I was fit to be tied! I had bought it almost 8 months ago from a discount store, and they only take exchanges on items for 30 days. No refund, no nothing! I had to eat $100 in flooring. Not happy...

Once I went to home depot, the flooring issue was satisfied by my 11 year old daughter picking out a nice flooring. It was a laminate flooring with a vinyl backing that stuck together. It went down fairly easy and looks great!. My buddy Kent came by and helped out a bunch. For his help I decided it best if I took him out for dinner, so we all loaded up and went out for sushi. It was "Yummy".

Friday came and it was more cleanup, painting trim, hanging trim and one last trip to home depot. I finished up the rooms and moved furniture back in. I had to come in to work that night due to no medic being available to work. Michelle arrived home around 11pm last night and was thrilled at the result of the weeks labor. I was very glad to hear her reaction.

I am on a 3.5 day stretch at work, but it feels more like a vacation compared to last week. We have been slow here in LaCygne, so I have slept alot. My partner Dawn is a medic student and has been in classes all week on top of working every other day. Needless to say, she has been asleep most of the past day as well. I work as acting supervisor on Monday in Pleasanton and there is a mandatory meeting for all Linn County FTE's (Full time employees). Not sure what is going to happen, but I guess I will find out tomorrow.

Next week will be pretty crazy too as my business "OTR Productions" will embark on the largest sound gig since it's inception. We got the contract to run sound for 2 days for the city of Pittsburg's 4th of July celebration. Setup begins Thursday at noon. I will be there at the park from 2pm Thursday till midnight on Friday doing various tasks running sound for 5-6 bands and other PA needs as well as playing music constantly. I have drafted some helpers for the event who will be paid for their help. This gig will open doors to other gigs in the future. I love being the sound guy! Sometimes though, it can be hard listening to some of the bands. Every band thinks they are good, most are not, but is my job to make them sound good. That is all I have to say about that... - DJ

Time out

The July schedule is out! No more forced overtime!! THis means that I will only be working my 48 hour shifts. This will give me lots of time off the rest of the summer. Good thing as I think my business interests are going to get busy.
We leave for Oregon on July 7th and will be there for a week. That will be fun. I am looking forward to it. I love to fly and to share new experiences with my wife and kids. None of us have ever been to the west coast. We are going to go to the beach, Mt. Hood and all over the region. I hope to find the Rolloff ranch where they film little people, big world. They are a family who have 3 little people and 2 regular sized people. Their show is very interesting.
Before we leave though, I have the task of setting up for and running sound for the Pittsburg 4th of July celebration. 2 days of sun and loud music should do wonders for me. I have 2 good friends who have some knowledge about sound equipment helping me. I am hopeful that by doing this gig, it will secure future gigs of similar type and also that it will get me more of them at other places. All the gear is paid for, so profit potential is pretty good. I am always looking to the a better way to support my family. My hope is to be self employed and not reliant on a job to make it. While I like EMS, It may well be time to move on. If I can, I will. I guess we will see. I must admit though, working in Linn County has been pretty easy cheesy. We will see how how things progress. - DJ

Light at the end of the tunnel

Well, the new guy officially starts full time as of the 20th. This means that the overtime will be minimal. While this is good for my social life, it will be more challenging on the budget. My hope is that repo's pick up to compensate.
My wife is leaving for a trip to Texas in 2 weeks. This leaves me with the dubious honor of painting the house while she is gone. I just hope the weather cooperates. This week the plan is to work on the interior if the house. I have to gut the back entry way, put in a new window, re-sheetrock, paint, lay new flooring and trim. All in 3 days. We'll see. Either way, at least I am motivated. At work till Wednesday, looking forward to going home. Short week this week. Only 60 hours. - DJ

Non Stop!

Sometimes I feel like life is pretty much non-stop. We went to Colorado the week of Memorial Day and returned last Monday. The trip was great. Relaxing, the views were spectacular! I will try to upload some pix. Not sure how to do that yet. Anyway. We drove back about $900 poorer for the gas it took. Bout fifty cents a mile! Paid $4.29 a gallon on Estes Park. Once we got back there was the unpacking. Then I had to return to work where I was welcomed back with a call first off. Some poor dude had a hernated scroatum. You do the math. Dude's guts were in his n*%t's! OUCH! I felt for him so I gave him the good stuff. The second day of my shift was no better. We worked a double fatality accident in the construction area of 69 highway. Bad one. Semi vs/ small car. No contest.
After a long day on Friday, we took a trip to Coffeyville, Bartlesville and Caney. We had a good visit with some old friends in Caney on Sunday. Today was pretty tiring. I took Molly and a couple of pals up to KC to buy some inventory for my eBay business. Got some good deals. I hope to turn a nice profit off of the items. Repo's are down right now, so no funny stories to tell. I will post more details and possibly pix of the trip tomorrow. DJ

Almost outta here!

I do believe I have not been so excited to go on a vacation in a very long time. Been working on the trailer to make it a little less "ghetto". We put new walls up, re-insulated some walls, re-covered all the cushions, pulled all the carpet and put down new flooring, puled out the bathroom vanity and rebuilt the counter top. We also put up some battery powered lighting as there is no electric hookup where we are going. All in all I think we are ready to roll. We leave out Monday morning at 0500 hrs. The kids are NOT thrilled about getting up at 4 in the morning, but I predict they will sleep along the way. it is about 13 hours out there not counting potty breaks. I am guessing we will get there in time to set up camp and then go to sleep. I will try to blog wile on the trip as I can. Till next time - DJ

Getting closer

Yesterday was pretty cool. Having only 2 days at home this week has been different. I have to cram all of my family time, friend time and everything into 2 days. I guess normal people do that all the time, but I am used to having more days off. Anyway, I showed up at the kids school for the last few minutes of the school year. They were sooo excited to be getting out of school. We went to Subway for lunch and then I headed to Girard to tag the RV trailer. I am still pretty deep into renovations on the RV, but it is coming along nicely. Michelle and I decided to recover the pillows throughout the trailer. It was a pretty ambitious project that we did not start until after 6pm. Needless to say, we did not finish. I also made a sheld to replace the one that had to be removed. No all I have to do is re-panel the walls, insulate and paint inside. I do not think I will paint before the upcoming trip. I will try to fit it in, but I need to make sure it is usable first. I still need to do a water test and re-do the bathroom counters. I should be able to get that done in a day. Michelle is making curtains for it. Once all of that is done, we should be good to go. We are all looking forward to this trip. I think I am most of all. My work schedule will reduce quite a bit once we return. I am looking forward to lots of Risk games with my kids, lots of jammin with the guys and traveling. I have to work today and tomorrow, but Monday we are going to KC to get some eBay stuff to sell. That should be a fun day. - DJ

Bad timing

Well I got home yesterday and had a ton of packing to do. I sold a bunch of stuff on eBay and had to ship it out. Got done with that and wound up working on the travel trailer a bit. did some digging and found some severe water damage. I fixed the leak, but the damage was done. I wound up ripping out about a 1/3 rd of the walls down to stud. I had to replace some of the studs themselves. Also the front window was barely even hanging in the frame as the frame was rotted out and wet. I rebuilt the frame around the window and got it in just in time to have to go find shelter from an approaching tornado. It was pretty exciting. There was a distinctive wall cloud above us and a funnel cloud formed literally right on top of the house where we sought shelter. I loved it! I am into severe weather, but as far as my kids are concerned, I think safety first.

I am back at work today and get off on Friday. I then come back for my 3rd 48 hour shift on Saturday and Sunday. 120 total hours this week. That sux! But God wiling, I will make it till Monday. Then, just one more 48 hr shift till we leave for vacation! I am doing NOTHING! For at least 2 days....then maybe a hike through the mountains...or not. We will see. -DJ

Finally!

As much as I have enjoyed the laid back work load here at LaCygne station working for Linn County AMR, I am after all a paramedic. This means that my personality type lends itself to enjoying excitement, I am an admitted adrenalin junkie. So today we finally got a call. I have gone 2 weeks without seeing a single patient. Yep, 2 weeks have gone by since I have actually laid hands on an actual person in aid. We have pretty much watched TV, played playstation and lounged around for 2 weeks. In fact, I just got paid my 2 week check and did not do anything to earn it. I kind of feel guilty, but then again I won't be offering to give it back anytime soon.
Today we were called to a remote area for an unresponsive person. Possible overdose. The pt's sister could not wake her up. When we arrived, she was barely breathing and nothing would arouse her. We called in Life Net air transport service to meet us so the patient could get to the hospital quickly. I wound up putting an IV in her neck, giving medicine and intubating her en route. All in all a great intervention. We as medics live to use our skills in the field. Here is Linn county, it does not happen all that much. I get off tomorrow, but have to work a total of 3- 48 hour shifts this week. Should be fun, but boy will I be ready for my vacation at the end of the month. - DJ

Anybody out there?

Is anyone reading this? Please respond. I am not one to write without feedback.

An event to remember

Today I am back at work recovering from a very long weekend. I got home on Thursday afternoon and started getting ready for the Crawford County annual relay for life. It is a benefit for cancer. I was asked to set up and run PA services for the whole of the event. I was going to stay up late Thursday night so I could sleep in on Friday, so I could be prepared to stay up all night on Friday. I failed to sleep in but succeeded in staying up till 4 am on Thursday night into Friday. So to say the least, I started Friday with 3-4 hours of sleep. We got the gear to the site at about 1pm. Jess and I set most of it up and then stayed there at the field until 6am Saturday morning. My kids decided to join me there and they had fun. Shelden lasted until about 2am then fell asleep. I had set up an air mattress in the back of the trailer for them to crash in. Molly lasted till about 2-2:30, but Sammy made it all night long! He was dancing, goofing off and playing with his friend Ben all night. It was so funny to watch them gyrate and wiggle around to the music. We got home around 6:15 am. We hit the pillows and were out like a light. The rest of the weekend I was tired, but all went well. This week I will be going through the camper getting it ready for the upcoming trip to Colorado. Bye fir now.. - DJ

Being 35 hurts...

I don't mean to sound like I am complaining, but boy am I sore. I got off my 72 hour shift and went home to more work needing done than I had done the whole time I was at work! I had to pack up several items and ship them out, then I spent the rest of the afternoon getting set up for the big garage sale. Went to bed late, got up early Saturday and had the sale all day till around 2. It did not go as well as I had hoped. But all in all it was a decent take. Sunday came and we went to church as always. I played electric guitar and it was fun. Doug preached a great message but a hard one. We needed it. Sunday afternoon the kids had their annual carnival fund raiser and we went to that. It was great fun too. Then my friend Josh came down for some repo work. Boy, what a mess that was. The first one we found disabled and nobody home. Just before leaving to look for the owner, he showed up. After about 1/2 an hour of talking, he decided to give it up. Not only did he give it up, he actually delivered it for me! HAHA. That is a first. The second one we found with only 1 wheel. The other wheels were gone and it was on blocks. We had to get a rollback to come and haul it to the bank. We had to drag it off with my truck into the parking lot. What a hoot. We got home at around 2am. Got up Monday at 7:30 and helped a friend move some heavy furniture. I am at work now and glad to have a break! I look forward to the end of May when the overtime slows down some. Having more time off with the kids will be great. - DJ

Almost done!

I am on the last 12 hours of a 72 hour shift. So far NO CALLS! Incredible. 32 hours of over time in 3 days. Whew...Looking forward to my 4 days off. Today in the quiet of the station I had some thoughts....

As I prepare to turn 36, I suddenly find myself getting re-acquainted with people I knew from high school. Some I liked, like Kim Nelson. She was one of the "pretty girls" who was down to earth and not stuck up to guys like me. You see, I had a chip on both shoulders back then and did not make many friends. She always had something nice to say and I think it gave me hope for people. She married Kevin McIntosh, the football player/basketball star. they now have 3 children. She found me on myspace.com. That is pretty cool. I began to do one of those "where are they now" searches. I found several HS friends and foes from back in the day. My 20th reunion is coming up in 2 years. I wonder what has become of some of those people. Sometimes I wish my life had been different as far as what I do. I wish I could have gone on to Chiropractic school, but then again, I get bored very quickly. Doing the same thing day in and day out would suck! They make mad bank though... I often wonder what turns life could have taken and where I would be if they had. What if I had gotten into the military in 1990? Well, I would have gone to the first Iraq war and would likely have been involved in some sort of missions. Special forces of course. Na, I would have been discharged for striking an officer. I really hated authority then. I guess God had His plan for my life and it is going according to it. I love my life as is, but do tend to wonder the what if's - DJ

A visior from the past

I am at work once again. I am on a 72 hour stretch. Only 32 hours to go! Yesterday I got a call from a fellow paramedic that I helped train. He was in LaCygne and wanted to swing by. He and his wife did so and we had a nice visit. He said that I seemed happier than the last time I had seen him. He and I worked at Crawford County EMS together. He was there during the last 2 years of my employment there. He remembered how stressed I was and how irritated with the politics I was as well. He is tired of them too, but needs the call volume that working in Pittsburg can give a new medic. I on the other hand, have done most everything at this point and like the low key tempo around here. We had a great visit and then they left. We have yet to have any calls in the past 38 hours. We lost power due to severe storms fro about 2 hours. We finally got TV. After almost 2 months they got us a satellite dish. We get about 40 channels and they are all junky! Oh well, at least we can watch the news.

This weekend is my big garage sale. Friday is prep day and setup day. I am hoping to get all the work done. I have a ton to do... Saturday is the sale and I am on my own as the kids have a track meet. I am hoping to make enough to pay for our vacation in late may. Fuel will be $4 a gallon by then and my truck gets about 8mpg pulling the camper. Pray for a profitable weekend. Gunna go to bed now. I have another 24 hr shift tomorrow down in Pleasanton. They moved into a new building and now are getting things settled in. Should be a hoot. -DJ

Coming and going

I came into work yesterday and I could have sworn I passed myself on my way home! But I called my wife and she said that I was not there....I am all worked out. I have been in a uniform for way too long. I am off tomorrow, but have to pull 96 hours. I really miss my kids. It seems they are an inch taller every time I see them. In may AMR will be hiring 2 new medics. After some orientation time they will hit the street in mid may thus ending the overtime frenzy. I welcome it. Not that I do not like a little over time from time to time, but this is getting crazy. We are down 3 EMT's as well, so the ones we have are pulling 4-5 days in a row to cover the deficit. That really sucks. Still looking forward to that long 10 day camping trip in late may. It will be a great relief from all the time away. - DJ

Thoughts of the day

Today I am back at work. I was psudo drafted to come in. I picked up this shift to avoid another one. I am off tomorrow and come back on Thursday and Friday. Only 70 hours this week. Short week....HAHA!

Sunday brought with it some new friends. Rick, Mandy and Kristian. A family from Web City, MO. who are all musicians in their own way. Rick is a tremendous vocalist with real connections in Nashville who is in hopes of collaborating on songwriting with me for possible national distribution. In other words, we can write songs, producers can hear them and market them to singers in need of material. Thus, royalties from said material would begin to come in. Writing songs comes naturally to me, writing country music (which I cannot stand) is very easy to do. Hopefully there will be takers. Rick's daughter Mandy is a singer as well with a real talent. Rough, but easily trained. She hopes to sing for a living. I am not entirely in agreement with this goal, but she has that right to try. Kristian is an 18 year old kid who has an amazing gift to be able to learn guitar chords and rhythm. He is eager and a quick study. I look forward to working with him again.

We jammed for about 3 hours, my daughter Shelden joined us and wowed everyone with her mad skills on the bass. She also helped with harmony parts. It was great. I also look forward to jamming again. -DJ

Overtime and more overtime

There comes a point when most people get 5 or 6 hours of overtime and they are quite glad to get it. Overtime of course is when you work more than the alloted 40 hours per week that the government says is average. 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. The average work week. This week I have put in 96 hours not counting other projects at home and on repo jobs. I found out today that due to what they call a draft at work, that I will likely have forced overtime next week too. I had planned on NOT working much, only my assigned shifts, but that is not going to happen. I am not complaining, overtime is paid out at 1.5X your normal hourly rate, so it makes your paycheck a bit higher. We are short handed so medics and EMT's alike are being pinched to work extra shifts. It kinda sucks, but I am willing to do it while the kids are in school. This summer will be a different story. They are looking at 2 medics to hire which will fill up the schedule and decrease the overtime requirements to only 8 hours a week. When you are used to getting 30-40 hours of OT, that is a big hit to the checkbook. I welcome the time off though, this first 6 months of employment with AMR have been long ones, but good.

We have not run any calls today and I am catching up on my rest. I have needed it. I am looking forward to tomorrow as I am going to meet up with a friend from Web City whom I met through craigslist.com. I was looking around for any local music festivals to go to so I could jam with some new people and learn new stuff on my guitar and found a Christian guy looking to collaborate on some new songs and jam with someone. What he described in his post was me. So we are getting together tomorrow night for a couple of hours to put our heads together. His 18 year old son is coming too, he plays guitar and wants to become a paramedic! How funny is that? It should be fun. When I told him that my 11 year old daughter will be joining us on the bass, he freaked out! My daughter Shelden has been coming out to the studio and learning some songs and playing with me when I give drum lessons to a couple of local boys. She is getting better. She has a great practice ethic once she finds the time. I love playing music with her. Before she was even born I had a vision of us playing music together. She has written several songs and they are actually good! This is not just a dad's proud voice either. She has a gift. God will use her in a mighty way. My little girl Molly loves to come and sing too. She is honing her craft too. I am very excited as to what the future holds for my kids and their musical interests. I want them to feel free to go out to the studio and create. I am sure they will. - DJ

Day off? Whatever...

I had the day off yesterday from work, but wound up working much harder that when I am at work! I had 7 packages to pack, build boxes for and ship from eBay stuff, then ran local errands all afternoon and then we had homegroup. Bear in mind that I did not get to bed until 3am the night before. After home group, I had an urgent repo to work. Here is how that went....

My friend Josh from Linn County has been bugging me for weeks about calling him to help on a repo job. He lives an hour and 15 minutes north of Pittsburg. I called him and he jumped at the chance. So Josh drove his 14 mpg Ford pickup down from Linn Valley to help out....HAHA!! Anyway, we left promptly after he arrived for Independence, KS. The banker had stashed the keys behind the bank for me to find. I found them there and we went on the hunt for the truck. They told me this dude was "unstable", to which I replied "so am I". We were driving into town and spotted what we thought was our target leaving a bar. Turns out it was not the right truck. However, once we stopped the chase on the first one, we spotted another truck matching the description of the truck we were looking for and low and behold it was the one! I just about freaked! We were able to then tail the guy for over a 1/2 an hour until he stopped at McDonalds for a quick bite. I approached him and gave him the bad news. He was quite cordial and allowed me to drive the truck from there to where he could unload all of his tools. He and a friend did so and things were good. Even his dog "buddy" was cool with me. It was a bit dark where we did the unload, but I was not afraid. I knew that he was cooperating. Josh however, was clueless, he was freaking out thinking we were about to get into some trouble. Picture it, he is in the van watching from a safe distance, but close enough to see everything. Here I am alone with the 2 of them, they have tools, shovels, saws, big blades for trimming sheet rock and many other menacing things that could be construed as weapons, a huge boxer dog jumps out of the truck.......you get the idea. His heart rate was juking! All went well and we got the truck. We did not get back till after 1am. That is my story and I am sticking to it. - DJ

What a Job!

Sometimes I love my job for different reasons. Most of the time, it is because where I work it is slow and I get a lot of down time to read, watch movies, play video games or just goof around on the internet. Case in point, yesterday, we ran "0" calls. None! We hung out, talked, watched several movies as we still have no cable. Pretty much a lazy day. At shift change, 0800, we were toned out on a lady who's husband could not wake her... We arrived to find his wife unresponsive and with a blood pressure too low to palpate. We started working on her and once we got into the ambulance, she stopped breathing. We were able to revive her after about 5 minutes. With medicine and advanced airway management, we got her back. Sadly her condition did not allow her to fully recover. She is still alive but has a long way to go. Sometimes I get the chance to make a difference, sometimes the people comeback and live long lives, sometimes they live long enough to say goodbye. Either way, I get to help in the process. Who gets to say that about their job! - DJ

Thinning down

With summer upon us, many people begin to think about their figures, how they might look in a bathing suit. While I am not too concerned about how my bikini will fit me, I am thinking a lot about how my weight has effected me. I am 6' 2" and weigh 260lbs. I am about 50 pounds over weight. I love a good meal as you can tell. However, 2 years ago I was diagnosed with adult onset type 2 diabetes. My Dr. put me on some meds and told me to loose weight. I did so. I lost almost 60lbs. But.....over time, my habits returned and I put some of it back on. I went to see the Dr. again this week and got into some trouble. My glucose levels have come up and it would seem I am beyond what pills can do. I am now taking injections twice a day. The meds make me feel a bit sick, but I think they are working. My sugars are lower already. Please pray for me as I work on my eating habits and change my lifestyle. Also pray for my family as they will be be changing theirs as well to prevent it from happening to them. If I can get down to 210 or under and maintain that, I can come off of the meds entirely. But I have to seriously limit my glucose intake for the rest of my life. 1500 calories a day. That is it. That is like 2 double cheeseburgers at McDonalds. So far so good, I have already lost 4 pounds this week. The meds cause that. If anyone in interested in shedding a few pounds with me, let me know as I could use the support. Have a great day. --DJ

Food for thought

On the road that we call life
It is imperative that men know,
The importance of a good wife,
through all it's ebbs and flows.

To look upon her is grand,
To hear her speak is bliss,
But nothing can compare
to the softness of her lips.

When all is said and done
and the kids have all moved out,
She will be the one
to pick you up when you are down.

-D. Jamison

Sunday sleepy Sunday

I am not sure what it is about Sundays, but I was so tired all day. I did not stay up that late on Saturday night, but when I got up to get ready to go to the church, I was already dragging. I got there at 8:15 and left shortly before 1. We had a quick lunch then went to the Sunset manor nursing home at 2:45 to set up the mini PA for the service we had there. After this we went back home for a while and I had to pack a piano to ship out. Then there was leaders meeting and then.......whew. Just a very busy day. My friend Jay pretty much always crashes out on Sunday afternoons. Perhaps I need to employ this policy. I have to work today, in fact I am at work now. I am so busy...obviously. I have a lot to do today, I have to upload some photos to my computer so I can list some stuff on eBay, I have to vacuum the floors a the station, I have to take a nap, then eat lunch. Pretty full morning.

To my wife and kids, I miss you already and love you very much. - DJ

How right I was...

Yep, feeling that dodge ball game today! My everything hurts....Both arms are sore from throwing, legs hurt from running, back hurts from all of it and my wallet will hurt from chiropractic bills. I am excited though, I have a killer day. Me and the fam went garage sale'n this morning and found some good bargains. We had lunch at the deli and came home. My friend Luke came over to jam and Kent joined us later on. It was a hoot! I love jamming with the guys. Wish there were more guys.......JOE! Anyway, did a repo job with Kent after dinner and watched a movie with the kids. Now I am going to bed. Just wanted to put my thoughts down. Busy day tomorrow, church, nursing home service after church, leaders meeting tomorrow night...whew! I am already ready for bed tomorrow! - DJ

I am too old for certain things...

As we age, certain things happen. We loose that spring in our step and replace it with a brace. We also loose the ability to know our limits. I was pretty sore today after sleeping on a lumpy mattress at work, so I decided to hit the chiropractor's office. I see Tim Voss. He is a nice guy and an excellent "cracky prakter". Anyway, he fixed me up great. I felt fairly good afterwards with only normal soreness. Then....I decided to go to the school and have lunch with my kids. I guess it is tradition for the kids to play dodge ball after lunch, so I decided to join them. We had a ball. They made me team captain, so of course I picked all of my own kids first. They were thrilled! We had fun throwing balls and getting hit with them. I only made 1 kid cry and only cried once myself. Well, not really, but I did get hit in the.......ya know... Over all it was great. However, now, even as I type this, I can fee the soreness that I will have pretty much all weekend. It was worth it though. I had great fun. Gotta go, going yard sale'n. - DJ

God in our midst

I worked today with a different partner. His name is JB. He is an EMT and is my age. We were out and about today and he kept looking at women as we would encounter them either on the road or in stores. He would also comment about whatever body part impressed him the most. He then started talking about how he looks at porn on his computer at home 2-3 times a day. Being the fan of conflict that I am, I decided to call him on it. He asked me what I thought of a certain girl we saw and I told him that I do not want to look upon her that way. I also told him that I felt that his looking at other girls and porn was very disrespectful to his girlfriend and bride to be. He said "she does not care that I do it". I persisted and informed him that he was wrong, that she WAS effected by it. I told him that it was quietly killing her inside. I then turned the conversation to the sin issue at hand in what he was doing. Must have sparked something, because the rest of the day off and on we talked about God and muslims, Catholics, Mormons, Budda and a whole host of other things. It was a true one in one example of why we need to be ready in and out of season. I spoke more about God today with a professed unbeliever than with my partner yesterday who is married to a minister! It was cool. He has not given his live to Christ yet, but I am working on him and more importantly, I think God is working on him.
It is often easy to slip into the "at work" conversations and forget to mention God, it is even easier to join in the conversation and lower our standards to whatever the subject may be. I am challenged daily to NOT do this. I am trying to always be mindful that Jesus rides with me in that ambulance and He hears ever conversation that I have with whoever I am with. I look forward to future opportunities to speak the truth of God with my partner while at work. But I also look forward to the day when they know I am a Christian by the way I live and not by what I say. - DJ

Paybacks

Well, I am back at work today. Came in last night for a 60 hr stretch. I also traded with another guy so he could be off on his kids birthday and so I could be off on Sunday. This means I am working 84 hours this week! But I will be off Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Nice! I guess you have to pay for days off that you want. Looking forward to Wednesday. Some friend and I are going to KC to get some musical gear. eBay can be a good thing. It was a good service on Sunday (Easter). Jay Lotterer did a 1 man play as the voice of Jesus kind of in a post modern dress, jeans, white button up (untucked of course) and Jeruselem cruiser sandals. He did a great job. Doug gave the message and it was good as well. I got to play bass so I whipped out my lefty 6 string fretless bass. All the bass players in the house were freaking out! It was funny. Planning on taking it easy today. I hope the citizens of Linn county agree with that plan. - DJ

My weekend

Well, the KC trip went great. We went to the Kansas City Zoo, we saw monkeys, gorillas, yaks, lions, cheeta's.....well, you know zoo stuff. We walked about 30 miles...ok, it was only about 4, but for a fat guy, it was enough. We stayed in a hotel and went for a swim in the pool there. The following day consisted of shopping, eating and general fun stuff for the kids. They really loved it.
We took the kids to the Musicians friend store and we all bought some instruments and stuff. It was fun too. Mainly for me! We got home Friday late afternoon and my 2 oldest kids went to a birthday party.
Today was nice too. My wife and the 2 older kids went to Joplin for the day and Molly hung out with me. We had some alone time packing up some things to ship, going to the flea market and worship practice at the church. I go back to work on Sunday night for a 60 hour stretch. I had applied for a position as a supervisor but did not get it as my co-applicant was a former officer in the military and has more supervisory experience than I do. It is ok though, I am looking forward to working with him. Seems like work is shaping up to be even more enjoyable for me. I already like my job, now I will have a great working relationship with everyone on my shift. As I am told by the big dog, we are getting Dish network as early as Monday. Not that TV is the greatest thing, but try and work in the same building for 48 hours strait with NO stimulation. I have managed to do ok, I have increased my reading and will be starting a new book Monday that My wife got for me. But decent TV will be good.
Please feel free to leave comments or communicate as you like. I will put some more EMS stories on my blog if people want them. DJ

Worth Saving

Well today was a bit more eventful. We had a mass casualty incident drill this morning and that went off with tons of hitches as I am told. We were put on "In unit stand by" for an hour and a half. We never made it to the event. Oh well, had a chance to book the hotel for tomorrow while I waited. I have been told that I should share some EMS stories on my blog. I am not sure why, but I guess some people are interested. So....
We ran a call where in an elderly lady had fallen and struck her head on the coffee table. She got herself up and decided to clean up the blood stain on the floor. She went into the kitchen to get a wash cloth and discovered that there was blood all over the kitchen as well. While cleaning it up she realized that it was still bleeding....badly! in fact, she had torn an artery in her scalp. She was literally bleeding to death. She called 911. When we arrived, she was sitting on the front porch. She was more concerned about the stains in the carpet than her own health. I assessed her and found the loosely wrapped arterial bleed to have filled the dressing applied with blood. We loaded her up and unwrapped the wound and lets just say she re-decorated the wall of the ambulance in a stylish red. I decided I had better put a stop to her art work and applied pressure to the wound. I had a fireman ride in and continue the pressure while I did other stuff. She was taken to the hospital and is doing fine.
In retrospect, I find her desire for a clean house being greater than her knowledge of her impending doom to be a bit perplexing. Sometimes I guess we all over look the important things in life and place too much importance on things that on a grander scale just do not matter.... DJ

Another day in paradise

I showed up last night to work. I got off at 8 am without a call in the night. I got to LaCygne at 8:30 this morning. When I arrived, the crew advised that we no longer have cable. In LaCygne, that means.....NO channels at all! Perhaps it is a good thing. But working a 48 hour shift, one finds himself with a lot of time on his hands. I have read my bible, I am in Proverbs 18. I read a proverb a day to keep it strait. I also readd some in Acts chapter 17. I heard a scripture reading on the radio. They were in Acts 17, so I thought I would follow suit.
I have also watched a couple of movies. I fear I will run out of movies real quick. Let's hope that AMR decides to hook us up and soon!!

Fun is relative

Most of us can think of someone we know who finds little joy in being a parent. Some people I know have the mentality that children are merely good for tax purposes, that they are simply something to endure for 18 years. I do not share that ideal. Today I found happiness in the time spent with my family. Shelden, my oldest daughter had a sleep over at a friends house last night, so she was not there when we awoke. To really get the picture, I must take you back to the night before. Sammy (my son and middle child all of 9 years old) and I stayed up late watching a fascinating show on the discovery channel about the human eye. It was like watching him learn in real time. I was able to watch his facial expressions as information poured from the big black box called the television. He was soaking it in! Perhaps he will become an eye doctor and support me in my old age. Either way, we hung out, just the 2 of us. Then Men in Black came on and we both fell asleep prior to it's conclusion. It really did not matter what we were doing, just that we were able to share the time with one another.
Morning came and I decided to fix breakfast. After waking everyone up, we shared breakfast and talked about whatever. Michelle and I watched a show called "I can make you thin". The guy on the show talked about how we should eat consciously, this meaning that we should pay close attention as to how fast we eat. We understood it and put it to practice. Molly (my youngest daughter all of 7) did so as well. We new she had no idea why we were chewing slowly, but she did it anyway. She is SOOO animated anyway, but to see her concentrating in every bite was just hilarious.
We proceeded to run some errands and played monopoly, then I decided to suprise the kids with a trip to the Y for a swim. Once again, I had a great day spending time with my family. To sum it up, those guys who feel that children are a burden or a waste of their time are just ignorant.
I am back at work now and will be here until Thursday morning. Still planning the trip to KC. Looking forward to that. Good night all..... DJ

Trivial

Sunday was a good day. I was the first person to show up at the church. I have never beaten the leaders there! I had to unlock the door! Worship practice started with prayer..this was great! It really focused us well. We chose songs and just praised and worshiped. Scott Squires spoke about missions and gave an impactive message that challenged me to not step back into old habits, old days. I loved it! Great job Scotty!
After church we had the Butlers over and we munched on chili dogs. After lunch we broke out the 90's edition of trivial pursuit. It was a hoot. Never challenge Phil Butler to a game of trivia of ANY kind. He will destroy you. We then played some more games and hung out. The kids all played together. It was a fun visit. Planning today on cleaning house, perhaps go to Joplin later and do some shopping. I go back to work tomorrow for 2 days. We are planning on a trip to KC instead of Branson on Thursday after my supervisor interview at work. I am hopeful for the position yet content with where I am. Either way works for me. Being a supervisor will make the drive shorter, but there are more calls in Pleasanton where the supervisor are stationed. I guess we will see what happens. DJ

A terrific day.

Forgive me father for i have sinned. It has been nearly 24 hours since my last post.....HAHA!
What a great day. We all stayed up late last night hanging out as a family watching a great movie called Freedom Writers. If you have not seen it, watch it. You will be inspired to make a difference. We crashed out, none of us woke up until after 9:30 this morning and did not get around until after 10. We dragged the kids out of bed and decided to hit a few garage sales. It was slim pickins, but we found some stuff. We are avid garage sale people. I love a good deal. My kids do not like to admit it, but they also like going. They love paying 25 cents for a pair of shoes and having all of their friends say how much they love them. Then they can quietly think....I paid a quarter for these.....
I thought I was going to have to work tomorrow but praise God! A medic from Johnson county called in and picked up the shift. I will miss the OT, but I can live without it.
We spent the rest of the day just goofing off. We played several games and ate well. I cherish times like this, when we can have fun without having to spend a bunch of money.
This week is spring break so I will get to spend lots of time with my family. I am thinking about taking everyone on a 2 day trip to Branson to hang out and relax. I am not sure yet. Perhaps we may go to KC for a couple days. Well, bye for now. DJ

Home again

Well, I made it home. I am pretty tired still, but I will make it just fine. We ran pretty hard for LaCygne, Kansas anyway. Looking forward to the next 4 days. I found out that I may be forced to work on Sunday though. That pretty much sux! I will make the most of my weekend.
Been thinking about the summer time, I am planning on spending some alone time with each of my kids. I am going to plan out a daddy date day for each of them. I know Shelden wants to go to Worlds of Fun with just me again. That will be fun. I will be taking Sammy on a trip too. Not sure where yet. But it will be an over night thing. Molly and I will go on a sweet date. I will take her to a nice dress up restaurant and then to a real girly movie or play. She will love that. Shhhhh. Don't tell em. I look forward to such times. Things like that make memories for us. I can't wait to hear them when they are grown come to me and say..."remember the date we went on when I was 10?" I will love that.
I believe that making someone feel special once goes a whole lot further than making them feel otherwise. DJ

Today was a stark contrast to yesterday. We ran 4 calls for a total of over 300 miles. It is 3:30 a.m. I plan to crash when I get home. So sleepy, can't type any more. I will try to come up with some witty comment in a few hours. DJ

I feel Naked!!!

I work 48 hour shifts for AMR ambulance in LaCygne, KS. I took out yesterday morning and got half way here and realized that I had left the house without my guitar! As an avid musician, it is kind of like being in a shopping mall naked. I HAVE to play my guitar at least once a day. So needless to say, I am going through withdraw! Anyway...
The first half of my shift was rather uneventful. We had some training to do, so we did that in the morning. We then had a call here in town, but the patient did not want to go to the hospital, so he refused. I spent the rest of the shift hanging out with my partner. Her name is Angela. She is about 8.5 months pregnant and I swear is about to pop. She is pretty cool. She smokes though. I give her plenty of guff for it too. Yesterday after she lit one up, I said..."do you hear that...listen..I hear a baby crying....it is coughing too. Wait, I hear it say mommy, you are killing me!" She did not care for my comments. So I told her that someone had to fight for the baby. HAHA!!
I also had the chance to talk to her about my disdain for gossip. We spoke about it for a while and I am pretty sure she felt some conviction about it. She is married to an ordained minister (who hates her smoking too). It was a good talk and I believe God was all over it.
I am reading in Proverbs right now. It helps me to stay grounded. here is my verse of the day....
Proverbs 13:3
He who guards his lips guards his life,
but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin.
Seems kinda interesting that this scripture follows the conversation I had yesterday.
I look forward to this time tomorrow. I will be just about home and have another 4 days off. My kiddos have spring break next week and I am jazzed about that. I love spending time with them. We are going to spend some time fixing up our travel trailer for our upcoming trip to Colorado. I cannot wait! 8 days of no working, no TV, no business stuff, just me, my family and some friends hanging out in the mountains and eating camp food.
Bye for now. DJ

My day

Today was a pretty fun day. I run a small repo company and have for 9 years. Today I have to go to Oklahoma to find a stolen vehicle. Jonathan went with me, one of my former guitar students (who now blows me away!) We had some good talks, we ate lunch at some small little place that seated maybe 30. I had quite possibly the best ruben sandwich in the world!! It had bacon on it! I LOVE bacon! Anyway. It was good and the conversation was even better. You learn a lot about a person in 6 hours of being with them in a car. John has grown into quite a level headed intelligent young man. I look forward to spending more time with him in the future.
Had a jam session with Luke, another friend. He, like myself plays guitar and drums. It is fun to switch around. He can sing as well, so I finally was able to do some harmony singing. It was great!
I have to work tomorrow and so I must say goodbye to 4 days off. I will miss you.

An introduction into the odd world of me

I did it, I actually started my own blog thing. I am not much of a writer, but it seems every one is doing this and I desperately want to be in the "in crowd".
Much of who I am can be summed up fairly quickly. I am a child of God, a father, a husband, a musician and a Kansas certified paramedic. In that order. I love to hang with my kids, they are the world to me. My wife is my best friend, my counselor and my favorite person to be around when I am down. I have 3 kids, Shelden, who is 10, Sam who is 9 and Molly who is 7. I love to play music, any kind at any time. My chosen weapon is the guitar. I am a budding drummer as well. I play the bass, mandolin, dobro and the oboe. Not really the oboe, it just sounded good. I like camping and traveling with my family. I am known as the go to guy. If you need it, go to DJ, He either has it, or knows where to get it....CHEAP! I aspire to be a better everything and am positive that I do not love God enough. I will always need more of Him. That is it for now. I am not much for typing. I have hit the back space button more than anything while typing this. DJ