Slept in at the firehouse last night. Not a single ambulance call. Phooey!

I'm going to implement a new naming system for people in my blog. I realize I have about 5 people at the firehouse who's names begin with J. J1, J2, J3, and so on gets confusing.

The two J's who I primarily work with shall now be referred to as "Hotrod," (the one who drives awesomely and is my favorite partner on the ambulance) and "Volume Control" (the one with no sense of humor who cannot shut her mouth). I'll fill in more as I go. I feel that nicknames that reflect their persona may work better an keep them more memorable.

Not much went on besides Volume Control having a hissy because the chief wouldn't take the ambulance out of service. Apparently she felt the stair chair was broken and when we carried Big McV (300lbs) around in the chair she got even more upset.

The only other thing is that Big McV got his ears burnt in a fire the night before because he's too fat (or lazy) to get low to the ground. He spent the night hanging around the firehouse, getting drunk and causing trouble. Keep in mind that this kid is 17 years old, over 300lbs and has a good case of "poor impulse control." Suffice it to say there were a few frightening moments involving buckets of water, ropes and the roof of the firehouse. Most the rest of the time was wearisome scenes of a fat, pimply kid roaring through the station chasing people with his penis out.

He didn't assault me very much. He gives me a wide berth since our last encounter.

I had duty one night and brought my digital camera with me. Big McV and another kid were wrestling on the floor of the lounge and were presenting the amusing scene of two men groping and gripping each other with lots of grunting in a posture that elicited comments on their sexual preferences. I'm watching this from a corner of the lounge where I'm working on my homework and, of course, I whip out my digital camera and take some video!

After the "love in" is over and we all have a laugh, Big McV comes roaring at me,

"Gimme that camera, I'm gonna smash it!"

Of course, I sort of don't think he will but he's got a look in his eye that tells me he just might. It's a $400 camera, I'm not taking any chances. As he thunders towards me, I hop up out of my chair and say "No." He proceeds to chase me a bit repeating he's going to smash my camera. He's kinda glassy eyed and looking back he might have been drunk again. Who knows.

Finally I get tired of this and I stop, turn towards him and say "Cut it out, man." Onward he charges. I drop into a defensive stance, put my guard up, lock eyes with him and give him a "GET BACK!" in a tone of voice that says. "I'm not fucking with you, your going to die if you touch me."

We lock eyes, the whole lounge is silent. For 15 extremely tense seconds, I'm ready to go with this kid. I care about nothing but bringing him down. I can see the brain whirring behind his eyes and realization fills his face. "You're wierd." he says and lumbers away.

I exhale.

This kid's got me by about 50 to 75 pounds so, I was a bit worried. It wasn't about the camera, it was about respecting my space. I then deleted the video and told him so. Big McV thanked me and has been nice or wary around me ever since.

Hotrod is having a party tonight and most of the firehouse will be there. I'm sure I'll have a lot more blogworthy material after that.

--maddog