Ramble...
So um...yeah, my week hasn't been the best.
A combination of spending a lot of time outside this weekend and the fact that I was a little sick at the start of it has led to one of the longest weeks I have had in quite a while. I have been sick most of the week and I have had 0 energy. Also, there has been a game of good/bad yesterday.
Good: I got all my paperwork completed and set up so that I could submit my paperwork to the Waterford Township Volunteer Fire Fighters Association...basically be a volunteer firefighter in my home town to get some experience so that I stand a chance of getting hired in a year or two. Anywho, I had to submit an information packet to human resources and a letter to 2 separate individuals within the department (one of which used to be a boss of mine at St. Joes).
Bad: I had a bad night at class last night...like real bad. I screwed up a task I was given by the Lieutenant and wound up losing about 1/2 hour of class time to fix it (I will explain below). In the same night that I had the screw up, another Lieutenant (the guy I used to work for) stopped by the station and stuck his head in on my class.
Monday was a normal school day. Tuesday and Wednesday were not that bad. Idalee(lead transporter in the afternoon) even took it a little easy on me Wednesday because I was looking pretty bad. Yesterday I went out and cleaned out my truck, I also washed and waxed it. Then about 3 hours later it snowed some and then it rained some... all in about 10 minutes, then it stopped as quick as it started. After the cleaning of the truck there was the cleaning of the Ben to make me look presentable and not so sicky looking. It lasted long enough to run up to town hall and turn in the paperwork. Then I went home and basically died till class. Then class...yeah...um, it sucked.
All we had to do last night was A: meet at the fire station, in the uniform needed for clinicals. B: after attendance get back into the trucks and head for the old folks home. C: I was assigned a team leader for about 1/2 the class. Our task was to go to rooms assigned by me and get vitals for 5 different people. D: Turn the findings of our vitals into your team leader (first floor group was to report to me). E: Go back to the Fire Station and wait for everyone to arrive so we could discuss the field trip and go home.
I thought my group would do as they were instructed and come back to me to report their findings before they left. 3 of them did. The rest went back to the station without letting me know what they found. The importance of this was I had the vital sheet that the RN normally used for those 2 hallways we were doing. The task was A: us getting the evening vitals for the RN, so they didn't have to & B: getting to try and get vitals on someone who was not a healthy, 20-something year old who is easy to get vitals from. I was having trouble with these patients and I was not as fast as most of my group. That is why they didn't wait. They left and when I went to get back to them they were all gone and I had vitals for 20 people (me and the 3 who did what they were supposed to) and needed to turn in vitals for over 30 people. When I told my Lieutenant(LT) that I didn't get the info before the others left I was told that tracking my group was my responsibility and that I had let him down... I was also told that I was responsible for the missing vitals and needed to get them. Class would be waiting back at the station until the vitals were turned in to the RN. I got a couple people from the other group to lend me a hand, but I was still a good 1/2 hour behind the most of my group. I know I am not totally at fault here but the LT was right, I let him down. Not because I did a bad job of Babysitting Independence Township's new rookies (all just out of High School) but because I did poorly on the exercise. I was picked because I have proven myself to be reliable, smart, and fairly fast. Not to mention that the LT knows I am trying to get onto the department. I took way too long and I didn't keep track of the others. Had this been a real exercise it could have lead to someone getting lost or hurt. I need to become better and faster if this is going to work. I will make this work.
When we came back from the field trip (I was the last on in the door by a good 5 minutes, and that is behind those that stayed to help me out), I found that the other LT(my old boss) was up at the station. I have no clue why he was up there but I saw him stick his head in the door and talk with one of the instructors. I don't think the 2'nd LT was up there just to check on me but if he was I wouldn't blame him for doing so. If he were to help get me on the department and I don't do well, then it would look bad for him. In any case, I just wish it would have been a better night that he showed up to check on me.
A combination of spending a lot of time outside this weekend and the fact that I was a little sick at the start of it has led to one of the longest weeks I have had in quite a while. I have been sick most of the week and I have had 0 energy. Also, there has been a game of good/bad yesterday.
Good: I got all my paperwork completed and set up so that I could submit my paperwork to the Waterford Township Volunteer Fire Fighters Association...basically be a volunteer firefighter in my home town to get some experience so that I stand a chance of getting hired in a year or two. Anywho, I had to submit an information packet to human resources and a letter to 2 separate individuals within the department (one of which used to be a boss of mine at St. Joes).
Bad: I had a bad night at class last night...like real bad. I screwed up a task I was given by the Lieutenant and wound up losing about 1/2 hour of class time to fix it (I will explain below). In the same night that I had the screw up, another Lieutenant (the guy I used to work for) stopped by the station and stuck his head in on my class.
Monday was a normal school day. Tuesday and Wednesday were not that bad. Idalee(lead transporter in the afternoon) even took it a little easy on me Wednesday because I was looking pretty bad. Yesterday I went out and cleaned out my truck, I also washed and waxed it. Then about 3 hours later it snowed some and then it rained some... all in about 10 minutes, then it stopped as quick as it started. After the cleaning of the truck there was the cleaning of the Ben to make me look presentable and not so sicky looking. It lasted long enough to run up to town hall and turn in the paperwork. Then I went home and basically died till class. Then class...yeah...um, it sucked.
All we had to do last night was A: meet at the fire station, in the uniform needed for clinicals. B: after attendance get back into the trucks and head for the old folks home. C: I was assigned a team leader for about 1/2 the class. Our task was to go to rooms assigned by me and get vitals for 5 different people. D: Turn the findings of our vitals into your team leader (first floor group was to report to me). E: Go back to the Fire Station and wait for everyone to arrive so we could discuss the field trip and go home.
I thought my group would do as they were instructed and come back to me to report their findings before they left. 3 of them did. The rest went back to the station without letting me know what they found. The importance of this was I had the vital sheet that the RN normally used for those 2 hallways we were doing. The task was A: us getting the evening vitals for the RN, so they didn't have to & B: getting to try and get vitals on someone who was not a healthy, 20-something year old who is easy to get vitals from. I was having trouble with these patients and I was not as fast as most of my group. That is why they didn't wait. They left and when I went to get back to them they were all gone and I had vitals for 20 people (me and the 3 who did what they were supposed to) and needed to turn in vitals for over 30 people. When I told my Lieutenant(LT) that I didn't get the info before the others left I was told that tracking my group was my responsibility and that I had let him down... I was also told that I was responsible for the missing vitals and needed to get them. Class would be waiting back at the station until the vitals were turned in to the RN. I got a couple people from the other group to lend me a hand, but I was still a good 1/2 hour behind the most of my group. I know I am not totally at fault here but the LT was right, I let him down. Not because I did a bad job of Babysitting Independence Township's new rookies (all just out of High School) but because I did poorly on the exercise. I was picked because I have proven myself to be reliable, smart, and fairly fast. Not to mention that the LT knows I am trying to get onto the department. I took way too long and I didn't keep track of the others. Had this been a real exercise it could have lead to someone getting lost or hurt. I need to become better and faster if this is going to work. I will make this work.
When we came back from the field trip (I was the last on in the door by a good 5 minutes, and that is behind those that stayed to help me out), I found that the other LT(my old boss) was up at the station. I have no clue why he was up there but I saw him stick his head in the door and talk with one of the instructors. I don't think the 2'nd LT was up there just to check on me but if he was I wouldn't blame him for doing so. If he were to help get me on the department and I don't do well, then it would look bad for him. In any case, I just wish it would have been a better night that he showed up to check on me.