Black Friday

So a few minutes after I published that last post, surprise surprise our box gets a run to Target for a fall. We on the other hand aren't doing anything. We went on a cleaning frenzy, made breakfast, watched our rookie rewind the Q siren (which is completely unnecessary) and now we are all spread around doing our own thing. To hold us over, i'll tell another story from earlier last week.

We made a run to an apartment complex sometime in the evening for an overdose. Some guy drank a bottle of Benadryl and felt sleepy so we weren't really needed and went back in service once the ambulance got there. This apartment complex is rather small so there isn't much room to maneuver with a fire engine. The driveway which we were parked on was straight but the entrance gate behind us was at an angle. No idea why they designed it like that. We start backing up to the gate when my EO realizes the weird backward angle he is going have to make to get out of this place. I could see his nerves building as he tried to angle the back end but couldn't get it. One attempt, two attempts, then three attempts, all while i'm snickering at the frustrated EO. He couldn't get it angled correctly because we would have hit the gate trying to swing out and had a median behind us which prevented him from going any further so he pulls way up and straightened out to get his game plan together when I told him that I bet I could do it. My philosophy is that if it came in that way, it sure as hell can go back out, right? Well in his frustration, his door flies open, hands go in the air and he says, "FINE do it then!" He figured he didn't have anything to loose since he already couldn't do it and maybe he could pull off making his officer look stupid too. Little did he know that all my years as an EO were spent at a small station with narrow doors that we had to back into, all while against the traffic of a freeway feeder so backing out of a gate was nothing to me. I get in the ol' drivers seat, throw that bitch in reverse and back up with one hand on the wheel, making one little correction and into the street we go. The look on his face was priceless and of course the first thing he said was "I guess i'll make it in the blog again." The guys in the back were cracking up so I just put it in drive and kept on driving for a while. I will give him this, today he has been printing off blank maps so he could study the territory. And not to mention that despite his non-directional skills, and inability to back out of gates, he goes forward just fine and can pump the hell out of some water.