Better Working Conditions

I have been absolutely miserable at work for more than a year. I dreaded going in for every shift because of the rampant nepotism and toxic work atmosphere. I felt as though I had a target on my back and stayed out of sight at the station with very little interaction with the leadership. Add to that the difficult calls I have had recently and I was angry and dour in and out of work. It didn't take much to set me off.

That has all changed with the change in leadership. I have been given additional responsibilities and tasks and actually thanked and praised for just doing my job and for doing extra stuff. The nepotism is gone and the progeny's "authority" is now been reigned in. The schedule is going to change from a topsy-turvy clusterfuck to a work week with regularly scheduled duty days, and as senior FF/EMT I get first choice of days. There are also plans in the works to get rid of the age-out bylaw that has currently short-circuited my retirement plan. A couple of my co-workers (Millenials) aren't too happy but they just need to adjust and buck up. I talked about it with my wife last night and she agreed I have been an angry prick lately but things are getting better simply because of my work environment. I will be on shift this coming Friday and while it is still a work day I would rather be off, I am not dreading it. 

Update On My Vehicle Nightmare

An update on this post from July 14th.

 

After having "Black Betty" for a few weeks my wife has decided that a Toyota Highlander will be her replacement vehicle as well. The cargo space and seating arrangement is really to her liking. Progressive gave us $15,525 for her wrecked RAV-4 so that will make for a decent down payment. She found a nice 2023 Highlander XLE with 46,XXX miles on it at a local dealer we have dealt with for years. Mine is an LE Plus package but the XLE is a higher level of options to include the sunroof she loves. It has a graphite gray interior with heated leather seats. It has the balance of the factory warranty and is in beautiful condition for $38,XXX. The vehicle was leased at the dealership and brought back when the lessee turned it in to lease a new one. We made sure she got a better vehicle than I did because of her commute and use compared to mine. Her commute one way is about 28 miles where mine is 1.9. She also travels the region and sometimes further for dog events. 4WD or at the least AWD is a necessity where we live in the hill country especially in the winter time.

This will be the first time we have both had the same make and model of vehicle and the first time we have had two auto loans at once. Her auto loan will be paid by monthly withdrawals from our retirement investments. We will use mine for towing the utility trailer and putting our kayaks on the roof racks. Hers will have the dog cage assembly she already owns installed as soon as we take delivery. We are still waiting for the check to clear before we move forward to finalize the purchase. We gave the dealership a $500 deposit to hold it and they needed to service it as well. The brakes need work for pulsating and the tires are iffy. The whole vehicle needs to be detailed inside and out.

Therapy of Words

Writing this was actually therapeutic and has helped me move on from the extraordinary sadness I have felt for the past few days. It's like I transferred all that sadness into a computer file. This was an on the job injury and my wounds are healing pretty quickly. It did ruin my perfect record of never being transported in an ambulance as a patient. They called an additional ambulance from the next town over to the scene for me. Those guys were great. As is normal for animal bites I am doing a 7 day regimen of antibiotics and the dog in question was up to date on his rabies. I really don't feel like writing out the incident details again.... I've written it enough times on the reports. 😒 

 

July 18, 2026 at 6:30 PM… A conversation overheard in Heaven

 

GOD: Welcome to Heaven my dear little dog Ash.

Ash: It’s…. It’s… It’s so beautiful! Can I have a cookie?

GOD: You will have all the cookies you want for all of Eternity.

Ash: Why am I here?

GOD: You were badly hurt in a terrible accident and I called to you.

Ash: I REMEMBER!! There was a mean man that was there with my master. I remember I bit him because I was scared and didn’t know why. I’ll bet that man is real mad at me!

GOD: No, he’s not mad at all. And he is not a mean man. His name is XXXXXX, he loves animals, and has four dogs of his own. He was just there trying to help you and your master and now is very sad. Look for yourself.

Ash: God, why is he so sad?

GOD: Because you were so badly hurt and died alone in the rain. It makes him think of his own dogs and how much he loves them and wants to keep them safe forever.

Ash: But…. he didn’t even know me and was only there for a few minutes. Besides that, I bit him…. TWICE!

GOD: That does not matter to the man at all. His injuries are not concerning him, and he understands it was all because you were hurt and scared. He believes there is no such thing as a bad dog, just bad people or bad situations that only make dogs seem bad. What is important to him is that you are now safe here with me in Heaven.

Ash: Now I am a little sad.

GOD: Why is that my precious little boy?

Ash: Because I am sorry for biting that man and wish I could have known him.

GOD: You will get your chance someday when he comes here.

 

Originally posted 7-21-26 16:12. The RSS feed was not posting promptly.

Are You F-ing Kidding Me!!!!

I was on a 24 duty tour yesterday, ending at 6 AM this morning. At 21:43 last night while getting ready to watch the local 10 o'clock news and turn in, I get a phone call from my wife. She hit a deer on the state highway just inside the town line about 7 miles from home. I told her I would call the Chief to see if I could come get her and call her back to let her know. I ended up taking our service truck out to the accident scene once the wrecker was there and state police said she could leave. On my arrival, it was pretty evident her little RAV-4 is no more. HERE WE GO AGAIN!! Another totaled vehicle to be replaced. 😠I brought her and the dog home and returned to duty pretty quick.

We will be heading over to the wrecker station to retrieve the rest of her stuff and make arrangements to get it to the Toyota body shop for a proper estimate. She wants another one and since we can't swing another car loan (I haven't even made the first payment on "Black Betty" yet) we'll dip into our retirement savings and combined with what we get for her RAV-4, just pay for it outright. Not something I want to do, but a catastrophic medical emergency requiring long term care could wipe it all out anyway, so we might as well use it. When we both officially retire, we'll continue working at least part time and our social security will mostly cover our monthly expenses, so our retirement investments are for the extras in life.

Progress on "Black Betty"

Yeaterday, I had a 10:15 AM appointment at the Kommiecticut DMV office to renew my CDL. Unlike non-CDL drivers that can renew at the local AAA office and get a license good for 8 years, I have to go to a full service DMV office and my license is only good for 4 years. 

When I got home, I installed the "Obama Switch" eliminator module and the roof racks. For as much of the interior panels I had to remove to access the back of the Auto-Start-Stop cancel button behind the dash, everything simply unsnaps with the exception of one 10mm retainer bolt. It all came apart and went back together easily making the whole process take about 10 minutes. The module works as promised and the few times I've driven it, I smile every time I see the orange dash indicator come on at startup reminding me that my engine will stay running until I turn the key off. I stopped and had some lunch.

The roof racks took considerably longer but they went up on the roof just fine. It was a pain in the ass to have to go from side to side to get everything evenly lined up and tightened down. Doing the install in the heat of the afternoon wasn't too pleasant either. I now need to get some new mounts for my Yakima "Hull Raiser" kayak saddles to fit on my new aero style roof rack bars. $32.06 a piece from etrailer.com and I will need four.

Yesterday my "in channel" vent shades from WeatherTech arrived and they were installed this morning before it got hot out. We've already had these on her RAV-4 and they install easy and work great. I had them all installed in about 1/2 hour. The windows are supposed to remain fully up for 48 hours for everything to seat properly. After that I will need to reset the auto window up/down to accommodate the extra material in the window channel. On my Tundra which had large upper door frames, I opted for the exterior glue on version from Ventishades. The top of the Highlander door frame is very narrow and has a chrome strip trim piece, so in channel works and looks best. I got the matte finish instead of the shiny version and really like the look. The next part of my order from WeatherTech are the windshield sun shades for the Highlander and Rav-4. Hopefully they come before Monday when I work again so I can use it while parked in the sun behind the firehouse. When I got in my vehicle to come home yesterday it was hot as balls in there when I started it up.