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Fire service changes and Concerts?
19 Plays8 months ago
Welcome back! This week, after the normal Rigmarole (weather, appliances/household stuff, gaming, firehouse stories); Ron asks what has changed in the fire service over the last 15 years; Chris went to a concert! As always please like, subscribe, and share with your friends. Come join the discussions on the Discord Channel (https://discord.gg/TbxA7gcUky) and follow us on Twitter, @cltruitt22. Thanks and take care!
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Transcript
Weather Woes and Appliance Adventures
00:00:06
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of the Mythic Draft Podcast. I'm Chris. And I'm Ron. And it's windy and rainy. It is rainy AF. It's actually calmed down here, so I think it's finally starting to stop. That's good. As it moves down the coast towards you guys. Yeah, it was nice that when they had the appliances delivered this morning, it was in the pouring rain. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So did your appliances decide
00:00:35
Speaker
I don't know if this happened, the same thing to you. You got your taxes done. You realize you weren't screwed on your taxes. So then like three appliances went out. So you had to get those replaced. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Now, this started with my darling wife saying, I don't like the way our dryer dries the clothes. Doesn't it tumble and make them dry? That's yeah. Well, sometimes you have to put it in longer. I think it should just do it.
00:01:03
Speaker
So that's going to be any dryer, especially if you overload it like you do, but whatever. I was like, you know what? Fine. Screw it. Let's get you a dryer. That'll make you happy. So we're looking at dryers. And right beside dryers are stoves. Stoves came home. Sarah said, I'm going to go ahead and order this. I was like, oh, the dryer. She's like, yeah, and I was like, and what? Well, I mean, a stove and a microwave. I was like, what? The microwave. She's like,
00:01:33
Speaker
Well, if you get a new stove, you have to have a new microwave to match it. It's like, yes, you're absolutely right. Let's, let's do this.
RV Challenges and Costly Repairs
00:01:43
Speaker
Nice. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. The theme of my world was last week we were supposed to go away in the camper. Yeah. Fire up the old family RV, go down to the beach, spend our weekend away.
00:02:01
Speaker
go to start the interview. It's better than a hammer. So that's weird. Well, I'll try to jump it. Nope. Doesn't take a jump. That's bad. Get a battery test on it on there. Oh, it's, uh, it's got three volts in it. Oh, it's bad. Yeah. This is weird. Yeah. Cause we had it plugged in.
00:02:24
Speaker
Is there water in it? No. That would be the problem. Except for this battery is less than six months old. Oh, okay. So, go to start generator. Generator runs off house batteries. That's weird. Generator won't fire. You can't even get it to start. You're trying to start. Oh, the house batteries are also dead.
00:02:51
Speaker
So something is parasitic loading and killed the batteries over the winter. Oh my gosh. Even though I thought that I took the precaution to keep them up. Yeah. Well, I have to buy three new batteries disconnects to manually disconnect the batteries from the system. So that when I store it, they're disconnected. Then I have to figure out where the parasitic load is and destroy that. Well, the one battery that's only three months, that should be replaced.
00:03:20
Speaker
That should be a warranty thing. They probably will take that back. I'm going to run it up to the store. Just chuck it, Adam. Go draw. Fix this. I haven't gotten to that part yet because, funnily, the Thursday night, so we're supposed to leave Friday, so the Wednesday night, because I worked Thursday, so for the Wednesday night, it was a little warm.
00:03:41
Speaker
My bedroom gets a little hot when it's warm. I'm going to turn my AC on. Have a nice cold sleep before work. Oh, of course. Yeah. As you do. Turn my AC on.
00:03:55
Speaker
It's not turning on No, that's weird. Well, maybe it's cuz the sometimes cuz I have the split mini split system You know if they're if they're not communicating, right? Like if one said in heat and the other one said in you know, cool Yeah, it won't work. All right, that's probably what it is. I'll just go switch it over Huh? That one's also not turning on. Oh This is weird
00:04:20
Speaker
Well, let's just, I'll deal with that when we get back to vacation. Do you have gremlins? I have a nice, no, the universe found out that I didn't get screwed in my taxes. So I decided that I had to pay in other ways. So a guy comes out to, luckily when my RV decides to, you know, take a shit and I'm like, well, this has been a whizmer day, so I'm just going to go drink. I call it a HVAC place and I go, oh, we can get a guy out there today. I'm like, what?
00:04:49
Speaker
you can what so he comes out he's like I see we had a technician out here last year didn't he tell you to fix all this but what needed to be done to fix it like man he just he did this and he's like I see the notes and he
00:05:06
Speaker
Did he not do the leak test? I said, no, he never did a leak test. He's like, oh, great. So find out that there's a leak somewhere in my system. So he runs a Freon detector through all the coils, nothing showing up. I said, oh, so it's in the lines upstairs, right? He's like, it's a 99% chance that it's up in the lines. There's a hole in your line. So is that covered under warranty? He said, no, it's not. Just so matter of fact, no. I said, how much?
00:05:36
Speaker
Are we talking? He's like, well, we can either pull the whole lines out for about $5,000 to, which means we have to, cause they have to, I guess they have to neutralize the system, bleed everything out, pull the lines out, put new lines in, or we can do this nitrogen test to see where the leak is and just patch the leak. I said, Oh, okay. Well, that sounds like it'd be cheaper, right? Yeah. Well,
00:06:06
Speaker
It costs, like, $1,800 to run the test. And then we have to find the leak and repair it. And then we have to refill your system because we poison all of the refrigerant to do the test. I said, oh, that sounds expensive. He's like, well, it's going to be about $3,000 before we figure out where the hole is. Holy crap. I said, OK, OK, OK. So it's $3,000 to
00:06:34
Speaker
just find the leak and then we have to fix the leak. So we're talking $4,000 to $5,000. Yeah, we're probably talking $4,000 to $5,000. Okay. How much is it to replace the whole system? It's like, oh, I don't know. Probably $10,000. I said, so I could pay $10,000, have a whole new system for $5,000 to $6,000 to fix the system.
Home Improvement Hustles
00:06:57
Speaker
Yeah. He said, yeah, that's pretty much the long and short of it. I said, great. All right. Well, have your guy come out and give me a quote to fix the system. So I had a quote from my system. I have to get a new system, obviously.
00:07:15
Speaker
But as part of this, by the way, this is only step two of the fucking universe. Oh no. How is that only step two? So the guy says, Hey, call this number. It's a Delaware energized. They do like rebates for energy efficiency stuff. He's like, I think they give you a thousand dollars back and you can get a tax cut all this stuff for your putting a new system because it's more efficient. Yeah.
00:07:40
Speaker
So that guy comes yesterday while I was at work and you pay him $50 and they do like this energy efficiency test for your house. They put better bulbs in as part of the deal and then they give you a report. And if you qualify for the energy efficiency upgrade, you can get the rebate on your system. So it'll cost me 50 bucks. I'll get a $1,200 rebate on my system. I think that's a worthwhile swing. A pretty good deal. Yeah.
00:08:08
Speaker
Turns out to qualify for that $1,200 rebate, I have to do $1,800 worth of work to my attic to re-insulate and seal the attic. So now there's a rebate for that too.
00:08:28
Speaker
This is good. But wait, there's more. So now I have to re-inslate the attic at a cost of $1,800. Then I have to put a whole new system in at the cost of $10,000. And then I have to fix an RV. I haven't even gotten to that part yet. Yeah. Oh, God. But this was all the universe saying, hello. We see you have a couple of dollars in your bank account. Yep. You'd like to fix that problem.
00:08:57
Speaker
Oh, that's been my week. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, did I tell you my driver's side seatbelt doesn't work? What? Yeah, my jeep, my driver's side seatbelt stopped working. Oh, yeah. Man, you just provided me my fourth fucked over. We won't retract. That sucks. So I thought maybe it was like gummed up or something. So I like took it all apart. This one little spring went flying. I tracked that down and I was like,
00:09:27
Speaker
Yeah, it's messed up. It's just not catching. I was like, but I can. So I sat in the seat, I clipped it in, reached down like like ratcheted it so it fit me, locked it in, put everything back together. Cool. So I can still drive my Jeep safely for me. No one else can drive it. Just me or if you have my body size. Sure. So I look I was like, OK, well, maybe they have replacements on Quadratec, like a quadratec. And there's one for like 100 bucks.
00:09:57
Speaker
All right. This fits your Jeep. Great. It's got does not meet manufacturer specs or something like that. I'm like, oh, so if I get in an accident, this isn't going to be covered properly. That's cool. Yeah. So, all right. I was like, you know what? I'll just I'll call the Jeep dealership. So I put in a help ticket with them. They send me an email. We need your VIN, so we make sure we get the right color. I was like, I don't care about the color of the damn seat belt, but here you go. She said, OK.
00:10:25
Speaker
OK, driver's seat belt, that'll be five hundred and eighty two dollars. I was like, what? And she's like, yeah, that's yeah. OK. I was like, no, there's just one seat belt. One seat belt. OK, well, what what would labor be? Oh, I have no idea. I was like, well, could we factor that in? Oh, well, labor labor will be another 250 or so. So you're looking at about seven to eight hundred dollars to get this fixed.
00:10:54
Speaker
Okay. Well, then I look at Quadratec again, I'm like, I could put a five point harness in for $200. You should totally do that. So I might be putting in a five point harness into my Jeep. I love it. God. Well, so to crap on my Jeep, not my Jeep, the universe. Yeah. I went to the gym the other day as I go most days. Yeah. I get to the gym and the fucking wind
00:11:22
Speaker
I opened my door, driver's side door, my Jeep wind hits just at the right moment and snaps the little, uh, you know, the little restraining cloth. Oh yeah. That closes. It keeps your door from flying too far. I'm like, motherfucker. That's just one more thing today. It was, it's been fun. Yeah. Yeah. My wife informed me. She's like, yeah, I already sold that once. I'm like, maybe you didn't do the best job in the world.
00:11:52
Speaker
I sewed that once. Yeah. Yeah. This was all by the way, after I had ordered my brand new bike. Oh, yeah, of course. So that's why it works. That's why it works. Yeah. It's been a real whizmer of a week. Yeah. Yeah.
Gaming Industry Insights
00:12:09
Speaker
Yeah. Well, in part of the appliances, we looked at cabinets. Guys in my office. I need to do storage. I need to do something. So I was like, oh, we'll put.
00:12:21
Speaker
You know, a row of cabinets against the one wall and build bookcases above it. Done. So we're looking again and she's like, oh, they're really expensive. I was like, well, I can make cabinets. And she goes, but would they look janky? I said, I said, time out. I don't know if that's a slight against me or no, it's a slight against me. It's like, well, no, it's just will they look professional? I'm like, you're not helping your case.
00:12:52
Speaker
And she's like, it looks like a toddler got a hold of the saw. Yeah. I was like, you have seen some of the project. I built the shed. She's like, well, part of it. I was like, don't even say that it looks janky because I had it specced out and then you changed your mind on the siding. So I had to drop and punt once we'd already put the roof on. She's like, oh, yeah, I kind of did that. And I said, yeah, I said we can build the cabinets to our specs, how big we want everything. She's like,
00:13:22
Speaker
just worry about, like, if we paint them, will there be brushstrokes and things? I said, yes, because you know what? When people come to our house, the first thing they do is say, let me look at the paint strokes. Get the hell out of here, woman. Go into you. The next time I come to your house and your wife is around and those cabinets are in, I'm going to be like, oh, yeah, you can really see the pressure of these cabinets. Oh, my God. And you know, I'll just hear from the upstairs. I told you that.
00:13:53
Speaker
Oh, yeah. God, I was like, seriously. So like after that, we went and got a bite to eat. You know, we're sitting there. She got some. I can't remember what she was like. I was like, Oh, how's your meal? She's like, Oh, it's OK. I was like, Oh, is it a little janky? God. Well, yeah, we. We've also been. She busted me about graph paper. What? Well.
00:14:17
Speaker
She asked, she's like, do you need graph paper to draw out what your blueprint is and everything? I was like, I don't think so. Well, the next morning, I went to the grocery store, as you usually do. When I was there, I was like, you know what? Screw it. I'm going to get graph paper. So I come home. She starts unloading the groceries. And she's like, I thought you said you didn't need graph paper. I was like, I changed my mind. Why did you tell me you didn't need it yesterday? I was like, what the hell, woman? I changed my mind. God.
00:14:48
Speaker
We desperately need to replace our cabinets in our kitchen because they're from 1975 and they're really falling apart. The cost of cabinets are crazy. I was like, this will be a good run through to see if we can just build cabinets for the kitchen. I think I could hang the cabinets. But I don't know that I want to build cabinets. I think I could handle the hanging part.
00:15:17
Speaker
But then I can't I'm not doing the countertop. Yeah, no, I'll get somebody to do the countertop. Yeah, I had somebody that kind of screws up. That's just. Yeah. It's no bueno. Yeah. No. What's like when I did my wife's craft room with the cabinets she picked out, stained them and everything, how she liked them. Put them in and she was like, well, I want to get like a little or a laminate countertop or whatever. It's like, OK.
00:15:45
Speaker
So I was looking up how you do it and everything, and I made like this cardboard template that like had all these measurements on it and everything because it went through the corner and all that. I was like, I could probably do it, but let's just get somebody to come in here. So she found the countertop she wanted. It was at Home Depot and they're like, we'll come out and do measurements and, you know, do installation for pennies on the dollar. OK, so the guy comes over, he looks, he's like,
00:16:12
Speaker
What's that cardboard over there in the corner? I was like, oh, I'd started to make a template. He picked it up, put it over top. He's like, this is perfect. This is all I need. Walks out the door. I was like, you motherfucker. God. Countertop came in, fit perfectly. So I was like, oh, man, they did a really good job. I was like, no, I did a really good job. God. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:16:45
Speaker
Well, how's been the hell diving? I thought it was great. Good. I think what has been the best for me about it is I just, I'll come in, I'll play a mission or two, and then I'm done for the day. Oh, nice. You know, I can just walk away from it. I don't feel like I need to really grind anything. It's kind of nice. Yeah, that is nice. Yeah. Not grinding feels nice. Yeah. Should we talk about the sad news of Larian?
00:17:12
Speaker
Because you have different views of them than I do. Yeah, we can talk about that. Unless it's your topic. No, no, no. So Larian, if you haven't seen, announced that they're not going to do Watergate 4. Right. And they're not going to do anything D&D based at all. Yeah. Which I understand their viewpoint because they
00:17:35
Speaker
They had already had these games before. They just took their game model and made it landscape, right? Yeah. And they want to go back to their IPs, which is or whatever they want to do next. It's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. But it still makes me sad. I can see that, but it's I feel like also, I mean, I feel bad for the person trying to make Baldur's Gate four. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's like a super steep. Yeah. But does this mean it's going to be 10 years from now? Probably.
00:18:04
Speaker
You know, I saw some stupid thing that they all modding coming soon to Baldur's Gate three. Go away. Well, I mean, I can do Excel inside Baldur's Gate. Oh, my God. Carl, I have to get on Turbo Tax. Yes. But I mean, it also makes me sad because there won't be any DLC for this Baldur's Gate. Yeah. Well, I thought they had said that from the beginning anyway.
00:18:32
Speaker
I think they had talked about it and this confirmed it. Yeah. They're not going to work on it. Well, but if there is modding and things like that, it could be like, oh, God, I can't. I know there's been games that have done it. Like somebody has modded something. It's been so good. They're like, hey, let's make something out of this. Oh, yeah, there's plenty of games to do that. Yeah. But yes.
00:18:56
Speaker
I mean, Daisy is the perfect example. It was. Yeah. Yeah. But it still makes me a little sad. Yeah. And look. For all I know, 40 percent of the people that worked on Baldur's Gate have already been laid off. God, yeah. There's been so many people laid off in the gaming industry. Yeah. Well, I think it's because Covid, there was the huge spike, so everybody hired
00:19:22
Speaker
eight billion people. And now they're like, we kind of overstepped. I think it's partially that. I also think it was. It's partly game developers, not the companies, but the developers.
00:19:39
Speaker
want an unsustainable system to make dreams. I don't know the answer to all of these things, but the thing that makes me giggle about this is they act like this is the end of gaming. The industry's been around for 50 years now. It's not a new industry. Every time I read, it's like,
00:20:04
Speaker
Yes. There's new companies involved in this. There's new CEOs, but some of these companies, some of the people who worked at Activision have worked there for 20 plus years. Right. Yeah. You know, they're not, they're not rookies. They're not making bad decisions because they don't know what they're doing. They're making the best decisions for their company. Right. Unless you're rock study. I sat down and watched all the cut scenes and like,
00:20:32
Speaker
for the story of Suicide Squad killed the Justice League. I don't know what kind of crack ass fever dream somebody was on that thought that was going to be good. Well, I heard they're doubling down. You're going to make it get make it better. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sure they are. Yeah. I want to just put Joker from Harley Quinn in there and fuck it. Yeah, that's who we need Jared Leto.
Fire Service Challenges and Changes
00:21:03
Speaker
Well, you want to go to topic one? Yes, topic one. So this is very, very, very inside baseball, but also I think it applies to other people's careers too. And I want to see your perspective on it because I think fundamentally our job is not fun anymore.
00:21:28
Speaker
And I, we were talking about last night and we talk about it a lot. It's the work. And look, there's a part of me that says, should your job even be fun? That's a whole other conversation. But what changed in the fire service? I don't want to, I don't think it's a, I don't think it's a Salisbury fire department problem. I think it's a fire service issue. What changed?
00:21:56
Speaker
in both the public's perception of us, our perception of who we are, our handling of things that we have made the job just not fun anymore. For some people who don't work in firehouses or have never been around a firehouse,
00:22:18
Speaker
I'm not saying that we sit around and play grab ass all day because we have a serious job. But when you're not doing that serious job, it used to be fun to hang around the firehouse. It used to be fun to kind of do things that now, like we were talking about
00:22:37
Speaker
Yeah, put on a rainbow afro wig and seeing seeing peanut butter jelly. We literally were talking about that same event last night. I said, we drove around on Halloween. The whole engine crew had rainbow clown wigs. Yeah. And somebody yesterday said, you couldn't do that anymore. And I said, why not? Why couldn't we do that? Yeah. And I don't I don't and I really don't think that anybody in my department would have I don't have a problem. But I do think the perception is that somebody would have a problem.
00:23:06
Speaker
Yeah. You know, somebody said, well, somebody would see you guys driving around and be like, why the hell is the fire department driving around in a wigs? And they make a complaint. And I think they are right. I think the public complains on the fire department way more than it ever did before. Yeah. I just had to sit through a complaint the other day that was completely meritless and baseless. And I was like, what is going on?
00:23:33
Speaker
Right. Why is this happening? Like this isn't something that used to happen in the fire service. And I think part of it is that in the guys who started this job in the seventies and eighties and nineties would have just said, nah, you hung up on that person. Right. Which is not the right answer. No. But is it the wrong answer completely? Well, I think, I think a lot of it is,
00:24:02
Speaker
What we do is so visible now between social media and just, you know, we're out in the public so much because I know that like construction sites and other jobs, they grab ass and do stupid things and everything. But it's not seen as much. Yes, but that's true. And look, because I think social media is a big part of it.
00:24:30
Speaker
I think social media is a huge part of it. Yeah. The fear of us. I think it's the fear of social media more than anything. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because it's like, you know, oh, we, you know, somebody may or may not have dumped a whole bag of flour on somebody while they were in the bathroom. And that would be a violation of the rights. Right. Yeah. I mean, if that video of that happening and then the aftermath and everything running out and all, if that was on social media, people would be like, that's not what my tax dollars are for.
00:25:01
Speaker
Yeah. They're wasting flour that could be used for somebody. Why are they doing that when they should be cleaning that bathroom, not making a mess of it? It's just everything's negative now. Yeah. I sincerely believe in my heart that I have the best job in the world.
00:25:23
Speaker
But I can tell you that dealing with the public has become the worst part of the job. Yes. And it's that this is always I'm going to say this for everybody who might think about it's never the patients who are the problem. No. Right. The people who we help never complain about us. Yeah, it's the family or the neighbor or guy on the road. It's it's someone who has a perception of what we should do. Yeah. That is not what we do. Right.
00:25:53
Speaker
You know, that's the only time that's what it is. Maybe we maybe we haven't set clear expectations. We've allowed we've allowed social media and Hollywood and television to skew people's perceptions of what the fire department should and shouldn't do. I think that's very valid.
00:26:21
Speaker
But then like I talked to the newer members in our department and I say, you know, didn't you grow up with the idea that the fire department was fun? Yeah. Right? Like, didn't you expect that when you started working here, that it would be fun? Yeah. And I think this is the old man, the fire department talking now. We used to have fun because when we went on calls,
00:26:50
Speaker
I think we're going to be important calls. Yeah. Right. You cannot engine now. You're going to AFAs all day or medical locals. Yep. Oh, I think that's universal across the board. Yeah. Anywhere in the country. Or you're going because I didn't know who else to call, so I called the fire department. That is very much our one of the problems is the public. No one else will answer the problems, so we always answer them. Yeah.
00:27:21
Speaker
I'm proud of my service that we do that, but I do think it's also killing my service. Yeah. That makes any sense in the world. I'm grateful that people want, they trust us to, oh, my shower's leaking. I guess I'll call the fire department. Yeah. Which I never would have done, personally would never think that would never enter my head, but that's what people do. They call the fire department because they don't know what else to do and we're going to come help them. Yeah.
00:27:50
Speaker
But I think it's killing the fire service. Yeah. And I'm really worried about it. Well, yeah, because like you said, you know, with everybody being so critical other than the patient usually being hypercritical and wanted.
00:28:06
Speaker
judge everything, you know, guys and gals are going out on calls and going, crap, I've got to, you know, if I sneeze the wrong way or, you know, Oh God, if somebody sees us laughing at the ER, they're, you know, gonna say, Oh, what kind of assholes are those? And, you know, it's, it's rough. You know, the complaint that we just went through, which I won't divulge details or anything, but the paramedic at the end, I had to be like, you did nothing wrong.
00:28:34
Speaker
We're doing this because we have to cover our bases, but you shouldn't be pissed off. But he's like, I'm still pissed off. And I'm like, and I can't disagree with you that you're pissed off that you had this complaint against you. It's not fair. There's a part of me that wants to say to that person, nobody violated a city policy. Nobody violated a protocol. Nobody violated your civil rights.
00:29:01
Speaker
some part of me wants to go back to that person and say, this is not what you should do. Yeah. You know, you're on set. We're not, we're not, we're not your waiter. We're not working for tips, you know? And yeah, that's, man, that's hard for me to deal with. I really, I'm struggling to deal with this because I look at my career and I can say,
00:29:29
Speaker
I used to love coming to the work because I was at the firehouse. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And I want my people to have that same feeling. Yeah. I also think part of that is because they're losing that feeling or some people have already lost that feeling, they're then poisoning the well for others with that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I'm hoping that Crazy Sock Tuesday and Wacky Hat Thursday are going to work things up.
00:29:58
Speaker
But no, it's true. It's you talk about, you know, it's the people that complain or the BS calls and stuff like that. Yeah, it gets to you and I still it sticks out in my mind so much. I was probably seven years on the job, maybe, and we had chest pains at two o'clock in the morning somewhere. Go there. You do the normal. You grumble the entire way there and then you get all right. Hi, ma'am. How are you? How are you feeling?
00:30:25
Speaker
Oh, you know, I've had this like indigestion, not feeling great, you know, all day. And before I could, you know, think it, not say it, I said, what was going on all day? Why do you wait till two o'clock in the morning to call? And she looked at me and I was like, oh, God, I shouldn't have said that. But before I could apologize, she said, you're absolutely right. I'm a bitch for calling at two o'clock in the morning. I'm very sorry.
00:30:51
Speaker
I will call back in the morning. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. We're taking you to the hospital. It's all good. No problem. Nope. Nope. Yeah. But why do we, let's talk about we, the leaders of the fire service. I think we both are leaders in the fire service at this point. I think so. Why do we, when you tell me that story,
00:31:16
Speaker
Part of me was like, man, I would write your ass up. That's a very human reaction. Why do we expect our people aren't going to be human? Yeah, I think that's a big part of it. Well, and I think the public doesn't realize we're humans also. That's the thing that I wish I could sit down with every person in the public and talk about is you don't know what these people are going through.
00:31:42
Speaker
You have no idea if they come into work and the night before they were fighting with their wife and now they're here at work for 24 hours and they're stewing. Yeah. Or you don't know if the worst call they've ever had to deal with was five minutes before the call they came to you. You know. Yeah. And this is a conversation I had with it. It's not the worst calls to get to them. No. No. It's the BS calls over and over and over. It's picking Graham I Schmerken's up for the 80th time. It's dealing with
00:32:12
Speaker
that guy over on Shoemaker Manor who's covered in feces and drunk. We went yesterday. This is just an example of my frustration. The city of Salisbury is paid for diesel fuel, the cost of a fire engine, the cost of a lieutenant, and three firefighters to go to a nursing home to pick a person up. We were passed by three staff of that nursing home.
00:32:40
Speaker
on our way in and they said, oh, well, we're glad you're here. And I just wanted to have a very human reaction and say, these people paying you a lot of money for you to give them care and service and you are failing to do that. And you're using the fire department to make up for your failings. But I didn't do that. I just smiled, took care of the patient because at the end of the day, she still needed the help. We helped her. Yep. And it wasn't her fault that they weren't picking her up.
00:33:08
Speaker
No, no, at no point was I mad at her. She didn't call. Yeah. She wasn't the one meeting us at the door saying, Oh, we just couldn't do it. Yeah. You couldn't pick up 113 pound woman. Really? Oddly precise. Yeah. But no, I got you. I just wanted to have a very human re and my, my crew's bitching and I can't disagree with them because they're all right. Yeah.
00:33:36
Speaker
But that's taking the fun out of the job like. And this is this is a this seems like whining of the firefighters, but we didn't take the job because we're going to get a lot of money. No, no, we're not going to get the money. Nobody, nobody ever in the history said I'm working for the fire department so I can be rich. And let's start working for one of those Jack napes over in California. Sure. That's very fair. There was some of the guys I took classes with in Washington state. I'm like, you make what?
00:34:08
Speaker
Anyways, but we didn't take the job too rich. We took the job because we wanted the enrichment and the love of the job and all of those things to help our fellow man to do all of those things, rotary and all of those things. So when we're bitching about not bitching, when I'm complaining about what's going on, it's because once you start making that part not fun anymore, I don't think you have firefighters showing up for the job. No, I agree with you. Yeah.
00:34:38
Speaker
And that's the real problem, I think. Oh, yeah. You know, fundamentally, when fire departments talk about recruitment problems, that's the problem. Oh, yeah, because I can tell you that before I started in Salisbury, if it wasn't for the old B shift, I wouldn't have applied to Salisbury because I did a couple of ride alongs. I mean, man, these guys are having fun, you know, in between calls. There's, you know,
00:35:03
Speaker
actual feel like a family kind of thing. It's not a B shift. And they can barely tie their shoes. The old B shift was a different B shift. Now, so we should do the same B shift. Yeah, they are. Every one. Folks, it's always fucking B shift. It's always fucking B shift. God. Everywhere you go. Yeah. It's always B shift. And when you say, what's wrong with that guy? Oh, he's been on B shift too long. Yeah. Yeah.
00:35:30
Speaker
You have to rotate people through B shift to keep the B shift from infecting them too much. Maybe that's our problem. We'll keep people on B shift too long. Yeah. I mean, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, no, no, no, this is not our problem. Yeah. Nope. Nope. Everything is perfectly fine. Yeah.
00:35:56
Speaker
I plan to stay on my shift for the rest of my career. Yeah. This is another reason why I didn't want to promote. It's like on that. I mean, this is actually a conversation we've had in the chief's office before. It's, you know, how do how do we take it back to the way it used to be? Can we take it back to the way it used to be?
00:36:26
Speaker
Yeah. And you know, we're also. Do I have to show up at 11 o'clock at night and throw a water balloon on somebody when they're in their bunk and run away tee heeing? Because I'm not a good runner anymore. There's a part of me that would love to see the chief's officers do those things. Yeah. Or be like those kinds of peoples, because I think that would signal to the people, Oh yeah, it's okay to have fun at this job. Yeah.
00:36:56
Speaker
Yeah, it's acceptable. You know, hey, the chief's cool. We know the chief's cool. We we've worked with the guy for 20 years, you know, but they don't know that. Yeah. Well, a few of them on B shift saw me chase a B shifter across the engine bay the other day because he had jumped out and scared the hell out of me. So, yeah, then, you know, you saw this on the spider eggs I put in your office. So shut the hell up. Yeah, but I think
00:37:26
Speaker
Look, also, I'm going to be. But it's also getting out there and getting, you know, involved with people and all because I can tell you, look, and I know our folks are so busy. But the other day, I just I was in the right place at the right time to cover a couple of calls with C-Shift, so one of their students could get like two or three team leads. And they're like, OK, we'll drop you off at the fire. I said, No, let's keep riding. I'm good. Let's go to another call.
00:37:55
Speaker
You know, because I don't do it every day anymore. And, you know, I think that's part of it also. I would agree with you. I also want to be very clear, caveat. We were both old enough to know that there were some really toxic things that no need to come back.
Leadership and Work Culture in Fire Service
00:38:11
Speaker
Oh, yeah, absolutely not.
00:38:13
Speaker
You know, we both, I think we both would agree that the fire service has done some terrible things. Yes. But those things need to go away forever. Right. And I think that's part of the problem. I think we overcorrected. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's I think that's a good way to look at it. We were like, oh, we can't do these horrible things. So we can't do this. These kind of fun, impish fun things. Right. To what? Setting a newspaper on fire and shoving it underneath the
00:38:42
Speaker
bathroom door. What? It's fun and impish until they just ignore it. I mean, it's not. Why is the door black? No reason, boss. No reason at all. It's fun and impish anymore. Yeah. But, you know. Chief, funny story. You're gonna laugh. Yeah. Like,
00:39:09
Speaker
Or pranks the right thing to be all the time. No. Not as long as they don't have malice in them. Oh, yeah. You know, I think that was one of the problems is people thought there was malice or when there was malice and people use pranks as malice. Right. Yeah. Like you said, it should be ambition fun. Yeah. Like putting glitter in the vents because you want to get somebody and then that person doesn't turn the air conditioner on for an entire shift. But could you imagine? And I just want you to be a chief officer a second.
00:39:39
Speaker
And take that incident. Yeah. And that incident happens tomorrow. What's going to happen? Oh, gosh. That's a good role. When does B-Shift work again? Tomorrow. I can't do it tomorrow. God, I made it the next time after that. But, you know, we used to do that stuff because it took your mind off the job. I mean, this is so fundamentally stupid. We would plan.
00:40:09
Speaker
like four shifts for a prank. Oh, yeah. We would lay things out. We'd look and we're like, OK, so and so is here on this day and this day are you need to get this and this will have this and that that I mean. Very in-depth plans. I mean, I don't want to speak. We would cover medic calls. Yeah. Just so you could prank people. Yes. Yes. It was to a point. It's like I got the call. You do it. Go do it. I got it. Yeah. I don't want to speak ill of him because he's passed, but
00:40:40
Speaker
Bieber helped me do a prank and then I pranked Seption to him inside of the prank. Oh, yes. Yes. I mean, he spent like we spent two hours pranking somebody and then he walked away like a moron. So that I got him. Yeah, it was a double. Yeah. Yeah. Those are the best ones. That one might have caused some brain damage, though. I don't know. At least concussion. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. Yeah.
00:41:10
Speaker
Yeah, nothing as bad as the concussion he got in fruitland that day. Oh, my God. Yeah, the doctor's like, I've never seen a goose egg that big. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Yeah. Yeah.
00:41:27
Speaker
but it was all impassioned fun. And this is the other side of it. I think about this whole conversation. I'm now a 44 year old man. I'm 20 years into my career. I'm really 24 years into my career. It's just 20 years at Salisbury. And I think about like, we used to just sit around the firehouse and talk all night. Now I think about firehouse. I'm like, I'm not going to get any sleep. Screw that. I'm going to bed.
00:41:56
Speaker
Yeah, no, you're right. Yeah, it's like I tie tie. I need to go sleep. Yeah, I'm tired. I want to go bed. Yeah, you know, I think there are some that still stay up late, though. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, no, I yeah. That's okay. It was like, hey, you want to do a 24? I was like, hell no, they'll kill me.
00:42:15
Speaker
God, it's good for you. Build up character. Yeah. I think here's what I, here's what I want. The, if there's anybody listening to this podcast in the world, just go tell a firefighter is okay to be a firefighter. Just, you know, I think other side of this go hug a fireman, just go hug a fireman. I think the other side of this is we,
00:42:44
Speaker
We were raised in the fire service in the post 9-11 world where firefighters could do no wrong. And maybe we've now naturally progressed to the post post 9-11 world where firefighters could do all the wrong. You know, maybe that's it too. That could be definitely part of it. I have no answers. I just have questions. Well, bring back some impish pranks.
00:43:13
Speaker
make some chocolate chip cookies for your show. I'm not going to do that one. Not because I didn't think it was funny, but because people got mad at me who lived with that person. I can't even use my own bathroom. Yeah, that one. That one can stay in the adults. Yeah. I was talking to somebody the other day.
00:43:42
Speaker
group of friends online. And I was like, I can't remember what. Oh, they were talking about cereal. I was like, there was a night that my partner and I ate every marshmallow out of this young man's fruit. Yeah. Lucky charms for the next day. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I want to set that up. It wasn't like the small bag of lucky charms.
00:44:02
Speaker
It was a five pound bag of generic luck. It's like the Sam's Club. It was like a month's supply. It's like good icons or something. It wasn't Lucky Charms. This is the poor day work bastard who is going to eat Lucky Charms for the rest of the next two months. His whole bag of Lucky Charms now has no marshmallows in it. We picked through and ate every marshmallow. God, our stomachs were so upset. And this person was like,
00:44:33
Speaker
Why did you eat the marshmallows? Why didn't you just throw them away or hide them? And the one guy on there, he's a medic in Nashville. He was like, you have no idea how a firehouse works. You have to eat them. Well, I would have been offensive if he didn't eat them. Exactly. If you were just thrown away. But this poor bastard comes into work the next day and he goes to get his cereal and there's two idiots sitting at the kitchen table going,
00:45:02
Speaker
And he just pours the saddest bowl of cereal. It's just the oat bran crunch. And he has to sit there and eat it with his lactose free milk. We did not mix his milk up that time. I still did. I did not do it. I don't know who did it. I'm still blamed for it, but I did not do it. You know who probably did it? Papa Hop. Probably. Pastor probably did. Never said anything. Yeah, because that man liked a prank.
00:45:30
Speaker
Yes, he did. Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. God, that poor boy, if he smelled milk, he would poop himself. Yeah. Yeah. Poor bastard. Well, you bastards eat his every one of his marshmallows. It was not even like that had to have been 3000 calories a person that you eat of just marshmallows. Yeah. Yeah. And there's no way it tasted good. Oh, no, it didn't. No. Uh uh. No.
00:46:02
Speaker
That's why that's why the fire station one now, everything is locked up like Fort Knox. Oh, yeah. Can't trust anybody. Yeah. Especially B shift. Yeah. And we were B shifters. You were B shifters. You definitely were. Oh man. It's like somebody putting a dead spider in the EMS pass on book. Yeah. And then not being found till three o'clock in the morning.
00:46:31
Speaker
That's the best part of that story. Yeah. And the part of the fuck is your problem, man. Good times. That's, you know, but that's, I guess that's my point is I want my people to be 20 years from now gone, man, they thought that dumb shit. Yeah. I want them to be happy about the dumb shit. Yeah.
00:46:57
Speaker
That's why I want their careers to be because I, you know, I want them to retire and enjoy their careers. Cause I'm going to say when I retire, I enjoyed my career. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.
Concert Tales and Adulting
00:47:10
Speaker
I ate some real shitty food and got pranked every once in a while and a whole flag of fire jumped on my head. And that was a good one because the poor bastard sitting at the table got
00:47:26
Speaker
Yeah. As the two B shifters ran away. Well, we've reminisced. Yeah. We've lived, we've laughed, we've loved. Topic two. Topic two. So, uh,
00:47:55
Speaker
I went to a concert the other night. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because so evidently, see, this is a problem. I don't know if this happens to you, but current Chris has a lot of faith that future Chris is going to want to do stuff. Hmm. Yeah. Current Chris says, Oh, yeah, sounds great. So evidently, like three months ago, my wife said, Hey, I got tickets to see Fall Out Boy during the middle of the week. Do you want to go?
00:48:24
Speaker
I said, sure, sounds delightful. I don't know anything about the Fall Out Boy. So. Please tell me you went in there and said, I'm here to see the Fall Out Boy. Well, no, because it was, they were already playing. Well, the first band was already playing when we got there. So. Can I side tangent? Yes, please. Okay. I'm going to side tangent. My wife.
00:48:47
Speaker
God bless her. She's upstairs. She can hear this. I'm not sure. She loves going to concerts. She drives me to concerts. I hate concerts. Just dislike them. And the thing I think I dislike the most about the concert is the freaking opening bands. We have been to concerts where there's been two or three opening acts. Wow.
00:49:09
Speaker
three hours of music that I have to listen to to listen to a band that I didn't want to see in the first place. Yeah, I think this one had two opening acts. How about this? If I'm here to see The Fall Out Boy, tell me what time Fall Out Boy is being on the damn show. And that's the time I show up. So my wife did do that. She did like research and like of people that went to the other legs of this tour. And she said, Fall Out Boy will go on at nine o'clock at night. Yes.
00:49:37
Speaker
On a Wednesday? Yes. I was like, oof. She's like, but don't worry, they'll be done by 11. I was like, 11 o'clock? Yeah, yeah. On a Wednesday. On a Wednesday. That's a school night. Yeah, it is. Yeah, and there were people with school kids there. Like this weak child was six years old. But so.
00:50:02
Speaker
Yeah, so I had agreed to this and then like last week my wife goes, oh, you excited for the concert next week? I was like, yeah. What is it? Is it Breeze concert? She's like, no, the Fall Out Boy concert. I was like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it's going to be fun. Yeah. Yeah. She's like, you know, I got it.
00:50:23
Speaker
I would have said that to me and I would have been like, I have no idea what you're talking about. She's like, I got us a hotel. It's like two and a half blocks from there. Two and a half blocks. It's all good. 11 o'clock at night. Yeah. So. I said, what time do you want to leave on Wednesday? And this one, she was like, oh, you know, we've got. We'll check in and then, yeah, just we have to be at the arena by nine o'clock. I was like, you don't care about the opening acts.
00:50:52
Speaker
No, not really. It was like Jimmy Eat World and somebody else. And I was like, OK. I was like, are you sure? Because I'm feeling bad that, you know, she might miss part of it. She's like, I honestly don't care. All right. So I was like, what time do you want to leave? She's like, oh, we'll leave a little bit after four. I was like, look, doing the math in my head. I was like, well, the concert starts at six. But you say you don't want to worry. We got to be there at nine. OK. So we're driving up and we stop and grab a little bite to eat. Get there. And it's like.
00:51:21
Speaker
There was traffic and stuff. And we get to the hotel like eight fifteen. I'm like, woman, we have got to move. So we get in the elevator. The elevator is run by marbles, evidently. Because that's what it sounded like as the elevator went down. It was like, I guess it was chains or something. But it was like rattling and stuff. I was like, cool. So we might not make it to the concert because we're going to die. But all right. And she was like, do you feel OK walking to the concert? I was like, I think we'll be fine. It's, you know,
00:51:50
Speaker
It's a cold, windy night. There's not going to be a lot of people on the street. I'll have my radar up. We're good. So we get out. We walk. We go. We get to the venue, open the doors. You can hear Jimmy World playing their song. She's like, we made it in time. Delightful. What seats are we in? She said, 115 P1 and 2. I said, where's that? I don't know. I thought you would know. How the hell would I know where these concert seats are? Whatever. So we go through the metal detector.
00:52:21
Speaker
she you know we're fine we go and she's like I want a beer I was like I'm good so she got herself a beer we there's curtains so you have to go through them to get to the different risers so we find the one that says 115 well we go and there's
00:52:40
Speaker
one and two in P. Sarah's like, um, this lady, you know, it's in the middle of the two bands. So it's fine. She's like, those are our seats. And she's like, no, we're in one and two of one 16, one 15s on that side. And we're like, what? So we got to go around. But then we go back out. There's no way to go around. So we asked the attendant, delightful man. He helped us out. But it was, I felt bad because he had small arms, like a genetic thing. And he was waving at the people to stand up.
00:53:11
Speaker
Are you there? No, I'm here. He was like kind of flapping. So it was comical a little bit. But we get down to our seats, sit down like, all right, ready for the fallout boy. And then who sits next to me? But a young lady who is easily 400 on the hoof. And she goes, I know I take up a lot of room. Now, what am I supposed to say to that? I'm like, no, you're fine. It's great. Yeah.
00:53:41
Speaker
So the band starts playing and the first couple songs were great, but then the guitar and the drums were louder than the singer. So all I could hear was like, and then, you know, music playing, whatever. So. But yeah, we get done. It's 11 o'clock at night and we've got a well, there's a whole herd of people walking now, but it's like I was sweaty and hot and I was having people rub up against me that I did not want rubbing up against me. It was no, no.
00:54:11
Speaker
I don't I don't want to go to concerts anymore. So in my mind, you stayed up on a Wednesday night till 11. You got back to probably back to your hotel one midnight. So you didn't go to work for three days because you needed to recover, right? I was at work by nine o'clock. Oh, because no way I got the text Tuesday. Hey, man, I need you for interviews Thursday and Friday morning at nine.
00:54:42
Speaker
Sure thing, chief. I'll make it happen. So my wife and I got up at six o'clock on the road. We went. Hmm. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Fun times. Yep. Nope. No chance. Yeah. Yeah. All these people are like, oh, I'm going to go to oceans calling or country calling all this. I'm like, no, there's going to be so many people there. No, I've seen pictures.
00:55:10
Speaker
Yeah, or like I told my wife, I was like, there are bands that I like to listen to, you know, but I would never go to one of their concerts like a Breaking Benjamin or a skillet or something like that, because no. I don't need that. She's like, oh, don't be scared. I was like. If it's at like the nine thirty club, like a smaller venue, maybe, but the big arenas you can't really hear and see now. No. I don't need it. Yeah. My.
00:55:38
Speaker
My wife, I lost her. God bless her. She's like, Oh, we should take a concert. She bought me concert tickets to shows. I really liked it. I'm like, great. It's not my thing. It's never been my thing. If the music sounds worse, I don't care about the cover of the time. Yeah. Opening bands. I don't want to pay extra money for beer. Oh God. Yeah. Yeah. Stay in that. I also.
00:56:09
Speaker
As I get older and I think my ADHD gets worse, I can't listen to the same band for like an hour. It's don't want to. Yeah. Like I there's some bands I love. I like listening to music. And when I was a kid, I would listen to their whole album. Now. Yeah. I listen to the two songs I really like. And then I won't listen to that. Exactly. You know, I will say that band the other night, they they played a couple like covers in between stuff like they play like three or four of their songs and then a cover.
00:56:39
Speaker
So that kind of split it up a little bit. So that was nice. That's nice. Still wouldn't want to be there. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. The ocean cowling thing and the what was it? Country calling? Whatever the hell it is. I would have noticed either one of those places, especially what they're playing, paying to go see those concerts isn't seen. I mean, I look at some of the, you know, the videos and stuff of like,
00:57:09
Speaker
frickin back in the day, each festival and that just too many people. Mm hmm. Yeah, like what are like the people that what is the one in Delaware? Firefly or Firefly? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's a bunch of smelly people. Yes, it is. Yeah. It's a bunch of people sitting in tents for like four days was like this. It was so hot in that arena. And every now and again, I would get this cool breeze from behind me. I was like, oh, maybe the air is kicking on. No, I turn back. It was this.
00:57:37
Speaker
fat guy jiggling around, but every I got a delightfully disgusting breeze from his jiggle every now and again. So I also have hypervigilance when I go to those blings. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, I was. Yeah. Sarah's like, you looked miserable. I was like, well, I was being accosted by the young lady beside me in not a good way. And yeah, I was on high alert.
00:58:04
Speaker
Yeah, I can never relax. I can never, I mean, I've been to concerts where people have passed out and I have to, I'm not like, oh, I'm a paramedic. I gotta go over and help somebody. You know, or I went to a concert in New York city with my wife and this venue was in like the third sub basement level of this place. Like it was so far below ground. And I was like, I don't feel comfortable at all. We're all in a death trap. Yeah, that's a trap. You know,
00:58:33
Speaker
And she's like, you didn't relax the whole time. I was like, no, because I wanted to know which exit we had to get out of. Yes. With that, we could beat the rush and not get freaking station nightclub. That's what I told my wife. I was like, if something happens, I said, we're staying right here. We're not getting trampled. Yeah. I said, I have a route. Trust me. And the people at the end, they set off all this confetti confetti and stuff. There were people leaving with armfuls of it. What the hell do you do with that? What do you do with that?
00:59:02
Speaker
They were sweeping it off the floor. For what reason? I don't. I'm sure they'll put it on eBay or something. Yeah, dumb. Yeah, that's pretty dumb. Yeah, I don't. I said it's not my it's not my bag. Yeah, which I don't rather your bag. It's fine. Yeah. Yeah. You know.
00:59:29
Speaker
Like, you know, it will tell your wife and my wife to go to concerts. That's what I tell my wife all the time. Yeah. My good friend, Evan, his girlfriend loves good concerts. I'm like, just go with her. Yeah. I'm not going to be offended. Yeah. I'm going to make you miserable. I almost had an out for this one because we might my wife and I and my oldest were riding back from somewhere. I don't know. And we talked about this concert.
00:59:59
Speaker
And my oldest goes, oh, well, that would that be sounds like a fun night. Oh, so why didn't you ask me? And Sarah said, I did ask you. You said, no, I don't remember you asking me. Well, I did. I was like, maybe if they just maybe it'll keep going a little bit and say, would you rather go instead? Nope. No, so close, so close. I'll jump on the grenade.
01:00:27
Speaker
No, because my wife knows that is my go to the same with when they went to Florida recently. Oh, well, don't you want to know somebody else to stay with the dogs? It's your family. Nope, they're busy. Have you asked? No. Oh, yeah, this is with my dogs and watched Fletch.
01:00:50
Speaker
And then I got angry because Fletch two isn't free. What? Yes. Fletch one is free. Fletch to you. It was for rental only. Well, Fletch one is the spear. Yeah, but Fletch two is funny. It's funny. It's good. It's got nice bits. Yeah, that's it the other day. Total side tangent. But somebody at work was talking about all the problems they've had with the airplane mechanics and all like
01:01:16
Speaker
Evidently, there was one recently that when they redid the brakes, they hooked the electrical system up to the hydraulic system. I wouldn't think those connections would go together. You would think. But they're like, I can't believe that. Didn't FAA have all those checklists? I said, yeah, but look at the plane mechanics. Watch the movie, Fletch. They're all banks. Yeah. They're like, oh my god, you are right. I was like, yes. See, if Fletch has told us nothing else,
01:01:49
Speaker
Don't you tell me my job boy. Such a good movie. Well, I think we've casted the pod. We have cast the pod. Stay out of concert people. Yeah. Stay out of them. They're bad. And go hug a fireman. Yeah. That's the worst live by. And take care of folks. Oh, fun fact before we go. Did you know that
01:02:15
Speaker
The burpee is named after a real person named Royal Burpee. You should track this person down and punch them in their face. Unfortunately, he's dead. Take him up. But I might. Yeah. Yeah. And that's my fun fact of the day. Good luck. Stay dry, folks. Stay dry.