Wow, it's hard to believe it has been almost two years exactly since I last posted something on this blog. A lot has happened in those two years, both in our nation and in my personal life. In the coming weeks (God willing) I will try to touch on a few of those things and share my ponderings. For now, I'm just glad I can finally start getting into the habit of commuting by bike to school again as my entire schedule was completely thrown off kilter last year. Speaking of Offkilter, it's long been one of my favorite bands and every time I think of the phrase off kilter I can't help but think of them;
Nothing like a little heavy metal bagpipe to start your Monday morning. Anyways, the big thing that really threw my schedule for a loop last year and kept me from riding was the class I was taking out in Yaphank at the Suffolk County EMS offices. Twice a week (Mondays and Wednesdays) from 7 - 10 pm I was there as a member of the very last Emergency Medical Technician - Critical Care certification course to be offered in Suffolk. Since I usually have rehearsal until five o'clock and it takes nearly two hours in rush hour traffic to get there riding on Mondays and Wednesdays was not possible. And then, by the time I got home, wound myself down and got to bed it would often be 1 am and I would wake up too tired to ride on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That left Fridays, if I was lucky and didn't have something else I had to do on the way in or way home. Yes, I know - nothing but excuses - but I fell into the bad habit far too easily and allowed myself to just stagnate for the year. And there was that thing with my knee the first half of the year as well. I eventually had to have it drained but once I was able to start riding a bit in the spring it started feeling better. But, I still allowed the excuses to pile up. You know, "just a little more sleep......just five more minutes...." and before I knew it, it was time to drive if I were going to make it on time.
And there was that little issue of taking on a second job last year to help pay for Sarah's room and board at Carnegie Mellon University. She was accepted to her dream school for costume design and the very last thing I wanted was for her to not be able to attend because of the money. So, last summer before we went on our family vacation to Alaska (yes, I'll DEFINITELY be talking more about that in another post) I began working as a District EMT for the Commack Volunteer Ambulance Corps. I took the job as a way to possibly get some more EMT experience for the class I was taking and as I way to make a little extra money to help the family finances. There really are some amazing EMS people there both paid and volunteer and I'm very proud of being a part of their organization. I've learned a lot from working with their paramedics but I have to admit, nothing will ever grab me like the people I work with in Northport, my second family at the NFD. If it weren't for their support and the amazing Paramedics who are as much medical practitioners as educators, I wouldn't have made it through the class. Anyways, I've been working two to three times a week there, mostly overnights from 11 pm to 7 am which gets me to SHS just in time to teach my first period class - which I often have to do in my EMT garb. I think after a little more than a year now people are getting used to it. It's like I have to do a little jig to keep all of these activities straight in my head. Or if not, perhaps a little Dubstep, set to bagpipes:
Sorry, my ponderings are all over the map today, primarily because of the fact my iPod (yes, I still use an iPod on my morning ride instead of my phone, cuz I'm a luddite) was dead and so all I had to keep me on tempo this morning was my own thoughts and Green Day's "Holiday" which was playing over and over in my head. Partially because William had phase two of his Eagle Scout project yesterday and the kids kept singing this:
Hey, it's catchy and has a good bpm for pedaling, so I kept singing it in my head (and sometimes out loud) on the ride in. Speaking of bpm, did you know that the standard for CPR is no longer 100 bpm but instead is 120 bpm? They used to teach us to sing "Stayin' Alive" in our heads to keep up that bpm. As a matter of fact, I once worked an arrest in the ER in which one of the duty nurses was singing that out loud in order to get the orderly to go faster in his compressions. I didn't have the heart (no pun intended) to correct her at the time. However, in my own head, when I took over for him, I had this going through my head:
Well, I think that's enough weirdness and convoluted mental meanderings for one day. I'm just glad to be back on the bike and I'll be trying to post every day when I commute on two wheels. I WILL try to get to all the other happenings in my life (Alaska, Sarah going off to College, working four jobs, a year in CC school, and the state of our Country) in future posts. For now, I'm just going to leave you with the original singing cowboy, Gene Autry:
Stay well my friends, and I'll see you on the road!
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