Some Pictures
A thunderstorm rolled through Marietta on February 18th. I happened to be sitting in the parking lot of Holy Family Catholic Church working on a report. When the sky started to fill with clouds and lightning, I pulled out my Sony Cyber-shot H9. I hoped to get pictures of the lightning itself, but that didn't happen. Instead, I changed the shutter speed to 30 seconds and sat the camera on the roof of my car. Here's three of the pictures that came out well. Holy Family has a great cross in the front of the parking lot that made for a great focal point.
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I responded to a report of an accident with injuries one afternoon. When I arrived, I found this Honda wrapped around a telephone poll. The teenage driver was miraculously not injured. The telephone poll snapped in half, and the top half came to rest feet from the car, still standing. It took the EMC hours to fix the problem.
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These Hands Give Life
On February 23rd I had an interview with the Towns County Sheriff's Office. It went very well. I wasn't promised a position, but the lieutenant said that he would hire me on the spot if it was up to him. They're supposed to have a position opening this month, and hopefully I will fill that position.
On February 28th, I was dispatched to a call where a 24 year old male had fallen unconscious and stopped breathing. One of his friends, Friend 1, called 911. The other friend, Friend 2, started CPR. I had been at a coffee shop nearby when the call went out, so I arrived quickly. Typically, the fire department arrives at medical calls before the police do. They're usually dispatched first, and they are usually on scene doing what they can do before I ever roll up. When I pulled into the subdivision, I heard the fire truck behind me. I pulled up to the house and Friend 1 ran outside. I took the stairs to the front door three at a time and ran in the house. The Friend 2 jumped up and ran to me, telling me what happened. I'm not sure what he said, because I immediately took his position on the floor next to his dying friend. His face was deep blue. I started with chest compressions. After 100 compressions, the man took a breath. At that time, the fire department came in with all of their medical equipment. I did 30 more compressions and he took another breath. The FD checked for a pulse and found one. He still wasn't breathing well, so they began pumping air into him and monitoring his pulse.
I caught my breath and went to talk with Friend 1 and 2. They said that they hadn't seen their friend in a couple of weeks. He came by the house today randomly. His lips were blue when they answered the door, and he asked for a cigarette. After he put the cigarette in his mouth, he passed out and the rest of his face turned blue. They said that he was a heavy drug user, but they weren't sure if he was on anything at the time. While the FD started an IV, I searched his pockets, but didn't find anything that would have killed him. I asked dispatch to have a detective call me, and I started searching his car for any clues.
The ambulance pulled up while I was searching the car and brought a stretcher to the stairs. I spoke with the detective and told him what was going on. He said he would notify the family, and asked that I call him if there were any major changes in his condition. By the time I finished speaking with the detective, I saw the paramedics wheeling the stretcher back to the ambulance, but there was noticeable lack of a body on it. I went back into the house and the dead guy was standing up, rubbing his chest and scratching his head. I went back outside and called the detective. Once I convinced the detective that I wasn't joking, the fire captain came outside and told me that the guy was refusing to go to the hospital. Unfortunately, we can't force someone to go to the hospital unless a doctor or judge orders it. The fire captain called Kennestone Hospital and spoke with a doctor while I went inside to talk to the no-longer-dead-guy.
He told me that he felt fine, and didn't need to go to the hospital. We tried to explain to him that whatever he had taken that killed him was still in his system. When the medicine from the IV and whatever shots they gave him wore off, he would likely die again. He continued to assure us that he was fine and didn't need to go to the hospital. The captain came in and said that the doctor said that he would order the committal. When faced with a three day committal, or a voluntary visit to the hospital, the no-longer-dead-guy chose to walk to the ambulance.
The fire captain told me that it was because of my effort with the CPR that the man lived. He later emailed my lieutenant, informing him of the work I did.
When I left the scene, one of the first thoughts I had was, "This would make a great Facebook status update." So I updated my Facebook status to say, "Paul just brought someone back from the dead. CPR works wonders."
Since then, I've had a great excuse for getting out of chores I don't want to do. I simply hold out my hands and tell Michelle, "Honey, these hands give life. They don't do dishes." When she presses me further to do the dishes, I again hold out my hands as if in awe of them and say, "Honey, these hands give life. They can take life too." She laughs at me and I end up doing the dishes anyway.
Back Online
Happy New Year!
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I switched my web site's servers over the past couple of days. For the most part, everything went smoothly. Unfortunately, all of the photos that were in my posts are now gone. I'm not sure where or why they went, but they're gone. I don't intend to get them back. The ones that were hosted on other web sites are still intact, but mine are gone. The Photos page was unaffected because it's just a portal to my Picasa pictures.
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Michelle and I went to Hiawassee for Christmas. It was the first time since I've started this job that I've had Christmas off. We love going to Hiawassee. We love it so much, that we've decided to move back at the end of March. We're going to finish Michelle's grandmother's basement, and make it our home. The planned layout for the basement is pictured below. I used floorplanner.com to create it. The left side of the picture is the front of the house. That is the only wall of the basement that is underground. The basement is completely unfinished. The only walls are the cinderblock walls on the perimeter.
We plan on framing, insulating, dry walling, and carpeting. There's only one bathroom in the house, and it's upstairs. We'll install a bathroom in the basement underneath the existing bathroom so we don't have to do too much plumbing work. We may or may not put in a kitchen. We don't plan on the basement being completely independent from the rest of the house, but it would be nice to have a small kitchen in case it was needed. The area in the diagram labeled "Storage" has no floor. It's just dirt. Since we'll be living on a farm, complete with vegetable gardens and fruit orchards, we'll line that area with shelves for storing canned fruits and vegetables.
Click on the picture below for a larger view. Click here to take a 3D tour of the floor plan.
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I've always enjoyed a good cup of coffee. When I was little, my mom would make us what we called "coffee milk". It was coffee, milk, and a lot of sugar over ice. Whether or not she knows it, my mother is responsible for my addiction to coffee. After high school I got a job at the Mystic Mountain Coffee House in Hiawassee. This only fueled my addiction. Not only was I introduced to a whole different world of coffee, but I learned how to prepare these coffees.
Anytime I go into a store that has kitchen appliances, I always linger in the coffee maker aisle. I own a four cup coffee pot, a 12 cup coffee pot, an espresso maker, as well as an assortment of coffee presses. I've been intrigued by the single serve pod coffee makers. The idea of just popping in a pod, pressing a button, and having an instant cup of coffee seemed like a great idea. Unfortunately, the coffee makers and the pods were too expensive for my taste. Taste was another thing that I was worried about. How good would the coffee be? Would it be worth the cost-per-pod? I decided that I would put off on buying this new coffee toy.
A couple of days ago I was at BJ's Wholesale and saw a special edition Keurig. Not only was it discounted from its regular price, but it came with 88 pods. I did some research and found that Keurig makes a reusable pod. The regular pods are use-once-then-throw-away. The reusable one is basically a small filter that you use in place of the pod. The research (which was conducted on my iPhone) also revealed overwhelmingly positive reviews of the Keurig products.
I've been very pleased with the purchase so far. The drinks have all been enjoyable, and it makes them incredibly fast. As soon as you hit the button, the drink begins pouring out. The water pump is a little loud, but bearable.
Michelle doesn't drink coffee, but she was pleased that it came with tea pods and hot chocolate pods.