# Good days and bad days

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Posted by Pete on September 03, 2021 at 02:57:15

I'll start with a Good Day. A couple weekends ago I picked up an overtime shift working in the First Aid tent at a street fair / marathon / carnival event near where I live. Working in the first aid tent is usually fun, its a nice change of scenery and takes me back to my ambulance days. Mostly we just hand out bandaids and ice packs, so its usually pretty low-key. We were set up across from a dunk tank. This was the only time I've seen a dunk tank like this - the water tank part was completely clear plexiglass, so when the person got dunked, you could see them from every angle. It looked like a ton of fun. It was a high school group that was running it, and over the 6 hours or so I was there, it looked like maybe 8 or 10 teenagers, an even mix of boys and girls, plus another 4 or so adults (I assume either parents or teachers?) were taking turns getting dunked. It was really fun just watching them - everyone genuinely looked like they were having a blast. Midway through the day I walked over to a hot dog stand to grab a drink. While I was walking back I passed one of the teenagers who was working the dunk tank - he was wearing a soaking wet t-shirt and shorts, and seemed to be enjoying walking around in soaked clothes. He was also barefoot, and as he passed me he stepped on a bee or something that stung him, which caused him to jump and crash into me, which caused me to drop my cup of soda. The kid immediately starts apologizing profusely, offering to go get his wallet and buy me another drink, apologizing if he got my shirt wet when he bumped into me... It took me a little bit to get the poor kid calmed down and assure him that I wasn't mad at him and he didn't need to buy me another soda, and in fact if he got stung or bit by something he should come back to the medic tent and let us take a look. He agreed, and we chatted for a bit - he and his friends were planning a service trip to West Virginia in the Spring, and the dunk tank was a fundraiser for that trip. Well I'm from West Virginia, so we talked a bit about that. I asked him if he was having a good time getting dunked, and he grinned and said he was having a blast, and the water felt nice on the HOT HOT day we were having. We talked for another few minutes while one of the medic's got the kids foot cleaned up and bandaged. He was just a very nice, well-spoken and enthusiastic kid, and it was fun watching him have a great time in the dunk tank. I went over a donated a few dollars for their mission trip.

So that was the good day. The bad day happened a week or so later. Hurricane Ida passed over us. Fortunately where I live, we just got some rain, a little wind, and some thunder, nothing too serious. I had a few days off from work so I was just relaxing at home with my girlfriend, enjoying the storm. Around 10pm one night, my sister-in-law (my brother Cole's wife) calls, frantic, saying Cole was at work and she couldn't get a hold of him, and they were having flooding and their basement was filling with water, their power was out, and did I know of anything they could do about that. Honestly I didn't have much I could suggest they do - from my firefighter days I reminded her to shutoff the gas to their furnace, water heater and dryer, and said to just move as much stuff as they could upstairs. She was obviously frantic, and I offered that she and her kids could obviously come stay with us (they live a few hours drive away). She said the roads were flooded and she didn't feel safe driving, so I said I'd drive over to them. She told me not to bother, there was nothing I could do at that point, and she didn't want me driving on the flooded roads. So I said I'd come first thing in the morning once the storm passed and help them clean up.

So the next morning I load up my portable generator, plenty of extra clothes and shoes, swing by the hardware store and grab a sump pump and some tubing, some cases of water and a cooler full of ice, and other tools and such, and drive off for my brother's house. When I pulled in the driveway, my brother pulled in right behind me, and got out of his car still wearing his firefighter uniform, and his clothes and boots were soaked completely through. "What are you doing here?" he asked me. I explained that his wife called last night and I was here to help, and I tried to call him but he didn't answer. "Phone's dead," he grumbled, pulling his waterlogged cellphone out of his pocket. "Why didn't you change at the station?" I asked him - I remembered from back from when I was a firefighter that they encouraged us to change into clean clothes, and not wear our duty uniforms home. "I ran out of dry clothes," Cole grumbled, pulling a duffle bag of soaked clothes and shoes from his car. Oh boy, it must have been one of "those" shifts. Cole has been picking up shifts at two different fire departments, which makes him some extra money, but can be exhausting. And in a bad storm, firefighters are BUSY, usually running back-to-back calls for rescues, downed power lines, fires, car accidents, with 0 breaks in between. Plus, his wife's parents are having health problems, so Cole and his wife and constantly moving between work and her parent's place, and taking turns watching the kids. They were running themselves ragged even before the storm hit and flooded their basement. Cole looked awful, his eyes were bloodshot and sunken, and he was slouched and shuffling around exhausted.

"Well, let's see the damaged," he grumbled, and we walked inside. I had stopped to pickup some hot coffee on my way in, which I handed to him and his wife, and then we headed for the basement. There, we found several feet of standing water. Fortunately it looked like his wife had managed to move most of their belongings to higher ground, but there was some old furniture, carpet and their washer/dryer under quite a bit of water. Cole took a few steps down the stairs, til the water was up to his knees or so, and paused to look around. "Well, this sucks," he sighed. "I'll take care of his Cole, go shower and take a nap," I told him. "I can't shower, hot water heater's under water," he pointed out, "and the power's out. And, you have no idea what you're doing." "I know what I'm doing, Cole," I assured him (well, I didn't, but I had people I could call who would know what to do.) Cole sat on the stairs, sighed, and hung his head. "Cole," I said, "I'll take care of this. Go change. Take a nap. Go!"

Cole complied and headed back up stairs, then I left my phone and wallet safely on the kitchen table, and waded into the flooded basement, in search of their sump pump. I was working on hooking up some pumps to the portable generator I bought, when I spied Cole padding down the stairs, now somewhat cleaned up and in a dry t-shirt and boxers. "What do you need, Petey?" he asked me. "I need you not to be swimming through flood waters in boxers and barefeet. I need you go to take. a. nap. Cole!" I told him. "Its cool, I can help you," he said. "Cole, if you don't go to bed right this instant, I will wake up your children and sick them on you!" I threatened, half joking and half serious. His kids were at a very talkative and rambunctious age, but fortunately were still asleep. Cole laughed, "Thanks Petey," he groaned, and followed my orders and went to bed.

After a couple hours, the power came back on, and I was able to get most of the water pumped out, and their hot water heater re-started. My girlfriend arrived with a couple dehumidifiers, and we got to work hauling out some of the ruined carpet and furniture. Fortunately all they really lost was some old crappy carpeting, some old furniture they bought at goodwill, and some old junk they probably should have gotten rid of anyway. And their washer/dryer, but insurance will buy them a new one of those. Granted it was kind of fun splashing around the flood water in jeans, boots and a long-sleeve shirt, but the situation was not the greatest! But we at least got things put together well enough that everyone was finally able to shower and change into clean clothes. I told Cole to gather up his family and dirty laundry and head to my house to get laundry done and get some time to relax, while I finished up with his basement. And, as rough as it was, it was a nice excuse for an impromptu vacation to see my brother and his family - they'll be staying with us for another day or two before we all have to go back to work.

Follow Ups:

- Re: Good days and bad days dobby 02:38:01 9/07/2021 (0)
- Re: Good days and bad days Zonie 17:26:52 9/03/2021 (0)
- Re: Good days and bad days LeviLovR 12:22:25 9/03/2021 (0)

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