I was scheduled to work a 20 hour shift with an 2 hour break in between. So I started yesterday morning on my regular truck at 4am. We got back to the station a little late at the end of the shift so I left again at 4:30 pm. The shift was very easy, thankfully. We only ran two calls during the entire shift but moved quite a bit between posts.

I then headed up to Mineola where Mineola Fire Department had their annual Fundraiser Rodeo. I worked this event two years ago and it was awesome. With all rodeos, it’s a risk that you get to work your butt off. But all the awesome people to talk to and the entire event is so much fun to work. And it doesn’t make it worse when you work with a fun partner too!

The clown had a hilarious show where he turned his car into an ambulance and the person who was on that hard board… wow… thank God he/she had a helmet on. I laughed so much at this goofball! He was awesome. And of course I found a Great Dane to pet too!

I was home and in bed just after midnight. I had realized that I would be quite tired after this day and since I had a couple of PTO hours I had asked to get today off. In that way I could sleep and I didn’t have to stress home last night and get as much sleep as possible because I had to be at work at 4 am again. I only planned to mow the yard, take care of the house and do nothing. But someone else had different plans.
At 6:23 the alarm goes off for a CERT activation. A missing juvenile in Hunt County. It was just to take a deep breath, get my butt out the bed, get the dogs out, dressed and out the door. Looking like trash but who cares. There was a job that needed to be done. I was glad that I was off because most of the times in this situations I’m at work and getting pissed that I can’t respond and help. So when I actually can respond, and it turns out that I am actually the closest person to this activation it was just to go. 10 people showed up which was awesome and also Lone Star SAR K9’s. But before they could deploy the juvenile was back home and well.

It is always awesome when we have a good outcome on a deployment like this. We could call back the teams that had left and we knew that the person was home and well and did not need any medical assistance at this time. This is what we all train for. Help out with short notice, when it’s needed. And yes, I got to admit, meeting K9 Red and K9 Sandy (Don’t remember the name of the last dog, he came later) sparked the inspiration to start training Twix again. We will see about that…

Of course, as we always do, we went and had breakfast at a local restaurant and on my way home I stopped at a produce stand and got me some watermelon, strawberries, blackberries and blueberries that I will enjoy later this afternoon! I doubt that the idea I had with mowing the yard and taking a walk will actually happen today because I can feel the fatigue coming closer and closer. The bed is once again calling my name….