Craziness and Christmas to Come

Craziness has erupted around town. The shift after the 17^th (my last post), we tested over 2,000 feet of hose, racked at least 1,000, and dealt with a few other things before having to deal with a pain in the ass medevac I had to manage for a few hours. Just like when I became a lieutenant back in Ashburn, I got to deal with a bunch of crazy things within my first week or so of office. We had a medevac where we had to transfer a patient from the hospital to the helicopter pad so that he could be taken to Pegasus Airfield. What I thought would be a simple task turned out to be a logistical nightmare trying to communicate between medical, the National Science Foundation (from whom I had to get approval to fly the patient), and Helo Ops (who controls all helicopter missions and operations). Back home (Loudoun County), if we wanted to medevac a patient to a more advanced hospital, all we had to do was call dispatch, have them start a helicopter our way, then call the hospital to get permission to transfer patient care to the helicopter crew. Down here, the complexity of medevacing a patient is damn near 3 fold. The request for Medevacs comes from the hospital. They call us to pick up the patient and a flight nurse and we transfer the patient from the hospital to the airfield. If they leave on a C-130, we transfer them to Willy Field which is about 10 miles away. If they leave on a C-17, we transfer them out to Pegasus Field which is about 17 miles away. Either of which is not an easy transport because of road conditions. If the patient is really emergent (as was our patient from the 19^th), then they can be flown via helicopter to one of the airfields. When that happens, we have to coordinate between Medical, Helo Ops, and the NSF….all of which I had to deal with by myself since I was the sole lieutenant working Friday. Thank god that was the last call we had to deal with. Including today, the past 4 or 5 shifts have been pretty busy. It's weird because we've been so using to trying to find something to stay busy with.

    With Christmas being in a few days, I've found myself thinking more and more about Jesus and trying to disassociate myself from things proclaimed as festive and Christmas. Now, I haven't preached to people about the true meaning (or at least in my opinion) of Christmas because I don't feel it's my right to tell people how to celebrate their holidays. I've found myself listening to a lot of music that reminds me of our Lord as well as Christian faith in general. I've been listening to a lot of folk and old-time bluegrass. I've been praying more. I more at ease and a lot more peaceful. This time of year, I'm truly happy. We had our town Christmas party today. Normally, I don't like being in large crowds like tonight. Seeing a certain someone however helped change my mood a bit. As I sit here though, 2 AM on Christmas Eve, I've retreated to my newly found peaceful state of mind. The years been good and bad. I quit working for Fauquier County (good thing), I started working for Virginia Department of Forestry, I moved away from home for the first time and worked a wildland season out west, I managed to land a job working in Antarctica, and I even got promoted within said job. This year however, I lost one of the closest relatives I've ever had in my life at what couldn't have been a more seemingly worst time. But that hasn't brought me down. I gain people in my life, I lose people in my life. I've met hundreds of people this year. I bridged new connections , new relationships in life. I've rekindled old ones. My relationship with my mother is a lot better since we realize how much we miss each other. Everything that has happened to me, every where I've been, where I'm at now, and where I will be in the new year to come, I owe it all to Jesus. Such an epiphany couldn't have come at a better time of the year.