If it wasn't for bad luck...

... I'd have no luck at all. Doom, despair, and agony on me.

At least it's not me personally, this time. My step-mom's sister had a heart-attack on Monday morning, then this afternoon the same sister's grandchildren were involved in a serious motor vehicle accident, with the youngest being medivac'd out. We're still awaiting word on their condition.

The sister was lucky. She had 90% blockage in one of her arteries, but they were able to do an angioplasty and insert a stint, with no serious damage to the heart. Very lucky.

Someone in that family needs to buy lottery tickets, as they are due a whole lot of good luck. I've bought mine just in case...

With a flick of the switch...

My father has a euphemism relating to the inevitability of death, likening it to the Creator simply flipping a light switch on the wall. Unfortunately, this past week I watched a young woman's switch be turned to off right before my eyes.

I've been a firefighter now for over twenty years, yet nothing prepares you for this... for the sense of helplessness that you feel as you watch someone die, knowing that there is nothing more you can do.

There was a wreck at the local intersection, nicknamed "T-Bone Alley" by a dear friend. I actually heard it from my residence nearly a quarter-mile away. I dressed and went to the scene, only to be confronted with one of the worst accidents I've ever witnessed. A young woman in a Honda Accord had tried to make a left turn in front of a tractor-trailer rig. The rig's driver didn't even have time to react and hit her at full speed on the passenger side. They both then veered off the road, striking a streetlight pole, shearing the whole front of the car off. The young woman was unconscious and barely alive, trapped between the truck's bumper and the driver's door.

I immediately got on the radio and notified dispatch of the wreck, requesting that LEO, EMS, and FD units respond. Those that heard me that night have described the tone of my voice as panicked or desperate. I think a better term would be urgent. I "needed" my guys to get to the scene five minutes ago, for every second counted as this young woman's life slowly ebbed away.

My guys showed up amazing quickly, as did LEO and EMS, and did a fantastic job. They handled themselves in a manner that would make paid departments look bad. And this with an audience of nearly one hundred standing in the adjacent convenience store parking lot watching our every move. If there was anyone who had doubted our department's dedication and professionalism, that should have been erased that night.

But it wasn't enough, it never is...

If life were a hard drive...

My sister-in-law hands me a laptop computer and says, "Fix this for me so I can give it to my mom." Seems the hard drive has a bunch of $h!t on it and is generally borked and she and the sibling have been trying to wipe it and re-install Windows with no success. I mumble something about installing Linux and being done with it, which she didn't find too amusing. Five minutes of looking at it and I've deleted the partition and I've got it re-formatting. Which is why she gave it to me in the first place, she knew I could fix it or it was a rather expensive boat anchor.

But it got me to thinking, would it be nice if life were like a hard drive, where you could just wipe everything clean and start over. Nothing that was messed up before would be left lingering around to mess things up again. Oh the joy if it were that simple!!! Unfortunately the bad things hang around, waiting to jump up and bite you in the ass. Kind of like that porn you thought you deleted...