Tuesday, February 27, 2007

MY PERSONAL NEW WORLD ORDER

The past three months have been a time of big change for me around the fire department. I intentionally chose not to run for any office, and as a result I am back to the rank of firefighter from rank of captain. I got myself transferred back to my "old" firehouse and my "home" at the Fire Department of South Woodbridge. I passed twenty years of service in my fire department and achieved "life membership", which is a milepost that I never anticipated passing. Once again, time to take inventory.

I am happy that I am no longer an officer. No one is more surprised by this than I am. My current station in life didn't allow me to do that job the way that I wanted (read: too busy with family and work). There are a bunch of competent officers in our department who are all full of piss and vinegar, who are able to devote the huge amount of time required to do the officer job correctly. It is their time and not mine. I am cool with that. I now work for a guy who used to be my trainee, and he is a far better all-around officer than I ever was. Now I get to drive or officer the ladder truck pretty much full time, and they still call me "Skipper", so it's all good.

I am back at my firehouse. Leaving for a year hurt. Bad. While I was gone, firehouse operations remained in portable trailers for most of the year. Strange as it may seem, I am sorry for missing the (bulk of/rest of) the experience. As fucked up as it is, shared suffering is one of the hallmarks of our brotherhood, and to miss out on what will be a defining period for an entire generation of our firefighters was a disappointment, no matter how bad trailer park life sucked. The renovated firehouse is astounding. I was there when the building first opened, and the renovation has made the building better than it has ever been. It is genuinely beautiful. Re-organized, cleaned up and painted, added-to, enhanced, re-formatted and re-equipped from top to bottom, it is truly a pleasure to go to duty. When I returned for my first tour, I went to my brand-new gear locker and found that the guys had bought me a customized station sweatshirt as a "welcome home" present. That made me so happy that I couldn't really express it.

I was made "life member" in the department in January. It is difficult to imagine. When you are three years in the department, it is impossible to imagine twenty years of service. At ten years, you are half way, and you realize that you have outlasted 85% of all people who ever walk into the firehouse. At fifteen years, one still thinks, "five years to go, ugh, five years". At twenty years, my thoughts have been on the fact that very few people at age 36 can say that they have been doing any sort of job or trade for 20 years straight. My best thought is that very soon, there will be a whole bunch of my friends who will cross that line. These people include my brother, my sister in law, and all of my very best friends. They are all my time-in-service contemporaries, and they have all done more than I have to help out our department. I look forward to having them join me in the world of people who get their driveways plowed and who don't have to work bingo.

So, now I am the old guy who drives the ladder truck. I have grown a full beard for the first time in my life. In six months, my old rookies will have to pull aside the new rookies and tell them "See, Matt was the engine company captain here for like, eight years or something." My new plan is to get back to having some fun with the fire department, on my own terms, at my leisure. So far, it is working out great.

As a preview, and just to remind myself what to do next, I am planning to make my next post about a great tale of staying up late, pounds of cocaine, and smallmouth bass. It was the best day ever.

Everyone take care, and please post a comment.

DTXMATT12