Radio Silence

     I'm so sorry for the long radio silence!  I've been so busy with politics (I manage campaigns as well as consult on campaigns).  I was working with 28 campaigns which left little time for anything else.  I have also been dealing with a death in my family.  My grandmother, whom I loved dearly and was very close to, passed away on February 27th.  Needless to say, that has been a difficult issue to deal with in the past couple of weeks.

     So, to catch you up on the fire wife life, my FF was not allowed to return to duty...even light duty.  This did not make us very happy.  So, he has been trying to go back to the doctor to get his shoulder re-evaluated, but his doctor no longer works at the clinic, they don't take worker's comp anymore, and the one place in our area that does take worker's comp denied his case.  Is that even possible????  So, we are trying to figure out who will see him.  Oh the joys!
    
     There have been several incidences in our fire community here lately.  We had one of our own firefighters and a neighboring department's fire fighter that were burned in a structure fire.  The garage collapsed and the FF from our neighboring department was trapped.  Our guy was one of the RIT guys that was trying to pull him out, but he ended up being pulled out, too.  The guy from our fire department received 2nd and 3rd degree burns on both wrists and forearms.  The guy from our neighboring department received massive 3rd degree burns over 50% of his body.  He was life flighted to Parkland Hospital's burn unit and will remain there for sometime.  He has a wife and daughter that are practically living up at the hospital, now.  Thank you to the Dallas FD for putting them up in a hotel and looking after them!  Also, a special thank you to my wonderful online group of fire wives (Wife Behind The Fire)!  They got together and sent a basket of much needed things to this FF's family!  I must say that I am BURSTING with pride at the sense of sisterhood/brotherhood and community that we share!

The second incident was one in which we never want to deal.  Dallas FD had a FF killed in the line of duty.  He was working the scene of an accident on one of our icy nights when he was struck by a vehicle, knocking him off the bridge he was on and onto the interstate below.  As it turns out, this FF was the cousin to one of my best childhood friends.  This death hit so close to home.  As with any FF LODD, you become overly aware of what a dangerous job our guys and some of our gals have.  It makes you re-evaluate the stupid arguments, the little things that normally irritate you, the time you spend in the same room, but not WITH each other because of our great little electronic devices.  Our time on this Earth is so short...even if you live to be 100+!  I don't ever want to look back and say, "I wish I had spent more quality time with him." or "I wish I hadn't argued about this or that." or "I wish I had thought about how much I'd miss that little annoying habit if it was gone..."  I don't want to ever have any regrets with my FF.  I want him to ALWAYS know how much I love him and how much I appreciate all that he does...not just for me, but for everyone!  Things like this almost make you afraid to let them go out and work another call, but then you remember that this is WHO they are.  It would make them miserable to not be able to do the job they were born to do. 

     That brings this back, full circle, to my FF and how utterly unhappy he has been while not being able to run calls.  It's be 9 months, now...that's much too long for a FF to go without doing what he LOVES to do.  So, he has found another job to occupy his time.  He is currently building websites for fire departments, working with another company that outfits the trucks and police cars with their lights, sirens, and decals.  He is helping them to manufacture LED lights for those vehicles and a few other things.  At least it's making him happy...for now.

     That about brings you up to speed.  I hope you all have stayed busy enough, but relaxed enough, as well!  Keep those guys safe and give them extra hugs, love, kisses, and praise! 

~Sparkles