Life with a volunteer fireman

As I said the other day, life got in the way of blogging and I fell behind. Se la vie. Here's what happened:

On Friday, Jakob was riding the bus to the football game in Warner and Jimmy was traveling with the team, so we were going to have a date night with Josh and Shawna. My plan was to blog that night when we got home.

I was starving and we knew it would be at least another hour before we ate, so on our way to Josh and Shawna's we stopped at the gas station for tea and iced sugar cookies. Hey, I'm pregnant and they taste good, indulge me. Just as D got back to the car, his fire pager went off. EMS and fire personnel were needed for a crash east of town. I drove us down to the station, he jumped out and a few minutes later Josh and some other firemen showed up and off they went. The page didn't say what the severity of the injuries was, just that they needed emergency personnel to respond to check out the occupants. In a small town where you know almost everyone, you always worry when there's a crash. After I saw two ambulances and two deputies running hot through town, I knew that the accident was serious. I ate two of my cookies then headed home and fell asleep in the recliner. Again, I'm pregnant, eating and sleeping are the only two things I manage to accomplish on a daily basis. D texted me and said they'd be a little bit, but the injuries weren't life threatening. About half an hour later he said they were done and he and Josh were headed back. So, I jumped in the car to go meet them.

But, alas, there were other forces at work. When I had gotten home I had seen something north of our house that just didn't look right. I had stopped in the driveway and watched it for about 5 minutes. At first I thought it was a small fire and I almost called D to tell him, but the longer I looked at it, I decided that it was the headlights of two vehicles in a pasture. Boy, was I wrong. When I went back out to the car, the pasture north of us was ablaze. I got in to go see how far north it was so I'd have good directions for the guys and called D. They responded to the fire and I went over to hang with Shawna. By the time they finished, it was 9pm and the only thing open in town was Subway, which we didn't want, so we went to Texas Roadhouse in Stillwater. Thankfully, they're open late :)

By the time we got home it was almost midnight and I was beat, so no blog. The next morning I didn't get up until almost 10 and then I had to rush around so we could head to Stillwater for the OSU football game. I thought, "I'll blog when we get home." Well, you know that didn't happen. When we got back the boys had to go to another fire south of town. Jakob, Shawna and I waited for a little bit then went down to the Mexican restaurant to eat before they closed. The boys weren't gone too long and we ordered some dinner for them, too. After dinner, they went back to the station to clean up the trucks and we headed home. I was going to have to get up at 5am the next morning so I went straight to bed, no blogging.

The fire pager went off again just before midnight and D was gone for about an hour on a rekindle. On Sunday morning, we were out the door by 6am and picked Mom up at 6:30 and headed to OKC for the AQHA World Show. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is life with a volunteer fireman. When the pager calls, he goes. I'm thankful when he comes home safe and I'm thankful that he's able to help those in need. I hate it when he's been out fighting fire for so long that he looks like he could collapse at any second and I hate it when he only gets an hour or two of sleep and still has to get up for his "regular" job. I'm thankful that there are people who are willing to make the sacrifices required to be a volunteer firefighter; a job they don't get paid for. Without them most of us who live in the sticks would have to standby helplessly and watch our homes and livelihoods go up in flames or see our loved ones suffer while they waited for EMS personnel to arrive from another town. We are lucky to have a group of local men who are willing to stop whatever they're doing and respond to those in need. So, the next time you see a volunteer fireman, let them know that you appreciate them. I sure do love mine.