The day when Americans get fluffy, drunk, belligerent and...... Wait. That's pretty much every day.




Nevermind.

MURICA!

First 4th of July holiday when I had to work the days before and after the holiday in many, many years. I usually always made it into a long weekend. In addition, I didn't even grill or BBQ, have a beer or anything else..had pizza instead. Oh, I just remembered...I had a beer with my pizza. I did have a beer. Damn, that was a good beer.

It has been raining all day for two days, so wasn't much into the festivities this year.

our fireworks got rained out

at least we got through the free concert though

Free lucky you we had to pay for ours

good times

my older daughter almost exploded my car.....gotta love the fourth

I always enjoy the 4th. Even when I'm not doing a damn thing that day. Just having the day off is nice.

Years ago, when I worked on an Ambulance, I spent a lot of 4th's transporting drunks and general morons to ER's due to their Indy Day antics.

We did 24 hour shifts and our stations had living quarters. Full kitchens, etc... And inevitably, just as soon as the grill was hot, 911 would call us to haul some idiot to the hospital.

Lol..my town so small we have our fireworks tomorrow on the 7th 0.o

Don't have a lot of fireworks around where I live, so, you had to go out and buy your own, then risk being fined for using them. Legal to sell, illegal to use. Strange way of doing things here in Sunny Florida. LOL

Thought about BBQing, but wound up baking a nice casserole. Spent the day indoors away from the noseeums. Didn't drink any beer or alcohol, don't really do that on any kind of regular basis, so not really surprising for me. Otherwise, a nice quiet day. Drama Free is da shiznit!

Less Drama is Best! I agree totally.

But I like grillin' :)

My brother drove ambulance and was a fireman. He always said the same thing...the calls always came just as soon as he and his shift workers were about to have their holiday meal, put food on grill, etc., regardless of which holiday.



Same here.

A lot of people really don't understand what Emergency Services do.

Even on a Thanksgiving Day that I -didn't- work, I was still an EMT and Fire Chief of a VFD where I lived.

I LOVE to cook. And that day, I was about 95% done cooking Thanksgiving Dinner for about 20 people.

I got called out to a cardiac arrest in my coverage area as a Volunteer First Responder by the Ambulance Service I happened to also run at the time.

So while my extended family was enjoying the dinner I spent a few hours preparing, I was cleaning the puke out of the mouth of someone who had decided to go into Cardiac Arrest minutes after eating her last Thanksgiving Dinner.

99% of Americans do not realize or understand that on any given day, or Holiday, there are people both abroad and domestic guaranteeing them a nice day.

Nobody that I know of expects special recognition for that. I sure don't. I did what I did by choice. I'm just pointing out that there are people out there doing a job that few others are willing or able to do.

For America's Independence Day, there was probably 3 or 4 MILLION other Americans both actively protecting the rest of us or on call to immediately respond in that role when needed.

That's what makes America maybe greater than any other nation. So many people volunteering their time and risking their lives to make a difference.

i think most of them do it so they can pay their bills

There are a lot of more lucrative ways to pay the bills, and considering the hundreds of thousands of people who do it in America for FREE 24/7/365, I don't THINK you're wrong, I know it.

Kudos to ppl who work for free 24/7/365. I just don't think that's the case. They actually receive no benefit or ANY type? Then kudos.

I wouldn't do it, personally, because the types of fluffty ppl that generally call me out on a holiday or at 2 am are exactly the types of ppl I wouldn't want to associate myself with in any way.

Well said, Dragon.

Seriously. There are tens of thousands of people in America who respond to Fire and EMS calls 24/7/365 for FREE on their own time.

Then, there's the hundreds of hours of training and continuing ed that gets you in and keeps you in an ambulance or fire truck. The Department normally pays for the training, but again, it has to be done on a person's personal time.

For Volunteers, they normally respond from their homes although larger volunteer departments actually have people at the station.

Even EMTs and Paramedics that do it for a living don't make great money on average unless they work ungodly hours. It varies from state to state, but I would say a national average wage for an EMT or Paramedic is about $14/hr. In a state like WV, it's more like $10 or $11 an hour.

Pretty low pay to go play in piss, fluff, puke and blood at 3am Christmas Morning, eh?

Yes sir I did it for five years as a volunteer and I never received a dime got all my education and training for free we got discounts all over town but we still had to work our real jobs plus the countless hour on the dept 24/7/365.

Good on ya brother. :) I think everyone should do a couple years of some type of Service to their community, country, etc..

I did EMS both Volunteer ad "professionally". Combined, like 23 years. I was a Volunteer Firefighter then Fire Chief for 13 years in those days as well.

i spent the 4th anchored offshore of the arena and watched the fireworks while drunk as a motherfluffer with the family. i used to motor down to the keys but the weather wasnt looking too good for that this year.

Sounds like a kickass way to spend the evening, fordy. Never did much boating. Maybe one of these days.

I just don't know anybody who works for free.

I get the whole work for free training, etc. I work every single day of the year, on call by choice. I don't celebrate holidays....

I just don't get why it makes a difference when people work, or why it matters that they are volunteering their time. Kudos to them, but who cares if they volunteer on x-mas? X-mas is a joke, and so is every other holiday. Every day is the same, its a day.

End rant.

I take that back. I celebrate the WSOP once a year. I get all giddy.

Maybe I'm still bitter about the time I got into an accident, and was forced to ride an ambulance to the hospital and then was forced to pay an absurd $750 bill for riding in that ambulance.