... not necessarily in that order. We got up a couple of times last night again for calls, one at 0100 and one about 0330. These constant late night calls are going to be the death of me, I swear. Regardless, woke up at 0645, drank some coffee, turned over the keys to the truck and went and had a good workout.
Workout: One-arm/one leg dumbbell deadlifts: 1x5 at 80lbs., 1x5 at 90lbs., 1x5 at 95lbs., 1x5 at 100lbs., 1x5 at 110lbs.
Upon completion of a set of these (for both arms and both legs) I would "plank" for around a minute and then move on to superset with:
Dumbbell shoulder presses: 1x5 at 40lbs., 1x5 at 50lbs., 1x5 at 60lbs. 1x3 at 65lbs. 1x2 at 70lbs. (last set was a push-press/jerk) I would also plank again after this before going back to the deadlifts.
One-arm dumbbell snatches: 1x5 at 60lbs., 1x3 at 75lbs. 1x1 at 80lbs. (failed with left arm at 80lbs.)
I also intermittently played around with handstands; in all the workout took a little over 30 minutes. It was brief, intense, and fairly random as I have not had a structured workout in a while and had no clue what I was going to do when I walked in the county gym this morning. I just turned up the heat and went to it. Good sweat, good workout, good stuff. I went home and walked the dog afterward for about an hour.
Later in the day I attended an award ceremony for my fire/rescue department. The ceremony recognized the firefighter of the year and paramedic of the year (I was nominated for paramedic but, the individual who received the award was more than deserving), and unit accommodations for those who performed "above and beyond" on various calls. Great ceremony. Afterward..., what do a bunch of fireman do naturally after getting together for some kind of function? You guessed it, we hit the tavern! Drank some good beer (actually only two for me, mostly wine) and ate some good food and had some good conversation. My most stimulating conversation came from the fire chief..., THE fire chief. Working for a small department certainly has its advantages when it comes to being able to talk openly with the highest person in our chain of command. I cannot really express in words the passion that this man has for helping people, (first) whether they be members of his family, members of the department, or patients, and (second) his passion for building and growing our fire/rescue department. He has done an amazing job with all aspects and certainly has not received enough credit over the years. After speaking with him for damn near 2 hours, I admire and respect him even more now. Earlier this week I posted about how I was in a rut, lasting a little longer than usual, and how everyone is entitled to be in a rut every now and then. I think my chief definitely battles with "ruts" more often than I do and probably to a much greater degree. He has a lot more responsibility than I. Still though, a man of his experience (30+ years in EMS) and expertise, I found asking me for advice, giving me advice, and giving me accolades. I was honored and humbled all at once. I was sure to let him know my thoughts, beliefs, my intentions and what I though of him, as a person and a chief. Again, not many people (firefighters/medics, maybe even corporate office workers) ever get the opportunity to have such an in depth conversation with the head of upper level management. I was/am fortunate. Though I am only a firefighter/paramedic (lower ranks) and not an officer, I let him know that he may not value my opinion as strongly as if I were but, regardless, I think he needed to know that he's doing a great job and is well appreciated. He let me know my opinion was more than worth it. He gave out a tremendous amount of advice to me, more than I can write here today on this one page. The one thing that stuck however, that I know I need to be doing is having faith and believing in God. He told me that if I learned nothing else from him, that the one thing I should take would be to "devote one hour a week to God." He said that this is the ONLY reason why he has been able to continue to be chief and deal with not only the aspects of the profession, but of his whole life. I took this to heart because again, sometimes I feel an emptiness that simply cannot be filled by anything or anybody else and know deep down, what I'm missing. Why I continue to not acknowledge it and push it away, I don't know (or maybe I do now), but this is something that I will certainly implement into my life. Last night was a great night and much needed for me as I don't do it often anymore. I came home a little before 1100 p.m. thinking that my wife was going to be pissed..., she wasn't, quite the opposite actually. She's an amazing person, much like the chief and my fellow co-workers who were all recognized tonight for a job more than well done.
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