Life Through the Eyes of an Ambulance Driver

My brother sent me a link this week relating to the insane deal that C.C. Sabathia got for signing with the New York Yankees. C.C. is a starting pitcher that went from Cleveland to Milwaukee last year and is now a free agent. He just signed with the Yankees in a record deal of 7 years and aproximately $160 million. It is rediculous how much people are getting paid to play a game. Anyway, the link he sent me lets you enter your anual salary and how long it takes for him to make your salary. At $21,000 a year that I make, he only has to throw 2 strikes, not even one out. I don’t understand how on Earth anyone could ever be worth that kind of money for a game. How about teachers, EMT’s, Police officers, military folk, or anyone who actually makes a difference in people’s lives and have some real value for what their efforts provide. Entertainment should not be that lucrative, but that is what our society has decided is important.

I was excited at the prospect of finding great deals online for Black Friday with retailers offereing prospects of big sales online. I must say I was disappointed on two levels. One, I didn’t find anything I really wanted that was a great deal. Two, I’m broke. So po, I can’t afford the ‘o’ and the ‘r’ to go with it.

For example, my laptop is 5 years old. I’m surprised it is still working, being a Dell. That and surprisingly, I can still use it for my daily needs, except for any computer game made in the last 4 years. But otherwise, it still serves the original purpose I got it for, being my entertainment center. I’ve been eyeing Apple’s the new Ipod Touch. Now that our ambulances have wifi, we can sit and play on the Internet all day (such as I am making this post). The Itouch, as it sometimes referred to, would allow me to peruse the Internet from the front of my ambulance without having to lug this bohemouth around. With Apple’s traditional Black Friday Sale, I was hoping maybe, just maybe, I could get a smokin deal on one. But, the best I could find was about $20 off. Yeah, that’s better than nothing, but with my pathetic hourly wage, I still can’t see where I can afford $200 for a luxury item like that. So, here I sit with my ancient computer, still doing the same thing I’d be able to do with the Itouch, just $200 cheaper.

Ordinarily, getting the opportunity to sing “Start your day with DOA, doo dahh, doo dahh…” (sung to the tune of Camptown Races) is funny. But not today. Its supposed to be the day when families drive from around town to a family member’s house to enjoy each other’s company and have a wonderful piece of Granny Schikelgroober’s pumpkin pie. But that isn’t what happened. Instead, today was the day when Granny Schiklegroober wakes up dead only to be found by family. Its sad. I feel bad for the family who is having to cope with the lost of their loved one today.

It’s comical how many fire alarms that the fire dept went on today. The majority of them were in the first half of the day, which is when people are cooking. It appears there are a number of people that don’t know how to cook without trying to burn down their house. My personal favorite is when the fire dept got called on a structure fire. It turned out to be an oven fire. I can just picture it. People are panicking as they watch flames erupting INISDE their oven. I emphasize inside. Lets think about this. The inside of the oven is nothing but metal. Its designed to withstand a lot of heat. You know, if you close the door, there’s a great chance that the fire won’t get outside of the oven and it might just extinguish itself because it will burn the oxygen in there. This isn ‘t rocket science people.

There was a somewhat good dinner for us to eat today. Surprisingly, there was no Turkey. How do you have Thanksgiving without Turkey? There was some tasty honey baked ham that the company sprung for. It wasn’t a Thanksgiving dinner like mom makes, but it was better than the ham sandwich I packed in my lunch box.

I looked at my paycheck stub that was in my mailbox today, only to find how disappointing the pay rate was for one of my shifts. I picked up a 24 hr shift last pay period and discovered that I was only paid the state minimum wage of $7.02/hr.  Ordinarily my regular wage is a paltry $10.04/hr. I don’t understand how my company can justify to pay me less money per hour to do the exact same work. Not only that, how they can justify paying me minimum wage. Uneducated, unskilled idiots get paid minimum wage to do mindless tasks with shovels and dirt. I am an educated skilled worker doing a job that requires me to have a 3 certifications, a driver’s license, and a clean criminal background to do my job.