Ride-A-Long with Dave

What better way to understand your husband and his job then to job shadow, or do a ride along? Since it was Christmas Day, and the other family members that WERE going to go to the station made other plans, Dave's captain agreed for me to "ride along" with the fire crew throughout their day.

Of course I had to sign the necessary paperwork. You know the kind stating that if I get injured or die that I will not hold SBFD liable. My favorite part is where it stated that the Captain will ensure myself a "safe retreat" if I felt something was too much for me to handle.

I also had to dress the part. Dave went out and bought me a navy collared shirt just for the occasion, and I had to wear navy blue or black pants and black shoes. I was able to wear my navy blue POW MIA flight jacket on medical calls, but for fire calls had to switch to Dave's brush jacket (yellow jacket).

Overall it was a pretty slow day -only 3 calls. I wish I could go into detail about the calls here, however due to the confidential nature of the calls I am unable to. :( *sigh* Needless to say, I have a newfound appreciation for David and what he does on a daily basis. It was cool to see him in action...he TRULY knows what he is doing, and I'm a pretty harsh critic so that's saying a lot. It was cool to actually be in the engine when they were going to calls, and to see the people on the street waving, while hearing the lights and sirens from a whole new perspective. One of the other firefighters let me borrow his headset so that I could hear what people (meaning Dave, the engineer and captain) were saying en-route to medical calls.

Since it was slow during the day, Dave dressed me up in his turnouts and let me feel how heavy the gear is. He hooked me up to a SCBA (Self-contained breathing apparatus) and let me breathe from it. That was interesting...and I sounded a bit like Darth Vader. He also had me try on the hose pack that they put on for wild land fires, in addition to the turnouts and heavy gear I had tried on earlier. We talked about doing some hose drills, but unfortunately this never came to be...although I am sure that I would have been able to hold my own here. I'm starting to get muscles :P



We had a nice Christmas dinner thanks to Carlos (the engineer) who purchased a Honey baked ham and Claim Jumpers Dutch Apple Pie. We also made mashed potatoes, salad, banana muffins, corn, and something else that I am forgetting. There were 5 side dishes in all.

Overall, I am glad that I had this experience. Although I wish there had been more calls, I truly did gain a better understanding of what David does on a daily basis, and hope that this experience will prove me to be a more understanding wife when he comes home from work. It's easy to get caught up in your own day and drama, and was refreshing to step out of my little world and be a "fly on the wall" of Dave's world outside of our humble home.