I just woke up from a most entertaining dream. One in which I bought a rather large house somewhere. As I was looking through my new home, people kept showing up, and I didn’t have a clue as to who they were or why they were there. I had to run off a group of 20-something street kids who were apparently letting themselves in the side gate to use a bathroom that had a door to the side yard. There was a nice, sane guy who was doing something in the kitchen… I think he was preparing lunch, but I’m not sure, he was possibly washing vegetables in the sink. He was like a narrator, telling me things about the house, the neighbors, and the neighborhood in general. The kitchen had two of those island grills stations you see in Japanese restaurants, the kind where the chefs cook your food right in front of you. I thought it was a bit odd to have two of them, but there they were.
There were a nice couple of older ladies who I found in a parlor-type room who were apparently there to clean, or maybe get it ready for a cotillion-like affair (it’s a rather large, rambling, yet modern, house). The gentleman with them seemed non-plussed to see me, which was odd, since it was my house.
The house was laid out oddly, with rooms in strange arrangements. There was an upstairs bathroom that had a hole drilled in the counter that looked directly down into the master bedroom. When I saw that, I thought to myself, “well, that’s not good. I’ll have to fix that.”
Then, the door bell rang. What now??
A man and a woman were standing there, and while he seemed a bit sheepish, she was clearly upset about something. She made it clear that she was not happy to see me owning this house in her neighborhood. How did she know I wouldn’t be a “good fit”? My car was a six cylinder (my Taurus was sitting in the driveway). The look on the man’s face was pretty much “I have to live with her”.
I smirked and told her, “well, wait until you see the antennas I’m going to put up… I’m a ham radio operator!” I grinned at her, as she was working up to what I’m sure would have been an apoplectic scene, but I closed the door and returned to my narrator at the kitchen sink. He apologized for them, and was saying something about the area as I wandered off into another part of the house.
I had the feeling that things were just about to get really weird/interesting as I walked out of the kitchen.
Then I woke up. I was mildly disappointed that it had been a dream. Clearly the guy in the kitchen warranted more investigation, and I wanted to get those antennas mounted on the roof quickly.
I live in the future, and things are not as I was promised.
When is a zero not a zero? Turns out, when it’s an ‘o’.
404 Not Found
JimmieJoe / KC6YRU 
I may have worked my last night shift
April 12, 2019
Jim Reeves 9-1-1, commentary, Personal 911, 911 overnight, day shift, dispatch center, dispatcher, night shift, retirement Leave a comment
After 24 1/2 years, almost all of them on night shift, Monday begins the next rotation, to day shifts. I’m not looking forward to it.
My first three months, way back in the summer of 1994, were on dayshift during my training. Once released (yes, three whole months of training back then), I went to swing shift, 5pm to 3am. I stayed there, with a couple of switches to graveyard (9pm to 7am), until October of 2017, when we began our new 12 hour shifts. That put me on days, 6 am to 6 pm. After six months of that mess, my team rotated to nights. Now it’s that time again, and back we go to days.
But why may I have worked my last night shift? Because by the time we rotate back to nights, I hope to be retired!
July or September, depending on a few things. But regardless, I hope to be out of there before we rotate back to nights.
That also means I’ll never work in a new dispatch center. By the time one gets up and running, I’ll be long retired. Sigh.
Oh well.
Road trip!
Share this: