Fireworks thena BANG!

[Deep C]

I wrote last week about the monumental if not overwhelming boredom and lonliness that come with the job when away from home for so long and so often.

Holidays always seem to amplify the feelings but they also draw crowds that can at least take your mind off stuff for a while... Add fireworks and i take the option of joining the fun instead of sitting alone watching tv or playing my guitar.

Rumson and Red Bank, New Jersey gang up and run twin shows at opposite ends of the Navesink River each year. One of the more dramatic shows of the season and that was to be my thing to do tonight. Having grown up there I knew to park on a side street rather than the main drag. I knew the trail by heart to the Salt Creek Grill docks where I'd watch.
Great diverse crowd, young and old. Daddies with babies proudly hoisted on their shoulder. People dressed in red white and blue. People with dogs. Kids with glow sticks and a generally nice atmosphere. I watch as the show goes. Bang, pop, crackle, the sky lights up and the smoke wafts your way. Bang Bang the heat turns up til the grand finally. It unfolds then its done. The mass of humanity head for their iron chariots streewn through the boros streets...

I'm walking up the main drag. Loads of people remarking about the show. The main drag is narrow made narrower by the cars parked along its length. On the opposite side three bikes ahead of me . A car passes by. One of the bikes slips off the curb. The car that is passing me swerves missing the youth but now over center. Oncomming car... No where to go swerves to avoid head on. Clips parked car, over corrects swerves back ,rolls on roof and stops just feet from me close enough to throw safety glass and asphalt on my topsiders.

The blood rushes, instinct kicks in. I'm haunted by memories of crawling in wrecks with no happy ending. Side airbags have deployed I see nothing but smoke. I push one aside and see a baby seat. "Oh shit! Please God no!". I look up and driver in her seat with hands on roof to keep from having the seat belt cut into her. No blood. Just a look of embarassment. Could have been worse...

I helped get the lady out. Made sure she was in good hands, answered a few questions for the cops, and left.

As I walked I though of the other possible outcomes. The kid on the bike, the other car, any of the pedestrians including myself...I thought about the move of parking on the side street asopposed to right where she hit. Guardian angles all around the bases tonight. Cars can be replaced people can't...

[Hatterized]

Made sure she was in good hands



aha...so u work for Allstate in your spare time....

and we thought you only fished....


wtg go 1st responder Deep....

[Deep C]

Almost every year it seems that I'm at the wrong place at the right time. All too often though the storys have not had a happy ending... This one did... Last year I was first on scene for an electrocution at my marina. That guy lived but will have permanent isues. Two years ago was a firey dump truck wreck driving home to Florida that did not have a good end.

Back when I went to get my captains license my dad was insistant that I get some heavy duty first aid training. I did and it stuck. Its something that has to be instict. Light switch has to turn off while doing it. No thought other than whats at hand. Unload and thinking is for later... Thats what this thread is. Get it off my chest so I can move on.

[Deep C]

The next day always brings a new view. The heart pounding and addrenaline rush go away. Thoughts of how lucky a lot of people were become clearer. Then that feeling of vulnerable mortality sets in.
Damn! How un fitting would it be for the Deep to get squashed as a pedestrian by an out of control car.. I was thinking more along the lines of a big blue running me through or a record mako snipping my head off. Then reality of how we have no control over our destiny kicks in. Bummer, I wanna go in a blaze of glory. Not squshed like a bug. Not my call.

Then the thoughts get back to that place they often go. You don't know walking out that door for sure if its the last time. Take the time to tell loved ones how you feel before you go. Keep those communications open. That way if something ever did happen they would know how you truly felt.