July 24 – “It’s a boy”

I caught one of the funniest true stories that I have heard in a very long time yesterday.  I was on my way home from visiting in the hospital.  It was about 4:30, so I decided to stop in at station 5 and check on the fire fighters there.  Captain Weber (or Battalion Chief, I can’t get a handle on all the promotions yet) was in the office, so I stopped in for a chat before going back to say hi to the rest of the crew.  He told me about a call he was on some time ago that involved full bunker gear, a downed power line late at night, and a church.  Great story.  I’ll have to see if it’s OK with him before I share it, though.  Two rookies were on duty there, and they were both chomping at the bit to get in some action.  About the time they said, “We are rookies.  We want lots of runs” my phone ap sounded.  It was a call for station five.  Took a few more seconds before it came over the radio, and they jumped into action.  Got what they wanted, I guess.

As I drove away I noticed a car sitting right in the middle of a really busy intersection on Broadway.  Took me a second or two to register that it had been in an accident.  The rear end of the car was smashed up pretty bad, but the driver seemed to be just fine.  The big pickup truck that had hit her looked fine.  I couldn’t even see a scratch on it.  Sure enough, the call came through in a few seconds, but it appeared to be limited to police at that time.  So I continued on to station four. 

There I was greeted by a few of the guys who called out, “Just missed all the action, Chap.”  Well, that’s no fun.  Did they just get back from a particularly interesting call?  Did they have some exciting training exercise that I hadn’t heard about?  I asked what kind of action, and Scott said, “We just washed the truck.”  Ah, sorry I missed that one.  I assured him that had I been there, I would have been all over that.  I don’t think he was convinced.  Congrats to Scott and Patricia, though.  They found out the sex of their coming baby.  Looks like it will be another boy.  That’s not revealing a secret, though.  I saw the video of when they told their other two boys on FaceBook last night.  They made the big reveal to the other two guys at the station.  One of them took it in stride with a sheepish grin.  The other was quite disappointed.  Seems he was anticipating a little sister.  His tears didn’t last all that long, though.  Don’t worry, Andrew and Wyatt, I had two brothers and then raised three boys myself.  You’ll have to deal with girls soon enough.  Have some fun now while you can. 

Matthew 18:2-4 says, “He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’”

Father, walk with Scott and Patricia, and especially with Andrew and Wyatt, as they prepare for the new little brother.  Amen.