Tuesday, April 04, 2006

You Gas Up Ambulances Day!

You are an essential part of the life-saving process. When an ambulance pulls into the hospital lot, it's your job to take it back out and fill the tank up with gas. You'll never get recognized as a hero. Most people don't even know your job exists. In fact, the only time you're noticed is when you slip up and someone is sent out on an emergency with an empty tank. When that ambulance comes back you can bet there are going to be some questions about whose job it is to fill up the tanks.

Today is going to be one of those days where you wish you could be even more invisible. While driving your ambulance to the gas station, someone will spot you coming and will run out to the street waving her arms for you to stop. She'll have either called for an ambulance or decided to try and flag you down before she could even get to a phone. This is the only other way you get noticed on the job and it's a major drawback. Since you're not a trained paramedic, all you can do is drive on past, hoping that her real ambulance is on its way. You used to stop and explain to the person in distress that you were just taking the ambulance for gas, and you'd offer to radio for a real ambulance if necessary. But people who need an ambulance are a little too excited to listen to all of that explanation about a job they never knew existed. So today you'll just drive past looking straight ahead as if you just didn't see the girl with the arms in the air and the blood on her shirt. You'd best take the roundabout way back.

Happy You Gas Up Ambulances Day!