'Twenty-Seven', More Than A Favorite Number...

SHIFT 27...Rick's ReFlections of his 32 years career in the Fire Service...

As mentioned back on SHIFT 42, I can be eccentric when it comes to numbers. Today’s shift, number 27 is certainly one of those. For years it has been my ‘favorite’ number…a number that I wore on my back during my years of playing ball…it is the age of the man in John Denver’s ‘Rocky Mountain High’…the age when I began my career at PAF&R…and the total years that I’ve worked here at PDX.

 So breaking down 27 (Twenty-Seven) into a lifespan might look something like this…the first 27 begin with childhood, carry’s on through school, early married life and children…the second 27 runs through my entire career here at the Portland Airport Fire and Rescue…and the third 27…begins shortly… What’s in store? That is yet to be known or seen.

We, the Red Sox were 1993 Champions

Recently I was making one last attempt to evaluate the ‘Pros’ and ‘Cons’ regarding whether to ReFire now or wait. In keeping with my mantra of ‘Simplicity, Flexibility and Availability’ I wanted to break it down in the smallest of terms. Being silly about acronyms I came up with ‘HDF’. And you ask, “What might ‘HDF’ be?” Well…please allow me to explain. ‘H’ is for Health, ‘D’ for Desire and ‘F’ is for Financial or Faith. On the ‘Pro’ side…my Health is probably better than average for an old dude like me. Desire…I still love my job. And Financial…the pay and benefits are pretty darn good. Then on the ‘Con’ side…I’m an old dude… (did I say that already?) in a field for the young. The potential of injury increases with age, placing my Health in jeopardy over time. Desire…as I said, I do love my job, but...the endless CE (oh another acronym), that is Continuing Education, is draining. With CE in Fire, Haz-Mat, Aircraft Familiarization, Building Familiarization, on literally six different vehicles and bucket loads of medical…yeah, lacking desire with these is an understatement. Then the ‘Gen-E’ (generation entitlement) folks chip at my desire as well. Lastly…Faith…I want…I hope to trust the Creator for the next Twenty-Seven.

Christmas...27 years ago. There is a story...

The song, ‘Open The Eyes Of My Heart’ plays on Pandora. Lord, do open my eyes. Lord, give to me, I pray, eyes to trust You in what lies ahead. I’m a planner, and I don’t know what the plan is. I will wait…perhaps only knowing what the ‘next’ day holds, when the ‘next’ day arrives. For now, there are ‘only’ 27 shifts remaining. Wow, so surreal!