What is So Important?

This warrants a new category: stupidity. When I head for the station when we get a call, I always try and pay special attention driving through the neighborhood. Yes, I turn on the blue light and the headlights (day or night), but I really need to keep it slow with all the kids on bikes and playing in their yards. Yesterday, I was heading out for a call and I saw that there were a couple of kids and their mother on bikes down by the small stream down the street. Well, the kids were already pulling off the road, but the mother was circling in the middle of the street, talking on her cell phone. No, she wasn't watching her kids (youngish, 6 or 7) or for traffic (me), but yak, yak, yakking on her freaking cell phone. When I got closer, seeing that she was totally oblivious to me trying to get to the fire house, I tapped the horn once, a courtesy tap, not a long get-the-you-know-what out of my way. Her reaction was to look up from her important conversation and extend the one-finger salute to me with the hand she was holding her precious communications device. Go figure - this is the same kind of person who bitches when the fire department doesn't get to her house in 10 seconds when she burns the toast and sets off the alarms. This kind of behavior reminds me of something from our company's web site. It goes like this... “We Can’t Win” When the fire trucks are delayed 40 seconds in traffic, People say: "It took them 20 minutes to get here." When the truck races at 40 m.p.h., it's: "Look at those reckless fools." When four men struggle with an eight-man ladder: "They don't even know how to raise a ladder." When firemen open windows for ventilation to reduce heat in fighting a fire: "Look at the wrecking crew." When they open the floor to get at a blaze: "There goes the axe squad." If the chief stands back where he can see and direct his men, people say: "He's afraid to go where he sends his men." If they lose a building: "It's a lousy department." If they make a good "stop" folks say: "The fire didn't amount to much." If lots of water is necessary: "They are doing more damage with water than the flames." If a fireman gets hurt: "He was a careless guy." It a citizen gets hurt: "It's a crazy department." If a fireman inspects a citizen's property: "He's meddling in somebody's business." If he wants a fire hazard corrected: "I'll see the mayor." If he gets killed and leaves a family destitute: "That's the chance he took when he joined the fire department."