Fucking Scalpers

I am really pissed off right now. I have been patiently waiting, like the rest of the Parrotheads, for the Buffett tickets to go on sale. As time goes on he plays fewer and fewer shows so the tickets are harder to come by. Buying them on Ticketbastard is always risky. You never know what (if anything) you are going to get. But there is always hope that you will hit the jackpot and your "Best Available" selection will bring you orchestra seats in the first 10 rows. This has NEVER happened to me.

So Virginia got lucky as hell this year. Buffett is not only playing 2 shows (!!!!!!) but they are the "Labor Day Weekend" shows. (see 'Come Monday') They are always AWESOME. So tickets go on sale this Friday..... the cop and I were planning our morning so that one, if not both of us will be able to try to get tickets. I was checking out STUBHUB.COM tonight and got a stunning surprise. There are already tickets on there.... including third row center which are going for over $800.00 each! How the fuck are we, the general ticket buying public, who go to have fun and hear good music, to get a FUCKING chance at decent tickets (or tickets at all)?!?!?!?! I am SOOOOO angry that I don't know how I feel about going. I feel that I'm getting screwed.


So a big FUCK YOU to STUBHUB.COM and to the GREEDY MOTHERFUCKERS that got incredible tickets early and now choose to fuck over those of us who just go to have fun. I know there are some fan clubs that, if you get presale or fan tickets and they are found on EBAY or Stubhub at anything above face value OR on sale BEFORE the sale has actually started.... the tickets are revoked and that person doesn't get tickets from the fan club again. If there is anyone out there who knows someone who knows someone this really needs attention. I am so frustrated that Vegas may have been my last live show.

Sorry to rant..... I will take some WHOOOOO-SAAAAA breaths and write more later on this week.

The Penguin

The penguin is a flightless bird. My first three days, I was the penguin. I couldn't catch a flight to save myself. I realize that there are other flightless birds (the ostrich, dodo and the mechanic's favorite, the emu), but I chose to be a penguin like the cool ones in Happy Feet. We were convinced that my first flight would be a motherfucker. I bus full of hard of hearing, non English speaking hemophiliac senior citizens struck by a glass truck.

It wasn't quite that bad, but my first flight was a pretty good one. It was supposed to be a cath lab to cath lab transfer. The patient had chest pain and had a diagnostic cath at the hospital where our base was. The plan was to place stents at a sister hospital that is able to do that. It was "non-emergent" but ground transport wasn't available. Sounded like a pretty decent, but mellow first flight. Once we got him loaded and lifted his heart rate dropped to 20. As I was giving atropine he went into V-Tach (for the non-medical folks, that BAD). I didn't have the patches to shock him on (since he had been fine with no issues) so we popped him pretty hard right over his heart. (a precordial thump. Its getting out of style, but I have done it multiple times with conversion) He gave me the "Why-The-Fuck-Did-You-Hit-Me" look and went back into the 20's. A little more atropine and Jet-A later, we made it to the hospital with a pulse. He went in for a now emergent cath and should do just fine.

It was nice to get my first flight out of the way. We went out service for weather not long after we got back. The helicopter actually had to be taken to the hanger, so I had no ride at all! We picked it up when the storm cleared.... at 2AM. I fly again tomorrow so hopefully this warm weather will bring good flights!