How it all began

I'm a restless sort. I go from one thing to the next. It is a wonder that I managed to put enough years together to retire with a pension from a corporate job. Luckily some folks knew what an ADD over underchiever I was and kept me moving from on decent job to another over the years. So I've been retired for 9 years now and in that time period have been carpenter, legal investigator, cook, farmer, residential project manager, and a few other occupations that I'm not remembering right now. One thing I haven't done is anything related to my past profession. That sucked and will never be revisited.
So I'm sitting around a few months ago thinking that I really need to do something different that won't interfere with my farming and vacationing 4 or 5 times a year in Florida. . . so what else would I choose but to become an EMT. Hell, I've got a degree in biology, I've never had any trouble performing manual skills. In fact, my ability to perform manual skills is exceptional. Over the years I've done all sorts of complicated tasks in many various states of consciousness without a hitch. . . well, I just about crashed an airplane once, but that's another blog.
So I signed up for EMT classes at the local training center thinking "aw what the hell, this will be a breeze. Considering the slacked jawed yokels I've seen on medic trucks, I ought to be able to smoke this stuff and become the world's greatest EMT.
Hold on there ace, not so fast. I seemed to be forgetting the fact that I'm 56 yrs old and my brain aint quite as sharp as it used to be. . . or something, because this shit is getting complicated, intense and downright hard. There is tons of information to absorb, pages of procedures that have to be memorized and all sorts of skills that have to be mastered. This aint Red Cross first aid training here folks.
Patient assessments, medications, spine stabilization, all have about five or six different procedures that must be memorized step by step. Each of these procedures is up to 40+ steps long. There is indepth information on anatomy, handling patients, various types of emergencies (with procedures for each), legal issues, medications safety, vital signs and all those assessment procedures and that's just what we've covered in the first 6 weeks of class. We've got about 10 or 12 weeks left. The text is something like 1400 pages long. We're not 1/2 wat through yet.
This shit aint for slack jawed yokels!!!