Hard Shells, Soft Hearts

4.01 miles 51:06 12:47 pace 4:40pm 72 degrees


The sky seems to be finished with its mission to dump hard and heavy on Houston. I had planned a treadmill run this evening but, honestly, I detest treadmill runs. The bounceback is jarring to my spine. My drive to cover a different clinic today was eventful in that I could see only about 2 car lengths in front of me and I was on a major highway with traffic that insisted on moving along at 60plus miles per hour - until the rain came HARDER. That's when brakelights came on like Christmas at the mall. I pretty much white-knuckled it the whole way.

I needed this run. Outside.

Lucky for me, the sun is shining and I feel like my mood has changed for the better.

I ran up Hermann Drive, past the zoo and the golf course, and turned around when my Garmin told me I'd reached 2 miles. On the way back I noticed an ambulance parked in one of the big lots by the zoo. That's not unusual. With all the hospitals nearby, the teams will often bring in a transfer and then wait for a call, even catching a little snooze if they can. What was unusual was seeing a Tech out in the street, wearing gloves. "Crap", I thought. "What's going on?"

As I came closer, I saw that she was carrying a solid object onto the golf course. She set it down and walked back to her unit. What the hell?

As I neared the place where she set the object, I started to laugh. The ambulance crew saved a big ol' turtle's life. They had moved it out of the street and onto greener pastures.

I've known a lot of EMS workers. I've been an EMS worker. EMS is the rough and ready of medicine. Long hours, underpaid, often rough exteriors, ready to handle whatever is thrown at them and ask for more. Yeah, we would have done that but we wouldn't have wanted anyone to make a big deal out of it. I didn't say anything to them. But I saw it. You bet I did.

(The logo on their truck said "Best Care". Somehow I believe it.)








©Michelle Scofield, October 31, 2013 All Rights Reserved