Thanksgiving

I got married on August 23rd and my incredibly patient wife is off gathering left overs and making excuses as to why her new husband is not at Thanksgiving dinner.
Instead I'm halfway through a forty eight hour tour puncuated briefly by an activated fire alarm where I got to drive the engine literally around the block to a self storage facility and then stand around for fifteen minutes while we tried to disable the alarm that was being tested. Then we had a call to intercept the next town over for a possible CO poisoning.
When we get there we find an aging biker couple covered in Harley Davidson and swastika tattoos cramped into the back of a volunteer rescue squad ambulance. The vollie EMT states that she wanted a medic to look over her patients because she was worried.
I do a quick assessment and find that the man was a One percenter for thirty years and now he's retired. His wife is a former biker babe with a list of health problems the size of a phonebook.
They are both teary eyed over the loss of they six parakeets. I have three cats, two rabbits and a rat so I know the love of animals and their pain is a real thing for me. We talk for twenty minutes or so about animals and pets and the mountains behind their house, we talk about how they used to ride free all over the country in a roving band of leather clad non compliants and how they have settled down.
Neither one wants to be transported, their headaches and nausea have ceased. I wish them good luck and tell them their cat is still running around as I saw him outside stalking a pile of leaves.
While I can't be with my own family this Thanksgiving, if need be I can be with someone elses. Even if all they need is a shoulder to cry on.
I really do like my job.