Damn right. Adventurers and laughter was the mainstay of our job. Stress?? We laughed it away. One incident, my partner and I were transporting a lady to Crownsville for evaluation. I was the driver, my partner Mark was assigned to accompany me. Seemed pretty normal until about 10 minutes after picking her up at hospital. Cuffed in back seat was this 98 pound (or less) woman. Middle of winter….windows closed. Mark said “what’s that smell??” I said it ain’t me. IT WAS HER! Holy shit, Hail Mary x3, All hell broke loose. We were gagging. Down went the windows. Up went the heater. Didn’t help. For these occasions I kept a can of air freshener under my seat. We sprayed…..laughed until we couldn’t talk.
Then “IT” really went south. Dispatcher called us for status.check….it was Billie Seers…… I tried to respond…..laughing so f’n hard….I couldn’t talk on radio. Gave Mark the mic. He was laughing so f’n hard, he couldn’t talk either. What a predicament we were in. Billie took it as a “signal 13”. Like we were getting our asses whomped. (It was the time before cell phones). We had to find a pay phone. Few and far between. Called her and canceled the signal 13. As she was hanging up, I could hear her laughing herself silly.
This is honest to God true. Will go on history board if not already on it. What stress?.