Two truths and a lie:  I have a pilot's license, a cat, and three complete sets of measuring cups.  Which is which?

Hugh am I?  I entered the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) field because I was tired of feeling helpless.  I took an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) course at my local community college and was hooked.  I quickly realized that if I didn't do something with what I had learned that I forget it all, so I began volunteering.  My early experience was primarily event stand-bys and disaster response.  I periodically rode along with local fire department paramedic crews to keep my hand in classic EMS practice.

The problem was that by the time I realized that I really wanted to be in EMS I had kids and a mortgage.  I was a full-time software engineer and couldn't afford the difference in salary.  So I continued my engineering career full-time and volunteered in EMS.

After much too long, I retired from my engineering career and went to paramedic school.  That year-plus was the hardest I had worked and the most fun I had had in years!  Afterwards, I realized that I was too old to be a rookie firefighter and that I did not want to work for a commercial ambulance company.  Now, I'm a half to 2/3 time paramedic with a volunteer rescue squad and having the time of my life.  I teach an EMT class for my squad, and I'm a field preceptor for "attendant in charge" and driver candidates.  Teaching is my way of both "paying it forward" for all of the teachers and preceptors who have helped me, and fulfilling a perceived obligation to leave the world a better place than how I found it.

I wrote my (first?) book because I was frustrated by not being able to understand what my monitor was trying to tell me.  As I mentioned earlier, I do not like to feel helpless, so I started researching various scenarios involving capnography; the rest (as they say) is history.

I live in Virginia, USA, with My Lady Nancy.  Our blended family includes four adult children and two grandchildren.  But no cats!