We had our first call-out today under our new COVID protocol. One thing is certain, our fire-engines don’t have the virus.

I’m bored now – you must also be too if you are reading my daily diatribes. If I drank I’d go to the pubs but I don’t and they are shut down. The cafes are open though. I’m not sure how pubs and cafes differ in these circumstances, but a clientele that puts freshly imported brazilian beans into plastic cups on environmental grounds should have convincing enough levels of cognitive dissonance. I think I’ll pass though, I’m not keen on eating off shared cutlery at the best of times.

A walk down the mainstreet tells me I’m good  at social isolation. It’s easy enough people have always crossed the street to avoid me.  No one else seems to be taking it as seriously as me but then why should they?  Natives are immune it seems. Despite the first cluster in Ireland unwittingly going about their business around the town for two weeks in work and school without being diagnosed, no one else has caught this super contagion with an infection rate of 2.4. Okay so.

We had our first call-out today under our new COVID protocol. One thing is certain, our fire-engines don’t have the virus. Following the bleach cleaning we gave them back at the station they probably won’t have any paint on them either in the morning.  We are nothing if not diligent. We sprayed each other down with a chemical concoction. Then we sprayed the bottles we sprayed each other down with. Then we sprayed the bottles that sprayed the bottles that we sprayed each other down with. One unlucky lad is going to be spraying bottles long after the virus has been consigned to ‘Reeling in the Years’.

Six of us went out in two vehicles, we might have just made the two metres but someone’s belly got in the way. It put a dent in the long days. I was grateful for the call. With spring halfway through the open fires will soon be dampened  and there is already a  lot less traffic so things could be quiet. If that’s the case i might look to other ways of helping should the crisis escalate. The HSE is appealing for staff. I must check it out.