Here I am at 68. When I went through the Fire Academy in 1973, we had an old guy (55) waiting to retire who was teaching us knots. He told me," Kid, you're going to wake up and you will be me." He was so right. The time passes very quickly. I just read a book by a retired Chicago cop. I grew up there so it brought back lots of memories. There was one line that really says it all about the fire service: "Those hosers ( FFs?) sit on their butts most of the time, but when they have to do what they do best I would not trade places for a million bucks."

San Jose just passed a pension reform bill. The mayor and most of the City Council do not have a clue about what we do. To quote a great  movie line: "They would puke their guts out if they saw a dead man." The cost to us in physical and mental beatings we take totally justifies our retirements. Any one of the hundreds of incidents I responded on would cause a lifetime of trauma to the average person.

When we do what we do best, not one of them would change places for a million bucks or our retirement benefits.