1. The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit – I am a few years late to the story of Christopher Knight and really enjoyed this book.
2. My Murder: A Novel – interesting novel set in a not to distant future
3. But what if we’re wrong – I always enjoy Chuck Klosterman on the Bill Simmons podcast.
4. Influx – A book science and technology what ifs
5. Please Tell Me – who kidnapped a town’s favorite child
6. Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…And Maybe the World – short book of life advice from Admiral William H. McRaven
7. Lights Out – murder mystery
8. Florida Roadkill: A Novel – first book in the series
9. FixIt – 6th book in the Joe Ide IQ series.
10. The Hanging City – fantasy novel about a human living among trolls.
11. The Inheritance Games – the first book in the four-book YA series. Looking forward to the next book.
12. Mothered – an Amazon first reads book.
13. Heroes of the Frontier – a mom escapes to Alaska with her two children. She is running from a lot of trouble and is still running at the end of the book.
14. Why we swim – engaging cultural history of why humans swim for survival, food gathering, competition, fitness, mindfulness and fun.
15. Drift – a short book about making conscious choices and moving past the choices you didn’t make to make choices to be on the path you want to be in.
16. The Animal Keeprs: the story of an unlikely hero and an unforgettable season – My son finished his final season as a SPASH XC runner a few months ago. The traditions, teamwork, goal setting and sportsmanship Coach Behnke writes about in the Animal Keepers still exist more than 35 years since the storied 1985 season. Cross country, at SPASH and many schools, transforms the lives of the young men and young women who participate.
17. Thousand-Miler: Adventures Hiking the Ice Age Trail – we’ve got a goal to section hike the entire Ice Age Trail in the next 5 years. Some recon with this helpful book.
18. Fairy Tale – a 2022 Stephen King book about a young man from Illinois who goes on a fairy tale adventure.
19. Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival – Little Norm Ollestad tells the story of surviving a plane crash by alternating the harrowing escape down a mountain after the crash with stories of a father who wanted his best but didn’t always act with Norm’s best interests in mind.
20. Feral: Losing myself and finding my way in America’s National Parks – Emily Pennington, admist the COVID-19 pandemic and a crushing break-up, realizes a dream by visiting 60+ National Parks.
21. Pesos: The rise and fall of a border family – family biography of a corrupt (now reformed???) family on the San Diego and Tijuana border.
22. The Island – two families hunt one another within the confines of an island off the coast of Australia.
23. 2312 – political and social problems in the widely colonized solar system. This was a slog of a book that I started in 2022 and struggled to finish.

Read on EMS1: Geriatric fall prevention tips after POTUS trips, falls

Read my full EMS Week article at EMS1.com

• Steadily creating YouTube shorts, about 1 per day
• Focusing on the niche of outdoor activities
• Watching and learning from other creators
• Developing an unhealthy obsession of looking at plays and subscribes

Trips near and far

1. What can I do in Central Park on a beautiful Spring evening? #nyc
2. Abe Lincoln’s view of Bascom Hill is the best view in Madison
3. No uphill. No downhill but a good lake surface to #crosscountry #ski #shorts (this was my first short)

Games teenagers make up

1. Log catch and release. Made up games part 2. #doorcounty #shorts
2. Creek Jump. Made up games part 3. #doorcounty #wisconsin #shorts
3. Made up games part 4. #LakeMichigan rock put. Cana Island Lighthouse

Spring Break: Banff National Park

1. 3 things that make Lake Louise a great place to #downhill #ski
2. Lake Louise #downhill #skiing highlights #shorts
3. Snowshoe jump by #Adventure #Mom in the #Banff backcountry (this is my most viewed video)

I read a bunch of books this year. Bewilderment, Riverman and Zero Fail were my favorites. I also started but didn’t finish (yet) at least three books in 2022.

1. The Hive – another murder mystery set in the Pacific Northwest
2. Hidden in Snow – murder mystery set in a Norway ski resort town
3. Alias Grace – historical fiction about a double murder in Canada in the late 1840s.
4. Bewilderment – a novel by Richard Powers that explores the edges of the universe and impending political and climate collapse.
5. The Hike – a fairly forgettable novel about two sisters and their husbands that go on a day hike that ends in tragedy.
6. Smoke: An IQ Novel – the 5th book in the IQ series that I have been enjoying for the last several years.
7. The Time Keeper – a 2012 Mitch Albom book. Enjoy the time you have rather than wishing for more or that it will go faster.
8. Such a beautiful thing to behold: a novel – a family breaks and reunites during a plague in their small rural town.
9. Where the crawdads sing – read the book, haven’t seen the movie.
10. The Intangible: a novel – relationships, as challenging or harder than theoretical math, are at the core of this story.
11. Running with Sherman: The Donkey Who Survived Against All Odds and Raced Like a Champion – we need animals in our lives and we need to spend time outdoors. Both things will make us physically and mentally healthier and safer.
12. The Peacekeeper: A Novel (The Good Lands) – an intriguing book that imagines North America without European colonization as the setting for a murder mystery.
13. Rock Island State Park Guidebook – read while serving as a volunteer docent at the restored and amazing Potawatomie Lighthouse.
14. Perspectives, Volume I: An Emergency Medicine and Public Safety Anthology – Collection of patients told through the eyes of paramedics, cops, nurses and doctors.
15. Riverman: An American Odyssey – true story of Dick Conant and the many people he met and inspired on long-distance canoe trips.
16. Sea of Tranquility – time hoping novel from Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station 11.
17. Freedom – a series of short books with a book that reflect upon ancient and modern societal meanings of freedom. By Sebastian Junger.
18. The Escape Artist – the first book in the Zig and Nola Brown series.
19. The Overstory: a novel – We need trees. More importantly we need to stop and listen to the trees.
20. Termination Shock – geoengineering to avert climate change disaster in the near future.
21. Everyone Communicates Few Connect – read for a John Maxwell book club at work.
22. How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be – An excellent book about building and maintaining habits. EMS1 article, inspired by the book, about “anytime resolutions.”
23. Sooley – John Grisham writes the fictional story of a basketball prodigy from South Sudan who flew too close to the sun.
24. Hi Five (An IQ Novel Book 4) – continue to work my way through the IQ series.
25. Death in the Sunshine (the retired detectives club book 1) – a slow moving who dun’it with too much detail. Not likely I’d read a book 2 in this series.
26. Among Others – a YA sci fi novel that publisher’s weekly described (aptly) as “turns the magical boarding school story inside out in this compelling coming-of-age tale.”
27. The Salt Line – post apocolyptic love story. Instead of a viral illness, zombies or vampires the villan in this story is a tick.
28. Zero Fail: the rise and fall of the Secret Service – when the highest profile Secret Service incidents are told in a continuous sequence it makes for edge-of-the seat and borderline terrifying reading.
29. Deep Sleep (Devin Gray Book 1) – A vast Russian sleeper cell is conspiring to ruin the U.S. Devin and friends try to stop them.
30. Wrecked (An IQ Novel Book 3) – Third book in the mordern day Sherlock series set in SoCal.
31. Righteous (An IQ Novel Book 2) – Isiah Quintabe is a modern day Sherlock in Long Beach, California.

This was a happy moment pretty early in the race. The hilly course on poorly sorted glacial till is crazy difficult. Really glad I did this and looking forward to more long runs.

Rapid response: Risk of senseless violence is constantly looming

Lt. Alison Russo-Elling, FDNY EMS, was killed in the line of duty on September 29, 2022. Russo-Elling, 61, was a 25-year veteran of the department and was a World Trade Center first responder who assisted in rescue and recovery efforts, according to an FDNY statement. Russo-Elling began her career as an EMT before becoming a paramedic in 2002. She was promoted to Lieutenant in 2016.

“For the third time, we told you we are out of service,” an EMT says, repeating himself on a recording of Baltimore City Fire Department radio traffic. “I am completely prepared to tell my driver to disembark, and I will drive this thing in the Inner Harbor.”

Who among us hasn’t been so frustrated by dispatcher requests to return to service that they haven’t snapped back at dispatch – on or off the radio – and imagined parking the ambulance somewhere the sun doesn’t shine.

Continue reading on EMS1.com: Don’t blame paramedics for system problems

Forget the movie star memes, spit is an occupational hazard

Download the 2022 EMS Trend Report from EMS1.

Download and read the 2022 EMS Trend Report from EMS1, Fitch & Associates and the EMS Survey Team.

7 ways the iPhone ruined EMS

Unnecessary and impractical: The laws EMS gets vs. the laws EMS needs

Make sure you are participating in the EMS legislative process. Your experience and voice are important.

Why virtual reality and police training go together

Axon Roadshow brings conference experience to police departments

NYC Fire Museum honors FDNY EMS response to COVID-19

Other highlights of my visit to NYC:

• Running in Central Park
• Several bike rides on CitiBike rentals
• Neal Award wins for EMS1 and FireRescue1
• Ride along with the Central Park Medical Unit
• Tour of the Museum of Modern Art
• Long walk through Times Square and other sights of Manhattan south of Central Park
• Visiting the 9/11 Memorial and NYPD Memorial. (Unfortunately, both were closed when I arrived.)

The scope of either tragedy, 10 lives or 1 million lives, is beyond comprehension or explanation. Many of us join our friends, family and communities in mourning these losses. No matter the victims’ age, health or ability at their time of death, premature loss of life leaves behind an enduring, unfillable void.

Continue reading on EMS1: Too many lives lost: Marking painful milestones from shootings, ODs and COVID-19