What is it You Do?

Digging around in the flowerbed in my front yard I hear the distinct sound of a diesel engine ideling behind me and try my best to ignore it and hope it will go away.

"Think she knows how bad her sunburn is? She's almost as red as her hair!" the first voice says.
"Isn't she the one who's always reminding us to wear sunscreen?" the second voice chimes in.

Turning around I find Scotty and Mase sitting at the curb in their ambulance. They can't help themselves, stopping to tease me comes naturally to them.

"You two don't have anything better to do then hassle off-duty citizens? And just where is YOUR sunscreen by the way?"

Mase fishes a bottle out of the console and tosses it my way. While I spray on the umpteenth layer of sunscreen of the day the guys give me a run down of whats gone on out and about today then they pump me for ice cream. This makes me laugh and I give them the sad news that my house is actually ice creamless right at the moment. We chat shop-talk for a couple of minutes, I thank them for the sunscreen then like a good boss, I tell them if they don't go get busy I will find something for them to do.

So the guys grin, Mase throws me a salute and they pull out leaving me to play with my flowers again. A couple of minutes pass before I hear a voice again and look up to see a neighbor from two doors down. I could not tell you his name or his wife's, but he has lived on the block for about six months now and we know each other by sight and wave as we pass each other on the street. He introduces himself now to me and we talk about our yards and things before he finally asks whats on his mind.

"Do you mind if I ask? What is it you DO?"

Several great answers come to mind like cat herder, babysitter, and zookeeper, but in the end I tell him what I do and where I work.

"Ah!" my neighbor said. "I've watched two ambulances and one police car stop by today, and we've seen them and firetrucks on occasion too. Jody and I thought maybe it was something like that judging from your uniform and badge and your coming and going at all hours. Curiosity finally got the best of me and I just had to ask."

So I finally met my neighbors, and I guess that from their perspective maybe my life does look rather odd. My comings and goings and the folks I know. People look twice at things in my life that are so familiar to me. Odd way to meet new people, huh?