On Hobbits and Childhood Dreams

I got to work today and within 15 minutes the power blew for all non-essentials.

So yeah, track lighting, display lighting, phone, cash registers, even the bathroom lights were all just fine.

Apparently a power line fell down the street. Fire trucks, EMS, cops. The old biddy next door had her husband call the po-po because she though she smelled burning electrical bits in the back of her store (there was none) and the water was leaking through her newly-fixed windows (call the landlord).

We stayed open, made a couple sales, then 15 minutes after that the rest of the power blew and I got to go home.

But here's the thing. When the woman called the cops about a possible electrical fire so close to the downed power line, they send the firefighters. And they came through our store demanding access to the basement. One of them–

You guys, one of them was a hobbit.

Alright, he was probably a non-congenital dwarf, but dude was jacked. Imagine being like 4'11" an still being able to do all that running around with an air tank and an entire extra person on your back. Say what you want about affirmative action in the workplace, but firefighting is one of the few jobs where you still need to achieve a ridiculous level of physicality to simply be accepted.

So small, but physically stronger and more resilient? Dude's a hobbit. Awesome.

And the woman I was working with didn't like these guys. Fine, they yelled at us for blocking the fire exist. That's actually more than fair. There was way too much shit out there. Still, "arrogant little boys with their toys," she called them.

You know what? Fine. How many of us legitimately grow up to be firefighters or astronauts of ballerina ninja princesses? If you're 30 and you've become exactly what you wanted to be when you were 5, I say you've earned a little bragging right.

I mean I'm never going to be a lawyer, mostly because I found out I think that's stupid, but I'm still open to the possibility of becoming a mad scientist.