Well I had decided to mow the lawn. 20 minutes in I got a call lol. Not bad, it was actually two back to back, easy calls. I made more in 45 minutes then I did in an 8 hour shift when I was 16 at my first real job.
But they are not always that easy, many times it's at 2am in the worst weather, often in dangerous situations doing hard physical work. But this go around has treated me well so far, I did get a minor case of poison ivy that's been the worst of it.
I think some people are describing oncall situations, I suppose I am actually on standby. You answer the call and immediately get on your way. Sometimes it's a matter of life and death or public safety, I like when they tell you to hurry, well we dont have lights or sirens.... sometimes at 3am we have been known to treat a traffic signal as a stop sigh though.
A guy who recently retired said our job comes before God,Family and Self, at least when your on standby.
Worse calls are at 1am or so where you run around for 3 hours and get home and cant get to sleep before it's time to work your normal shift. One night like that is bearable, stack a few together and it gets really old.