The Sunday Post is a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, tell you what I’m reading, and share news. It’s hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer, Readerbuzz, and Book Date.

The Sunday Post #308

ON THE BLOG RECENTLY

• I shared my favorite quotes from the YOU book series.
• I listed fun books to read if you want to be happy.

In My Reading Life

I have not been reading. I haven't even touched a book in the past week. You'll find out why in the next section. Life has been . . . something. My anxiety levels are out of control. My brain seems to have decided that sleep is unnecessary. I'm just running on pure anxiety and Diet Coke at this point.

In The Rest Of My Life

Remember how I became a park ranger a few months ago? Are you ready for more overly honest park ranger talk?

Okay. Deep breath.

I had to deal with a death in the park last week. We're going to talk about a dead human and what it's like to be a first responder. If you're not in the mood for this conversation, please "nope" out of the post right now. I won't be mad.

I'm going to be vague because I don't want to disrespect the victim or their family by turning the worst moments of their lives into a story for my stupid blog. I'm also not sure what information is public knowledge. I know that news cars eventually showed up at the scene, but I haven't searched for any news stories, so I don't know what they reported.

An adult-aged person died in the water. I don't know the official cause of death, but for the sake of this post, we're going to call it a drowning. The person was near the shore in approximately 8 feet of water. I was across the street from the beach when the radio call went out about a person missing in the lake. I was one of the first rangers on the scene.

This was my first drowning as a ranger, but it wasn't my first park death. It wasn't even my first drowning death. I started working at this park in 2019. Before I was a ranger, I worked in visitor services. With the previous deaths, my job was to answer questions from the public after the deaths happened. I was never at the scene of an accident.

It's a lot different being a ranger! I don't think I'll ever un-see the rescue diver carrying the victim out of the water and starting CPR. I was interviewing witnesses when we saw the victim. I was frantically pretending to be calm so the witnesses wouldn't freak out. Reader, I was not calm inside my head!

Honestly, it feels gross talking about this in a place where anybody can read it, so let's spin it into something abstract and educational. What do I want random internet strangers to know about drowning emergencies in general?

1. Wear your freakin' lifejacket. If you are in deep water, wear a flotation device on your body. I profoundly do not care if lifejackets are hot, itchy, uncomfortable, or make you look chubby in Instagram photos. Find one you can tolerate and wear it. Attach a whistle to the lifejacket so you can get people's attention if you are in trouble. (Think of Rose at the end of the Titanic movie. How did she save herself? Be like Rose.)

Our victim drowned on a Sunday at one of the most popular locations in the park. There were literally hundreds of people in the water or on the beach. Only a few of those people noticed the victim. Drowning is quiet. It's easy for people to miss.

For inspiration, here's a photo of me and my sister looking glamorous in lifejackets on a river in Florida.

2. Control your freakin' children (part 1). I completely understand how families get separated during an emergency. Rangers yell for everyone to get out of the water and off the beach. Chaos and confusion ensue because the park visitors don't know what's happening. Kids sprint out of the lake and run absolutely everywhere. If you are at the beach with your kids, please keep your eyes on your children! Don't be staring at your phone. If there's an emergency, you can grab your kids and get them out of the way so they're not stampeding around like rabid zoo animals while first responders are trying to save somebody.

3. Control your freakin' children (part 2). Unattended children kept coming up to me and asking questions. I was not mad about the reasonable questions. (What happened? Why did we have to get out of the water? When can we go back in the water? Are you a park ranger? If someone is drowning, why aren't you in the water saving them? Etc.). Reasonable questions are fine.

The random questions quickly got on my nerves. At one point, I was interviewing witnesses and trying to figure out if we had multiple victims in the water or just the one who was reported missing. While I was doing this, kids kept walking up to me and asking questions about frogs, rattlesnakes, mountain lions, and why the other rangers have guns on their belts and I don't. Children, now is not the time! I will happily address all your wildlife and weapons concerns when people aren't missing in the water.

I told the kids that I was dealing with an emergency. I asked them if they knew where their parents were. I told them to go to their parents. Some of the kids listened. A surprising number of them continued to hang around and ask questions. Teach your children that they need to obey immediately when an adult says, "This is an emergency; go to your parents." I do not have the time (or the patience, honestly) to escort your wayward spawn back to you.

4. Don't be a freakin' Karen. Parks are big. There are usually multiple problems happening at once. We have to prioritize and solve the deadliest problems first. Please don't argue with us when your problem suddenly gets bumped down the priority list. We're not going to disrupt a missing person search to deal with teenagers playing their music too loud. Arguing about it is pointless. Please don't hesitate to report problems, but understand that you might not be at the top of the list.

5. Don't be a freakin' ghoul. Would you want to stumble across a TikTok video of your loved one getting CPR on a beach? No? Don't do it to other people. Be classy. Your vacation scrapbook will be fine without a photo of this.

6. Keep an eye on your fellow freakin' humans. Okay, putting "freakin'" in that sentence makes it sound harsh, but I have a "freakin'" motif happening in this post, and I can't ruin it now. I don't blame anyone for the drowning. I'm not criticizing anyone. I'm not angry at anyone. It was an accident. I'm exhausted and very, very sad. That's it. When you're in a crowded place, try to be aware of the people around you. Someone might be silently begging for help.

That's all I've got. Thanks for reading it.

Here's An Awkward Transition To Shameless Self-Promotion

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Take care of yourselves and be kind to each other. See you around the blogosphere!