Busy!
Last weekend was my "quinzhee or die" field trip for my wilderness class. We went up to the Michigan Ditch road near Cameron Pass and, with Nokhu Crags in the background, mounded up our piles of snow. For hours. I mean, probably like 5 hours with 3 people. It was ridiculous. Our quinzhee started at a good size (10 foot radius) but somehow in all the shovelling it became a beast of snow. Other groups called it the "spirit turtle" because well, it looked like a turtle.
Next time I build a snow hut, there will NOT be a long tunnel entrance. Waste of time and a pain to dig!
I don't have time to write more about it but I ended up mostly not freezing my butt off all weekend. Sleeping with my wet clothes/frozen water bottle (to thaw it) didn't feel all that great but only my feet were cold. The quinzhee was significantly warmer than outside (maybe 0-5 degrees F outside, 20-30 degrees F inside??) but I didn't sleep very well - my sleeping bag was on a slope and I kept rolling, and I just couldn't get my neck comfortable!
We spent Sunday learning avalanche rescue and snow pit stuff. There's a pretty funny video of my 3 person group practicing with a transceiver...
I had a bunch of tests/papers due this week, and leave for Washington tomorrow for my Park Break thing. Woo hoo! In the midst of being busy I decided to waste more time and buy a new laptop. My old one has been on the fritz for a while (screen doesn't feel like working all the time) so what the heck, went to Best Buy and bought a new one last night. It takes SO much time to get rid of all the pre-loaded crap and customize it properly, when I really should be getting my apartment straightened and packing for my 5 am drive to the airport tomorrow morning.
Speaking of the apartment, I did finally move! I now live DOWNTOWN Estes. Yeah, crazy huh, I'm in the middle of all the tourist drama now! It's small but it's cute and coming together pretty nicely. And the best part is I was able to pull my delightful mattress out of storage for the first time since last May... no more sleeping on government beds or my futon! Wooo!
Been on a bit of a fitness craze lately, it will be nice when I'm in a little better shape and can run from my new place, around the lake, and back.... perhaps a 5 mile run?? Not quite there yet... plus the damn wind is just unrelenting lately. Ahhh, spring in Estes.
So tomorrow I fly to Seattle and then will be picked up by the Park Break folks and whisked away to Mt Rainier National Park to study dam removal and volcano stuff. I believe on Monday I will then go to Olympic National Park and study glaciers and the fact that the park is pretty screwed; many of the rivers now sit higher than their roads/infrastructure. Flooding left the park pretty nasty in 2006 and it will probably just keep happening. I'm so excited! I think there's about 6-7 people so it's a small, intensive field study and looks like it goes all day until the evening (some programs at 7:30 pm). I have so many friends between Portland and Seattle that I really wanted to see, but looks like I'm on a short lease and a full schedule. Oh well, they can come out here. ;)
Actually Kim flies in on Wednesday from Portland, the same day I get back! I'm not sure what her schedule is; Tim was planning a backcountry cabin ski trip to the North Fork NEXT weekend (no rest!) but I'm not sure if I'm going or not. Kim may be going to Telluride, and maybe we'll do some skiing and goofing off. Karaoke too, and make total asses of ourselves. ;)
Oh and we went to the Red Wings - Avs game on Wednesday and of course they didn't let me down. GO WINGS! I was worried considering the Wings had not won against Colorado yet this year (hey, the Wings killed them EVERY GAME last year so don't rub it in) but we wallowed in victory in the posh club level again. We had some rowdy good natured Avs fans behind us, and Univ. of Michigan Alumni all to my right (we got our tickets through the Alumni Association), it was a good mix. I still can't get over how many Wings fans live in Colorado though! It's enough that we get a good stadium-wide cheer going. When the Avs would say, "Red Wings Suck!" we'd start up with, "Who's Got the CUP?!" ha ha ha!!!
Ok back to being semi-productive. Will take a lot more photos in Washington than on my snow cave trip... should be rainy but hopefully a bit warmer (though it's looking like 40 degrees the whole time).
Friday, March 6, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Ever seen what happens when the fan in your car explodes?
Since my last entry, I had a streak of good things happen. Which was too good to be true, because promptly a bunch of bizarre and unpleasant things decided to happen. I guess the universe has to balance itself... that, or the gods think it's really funny to mess with me and see how much I can take before I freak out. :P
A neat opportunity for grad students was emailed out to us CSU kiddos and I thought, what the heck, wrote an essay and gave some references and threw it out there. It's called Park Break, and it's a collaborative week long graduate study with the National Park Service the US Geologic Service and the George Wright Society. I applied for the natural disasters study in Mt. Rainier National Park. I didn't hear anything by the time they said they'd notify us, so I figured I didn't get it.
But I did! Woo hoo! It's 5 days all expense paid to study floods and mud slides and volcanos and other natural disasters in Mt. Rainier and now they've included a couple days at Olympic National Park! Very awesome. I do believe I get credit for it also. I ended up having to drop my hardest class (Population Ecology, yuck) to attend but very much worth it. I'll be out the the second week of March. Unfortunately it doesn't really fit with CSU's spring break but my teachers are very excited for me and are allowing me to make up work.
I also had an unresolved dispute between myself and somebody important, and it was official, and I was pretty ticked off about it. The long of the short is that I made my case and guess what, the more important people saw my side and that I was screwed over and well, I got an apology from high up and certain inappropriate claims were thrown out because the other person was out of line and they were disciplined for their mess up and trying to pawn their problems off on me. Ha ha I know that's cryptic but if you know what I'm talking about it makes sense. Justice was served finally!
So while I was smiling and happy and thinking things were super duper, my truck had a freak catastrophic breakdown. It was driving fine and then next thing I know I pull in to get my dog from the kennel and it starts steaming. I turn it off ASAP and wait a while as the coolant comes pouring out of my poor truck. Eventually I open the hood and it took me a minute to realize what was wrong. I mean, something wasn't right... Oh my god there's a big VOID in the middle of the compartment. My plastic fan apparently tore apart with ferocious force, taking out everything in it's path!! Seriously! The fan was gone, the shrouds were gone, some air cleaner box and hoses were shredded and my radiator was jacked! The fan was so forceful that it tore through the insulation that is on the bottom of the hood and put big dents from the inside! It looks like my engine was trying to escape out of my truck! And the paint immediately chipped from the dents, so my hood looks like hell. I was just in shock. I got it towed and at the time they worried that it took out all my belts as well as hoses... looking at over $2,000+ in repairs on a 1992 toyota with 207k miles on it?! What the heck was I gonna do?! I just dropped $900 to get a new clutch but all that money into an old truck?!
There was moments of panic when I wasn't sure if I'd fix it or try to finance a new truck or buy something else used. Somehow my belts got away scott-free and the estimate was "only" around $900. That still sucked but screw it, just fix the darned thing. This happened two Sundays ago and got it back last Wednesday and it's been running like a champ. There I go again jinxing myself I'm sure!
I actually am pretty "lucky" it broke down at the kennel... I was at the kennel because I had been driving back and forth and staying in Breckenridge with Tim's sister and brother in law, who had rented a condo to snowboard for a week. Would've sucked pretty bad if it broke down in the tunnel, or on the big hill on I-70... Pretty scary also to think about what would have happened if I didn't wait to open the hood when it did break, the fan clutch busted and pieces were flying all over the place in there! Could've decapitated me like in some bad movie! Ahh!
And then, in another freaky evil plot from the karma gods against me, my landlord comes up to my place and says, "the new tenant is here can he check out the place"? (I put in my notice despite not having a new place to live; I have about 2 weeks to figure something out, I was sick of getting screwed out of money and paying a LOT of electric when I was gone for 3 weeks out of a month, my place is like 400 sq ft and I pay 1/4 of the electric connected to a big house and a family of 4. NOT fair). The new tenant found the place on craigslist.com and was coming from the Northwest. Oh, he tells me he is working for the park. Neat. I was on my way out the door so I was trying to get my school stuff together and not totally paying attention. Wait, who are you working for? He tells me, fire management. Wait a minute... This dude is the new hazard tree guy. Remember, they axed the west side crew after I went over to Grand Lake and and a horrible summer? Yeah, him and the original crew leader are now pretty much the entire crew. Apparently nobody else is coming back! What does that tell you. 100% turnover for the fire crew 2 years ago; 100% turnover except for the crewleader who pretty much did more than his share of work and finally got promoted on the haz crew this year.
So this dude who got the promotion that, well, there's no way I'd work for that boss again... but my "replacement" essentially found my apartment across the internet and came from Washington to stand in my doorway. I'm so cranky lately that I just think it's a sick mean joke and am not sure what I've done to deserve the mockery. :P I told him, Good luck with that. I didn't tell him to be ready to dish out more money than this place is worth. Karma will probably smack me for that too. Seems like a nice guy though. Think he's buddies with all those fire mgmt guys but who knows.
My good news is that my old boss from the park when I did construction wants me back so I will probably be working on picnic areas and replacing those old wood picnic tables with those 1300 lb concrete monsters, making them look nice. I did want to try to get on the wilderness crew but the job still hasn't flow yet... I also got a few notices I was found to be qualified and am being referred for consideration for jobs in Alaska but no job offers yet. Tim has a pretty good shot at getting a trails job in Denali or Klondike Gold Rush so I put in for jobs there, but who knows. I don't usually post things about us on here but we are at a crossroads and not sure where that's going. Sick of stressing so that's all I'm going to say about that.
I also got an unpaid internship as a wildlife rehabiliation assistant at Greenwood Wildlife Rehab Center, should be fun. I get to feed lots of baby squirrels. ;) If I am lucky I will get to help with some intensive care or real rehab but it all depends on what comes in the door. That starts in mid-March.
My classes are great, getting A's on my tests. Ornithology (birds) is fun, dissecting a pigeon right now. The hard part comes up soon, internal organs and stuff. One class is a wilderness instructor class and in 2 weekends we are going up to Cameron pass, building snow huts and sleeping in them, then practicing avalanche skills. Sounds fun, cold, tiring and useful all at the same time. ;) We watched a pretty crazy, real video of a girl recording her boyfriend skiing, then you hear and see the snow crack and start sliding toward him and then goes right under her feet, you hear her getting tumbled and then you hear nothing. She died. Not sure if they found her boyfriend, there were multiple people in it and some people were found, some were not. Very sobering. Avalanches are scary! Glad I'm not that hardcore, so my mom doesn't have to worry. :)
I did finally start snowboarding again, my left knee still hurts but work through the pain. I might take a telemark lesson at A-Basin this weekend, and I'm supposed to ski in the park with Lindsay. I have a free ticket to the Banff Mountain Film Festival but looks like Tim isn't going anymore so I'm not sure if I'm going. We'll see. I need to find a place to live!
Very excited, my friend Kim will be in town from Portland in March! Yay! Karaoke and jager shots hopefully! I guess her dad is in Telluride for some reason and we might go down there and ski and who knows what else. My friend Matt is in Steamboat but alas this time I won't be able to see him. Bummer. I have SPRING BREAK OFF March 16-20 or something, really wish I could go somewhere warm and tropical with my sisters like last year (sortof) but doubtful.
I have photos on my camera of valentine's day home-made sushi but haven't uploaded them yet. Been "on the plan", as in, I'm working out and trying to get rid of my hibernation winter fat. ;) It's going pretty good! Though I have no idea why I thought it would be a good idea to run around the lake in the horrible Estes wind. It blew my iPod ear buds out of my ears! But I feel like such a cow at the CSU gym with all those 90 lb. 18 year olds! And why are they always TAN! To be young and have a tanning salon membership, those were the days ha ha.
Well Log Dog is snoring next to me on my bed/futon/couch and I should get some sleep. Hopefully won't have any more truck disasters to post the next time I write!
A neat opportunity for grad students was emailed out to us CSU kiddos and I thought, what the heck, wrote an essay and gave some references and threw it out there. It's called Park Break, and it's a collaborative week long graduate study with the National Park Service the US Geologic Service and the George Wright Society. I applied for the natural disasters study in Mt. Rainier National Park. I didn't hear anything by the time they said they'd notify us, so I figured I didn't get it.
But I did! Woo hoo! It's 5 days all expense paid to study floods and mud slides and volcanos and other natural disasters in Mt. Rainier and now they've included a couple days at Olympic National Park! Very awesome. I do believe I get credit for it also. I ended up having to drop my hardest class (Population Ecology, yuck) to attend but very much worth it. I'll be out the the second week of March. Unfortunately it doesn't really fit with CSU's spring break but my teachers are very excited for me and are allowing me to make up work.
I also had an unresolved dispute between myself and somebody important, and it was official, and I was pretty ticked off about it. The long of the short is that I made my case and guess what, the more important people saw my side and that I was screwed over and well, I got an apology from high up and certain inappropriate claims were thrown out because the other person was out of line and they were disciplined for their mess up and trying to pawn their problems off on me. Ha ha I know that's cryptic but if you know what I'm talking about it makes sense. Justice was served finally!
So while I was smiling and happy and thinking things were super duper, my truck had a freak catastrophic breakdown. It was driving fine and then next thing I know I pull in to get my dog from the kennel and it starts steaming. I turn it off ASAP and wait a while as the coolant comes pouring out of my poor truck. Eventually I open the hood and it took me a minute to realize what was wrong. I mean, something wasn't right... Oh my god there's a big VOID in the middle of the compartment. My plastic fan apparently tore apart with ferocious force, taking out everything in it's path!! Seriously! The fan was gone, the shrouds were gone, some air cleaner box and hoses were shredded and my radiator was jacked! The fan was so forceful that it tore through the insulation that is on the bottom of the hood and put big dents from the inside! It looks like my engine was trying to escape out of my truck! And the paint immediately chipped from the dents, so my hood looks like hell. I was just in shock. I got it towed and at the time they worried that it took out all my belts as well as hoses... looking at over $2,000+ in repairs on a 1992 toyota with 207k miles on it?! What the heck was I gonna do?! I just dropped $900 to get a new clutch but all that money into an old truck?!
There was moments of panic when I wasn't sure if I'd fix it or try to finance a new truck or buy something else used. Somehow my belts got away scott-free and the estimate was "only" around $900. That still sucked but screw it, just fix the darned thing. This happened two Sundays ago and got it back last Wednesday and it's been running like a champ. There I go again jinxing myself I'm sure!
I actually am pretty "lucky" it broke down at the kennel... I was at the kennel because I had been driving back and forth and staying in Breckenridge with Tim's sister and brother in law, who had rented a condo to snowboard for a week. Would've sucked pretty bad if it broke down in the tunnel, or on the big hill on I-70... Pretty scary also to think about what would have happened if I didn't wait to open the hood when it did break, the fan clutch busted and pieces were flying all over the place in there! Could've decapitated me like in some bad movie! Ahh!
And then, in another freaky evil plot from the karma gods against me, my landlord comes up to my place and says, "the new tenant is here can he check out the place"? (I put in my notice despite not having a new place to live; I have about 2 weeks to figure something out, I was sick of getting screwed out of money and paying a LOT of electric when I was gone for 3 weeks out of a month, my place is like 400 sq ft and I pay 1/4 of the electric connected to a big house and a family of 4. NOT fair). The new tenant found the place on craigslist.com and was coming from the Northwest. Oh, he tells me he is working for the park. Neat. I was on my way out the door so I was trying to get my school stuff together and not totally paying attention. Wait, who are you working for? He tells me, fire management. Wait a minute... This dude is the new hazard tree guy. Remember, they axed the west side crew after I went over to Grand Lake and and a horrible summer? Yeah, him and the original crew leader are now pretty much the entire crew. Apparently nobody else is coming back! What does that tell you. 100% turnover for the fire crew 2 years ago; 100% turnover except for the crewleader who pretty much did more than his share of work and finally got promoted on the haz crew this year.
So this dude who got the promotion that, well, there's no way I'd work for that boss again... but my "replacement" essentially found my apartment across the internet and came from Washington to stand in my doorway. I'm so cranky lately that I just think it's a sick mean joke and am not sure what I've done to deserve the mockery. :P I told him, Good luck with that. I didn't tell him to be ready to dish out more money than this place is worth. Karma will probably smack me for that too. Seems like a nice guy though. Think he's buddies with all those fire mgmt guys but who knows.
My good news is that my old boss from the park when I did construction wants me back so I will probably be working on picnic areas and replacing those old wood picnic tables with those 1300 lb concrete monsters, making them look nice. I did want to try to get on the wilderness crew but the job still hasn't flow yet... I also got a few notices I was found to be qualified and am being referred for consideration for jobs in Alaska but no job offers yet. Tim has a pretty good shot at getting a trails job in Denali or Klondike Gold Rush so I put in for jobs there, but who knows. I don't usually post things about us on here but we are at a crossroads and not sure where that's going. Sick of stressing so that's all I'm going to say about that.
I also got an unpaid internship as a wildlife rehabiliation assistant at Greenwood Wildlife Rehab Center, should be fun. I get to feed lots of baby squirrels. ;) If I am lucky I will get to help with some intensive care or real rehab but it all depends on what comes in the door. That starts in mid-March.
My classes are great, getting A's on my tests. Ornithology (birds) is fun, dissecting a pigeon right now. The hard part comes up soon, internal organs and stuff. One class is a wilderness instructor class and in 2 weekends we are going up to Cameron pass, building snow huts and sleeping in them, then practicing avalanche skills. Sounds fun, cold, tiring and useful all at the same time. ;) We watched a pretty crazy, real video of a girl recording her boyfriend skiing, then you hear and see the snow crack and start sliding toward him and then goes right under her feet, you hear her getting tumbled and then you hear nothing. She died. Not sure if they found her boyfriend, there were multiple people in it and some people were found, some were not. Very sobering. Avalanches are scary! Glad I'm not that hardcore, so my mom doesn't have to worry. :)
I did finally start snowboarding again, my left knee still hurts but work through the pain. I might take a telemark lesson at A-Basin this weekend, and I'm supposed to ski in the park with Lindsay. I have a free ticket to the Banff Mountain Film Festival but looks like Tim isn't going anymore so I'm not sure if I'm going. We'll see. I need to find a place to live!
Very excited, my friend Kim will be in town from Portland in March! Yay! Karaoke and jager shots hopefully! I guess her dad is in Telluride for some reason and we might go down there and ski and who knows what else. My friend Matt is in Steamboat but alas this time I won't be able to see him. Bummer. I have SPRING BREAK OFF March 16-20 or something, really wish I could go somewhere warm and tropical with my sisters like last year (sortof) but doubtful.
I have photos on my camera of valentine's day home-made sushi but haven't uploaded them yet. Been "on the plan", as in, I'm working out and trying to get rid of my hibernation winter fat. ;) It's going pretty good! Though I have no idea why I thought it would be a good idea to run around the lake in the horrible Estes wind. It blew my iPod ear buds out of my ears! But I feel like such a cow at the CSU gym with all those 90 lb. 18 year olds! And why are they always TAN! To be young and have a tanning salon membership, those were the days ha ha.
Well Log Dog is snoring next to me on my bed/futon/couch and I should get some sleep. Hopefully won't have any more truck disasters to post the next time I write!
Monday, January 19, 2009
Those photos of Colorado National Monument that I promised
These are all in the same Picasa Album, some are old...
Only a few are from Tim's 30th birthday party, and yes that fat lady singing happy birthday balloon is STILL inflated and we play it daily...
Awe how cute, Timmy and me with Ute Canyon in the background...
A few from my hikes with Logan, in this one he discovers that ice is slippery!
Some from the mica mine...
The most handsome dog in the world!
A couple of Tim's trail work in Colorado National Monument, he claims those rocks are the size of a couch, he moved them with rock bars and they're mostly buried in the ground... Yeah whatever tough guy ;)
And my mom loves sheep. These sheep I believe are "different" from the bighorn in Rocky Mountain National Park, I think desert bighorn are endangered or threatened or something?
And I will be driving back to Estes tonight. Tim will be out here until the end of January, boo. :( We had a great time skiing the back bowls of Vail this past weekend with a couple of his friends, so I might meet up with Tim this weekend to ski again. School tomorrow! I wish I had a metal lunchbox to match the mentality I'm in right now. ;)
 |
| From Colorado National Monument, Winter 2008 |
Only a few are from Tim's 30th birthday party, and yes that fat lady singing happy birthday balloon is STILL inflated and we play it daily...
 |
| From Colorado National Monument, Winter 2008 |
Awe how cute, Timmy and me with Ute Canyon in the background...
 |
| From Colorado National Monument, Winter 2008 |
A few from my hikes with Logan, in this one he discovers that ice is slippery!
 |
| From Colorado National Monument, Winter 2008 |
Some from the mica mine...
 |
| From Colorado National Monument, Winter 2008 |
The most handsome dog in the world!
 |
| From Colorado National Monument, Winter 2008 |
A couple of Tim's trail work in Colorado National Monument, he claims those rocks are the size of a couch, he moved them with rock bars and they're mostly buried in the ground... Yeah whatever tough guy ;)
 |
| From Colorado National Monument, Winter 2008 |
And my mom loves sheep. These sheep I believe are "different" from the bighorn in Rocky Mountain National Park, I think desert bighorn are endangered or threatened or something?
 |
| From Colorado National Monument, Winter 2008 |
And I will be driving back to Estes tonight. Tim will be out here until the end of January, boo. :( We had a great time skiing the back bowls of Vail this past weekend with a couple of his friends, so I might meet up with Tim this weekend to ski again. School tomorrow! I wish I had a metal lunchbox to match the mentality I'm in right now. ;)
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Last week of not using my brain!
Hello once again from the Aspen Street Coffee Shop in Fruita, CO!
I was reading my friend Stephanie's blog of her current adventure in Central America and then clicked on my blog. I was appalled to see that in 2004, I had over 130 entries; after that year, I haven't even written HALF that amount, and last year was just embarassing - 14 entries in all of 2008. I'm not as big into writing as I used to, but I can certainly find time to write more than 14 days out of 365!
Next Tuesday I begin my stint as a "real" student (I only had one seminar and one correspondence class last semester when I started, so not much studying or homework or time on campus). These are my last few free days. Not that I haven't been busy, but skiing at Vail and working out 1-2 hours a day aren't the same as studying theories and reading and using my brain for something besides vampire books on Kindle. ;) Tim, myself and hopefully some other folks are meeting at Vail this weekend and I have a feeling I'm going to find myself drinking Irish coffee while the rest of them are playing in the back bowls. I still suck at telemark. I went on Tuesday and did worse than when I went with Lindsay and folks a few weeks ago. And since my knee injury and apparently my cyst in my knee, I'm not the snowboarder I used to be. Boo.
The biggest thing going on is of course the Philadelphia Eagles! Since my Lions set history with 0-16 (I still want to get a commemorative t-shirt), at least I have the Eagles. Sure, I became a fan through Tim but I think after 3 seasons I can call myself a true fan. Though I am absolutely sick of hearing the same crap on sports radio OVER and OVER again. I don't know how Tim can listen to it. It's always a different way of saying the same thing: "Really, the team that wins the game is the one that gets the most points. It comes down to who's defense is better, and who's offense is better. The one that throws the ball, catches the ball, and can get the ball into the end zone more is always going to win the game!" DUH!!!! Or lately, the big news about the Denver Bronco's new 32 year old coach. Ok apparently he's young. "But it doesn't come down to age, it comes down to what he does with this team." OBVIOUSLY! Seriously, I just summed up 2 weeks worth of radio show "analysis" into a few simple sentences. Then there's the announcer that insists that everybody else was wrong with their predictions last week/month/season/years/35 years ago. But miraculously he was the only one that had his prediction, and he's the only one that was right. Whatever! One guy did that a couple weeks ago, and guess what he was WRONG! But you know what he said? "I've said this all along, despite what everyone else thought. And I was right!" Tim gets a kick out of my announcer impressions (when he's not turning it up to try to drown out my smart ass remarks... which are of course always RIGHT ON!)
Anyway, with that said, GO EAGLES!
Tim and his crew out here are now famous. Look at the GJ Sentinal! And notice, everybody else is wearing gloves (which they are supposed to) except Tim! What a rebel.
Logan and I went for a nice hike yesterday to a former mica (a type of rock) mine in the Bangs Canyon area. It was a pretty easy hike in the bottom of a canyon, tall walls of red rock on all sides and huge sage bushes. I haven't yet uploaded my photos but they are on the way!
With that said, I'll be back in Estes (Drake) next Monday night, before I have to roam around CSU like a dork and try to find all my classes!
I was reading my friend Stephanie's blog of her current adventure in Central America and then clicked on my blog. I was appalled to see that in 2004, I had over 130 entries; after that year, I haven't even written HALF that amount, and last year was just embarassing - 14 entries in all of 2008. I'm not as big into writing as I used to, but I can certainly find time to write more than 14 days out of 365!
Next Tuesday I begin my stint as a "real" student (I only had one seminar and one correspondence class last semester when I started, so not much studying or homework or time on campus). These are my last few free days. Not that I haven't been busy, but skiing at Vail and working out 1-2 hours a day aren't the same as studying theories and reading and using my brain for something besides vampire books on Kindle. ;) Tim, myself and hopefully some other folks are meeting at Vail this weekend and I have a feeling I'm going to find myself drinking Irish coffee while the rest of them are playing in the back bowls. I still suck at telemark. I went on Tuesday and did worse than when I went with Lindsay and folks a few weeks ago. And since my knee injury and apparently my cyst in my knee, I'm not the snowboarder I used to be. Boo.
The biggest thing going on is of course the Philadelphia Eagles! Since my Lions set history with 0-16 (I still want to get a commemorative t-shirt), at least I have the Eagles. Sure, I became a fan through Tim but I think after 3 seasons I can call myself a true fan. Though I am absolutely sick of hearing the same crap on sports radio OVER and OVER again. I don't know how Tim can listen to it. It's always a different way of saying the same thing: "Really, the team that wins the game is the one that gets the most points. It comes down to who's defense is better, and who's offense is better. The one that throws the ball, catches the ball, and can get the ball into the end zone more is always going to win the game!" DUH!!!! Or lately, the big news about the Denver Bronco's new 32 year old coach. Ok apparently he's young. "But it doesn't come down to age, it comes down to what he does with this team." OBVIOUSLY! Seriously, I just summed up 2 weeks worth of radio show "analysis" into a few simple sentences. Then there's the announcer that insists that everybody else was wrong with their predictions last week/month/season/years/35 years ago. But miraculously he was the only one that had his prediction, and he's the only one that was right. Whatever! One guy did that a couple weeks ago, and guess what he was WRONG! But you know what he said? "I've said this all along, despite what everyone else thought. And I was right!" Tim gets a kick out of my announcer impressions (when he's not turning it up to try to drown out my smart ass remarks... which are of course always RIGHT ON!)
Anyway, with that said, GO EAGLES!
Tim and his crew out here are now famous. Look at the GJ Sentinal! And notice, everybody else is wearing gloves (which they are supposed to) except Tim! What a rebel.
Logan and I went for a nice hike yesterday to a former mica (a type of rock) mine in the Bangs Canyon area. It was a pretty easy hike in the bottom of a canyon, tall walls of red rock on all sides and huge sage bushes. I haven't yet uploaded my photos but they are on the way!
With that said, I'll be back in Estes (Drake) next Monday night, before I have to roam around CSU like a dork and try to find all my classes!
Monday, January 12, 2009
4,400 miles in two weeks
Every time I sit down to update my journal, I get distracted. It was so much easier when I was in Montana, with not much to do but exercise, hike, drink and write, when I wasn't fighting fires of course. What do I waste my time doing? Fantasy Hockey, email, Facebook, computer and tv shopping (yes I need a computer, no I don't need a tv), college classes, scholarships and easy money (doesn't exist), the news, photos, Facebook, Amazon.com, the weather... A whole lot of nothing, really.
I was out in Grand Junction before Tim and I left for our big road trip. After the 6 hour drive from Grand Junction to Estes, we did some errands and then left for Michigan on Dec. 19th. There were huge snowstorms across the plains but we got lucky - the road was clear despite the plethora of cars and trucks strewn about the median, the shoulders, sometimes upside down in a nearby field that indicated just how lucky we were to have smooth sailing. However, the temperatures were not friendly - -8 in Nebraska, with -20 to -30 windchill! Since we drove straight through, we hit Nebraska all night and refilling the gas tank and taking Logan for pit stops were so miserable I ended up putting on my snow pants just to stay warm. It really went quite well until the next morning. The news said Chicago had blowing snow but really, they were just a little behind on the times. The blowing snow had moved into Michigan, and we were in a near white-out on I-94. Which made for a horrible drive and I was being paranoid about multi-car pile ups as I'd see 3-6 cars scattered across the road here and there. At one point it took a little evasive action on my part, and a conveniently placed exit, to avoid a potential nasty accident. Sometimes a little paranoia is good, though, as only a couple hours after we made it through western Michigan, a 100 car pile up closed I-94 and killed one person.
We made it to Novi in 22 hours. We made such good time up until western Michigan - it usually takes between 18-20 hours; that was the longest it has ever taken me though my mom thinks it's just because I must be doing something illegal. I think it's just because I know how to hold my bladder, ha ha!
In Michigan, it was a combination of seeing lots of people, and doing absolutely nothing at all - except getting brutally beaten by my little brother at hockey on his Playstation 3, or watching sports on their nice big hi-def TV. I was so excited because the snow was thick and fluffy, and we brought our snowshoes to go with my sister, who had gotten a new pair for X-mas. Of course, within a couple days it warmed up enough that it turned to rain and everything was crusted over with ice. :( Tim and I went to the Red Wings game on the 23rd, which is always a good time and of course they won. I also just so happened to be in town for an old co-worker's retirement party, so I got to see the city boys and introduce them to Tim's large beard.
I was especially happy to be home for our annual huge family X-mas party, which I don't think I have been in town for 2-3 years! 50+ people and I still have no idea whom most of those rugrat kids belong to, ha ha! Pretty soon my sisters and myself will be the only ones left without kids... but Sue and I have dogs, and Linda has her cats, and hopefully my mom doesn't mind being Grandma Doolittle for a while. ;) The new tradition they started last year of the "white elephant" or re-gifting things ended up being pretty funny. Of all things, Tim got Old Spice Cologne and I got a manicure kit. If you knew us, you'd see why they were the most ironic gifts we could have received. Tim swapped his but I have to admit, I actually kept mine and (tried to) use it on what little nails I haven't bitten or chipped off, haha!
Leave it to my friend Jeff to have the party that brings most of my friends in one spot, making it much easier to see people in limited time - like Jess, who I missed last time I was in town. Even better, Brian and Melissa stopped by! They live in Seattle and though I used to be good about visiting about once a year, I've slacked off and it's Brian's turn to visit Colorado anyway. Jeff is now in Minnesota and who knows the next time I will see him, too - unless I can convince them to ski in Colorado again instead of Montana. I did stop at Donna's house to see her two kitties - which I love playing with but hate the inevitable allergic attack I have afterwards. I joked that I would name one "puppy" because I wanted her to get a dog.... but Puppy didn't let me down by being the first cat I've ever seen carry around toys in its mouth like a dog! Which was the cutest thing EVER! Besides Donna of course. ;) I am very sorry I didn't get to see Tara, Beth and Kevin... Seems like every time I come home it rotates who I miss. Next time guys, I promise!!
I am also bummed I didn't go out with my sisters like we usually do, maybe not to 5th Avenue anymore but Linda got sick and Tim and I were pretty much broke. Saw my dad and step mom on X-mas day, and I think the highlight of our visit for everybody wasn't so much as seeing ME, but seeing 100 lb. LOGAN! And yes, he did in fact prove he is the best dog in the world. Simple as that! In fact, I think both my parents and Tim's parents took more photos of the dog than us! That's ok, Logan's way cuter than I am anyway. :P
I know I'm leaving things out, like seeing my brother's mad skills at his JV hockey game and stuff like that. Was so darned busy and I don't remember everything anymore!
Saturday before new years was when we left Michigan for Pennyslvania. It ended up taking about 9 hours, not bad. Saw bald eagles, that was the highlight of that drive. We ended up at Tim's parents' house and we were even busier there than we were in Michigan. Went out to breakfast with his friend Matt and his wife Debra, which was pretty much the boys making fun of each other. Tim was making fun of that game "Rock Band", but we went back to their house and Tim couldn't stop being a rock star. I was rockin' the bass and well can't say I have a future as a drummer, but Tim kept singing and singing and his girly voice doing a Garbage song was priceless. We went to his sister's house, and her husband had just become a K-9 cop and has Body, a new 15 month old German Shepherd-Malamois mix K-9 cop in training now in addition to their 3 year old purebred shepherd, Thor. Body may only be 65 lbs, but he's agile, likes to jump, and isn't quite as trained as the other boys. Thor is I believe 85 lbs... and then there's monster Log Dog at 100 lbs (or more, he got fat over the holidays just like his mom and dad, haha!). Those three shepherds got along so great and went nuts in the backyard! We watched the Eagles WIN (which has set the agenda for every Sunday until hopefully the Superbowl) and Tim couldn't be happier. Tim's aunts and uncles came over on various days, the only of which I had met were Aunt Diane and Uncle Steve (they came to Colorado with his parents last year). We went and saw his Nan and she was pretty funny, told Tim she thought I'd be shorter but I think she liked me. ;)
We also went to see his friend Greg and Shannon and their 3 kids and their house in the country, which was pretty nice! Our New Years was pretty uneventful, Tim went through his model train collection and giggled like a little kid and I read books on my new Amazon Kindle. Which is a funny story in itself... my mom hands me a box for X-mas and I open it, it says "Kindle". I get a puzzled look on my face and my mom and Linda are like, "It's Kindle! You don't know what Kindle is??" Ummmm... Even when I open the box, I'm like what the heck?? Now this Kindle thing isn't cheap, but my mom tells me she heard about it on Oprah, you download books onto it. And since A. I love books but B. I travel a lot and am sick of moving boxes of books, it would be great for me! I kept joking with Tim that she got my a flat screen tv (my big addiction)... and I was like well um I've never heard of Kindle... thinking of what size tv I could buy for the same price... Needless to say, I researched it online and started messing around with it, and I LOVE KINDLE! Tim likes to talk about Kindle like Kindle is a person, like "Are you going to hang out with Kindle today?" and "How is Kindle doing?" The only bad part is that books aren't really cheap, considering I buy all my books used, and that since it's set up to purchase books immediately when you click, "Buy this book", it's easy to spend a lot of money. :P It uses Sprint's cell phone network for free to get on the internet (in black and white) and browse the bookstore.
Anway, back on track... I hung out with Kindle on New Year's. The ball dropped, whoop-de-doo it's 2009! Then we watched some crazy dare devils on motorbikes do some stunts, and then went to sleep. Pretty wild huh.
Logan got to hang out with Tim's parents a lot and I think between Logan and Thor, his mom really wants a dog. I hope she gets one. ;) Tim bought $36 in Tastykakes, a Philly local junk-food mini cake, and saw the sights. Went to Cabelas. We did not exercize whatsoever and I am still trying to get back to eating well (no gluten, corn, soy, blah blah blah) and feeling fit. Overall I was pretty tired from socializing and eating uncontrollable amounts of sugar! But it was nice to finally see Tim's hometown and meet more of his friends and family, though he didn't get to see everybody he had hoped. The whole time, I had "The Fresh Prince of Bell Air" theme song in my head...
Then the long, long drive home. We left on Friday morning after New Years and took I-80. It took 29 hours; it wasn't nearly as cold, but it was windy! Logan was visibly uncomfortable in the back of the cab, but he was a good sport about it. I kept myself entertained by reading about the swarm of earthquakes in Yellowstone National Park, but alas no end-of-the-world volcanic explosion is in the near future, (though that doesn't stop some folks from starting a panic anyway). We did finally get to my place in Drake and we couldn't even sleep, despite being so sleep deprived. Watched sports and played online. Got up early the next day, took care of some business, drove to Boulder and watched the Eagles win against the Vikings (WOOOO!) and then headed back on the road west to Grand Junction.
The first thing I did this past Monday back in the Junk is get a gym membership. ;) They have a pretty nice gym with good hours. I've been hitting it pretty hard and feel much better already. Not quite in the "hike all summer in the mountains" shape, or even in as good of "telemark ski around the backcountry of Rocky" shape as I'd like... but much better. The second thing I did was start exploring the public land with Logan. We romped in the snow among dinosaur bones (though we only really saw part of one) at the Fruita Paleological Site and also around Devil's Canyon, though we have yet to go on a long hike. I also spent a couple days fretting over Tim's 30th Birthday, which was on January 7th. Wooo! I had grand ideas but most of his friends are back in Estes, his birthday was on a Wednesday, and I wasn't sure how to make it a grand birthday. My first idea was lazer tag and skee ball at a place called bananas, but since they don't serve beer we went to th bowling super center called GJ Scores. I got Tim this big obnoxious balloon that sings Happy Birthday in Opera-style, some spider man temp tattoos, and some fancy hair conditioner for his Beard. Which, by the way, we forgot to celebrate his Happy Beard Day! His beard turned 2 years old on January 1st, and I had plans to make a big deal about it but without having any way of leaving the house without him (we were in PA), it fizzled. I have more bigger presents planned for him but we'll see what I end up getting him, when he makes up his mind what he really wants. :) After bowling we went and got sushi, of course!
While Tim's at work, I usually hang with Kindle, work out for a couple hours, play with the Loggenator (another new nickname for Logan), go online, stuff like that. My computer screen doesn't work all the time anymore so it's time to look for a new one. Friday, we went to see the new Clint Eastwood movie, Gran Tourino. His one liners are excellent, but it's a very good movie. Don't expect a real spaghetti western type plot - it's very serious, despite many one liners drawing a good chuckle (as well as in the back of your mind thinking, "I can't believe he just SAID that!"). We had big plans, like every weekend, of going skiing at Vail and such, but we were out past midnight at the movie and didn't want to wake up Saturday. So we just watched football and did nothing. :) Sunday, EAGLES FOOTBALL! And they won against the Giants! Next week, the Arizona Cardinals! Tim is freaking out of course, he pretty much doesn't hear or see anything unless it has to do with Eagles or football. ;)
After the victory, I really needed to get out of the house so we hiked a few miles up the No Thoroughfare canyon to a frozen waterfall, I took a couple photos and will post them soon. Today I had plans to go to Vail but after a nasty stomach ache last night and this morning, and the plain inability to get out of bed before 8:30 am anymore, it just didn't happen. Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I swear! ;)
This is my last week in Grand Junction before classes start at Colorado State. I'm trying to decide if I should pick up Ornithology or Riparian Ecology, which would mean classes 3 days a week instead of 2. I'm really going to have to get in the groove of being a real student again, and very quickly! I have a feeling that one class will be challenging, with lots of statistics and population modeling, but just typing my journal nowadays sometimes feels like a challenge!
Anyway time to take the dog for a walk. Send good skiing vibes my way and hopefully I'll get up early enough to make the 2 1/2 hour drive tomorrow. ;)
I was out in Grand Junction before Tim and I left for our big road trip. After the 6 hour drive from Grand Junction to Estes, we did some errands and then left for Michigan on Dec. 19th. There were huge snowstorms across the plains but we got lucky - the road was clear despite the plethora of cars and trucks strewn about the median, the shoulders, sometimes upside down in a nearby field that indicated just how lucky we were to have smooth sailing. However, the temperatures were not friendly - -8 in Nebraska, with -20 to -30 windchill! Since we drove straight through, we hit Nebraska all night and refilling the gas tank and taking Logan for pit stops were so miserable I ended up putting on my snow pants just to stay warm. It really went quite well until the next morning. The news said Chicago had blowing snow but really, they were just a little behind on the times. The blowing snow had moved into Michigan, and we were in a near white-out on I-94. Which made for a horrible drive and I was being paranoid about multi-car pile ups as I'd see 3-6 cars scattered across the road here and there. At one point it took a little evasive action on my part, and a conveniently placed exit, to avoid a potential nasty accident. Sometimes a little paranoia is good, though, as only a couple hours after we made it through western Michigan, a 100 car pile up closed I-94 and killed one person.
We made it to Novi in 22 hours. We made such good time up until western Michigan - it usually takes between 18-20 hours; that was the longest it has ever taken me though my mom thinks it's just because I must be doing something illegal. I think it's just because I know how to hold my bladder, ha ha!
In Michigan, it was a combination of seeing lots of people, and doing absolutely nothing at all - except getting brutally beaten by my little brother at hockey on his Playstation 3, or watching sports on their nice big hi-def TV. I was so excited because the snow was thick and fluffy, and we brought our snowshoes to go with my sister, who had gotten a new pair for X-mas. Of course, within a couple days it warmed up enough that it turned to rain and everything was crusted over with ice. :( Tim and I went to the Red Wings game on the 23rd, which is always a good time and of course they won. I also just so happened to be in town for an old co-worker's retirement party, so I got to see the city boys and introduce them to Tim's large beard.
I was especially happy to be home for our annual huge family X-mas party, which I don't think I have been in town for 2-3 years! 50+ people and I still have no idea whom most of those rugrat kids belong to, ha ha! Pretty soon my sisters and myself will be the only ones left without kids... but Sue and I have dogs, and Linda has her cats, and hopefully my mom doesn't mind being Grandma Doolittle for a while. ;) The new tradition they started last year of the "white elephant" or re-gifting things ended up being pretty funny. Of all things, Tim got Old Spice Cologne and I got a manicure kit. If you knew us, you'd see why they were the most ironic gifts we could have received. Tim swapped his but I have to admit, I actually kept mine and (tried to) use it on what little nails I haven't bitten or chipped off, haha!
Leave it to my friend Jeff to have the party that brings most of my friends in one spot, making it much easier to see people in limited time - like Jess, who I missed last time I was in town. Even better, Brian and Melissa stopped by! They live in Seattle and though I used to be good about visiting about once a year, I've slacked off and it's Brian's turn to visit Colorado anyway. Jeff is now in Minnesota and who knows the next time I will see him, too - unless I can convince them to ski in Colorado again instead of Montana. I did stop at Donna's house to see her two kitties - which I love playing with but hate the inevitable allergic attack I have afterwards. I joked that I would name one "puppy" because I wanted her to get a dog.... but Puppy didn't let me down by being the first cat I've ever seen carry around toys in its mouth like a dog! Which was the cutest thing EVER! Besides Donna of course. ;) I am very sorry I didn't get to see Tara, Beth and Kevin... Seems like every time I come home it rotates who I miss. Next time guys, I promise!!
I am also bummed I didn't go out with my sisters like we usually do, maybe not to 5th Avenue anymore but Linda got sick and Tim and I were pretty much broke. Saw my dad and step mom on X-mas day, and I think the highlight of our visit for everybody wasn't so much as seeing ME, but seeing 100 lb. LOGAN! And yes, he did in fact prove he is the best dog in the world. Simple as that! In fact, I think both my parents and Tim's parents took more photos of the dog than us! That's ok, Logan's way cuter than I am anyway. :P
I know I'm leaving things out, like seeing my brother's mad skills at his JV hockey game and stuff like that. Was so darned busy and I don't remember everything anymore!
Saturday before new years was when we left Michigan for Pennyslvania. It ended up taking about 9 hours, not bad. Saw bald eagles, that was the highlight of that drive. We ended up at Tim's parents' house and we were even busier there than we were in Michigan. Went out to breakfast with his friend Matt and his wife Debra, which was pretty much the boys making fun of each other. Tim was making fun of that game "Rock Band", but we went back to their house and Tim couldn't stop being a rock star. I was rockin' the bass and well can't say I have a future as a drummer, but Tim kept singing and singing and his girly voice doing a Garbage song was priceless. We went to his sister's house, and her husband had just become a K-9 cop and has Body, a new 15 month old German Shepherd-Malamois mix K-9 cop in training now in addition to their 3 year old purebred shepherd, Thor. Body may only be 65 lbs, but he's agile, likes to jump, and isn't quite as trained as the other boys. Thor is I believe 85 lbs... and then there's monster Log Dog at 100 lbs (or more, he got fat over the holidays just like his mom and dad, haha!). Those three shepherds got along so great and went nuts in the backyard! We watched the Eagles WIN (which has set the agenda for every Sunday until hopefully the Superbowl) and Tim couldn't be happier. Tim's aunts and uncles came over on various days, the only of which I had met were Aunt Diane and Uncle Steve (they came to Colorado with his parents last year). We went and saw his Nan and she was pretty funny, told Tim she thought I'd be shorter but I think she liked me. ;)
We also went to see his friend Greg and Shannon and their 3 kids and their house in the country, which was pretty nice! Our New Years was pretty uneventful, Tim went through his model train collection and giggled like a little kid and I read books on my new Amazon Kindle. Which is a funny story in itself... my mom hands me a box for X-mas and I open it, it says "Kindle". I get a puzzled look on my face and my mom and Linda are like, "It's Kindle! You don't know what Kindle is??" Ummmm... Even when I open the box, I'm like what the heck?? Now this Kindle thing isn't cheap, but my mom tells me she heard about it on Oprah, you download books onto it. And since A. I love books but B. I travel a lot and am sick of moving boxes of books, it would be great for me! I kept joking with Tim that she got my a flat screen tv (my big addiction)... and I was like well um I've never heard of Kindle... thinking of what size tv I could buy for the same price... Needless to say, I researched it online and started messing around with it, and I LOVE KINDLE! Tim likes to talk about Kindle like Kindle is a person, like "Are you going to hang out with Kindle today?" and "How is Kindle doing?" The only bad part is that books aren't really cheap, considering I buy all my books used, and that since it's set up to purchase books immediately when you click, "Buy this book", it's easy to spend a lot of money. :P It uses Sprint's cell phone network for free to get on the internet (in black and white) and browse the bookstore.
Anway, back on track... I hung out with Kindle on New Year's. The ball dropped, whoop-de-doo it's 2009! Then we watched some crazy dare devils on motorbikes do some stunts, and then went to sleep. Pretty wild huh.
Logan got to hang out with Tim's parents a lot and I think between Logan and Thor, his mom really wants a dog. I hope she gets one. ;) Tim bought $36 in Tastykakes, a Philly local junk-food mini cake, and saw the sights. Went to Cabelas. We did not exercize whatsoever and I am still trying to get back to eating well (no gluten, corn, soy, blah blah blah) and feeling fit. Overall I was pretty tired from socializing and eating uncontrollable amounts of sugar! But it was nice to finally see Tim's hometown and meet more of his friends and family, though he didn't get to see everybody he had hoped. The whole time, I had "The Fresh Prince of Bell Air" theme song in my head...
Then the long, long drive home. We left on Friday morning after New Years and took I-80. It took 29 hours; it wasn't nearly as cold, but it was windy! Logan was visibly uncomfortable in the back of the cab, but he was a good sport about it. I kept myself entertained by reading about the swarm of earthquakes in Yellowstone National Park, but alas no end-of-the-world volcanic explosion is in the near future, (though that doesn't stop some folks from starting a panic anyway). We did finally get to my place in Drake and we couldn't even sleep, despite being so sleep deprived. Watched sports and played online. Got up early the next day, took care of some business, drove to Boulder and watched the Eagles win against the Vikings (WOOOO!) and then headed back on the road west to Grand Junction.
The first thing I did this past Monday back in the Junk is get a gym membership. ;) They have a pretty nice gym with good hours. I've been hitting it pretty hard and feel much better already. Not quite in the "hike all summer in the mountains" shape, or even in as good of "telemark ski around the backcountry of Rocky" shape as I'd like... but much better. The second thing I did was start exploring the public land with Logan. We romped in the snow among dinosaur bones (though we only really saw part of one) at the Fruita Paleological Site and also around Devil's Canyon, though we have yet to go on a long hike. I also spent a couple days fretting over Tim's 30th Birthday, which was on January 7th. Wooo! I had grand ideas but most of his friends are back in Estes, his birthday was on a Wednesday, and I wasn't sure how to make it a grand birthday. My first idea was lazer tag and skee ball at a place called bananas, but since they don't serve beer we went to th bowling super center called GJ Scores. I got Tim this big obnoxious balloon that sings Happy Birthday in Opera-style, some spider man temp tattoos, and some fancy hair conditioner for his Beard. Which, by the way, we forgot to celebrate his Happy Beard Day! His beard turned 2 years old on January 1st, and I had plans to make a big deal about it but without having any way of leaving the house without him (we were in PA), it fizzled. I have more bigger presents planned for him but we'll see what I end up getting him, when he makes up his mind what he really wants. :) After bowling we went and got sushi, of course!
While Tim's at work, I usually hang with Kindle, work out for a couple hours, play with the Loggenator (another new nickname for Logan), go online, stuff like that. My computer screen doesn't work all the time anymore so it's time to look for a new one. Friday, we went to see the new Clint Eastwood movie, Gran Tourino. His one liners are excellent, but it's a very good movie. Don't expect a real spaghetti western type plot - it's very serious, despite many one liners drawing a good chuckle (as well as in the back of your mind thinking, "I can't believe he just SAID that!"). We had big plans, like every weekend, of going skiing at Vail and such, but we were out past midnight at the movie and didn't want to wake up Saturday. So we just watched football and did nothing. :) Sunday, EAGLES FOOTBALL! And they won against the Giants! Next week, the Arizona Cardinals! Tim is freaking out of course, he pretty much doesn't hear or see anything unless it has to do with Eagles or football. ;)
After the victory, I really needed to get out of the house so we hiked a few miles up the No Thoroughfare canyon to a frozen waterfall, I took a couple photos and will post them soon. Today I had plans to go to Vail but after a nasty stomach ache last night and this morning, and the plain inability to get out of bed before 8:30 am anymore, it just didn't happen. Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I swear! ;)
This is my last week in Grand Junction before classes start at Colorado State. I'm trying to decide if I should pick up Ornithology or Riparian Ecology, which would mean classes 3 days a week instead of 2. I'm really going to have to get in the groove of being a real student again, and very quickly! I have a feeling that one class will be challenging, with lots of statistics and population modeling, but just typing my journal nowadays sometimes feels like a challenge!
Anyway time to take the dog for a walk. Send good skiing vibes my way and hopefully I'll get up early enough to make the 2 1/2 hour drive tomorrow. ;)
Friday, December 19, 2008
Roadtrip = A week of snowstorms?!
I'm not sure what the worst part about these snowstorms is (because I LOVE snow) - the fact that I did not ONCE hit the ski slopes, or the fact that I have to drive from Grand Junction to Estes to Michigan between 4:30 this afternoon and Sunday. Thank goodness for 4x4 trucks, good tires, and an iPod!
I'm hanging out in Fruita, enjoying the expensive new USB wireless-N card I had to buy after my computer took a poop yesterday. The USB port wasn't even registering but with some persistence and aggravating clicking and restarting and system restore and unistalling, the USB port came back to life... but my old wireless card didn't survive the trauma. It wasn't working very well anyway. Amazing what a difference a WORKING wireless connection makes, the internet is so fast I don't know what to do with myself.
Another expensive thing in my life broke. That seems to be the trend of my holidays. My clutch on my truck went out on my way from Estes to Grand Junction. Not a surprise since I'm at 204k miles, and who knows if/when the clutch was replaced. Thankfully I know how to operate a manual without using the clutch (all that time behind the wheel of a 1970 something piece of crap split-shift Brigadeer dump truck) because I could NOT get it into 1st gear! I somehow made it from Colorado National Monument down to a shop in town... barely! Little did I know it would run me over $850! Ouch! I don't know when I'll recover from that one. Student loans can only cover so much... thank goodness I have a little emergency fund for these sorts of things!
Tim gets off work this afternoon after a week of doing trail work in the snow. I spent the time walking the dog, working out (since I was stuck at the Monument without a vehicle), and hiking in the snow.
It was overcast and snowed on and off; maybe 5" of snow on the trail so I only went perhaps 5 miles round trip. Of course, I went off-trail side-trip I tried to take and got cliffed out... so I had to backtrack uphill and retrace my route. Oops. ;)
I didn't end up going to Vail or Beaver Creek, although they are "only" 2 1/2 hours (more more with bad roads) away... closer than when I'm in Estes. Between having no truck, plus one morning it was windy and I didn't sleep well and sure as heck wasn't going to get out of bed... then today, I have to drive 6-8 hours with Tim from Grand Junction back to Estes and probably arrive between midnight and 1 am, so I didn't want to drive 5 hours round trip beforehand! Plenty of time when we get back from our road trip though.
So the roadtrip... leaving Estes in the afternoon on Saturday, arriving in Michigan on Sunday. Busy times, too! Tuesday alone, I am supposed to go out to eat with my family and friends, plus the Holiday party with my cityworker friends, a retirement party, and the Red Wings game (WOOOOO!!!)! Then our HUGE family X-mas party on the eve, my mom's house then my dad's house on X-mas day, Jeff's party on the 26th, and then on to Pennyslvania to see Tim's family and meet Logan's "cousins" - two German Shepherds owned by his sister and brother in law. One is their family dog, the other is the new K-9 Cop that Ryan is training. Pretty exciting, big dogs everywhere! I'm sure Tim's family will give them lots of great Christmas presents again. :)
Anyway need to pack and clean before we head out in a few hours. Can't wait to see everybody back at home! LET IT SNOW... just let it wait until we are done driving. ;)
GO WINGS!
I'm hanging out in Fruita, enjoying the expensive new USB wireless-N card I had to buy after my computer took a poop yesterday. The USB port wasn't even registering but with some persistence and aggravating clicking and restarting and system restore and unistalling, the USB port came back to life... but my old wireless card didn't survive the trauma. It wasn't working very well anyway. Amazing what a difference a WORKING wireless connection makes, the internet is so fast I don't know what to do with myself.
Another expensive thing in my life broke. That seems to be the trend of my holidays. My clutch on my truck went out on my way from Estes to Grand Junction. Not a surprise since I'm at 204k miles, and who knows if/when the clutch was replaced. Thankfully I know how to operate a manual without using the clutch (all that time behind the wheel of a 1970 something piece of crap split-shift Brigadeer dump truck) because I could NOT get it into 1st gear! I somehow made it from Colorado National Monument down to a shop in town... barely! Little did I know it would run me over $850! Ouch! I don't know when I'll recover from that one. Student loans can only cover so much... thank goodness I have a little emergency fund for these sorts of things!
Tim gets off work this afternoon after a week of doing trail work in the snow. I spent the time walking the dog, working out (since I was stuck at the Monument without a vehicle), and hiking in the snow.
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| From Colorado National Monument, Winter 2008 |
It was overcast and snowed on and off; maybe 5" of snow on the trail so I only went perhaps 5 miles round trip. Of course, I went off-trail side-trip I tried to take and got cliffed out... so I had to backtrack uphill and retrace my route. Oops. ;)
I didn't end up going to Vail or Beaver Creek, although they are "only" 2 1/2 hours (more more with bad roads) away... closer than when I'm in Estes. Between having no truck, plus one morning it was windy and I didn't sleep well and sure as heck wasn't going to get out of bed... then today, I have to drive 6-8 hours with Tim from Grand Junction back to Estes and probably arrive between midnight and 1 am, so I didn't want to drive 5 hours round trip beforehand! Plenty of time when we get back from our road trip though.
So the roadtrip... leaving Estes in the afternoon on Saturday, arriving in Michigan on Sunday. Busy times, too! Tuesday alone, I am supposed to go out to eat with my family and friends, plus the Holiday party with my cityworker friends, a retirement party, and the Red Wings game (WOOOOO!!!)! Then our HUGE family X-mas party on the eve, my mom's house then my dad's house on X-mas day, Jeff's party on the 26th, and then on to Pennyslvania to see Tim's family and meet Logan's "cousins" - two German Shepherds owned by his sister and brother in law. One is their family dog, the other is the new K-9 Cop that Ryan is training. Pretty exciting, big dogs everywhere! I'm sure Tim's family will give them lots of great Christmas presents again. :)
Anyway need to pack and clean before we head out in a few hours. Can't wait to see everybody back at home! LET IT SNOW... just let it wait until we are done driving. ;)
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| From Winter 2008-2009 |
GO WINGS!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Wolves!
Quick update while I'm taking a break from studying and reading "Resolving Environmental Conflict" in preparation for the test I need to take for my correspondence grad class on public relations in natural resources. Fun fun, really. Useful, but not my cup of tea. Which is exactly the point that the books in this class make - natural resources folks are in their field because they like working outside with resources and not people, but they need to focus on people in order to better manage resources. Boo. Trees don't talk back!
I finally volunteered with wolves! Yay! It is a structured volunteer program because, although most of them are wolf-dogs, they are high percentage wolf and do NOT act like dogs. Many are socialized well enough that they seek you out to get attention or a belly rub, but many are skittish and avoid people when you enter their enclosure. I only got to help feed and water them, but it was still so great. Even if they only have one "certifiable" pure, arctic wolf (160 lbs and white, his paws are as big as my hands! and he's pretty socialized for a pure wolf and enjoys scent rubbing people) and a few that probably are pure but don't have papers (apparently it is legal for photographers, for example, to breed wild animals?!), even the wolf dogs are so neat to be around. It's easy to see that they would not make good pets (which is how most of them wound up at the sanctuary in the first place - people couldn't handle the wolf behavior that comes with being a wolf!). I was scent-rubbed by one named Tunyan... and the best way to describe it is think of a cat rubbing its chin and body on you to leave its scent on you. Now make that cat a wolf-dog that weighs as much as you do. Now imagine it scent rubbing with its whole body right on top of you! It was pretty funny. She tried to steal my hat and the volunteer coordinator warned us to hide our hats... and ended up with Tunyan stealing her glove. I guess it was a small miracle she got her glove back at all.
When they all start howling, it's a pretty neat sound. I hope to keep volunteering with them and moving up the ranks to perhaps helping handle the animals at events and giving medications or helping with more involved jobs... in the meantime, I'm fine doing housekeeping and just spending time getting scent rubbed!
The sad part is that one of the older, probably 95+% wolf dog named Kenai, had blood in his pee. I mean, it was RED. He was losing a lot of fur and had a slew of health problems in the past year or something like that (I'm still learning!). He was like 12 years old but some of their other ones live to be over 17. I listened in on the call to the vet and saw how he was hurting. They ended up tranquilizing him (they avoid doing this because it is so stressful on wolves that they can die, literally) and taking him in. Bad news: some kind of anemia, apparently the treatment includes transfusions and a lot of very stressful stuff. This was on Saturday. I just got an email that they put him to sleep yesterday. :( These things happen I suppose, but he was not doing well on Saturday and it is for the best.
If you like what they are doing, donate some money! And read through some of their newsletters, like from last fall about their lawsuit and the crap the neighbors pulled, and the WideAwake stories. That's me not speaking on behalf of the organization; I don't know all that happened but what I do know is so frustrating!
Anyway I go again tomorrow to spend the day with wolves. This weekend, Ryan is in town and I get to see him, yay! Then to Grand Junction to hang out at the Colorado National Monument before Tim and I head east. Busy!
I finally volunteered with wolves! Yay! It is a structured volunteer program because, although most of them are wolf-dogs, they are high percentage wolf and do NOT act like dogs. Many are socialized well enough that they seek you out to get attention or a belly rub, but many are skittish and avoid people when you enter their enclosure. I only got to help feed and water them, but it was still so great. Even if they only have one "certifiable" pure, arctic wolf (160 lbs and white, his paws are as big as my hands! and he's pretty socialized for a pure wolf and enjoys scent rubbing people) and a few that probably are pure but don't have papers (apparently it is legal for photographers, for example, to breed wild animals?!), even the wolf dogs are so neat to be around. It's easy to see that they would not make good pets (which is how most of them wound up at the sanctuary in the first place - people couldn't handle the wolf behavior that comes with being a wolf!). I was scent-rubbed by one named Tunyan... and the best way to describe it is think of a cat rubbing its chin and body on you to leave its scent on you. Now make that cat a wolf-dog that weighs as much as you do. Now imagine it scent rubbing with its whole body right on top of you! It was pretty funny. She tried to steal my hat and the volunteer coordinator warned us to hide our hats... and ended up with Tunyan stealing her glove. I guess it was a small miracle she got her glove back at all.
When they all start howling, it's a pretty neat sound. I hope to keep volunteering with them and moving up the ranks to perhaps helping handle the animals at events and giving medications or helping with more involved jobs... in the meantime, I'm fine doing housekeeping and just spending time getting scent rubbed!
The sad part is that one of the older, probably 95+% wolf dog named Kenai, had blood in his pee. I mean, it was RED. He was losing a lot of fur and had a slew of health problems in the past year or something like that (I'm still learning!). He was like 12 years old but some of their other ones live to be over 17. I listened in on the call to the vet and saw how he was hurting. They ended up tranquilizing him (they avoid doing this because it is so stressful on wolves that they can die, literally) and taking him in. Bad news: some kind of anemia, apparently the treatment includes transfusions and a lot of very stressful stuff. This was on Saturday. I just got an email that they put him to sleep yesterday. :( These things happen I suppose, but he was not doing well on Saturday and it is for the best.
If you like what they are doing, donate some money! And read through some of their newsletters, like from last fall about their lawsuit and the crap the neighbors pulled, and the WideAwake stories. That's me not speaking on behalf of the organization; I don't know all that happened but what I do know is so frustrating!
Anyway I go again tomorrow to spend the day with wolves. This weekend, Ryan is in town and I get to see him, yay! Then to Grand Junction to hang out at the Colorado National Monument before Tim and I head east. Busy!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Allergic to everything?!
I had big plans for the day, including updating this blog, studying, doing some online shopping... but I'm very agitated by something I got in the mail. Since this is a public blog and I don't need it to come back and bite me in the butt, we'll just say I had issue with somebody important but that also has a history of doing poorly at his job, and dealing with people in general. I brought it up and he decided to retaliate in a nasty unprofessional way, and now I have to decide what to do about it. Either way, I can't even read the whole reply I was given because it's outrageous. I'm just glad I never have to deal with this person again! All in all it is very upsetting as I did the best I could given a crappy situation to start with, with no guidance, and I was screwed over because it's easy to pawn the blame on somebody else. I hope karma does its job!
I recently learned about this delayed food allergy test that I have yet to find out how much of it my insurance is covering ($2700 but I know at least most of it is covered), and decided to take the plunge and find out what I'm allergic to. I have seasonal and year-round allergies to a ridiculous amount of things, from cats to down (too bad I won't give up my down comforter!) to mold and mites, I think pretty much everything but rabbits and cockroaches if I remember correctly. I took allergy shots for years in college, which unfortunately when you move to a different area of the country, I am surrounded by pollen to which I was not desensitized. Given the amount of external allergens, and the fact that if I don't take Zyrtec EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE, I break out in hives and itch all over. I've also had a slew of stomach pains that couldn't be explained by an upper GI and isn't made much better by taking medication. My friend, who was recently diagnosed with Celiac Disease, told me her symptoms and they sounded like some of my symptoms but 20x worse, so the pieces came together and I got tested. Results?
I have gone 27 years and I'm still alive, so I cheat a little bit. Maybe in the new year I will actually try to go 6 weeks. I get a consultation with a chef through the company and he just wrote me today, which may help. In the meantime I'm trying to get Tim used to millet and rice everything. It drives me nuts because I've never been the kind of person to be obsessed with nutrition labels - I've never dieted and generally eat things that say organic or natural on the front and that's about as much as I cared - but now I read all the little last details and then sigh in despair about fructose and soy lecithin and whatnot! The things I am avoiding most are wheat, gluten, and soy, and the easy things like peach and pear (yuck). Though I have had a lot of pizza lately...!
Logan's stitches healed up nicely so he no longer has to wear a t-shirt. Hope he doesn't get any more cysts ever!
I am happy but not exceptionally hopefully that I got an email stating that I am "qualified and...being referred to for consideration" for a GS-7/9 permanent Forester position with the forest service with Tongass National Forest. I get that email a lot and barely ever get even an interest phone call. The only way I could take it is if they were willing to make it a SCEP position (student position that gets converted to permanent when you graduate and generally they accommodate school work in the fall and winter) because I probably won't graduate until April 2010.
Tim and I are having fun over these holidays. First, we made sushi for thanksgiving. ;) No we didn't use turkey, cooked or raw. I had given him a sushi kit for last X-mas and we finally sucked it up and bought sushi-grade fish from Whole Foods. I am happy to say that neither of us got sick. Actually, it was a lot of fun and tasted really good! We waited until after turkey day to snatch up some really cheap frozen turkeys from the grocery store. Then, we went to the "Catch the Glow" holiday parade downtown. In the years I have been here, I have always avoided town like the plague for these parades, but Tim helped with some of the floats and it was fun. Logan got a lot of love. ;)
We are gearing up for the next couple months of travel - this weekend Tim goes to the Colorado National Monument for a detail opportunity, I am finishing the last 2 weeks of my one class and will also be going out to the Monument to hike and ski, then we head to Michigan and then Pennsylvania for X-mas and New Years. He's not very excited about the long drive but I'm in the mood for a long road trip. ;) Plus Logan gets to meet his "cousin Thor", which is his sister's german shepherd. I can't wait to subject Tim to 50+ of my relatives under one roof for our annual X-mas eve party! And we already have tickets to the Red Wings game on Dec. 23rd.
My friend Alex, whom I have known since 6th grade but haven't seen in like 5 years, came out for a visit. It was great catching up! I took him to Arapahoe Basin and taught him how to snowboard, which was my first time out on the slopes this year. We hadn't received nearly the amount of snow we have in years past at that point. However, the past week and next few days, Summit County looks like it's getting hammered! Tim and I were supposed to go out on Sunday but alas, he either never set his clock or we slept through it at 5 am and didn't wake up until 10:30 so we didn't go. I was determined though and got up early yesterday. It took 3 hours to make a 2 hour drive to A-Basin, mostly because it was still snowing and Loveland Pass was closed, but I finally made it there and there weren't too many people on the hill, and the snow was still powder/packed powder. It made my day. :) I did much better with the telemark skis than last year, though I still have some work to do. I am determined to not suck this year. Having a healed knee helps too!
I am also looking forward to Saturday. What happens on Saturday? I start volunteering with wolves! To get more wildlife experience, I am helping out at WOLF, a place outside of Fort Collins that rescues wolves and wolf-dogs. Some are people-friendly but not enough that they make good pets; some are real skittish pure wolves; I'm not sure what kinds of opportunities I can get my hands on but everything from behavior to vet stuff to handling them will get me experience I can use. Plus, how cool is it to be around 160 lb wolves face to face?
I recently learned about this delayed food allergy test that I have yet to find out how much of it my insurance is covering ($2700 but I know at least most of it is covered), and decided to take the plunge and find out what I'm allergic to. I have seasonal and year-round allergies to a ridiculous amount of things, from cats to down (too bad I won't give up my down comforter!) to mold and mites, I think pretty much everything but rabbits and cockroaches if I remember correctly. I took allergy shots for years in college, which unfortunately when you move to a different area of the country, I am surrounded by pollen to which I was not desensitized. Given the amount of external allergens, and the fact that if I don't take Zyrtec EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE, I break out in hives and itch all over. I've also had a slew of stomach pains that couldn't be explained by an upper GI and isn't made much better by taking medication. My friend, who was recently diagnosed with Celiac Disease, told me her symptoms and they sounded like some of my symptoms but 20x worse, so the pieces came together and I got tested. Results?
I am allergic to:So now I'm supposed to eliminate all of these foods for 6 weeks. Yes it is almost impossible. ;) Actually the hardest things to avoid are corn (corn syrup in any of it forms is in almost everything) and soy (because if it doesn't have corn, for some reason it probably has soy). I am most saddened by the avocado, berries, artichoke, and egg. ;) At least I can have milk! Ice cream! Chocolate! Theoretically I have different levels of sensitivities to these things, and not all of them produce symptoms... but I have to eliminate all of them, then try each one ONE BY ONE to see if they cause any problems.
Peanut Soybean Wheat Barley cranberry pear
avocado gluten lime spinach egg oat rye
sunflower white potato cashew ginger pinto bean wax bean
grouper peppermint broccoli lemon orange
safflower tomato apricot cherry peach artichoke
blueberry hazelnut raspberry corn mustard
I have gone 27 years and I'm still alive, so I cheat a little bit. Maybe in the new year I will actually try to go 6 weeks. I get a consultation with a chef through the company and he just wrote me today, which may help. In the meantime I'm trying to get Tim used to millet and rice everything. It drives me nuts because I've never been the kind of person to be obsessed with nutrition labels - I've never dieted and generally eat things that say organic or natural on the front and that's about as much as I cared - but now I read all the little last details and then sigh in despair about fructose and soy lecithin and whatnot! The things I am avoiding most are wheat, gluten, and soy, and the easy things like peach and pear (yuck). Though I have had a lot of pizza lately...!
Logan's stitches healed up nicely so he no longer has to wear a t-shirt. Hope he doesn't get any more cysts ever!
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| From Winter 2008-2009 |
I am happy but not exceptionally hopefully that I got an email stating that I am "qualified and...being referred to for consideration" for a GS-7/9 permanent Forester position with the forest service with Tongass National Forest. I get that email a lot and barely ever get even an interest phone call. The only way I could take it is if they were willing to make it a SCEP position (student position that gets converted to permanent when you graduate and generally they accommodate school work in the fall and winter) because I probably won't graduate until April 2010.
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| From Winter 2008-2009 |
Tim and I are having fun over these holidays. First, we made sushi for thanksgiving. ;) No we didn't use turkey, cooked or raw. I had given him a sushi kit for last X-mas and we finally sucked it up and bought sushi-grade fish from Whole Foods. I am happy to say that neither of us got sick. Actually, it was a lot of fun and tasted really good! We waited until after turkey day to snatch up some really cheap frozen turkeys from the grocery store. Then, we went to the "Catch the Glow" holiday parade downtown. In the years I have been here, I have always avoided town like the plague for these parades, but Tim helped with some of the floats and it was fun. Logan got a lot of love. ;)
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| From Winter 2008-2009 |
We are gearing up for the next couple months of travel - this weekend Tim goes to the Colorado National Monument for a detail opportunity, I am finishing the last 2 weeks of my one class and will also be going out to the Monument to hike and ski, then we head to Michigan and then Pennsylvania for X-mas and New Years. He's not very excited about the long drive but I'm in the mood for a long road trip. ;) Plus Logan gets to meet his "cousin Thor", which is his sister's german shepherd. I can't wait to subject Tim to 50+ of my relatives under one roof for our annual X-mas eve party! And we already have tickets to the Red Wings game on Dec. 23rd.
My friend Alex, whom I have known since 6th grade but haven't seen in like 5 years, came out for a visit. It was great catching up! I took him to Arapahoe Basin and taught him how to snowboard, which was my first time out on the slopes this year. We hadn't received nearly the amount of snow we have in years past at that point. However, the past week and next few days, Summit County looks like it's getting hammered! Tim and I were supposed to go out on Sunday but alas, he either never set his clock or we slept through it at 5 am and didn't wake up until 10:30 so we didn't go. I was determined though and got up early yesterday. It took 3 hours to make a 2 hour drive to A-Basin, mostly because it was still snowing and Loveland Pass was closed, but I finally made it there and there weren't too many people on the hill, and the snow was still powder/packed powder. It made my day. :) I did much better with the telemark skis than last year, though I still have some work to do. I am determined to not suck this year. Having a healed knee helps too!
I am also looking forward to Saturday. What happens on Saturday? I start volunteering with wolves! To get more wildlife experience, I am helping out at WOLF, a place outside of Fort Collins that rescues wolves and wolf-dogs. Some are people-friendly but not enough that they make good pets; some are real skittish pure wolves; I'm not sure what kinds of opportunities I can get my hands on but everything from behavior to vet stuff to handling them will get me experience I can use. Plus, how cool is it to be around 160 lb wolves face to face?
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Finally moved AGAIN, school, no snow, and Frankendog
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| From Winter 2008-2009 |
I'm procrastinating on unpacking the boxes currently sitting in my new apartment. I found a nice little studio in Drake, which is currently a pre-business bed and breakfast. They anticipate opening in Late 2009/Early 2010 and the plus for me is that it is clean, cute, sunny, inviting... I haven't lived in such a nice, happy place in a while! Of course it's more expensive than I'd like to pay for a studio, but such is the way of life in an expensive touristy mountain area. It's 20 minutes down the mountain from Estes, which means it's nicely halfway between school in Fort Collins and work and boyfriend in Estes. But I am so sick of boxes! Packing them, unpacking them, moving them... Boxes are ridiculously prominent in my life in the past couple years. Thank goodness for a pick up truck.
Speaking of truck, my Little Truck That Could, is now up to 202,000 miles. I don't see Trucky Truck letting me down any time soon! 250k... dare I say 275k or even 300k? Maybe overly optimistic but the best auto purchase I've ever made, a 1992 Toyota 4x4 XtraCab Pickup. Wonder why the Big 3 is screwed? Ask anybody that's owned a Toyota (or a Honda). However, there are inevitable repairs that come up on an old truck. Gaskets in particular are the bane of my truck's existence in the past 6 month. Boxes and gaskets drive me nuts. First it was some piston thingy-bobbers, then it was some intake manifold doo-dad, then some differential plug and pinyon thing. Good news is that those are done and no more leaks in Tim and Dave's driveway. Also had to replace a couple tires due to misaligned front end... So I'm all set for the winter. Come spring, here's my truck to-do list: rear shocks, the other 2 tires, windshield (though I'm going on 2 years with the same cracked one, so why bother? ha ha) and whatever pops up. I did finally get some plastic cut and somehow, with Dave's help, I managed to replace the back window on mytopper. Price: $55 as opposed to probably $200 with glass.
What other lovely things require my hard earned moolah? Log Dog. He had 4 small, pimple sized cysts when he was a puppy all along his right side. 2 remained tiny; one became medium; one got kindof big - big enough his hair stood up from it. It was biopsyed and non-cancerous but kept growing. I scheduled for him to get all four removed. Of course the big one decided to POP (yuck) a few days before the surgery. So they drugged him up, cut 4 patches of fur and took out the cysts. Now my Frankendog has four sets of big white stitches along his side. I really need to take some photos. The funniest part is that A. they gave him a bandana, which alone isn't that funny but B. He has to wear a shirt so he doesn't chomp on his stitches. When he has to go to the bathroom, I have to tie it up in the back so he doesn't pee on it. As a result, he looks like a little werewolf boy dressed in human clothes. ;) I always tell him he looks so handsom but in the back of my mind, I can't help but think "Animal Farm"...
School is school. I'm excited to be full time come January. I'm signed up for classes that probably sound really boring to everybody but sound great to me. Population and Community Ecology (wildlife), Park and Natural Area Management, and Natural Resource Policy something something. Might pick up one more class but don't want to overdue my course load, it's been a while since my brain has had to function that hard. ;)
Blast from the past: a friend from MIDDLE SCHOOL, that I haven't seen in over 5 years, is in town. I think even then I only saw him maybe a couple times since high school?? Alex and I met up for lunch yesterday; it's crazy to see the paths we both took, since we've, you know, turned into real ADULTS instead of silly 8th graders. :) We are going to try to go snowboarding tomorrow, but it's been so dang warm... Yeah, apparently while it's snowing in Michigan here I am at almost 8,000 ft elevation in the mountains of Colorado, riding my motorcycle. It sounds nice, but I LOVE four seasons and snow. I even bought a video on telemark skiing and I'm inspired to get that much better this year.
Hunting has been fruitless. At this point, I've hunted 4 seasons (deer 2 seasons, elk and turkey 1 season each) and come up with nothing. It's fun hiking around and when you hear some "weird noise" or think you see something, it's thrilling... The closest I came to even just finding anything was last weekend during 4th rifle season for buck, I heard a noise and stalked around, finding very fresh tracks from a deer I had startled. I keep looking around to see where these tracks went (in patchy snow) but couldn't figure it out. Started getting dark and I hiked out on a trail... and the damn deer had jumped down the trail, stopped, probably watched me until I startled it again, and jumped away and was probably watching me from another vantage point while I wandered around hoping for a glimpse of him. Never saw him, just heard some noises and saw those tracks... Guess I'll have to wait for another shot next year!
Tim and I are planning on heading back east for the holidays! We hope to leave here around Dec. 19th, hang out with my family until the 26th, then head out to Pennsylvania to see his family until after the New Year. Like always, this plan is hanging in limbo. He just found out he may be going to the Colorado National Monument for 2 months for work; he has a 5 week lay-off at this point because trails has less money this year, and the only way he can keep working is if he goes somewhere else. He may try to hook me up with some work out there, but I'd have to drive back for school on fridays. Not sure if it would be worth it or not, but I only have class until Dec. 12th so we shall see!
ONE MORE IMPORTANT THING: So I signed up for this website where all your shopping, if you use the link, can give a percentage of what you spend towards my student loans. Pretty groovy if you ask me! I sent some folks an invitiation to sign up; if you do it without the link just remember to add me as the beneficiary. You can even do more than one person and allocate percentages.
SHOP HERE!
http://www.upromise.com/guest/2656704786
Thank you. ;)
Ok enough slacking off, time to unpack.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Done and done!
Finally made it back to Estes! Woo hoo!
I went hunting early last week for 4 days and didn't see any elk. Alas, I did not bag a big bull this first time around. Sounds like nobody saw much of anything over there near Bowen Baker and Holzwarth. I have another chance to put some meat on the table in 2 weeks with the buck tag I have for the Estes area. Got a really good hike in on Saturday and a great view from Mineral Point though... 7 miles never felt so exhausting by the time I was done though!
My last day of work in Grand Lake was Thursday. Uneventful, besides driving the long way around from Grand Lake to Estes and back for work, then BACK to Estes after I was checked out of my house = at least 10.5 hours on the road Thursday. I still haven't unpacked everything from the back of my truck!
Logan had his birthday on Sunday... and I totally forgot. I remembered on Saturday, and I remembered that I forgot on Monday. ;) He's 2 years old! So I bought some yummy treats and new toys for his birthday. He's going to be ticked at me though because he has his first ever grooming appointment in about 2 hours because frankly, he STINKS. Now that I'm unemployed I'm also going to get him in for a dental appointment and to get these 3 lumps removed. They had done a biopsy a few months ago and said they were fine, but one has gotten much bigger and it's so weird to pet him and feel this giant lump under his beautiful fur. He's happy to be in Estes so he can go to the dog park again!
I just tried to set up my schedule for grad school next semester and I'm not totally happy with all the classes I wanted to take, being at the exact same time! But right now I'm in Forest Policy, Park and Natural Area Manangement, and Population and Community Ecology classes. Probably sounds like a real hoot to all ya'll out there, really. Ha ha. I'm torn between continuing with my undergrad education and stay in Ecology/Wildlife, or get a degree in forestry, which is what all of my employment has been in the past few years. So I'll probably take a little of both, student loans are an amazing thing.
Sounds like Tim and I are trying again to head out east for Christmas, maybe it will actually happen this year?? It would be fun to subject him to our family christmas party with 50+ of my closest relatives to interrogate and harass him. They do it in good fun, but I remember Linda's boyfriend meeting them for the first time and that was priceless. "HEEEEEEY, TONAAAAYYYYYY!" Maybe you'd have to be there to understand, but I think Tim will have fun with my huge extended family. If nothing else he can run away and watch sports with my stepdad and uncles. ;)
Halloween, my favorite holiday... and I haven't even carved pumpkins in years. I'm determined this year though. Not sure if I will recycle an old costume from last year - I still have my "Tim" costume with the big beard! or even my girlscout costume - but Tim wants us to go as vikings if I can find cheap costumes. Logan too has to dress up, though the old photo shows how much he hated his K9 Cop costume. The things we pet owners subject our four legged friends to...!
Anyway got a lot to do but thought I'd quickly update. One other recent and very sad thing is that a former coworker here are Rocky Mt was killed by a tree blowing over this past weekend. He was a great sawyer and had the most vibrant personality and I think everybody is just as shocked and sad as I am... he had quit as trails supervisor a couple years ago to pursue his private forestry company cutting down beetle kill in Grand Lake. He does the same job I do/did, every day dealing with dead trees... really makes me stop and think about how dangerous our job really is, and Kevin was a hell of a lot more talented sawyer than I am!
Oh yeah and I'm going to try to volunteer with this wolf rescue in Fort Collins, might as well get some wildlife experience if I decide to switch away from trees for good. Tara told me she just started volunteering with horses so hey, tis the season to work with the animals!
I went hunting early last week for 4 days and didn't see any elk. Alas, I did not bag a big bull this first time around. Sounds like nobody saw much of anything over there near Bowen Baker and Holzwarth. I have another chance to put some meat on the table in 2 weeks with the buck tag I have for the Estes area. Got a really good hike in on Saturday and a great view from Mineral Point though... 7 miles never felt so exhausting by the time I was done though!
My last day of work in Grand Lake was Thursday. Uneventful, besides driving the long way around from Grand Lake to Estes and back for work, then BACK to Estes after I was checked out of my house = at least 10.5 hours on the road Thursday. I still haven't unpacked everything from the back of my truck!
Logan had his birthday on Sunday... and I totally forgot. I remembered on Saturday, and I remembered that I forgot on Monday. ;) He's 2 years old! So I bought some yummy treats and new toys for his birthday. He's going to be ticked at me though because he has his first ever grooming appointment in about 2 hours because frankly, he STINKS. Now that I'm unemployed I'm also going to get him in for a dental appointment and to get these 3 lumps removed. They had done a biopsy a few months ago and said they were fine, but one has gotten much bigger and it's so weird to pet him and feel this giant lump under his beautiful fur. He's happy to be in Estes so he can go to the dog park again!
I just tried to set up my schedule for grad school next semester and I'm not totally happy with all the classes I wanted to take, being at the exact same time! But right now I'm in Forest Policy, Park and Natural Area Manangement, and Population and Community Ecology classes. Probably sounds like a real hoot to all ya'll out there, really. Ha ha. I'm torn between continuing with my undergrad education and stay in Ecology/Wildlife, or get a degree in forestry, which is what all of my employment has been in the past few years. So I'll probably take a little of both, student loans are an amazing thing.
Sounds like Tim and I are trying again to head out east for Christmas, maybe it will actually happen this year?? It would be fun to subject him to our family christmas party with 50+ of my closest relatives to interrogate and harass him. They do it in good fun, but I remember Linda's boyfriend meeting them for the first time and that was priceless. "HEEEEEEY, TONAAAAYYYYYY!" Maybe you'd have to be there to understand, but I think Tim will have fun with my huge extended family. If nothing else he can run away and watch sports with my stepdad and uncles. ;)
Halloween, my favorite holiday... and I haven't even carved pumpkins in years. I'm determined this year though. Not sure if I will recycle an old costume from last year - I still have my "Tim" costume with the big beard! or even my girlscout costume - but Tim wants us to go as vikings if I can find cheap costumes. Logan too has to dress up, though the old photo shows how much he hated his K9 Cop costume. The things we pet owners subject our four legged friends to...!
Anyway got a lot to do but thought I'd quickly update. One other recent and very sad thing is that a former coworker here are Rocky Mt was killed by a tree blowing over this past weekend. He was a great sawyer and had the most vibrant personality and I think everybody is just as shocked and sad as I am... he had quit as trails supervisor a couple years ago to pursue his private forestry company cutting down beetle kill in Grand Lake. He does the same job I do/did, every day dealing with dead trees... really makes me stop and think about how dangerous our job really is, and Kevin was a hell of a lot more talented sawyer than I am!
Oh yeah and I'm going to try to volunteer with this wolf rescue in Fort Collins, might as well get some wildlife experience if I decide to switch away from trees for good. Tara told me she just started volunteering with horses so hey, tis the season to work with the animals!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Ready for snow!
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| From Watanga Lake; Mooses; Matt and Brandon Visit, August 2008 |
Bull moose in my "front yard" at Green Mountain
Grand Lake is absolutely killing this journal!
The only time I can really get online is when I'm in Estes, and when I'm in Estes I'm so busy doing so many other things that I never get to my journal anymore! Throw in classes, and work, and being sick, and visitors...
Where should I start?
We started getting snow up on top of Trail Ridge Road in mid August; I actually got snowed on at my cabin August 15th! Which I would be very excited for...if I were east of the Divide and didn't face the prospect of driving the LONG way around from Grand Lake to Fort Collins for grad school every Friday! 3 hrs 15 minutes each way for a 2 hour class if they close Trail Ridge Road. This has only happened once so far, but it's just a matter of time before this becomes a regular thing. I was really stressing out about it, because I didn't know how long we would be working in Grand Lake before we are furloughed, but so many questions were laid to rest about 2 weeks ago:
Management has decided that it is nearly certain they will abandon the idea of having a separate west side crew. WOOOO HOOO! Not that I don't like Grand Lake. I really really do. I'd like it more if my friends were there, I had reliable housing 12 months of the year, and it wasn't a headache being separate from all administrative/management type important people that can make my life easy, or hell. All in all, it hasn't gone as well as I hoped. In part, my cabin was a nasty little craphole that probably made me sick when I cleaned it up and moved out 2 weeks ago. Another part is it is just myself and one other person, so when I have admin/office work, she has nothing to do. On top of that, she hurt her back and hasn't been operating at even 50% most days, so it was ALL ME dropping and cleaning up trees. Add on our impossible management-decided goals of removing 50% of our moderate hazard trees by November...which is approximately 2,000 trees dropped by 2 people. I could go on and on, which I have done to enough of my friends during a venting session that I really hope I never have to speak of it again once I move to Estes.
Since my coworker is leaving for a winter job late October, my last day of work is October 23 in Grand Lake. Now, I am hoping they can change my duty station via some simple paperwork and keep me working with the east side crew until Nov. 21st but we shall see. Part of me just wants to be done with it and recover and focus on School, Snow, and Sleeping. ;) Though the money would be nice... hello student loans come January, when I am full time student until April!
Ok let me back up a bit, so much has happened and I'm sick so chronological writing is not really happening right now. The topic of grad school will have to wait.
August 21st or so, my "random adventure buddy" Matt (of past Yellowstone ninja and Virginia horseshoe crab fame in previous journals over the years) came out to Colorado with his friend Brandon and, well, we had random adventures. We stayed in Steamboat for a night and went to the hot springs up there, then hit up some bars (and felt very very old, forgot it was a college town!); then we were going to hike to a ranger cabin in the park but nasty weather and lack of motivation turned it into a simple driving tour of Rocky Mt National Park, cussing at Long's Peak for hiding in the clouds, a beer and a cigar at the Rock Inn, and wrestling with the dog (with and without bandanas). There were lots of random quotes to go along with that but most aren't appropriate for the General Audience except, "Horses are stupid!" which I totally don't agree with. ;)
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| From Watanga Lake; Mooses; Matt and Brandon Visit, August 2008 |
Anyway as always it was great to see Matt and his friend Brandon was a great travel buddy with a good sense of adventure. They came at a great time when things have been pretty rough and I really hope he can come out and ski this winter!
And since I wasn't already tired and busy enough, my mom and two sisters came out for a visit over Labor Day weekend! I was pooped and totally missed my first day of classes at Colorado State, but I didn't care, it was my favorite girls finally coming out to Colorado! We stayed at this guest ranch, complete with horses randomly wandering around, and my mom wrote up a pretty good journal about the visit - Meggie's Mumblings! And here's the link to her photos from the trip, which are way better and tons more than I took. It was filled with horses, moose, freaking them out driving up "Don't Fall Over Road" (Linda's name for Old Fall River Road), thunderstorms, fishing in a dress and not catching anything, my mom being an insomniac without television, watching a color tv in black and white because, well, we thought it was a black and white tv... oh and the first time my sisters had been to Colorado to visit, and the first time they had all seen Logan since he was a wee pup! Of course they loved him. Everybody loves the Log!
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| From Family Visit, August 2008 |
Linda and I on horses on our private ride
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| From Family Visit, August 2008 |
Momma and baby moose on the trail to Timber Lake
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| From Family Visit, August 2008 |
Linda and I on the saddle above Timber Lake, trying to beat the storm!
Jeez what else. My life is filled with work and driving. Driving to Estes, driving to Fort Collins, driving all over. And chainsaws. I don't know my tally but I at least tripled the number of trees I had felled this year in the past month. Some pretty big ones, about 30" diameter, that's always a nice treat. We completed our clearcut, oh pardon me, our "buffer cut" at a certain picnic area so all that's left is trees under 20' tall (save for a few spruce). I hate doing it but having green trees just fall over is probably a bad thing, so we have to do it in the name of safety. I could go on about THAT too...
Remember, I do not speak on behalf of my employer, I speak on behalf of myself! There's my disclaimer so they can't yell at me. I have a lot of opinions that just don't seem to line up with what we are doing, and a lot of theories on why that is. This is why I am getting a masters. With a masters you can tell other people what to do and actually have the credentials to do it in the government. ;)
School. Yep, grad school. Colorado State University. Just taking 5 credits this semester so I can keep working - a 2 credit required seminar on Fridays, and a 3 credit correspondence course on Public Relations and Communications in natural resource management. Yeah, I'm not known for my PR skills, tact, or butt-kissing so maybe I can learn a thing or two on how to deal with telling my superiors that their plans are stupid. Last I checked, telling people in charge anything that contradicts what they say isn't tactful or a good way to get them to listen. And I checked recently. :P I just keep stepping on toes lately. The worst part is I don't even care anymore! It's almost liberating, but probably overall a bad idea.
Anyway so next semester I'll go full time. I planned on doing the same thing - taking only a few credits next fall, then full time next winter - but who knows. That's a year away and a LOT has changed just in the past month yet alone in the next 12 months.
I had to move out of that horrible cabin by Sept 15th so I now live in a nice big 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath house with a woodstove and a real kitchen and a garage... with my coworker (which I'm not keen on working 40 hrs then living with my coworkers) and some older lady that works for the park. It's fine, we all mostly stay in our rooms, but that lady snores like a chainsaw...which I can hear through the wall...which made me have a dream that a bear was looking in my window and grunting at me, ha ha! That and the bull elk are going NUTS in the rut right now, bugling right outside my room... had a weird dream about that too. But after this weekend they both move out and I have it to myself for my remaining month in Grand Lake (I hope!).
Why I am updating my journal on a Monday? I've been so freaking sick. I think I may have had the flu last week, but I've had 5 migraines in 8 days. And I mean MIGRAINES. Bad. Nasty. I finally went to the doc and I have a sinus infection and an ear infection so just maybe it's making my head hurt. I mean, even my teeth were hurting! And my stomach problem from last year (that I never got a camera stuck down my throat for; guess that's what I get for blowing it off) is back, so my stomach hurts 24/7. Hiatal hernia? Ulcer? Who knows til I get it scoped. Stress tends to make it flare up, and there's been an overabundance of stress lately! (If you aren't sure what I'm stressed about, reread the entire freaking journal!) Hopefully with a hefty round of antibiotics, stomach meds, and migraine medicine I'll be back to work by Wednesday. Boss isn't psyched but there's no way I'm running a chainsaw with a migraine!!
By the time Tim gets back from Alaska (which I obviously am not going up there to meet him as we had planned months ago), I will have literally only seen him once in TWO MONTHS. There's a lot of reasons for that but he gets back this Friday so hopefully we'll get to hang out at some point. Lots to talk about for sure, can't wait to see his photos. We've been able to talk over the phone a bit so he's finally in McCarthy, AK where his property is. He hasn't been up there in 3 or 4 years! I'm sure he's very excited to be there and I wish things would've worked out different and I could've made itup there.
The fall colors are starting to explode out here, last weekend the aspen in Grand Lake just turned in the blink of an eye. My favorite time of year, and it will be gone so soon. That's ok, gotta whip out the telemark skis and hope for a better season - no knee injuries and more progress in getting better!
Now, my priorities are doing this correspondence course, finding a place to live in Estes (can you believe I've moved 3 times in 6 months?! UGH!), finishing the season safely at work (with a good attitude!), trying to update this more often, and getting in better shape for telemark skiing = damn squats and lunges!
A few more exciting things I did, I ran my first race since I was in 2nd grade! We had the Running of the Bulls on Saturday and, despite being sick, I dragged myself out of bed and ran... good enough. ;) I felt horrible and my head was throbbing but I finished in pretty average time for me. If I had felt better could've shaved maybe a couple minutes off my time. My friend Steph got 1st place for our age group (because the "real" 1st place woman won for overall women's, so she couldn't win both) which was cool; I got #6 but it was only out of maybe 17 in our age group so not like I was that great. ;) Still though, I did it! It was fun and I am a little bit inspired to run more, though it did slightly aggrivate my chronically-finnicky achilles.
I also finally bought a rifle! I have a bull elk hunting tag for mid October so it was time to suck it up and dish out the dough. I got a Savage .30-06 which might not mean anything to most of you that read this. Now I have to get some knives and a bone saw and some game bags in case I actually get anything, and my book on how to field dress it aka cut it into pieces small enough so I can move the darned thing. Mmmmm elk! And if that doesn't work, got a buck tag too...
Well, time to pop another migraine pill. FYI Frova doesn't work worth crap. :P Enjoy the photos and hope to update sooner than 6 weeks from now! At any rate, I'll be done working in probably 4 weeks so at LEAST by then!
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| From Watanga Lake; Mooses; Matt and Brandon Visit, August 2008 |
Watanga Lake
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| From Family Visit, August 2008 |
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Things I learned on the night shift on a wildfire in California...
Things I learned after almost 2 weeks of working the night shift on the Ukonom Complex fires in Forks of Salmon, California:
-Scorpions sting and it hurt, but not as bad as I thought it would
-Getting stung on the neck, however, is psychologically disturbing
-I'm immune to poison oak; unfortunately, most other people are not.
-Poison oak can go systemic, meaning you get it in weird and often uncomfortable places
-Did I mention I'm immune to poison oak? ;)
-California has lots of weird bugs.
-People should be required to keep their boots outside of the mobile sleeping trailer
-The river by Orleans and Forks of Salmon is remarkably clear and refreshing
-Being told you can't go river makes people upset
-Being told you can't drink on the way home from the fire makes people upset
-Poor leadership makes people upset
-Even a "dark cloud" has a silver lining. You can see it better when you drink
-I do pretty well working the night shift. It's the vampire thing...
-When I wake up at 5 pm to work the night shift, I do NOT like it when people say "Good morning". It's 5 pm, I don't care that we are just waking up, it is the AFTERNOON
-Eating breakfast for dinner is better than eating dinner for breakfast
-It doesn't matter how old you really are, sneaking out of a hotel to the liquor store when you're told you're not allowed to still makes you feel like you're in high school...and not in a GOOD way
-Nate is a rageaholic. But not really.
-Even if you don't think you can drink a whole bottle of wine by yourself, once you open it, I'm sure you can find a way
-When you start counting down the number of days left on a fire roll by day 2, you know it's going to be a long one
-People that wake up too early and start singing and being annoying before everybody else wakes up at fire camp really pisses people off
-...Especially when you ask how they are doing, and they say, "I'm ALWAYS fine!" Don't ever EVER be that guy
-Yellowjackets will swarm and attack, even at midnight
-I'm glad I wasn't there for THAT...not that scratching your eye and not being able to see out of it for 24 hours is much better
-I wish I could have seen Andy freak out, apparently it was hilarious when he started getting stung
-You CAN get pneumonia during the summer in 110 degree weather
-Running a chainsaw for my job here at Rocky is WAYYY cooler than brushing out poison oak and manzanita on a fireline
-I need a new iPod
-Nate has the best taste of music of anybody besides maybe Tom back in Michigan
-It is possible to tend to a bonfire for 14 hours straight
-It is possiblyto sleep in the most uncomfortable positions ever, on really steep slopes, wearing a hard hat and a fire pack
-Don't try to sleep on top of a steel truck; it will NEVER warm up from lying on it
-Setting up tents of different styles, shapes and sizes in a straight line, no matter how perfect, will never look that good, so don't bother
-Getting injured, stung, or poked in the eye while doing some crappy task is the BEST thing you can do for yourself; I got to shoot the shit with Sheean and nap in a warm reclined truck seat while everybody was cold and miserable; it got Andy a hotel room; it got Ruth to go home!
-On that note, I recommend carrying a live scorpion around for when you're REALLY itchin' to get off the fireline
-I don't want to eat Skittles or drink Gatorade for a LONG time
-There's always a short, hyper, impressionable young man on every fire that will at some point drive you up a wall
-Having a big black dog come out of the night to keep us company on a cold spot fire really does make everybody smile.... I miss big drooling Jake!
-It's freakin' GREAT to be home... even though there were 5 huge spiders in my sink and my window fell out, and yes my windows fall out for no reason
I could go on and on. As I made it perfectly clear to those in charge, it was the worse roll I have ever been on. It has nothing to do with the work we did; brushing out contingency lines during the day in 110 degree weather was pretty grueling but it kept us busy. Poor leadership, miscommunication, and bad decisions all made for an unhappy group. Most of the crewhad never been on fire before, but those of us who had been "in the biz" for a while were pretty disappointed/frustrated/RAGING ANGRY. Yeah that was a joke. One of the nicer guys on the trip was threatened to be sent home for being a "bad influence" on our morale and he has "rage problems". I still can't get over it!
We were out for 21 days; 4 days in the beginning were travel days, as it was an all National Park Service Crew and 8 of us from Rocky had to meet the rest of the crew in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There were folks from other parks in New Mexico and Texas. From there we ended up first at the base camp in Orleans, CA. I ran a saw for a day and decided that cutting real trees down is much more fun than cutting brush up steep slopes on hot days. I'm just getting soft I guess, ha ha! We were soon moved to a spike camp that was actually nicer than the base camp in Forks of Salmon, and went from day shift to swing shift to night shift and all of us, our biological clocks were just jacked. At night we'd hold the line when they were burning out; which then turned into babysitting a COLD dead fire; which then turned into sleeping in a gravel pit all night, waking up for about 2-3 hours in the morning, then trying to go back to sleep in a mobile sleeper trailer (the "catacombs"). Blah. I'm done complaining about it, at least we all made it home safe and ALIVE. Two folks died while we were out there; one was burned over on the Panther fire, north of us; one was on the Olympic National Park fire crew and was killed by a falling tree. After we left, that helicopter went down and 9 more people died. It's been a bad year.
I'd love to go out again this year, just to make up for how unsatisfying this last roll was. Doubt it will happen until September or October, if at all, with the amount of work we have to do here at the park!
We are on hold with cutting trees down at the park while we do a site analysis for every front country area in the park. We should be done early this week; then I think we're just going to clear cut EVERY SITE. We're calling it a "buffer cut". It's the safest way to do things, given the high chance of trees falling over from the wind.
I have to move out of my crappy cabin by Sept 15th, thank goodness. My living situation will improve; however, there is a required class I need to take for grad school at Colorado State in Fort Collin every Friday. Surprise! I wasn't going to take any classes until January when I am off work so I can live in Estes and be around for school, and for pre-season work next spring. So now, once the road closes, every Thursday night I need to drive the long way around just for a 2 credit class on Friday. I want to get a place to live in Estes, but I can't pay double rent! I'll have to get creative...
Hopefully the east side crew leader gets that promotion they should be flying soon and I can put in for his job so I can get back over there and this won't be an issue, but we'll just have to wait and see!
Yesterday I finally went and got a new tattoo... actually, 4 baby sea turtles swimming across my back. One for myself and each of my siblings. Linda and I both wanted to get Galapagos Island-related tattoos since that's our goal to go there some day, which will probably be in like 20 years... 2 hrs 15 minutes and I think that's my max time I can sit under the needle. Very cute though! I'd like to add more water/bubbles/something to tie it together more and give it more "movement" but we'll see when I get the money/pain tolerance to hit it again. ;)
Other news is that I've been going through some very tough stuff lately; if you don't know what it is, then don't worry about it, I've got my mom doing enough of that as it is! ;) But thank you everybody who has been supportive and kept my spirits up. Things aren't back to normal or "good" but I'll get through it...
This is how firefighters have fun in camp when they're supposed to be sleeping... shaving mohawks into people's heads
-Scorpions sting and it hurt, but not as bad as I thought it would
-Getting stung on the neck, however, is psychologically disturbing
-I'm immune to poison oak; unfortunately, most other people are not.
-Poison oak can go systemic, meaning you get it in weird and often uncomfortable places
-Did I mention I'm immune to poison oak? ;)
-California has lots of weird bugs.
-People should be required to keep their boots outside of the mobile sleeping trailer
-The river by Orleans and Forks of Salmon is remarkably clear and refreshing
-Being told you can't go river makes people upset
-Being told you can't drink on the way home from the fire makes people upset
-Poor leadership makes people upset
-Even a "dark cloud" has a silver lining. You can see it better when you drink
-I do pretty well working the night shift. It's the vampire thing...
-When I wake up at 5 pm to work the night shift, I do NOT like it when people say "Good morning". It's 5 pm, I don't care that we are just waking up, it is the AFTERNOON
-Eating breakfast for dinner is better than eating dinner for breakfast
-It doesn't matter how old you really are, sneaking out of a hotel to the liquor store when you're told you're not allowed to still makes you feel like you're in high school...and not in a GOOD way
-Nate is a rageaholic. But not really.
-Even if you don't think you can drink a whole bottle of wine by yourself, once you open it, I'm sure you can find a way
-When you start counting down the number of days left on a fire roll by day 2, you know it's going to be a long one
-People that wake up too early and start singing and being annoying before everybody else wakes up at fire camp really pisses people off
-...Especially when you ask how they are doing, and they say, "I'm ALWAYS fine!" Don't ever EVER be that guy
-Yellowjackets will swarm and attack, even at midnight
-I'm glad I wasn't there for THAT...not that scratching your eye and not being able to see out of it for 24 hours is much better
-I wish I could have seen Andy freak out, apparently it was hilarious when he started getting stung
-You CAN get pneumonia during the summer in 110 degree weather
-Running a chainsaw for my job here at Rocky is WAYYY cooler than brushing out poison oak and manzanita on a fireline
-I need a new iPod
-Nate has the best taste of music of anybody besides maybe Tom back in Michigan
-It is possible to tend to a bonfire for 14 hours straight
-It is possiblyto sleep in the most uncomfortable positions ever, on really steep slopes, wearing a hard hat and a fire pack
-Don't try to sleep on top of a steel truck; it will NEVER warm up from lying on it
-Setting up tents of different styles, shapes and sizes in a straight line, no matter how perfect, will never look that good, so don't bother
-Getting injured, stung, or poked in the eye while doing some crappy task is the BEST thing you can do for yourself; I got to shoot the shit with Sheean and nap in a warm reclined truck seat while everybody was cold and miserable; it got Andy a hotel room; it got Ruth to go home!
-On that note, I recommend carrying a live scorpion around for when you're REALLY itchin' to get off the fireline
-I don't want to eat Skittles or drink Gatorade for a LONG time
-There's always a short, hyper, impressionable young man on every fire that will at some point drive you up a wall
-Having a big black dog come out of the night to keep us company on a cold spot fire really does make everybody smile.... I miss big drooling Jake!
-It's freakin' GREAT to be home... even though there were 5 huge spiders in my sink and my window fell out, and yes my windows fall out for no reason
I could go on and on. As I made it perfectly clear to those in charge, it was the worse roll I have ever been on. It has nothing to do with the work we did; brushing out contingency lines during the day in 110 degree weather was pretty grueling but it kept us busy. Poor leadership, miscommunication, and bad decisions all made for an unhappy group. Most of the crewhad never been on fire before, but those of us who had been "in the biz" for a while were pretty disappointed/frustrated/RAGING ANGRY. Yeah that was a joke. One of the nicer guys on the trip was threatened to be sent home for being a "bad influence" on our morale and he has "rage problems". I still can't get over it!
We were out for 21 days; 4 days in the beginning were travel days, as it was an all National Park Service Crew and 8 of us from Rocky had to meet the rest of the crew in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There were folks from other parks in New Mexico and Texas. From there we ended up first at the base camp in Orleans, CA. I ran a saw for a day and decided that cutting real trees down is much more fun than cutting brush up steep slopes on hot days. I'm just getting soft I guess, ha ha! We were soon moved to a spike camp that was actually nicer than the base camp in Forks of Salmon, and went from day shift to swing shift to night shift and all of us, our biological clocks were just jacked. At night we'd hold the line when they were burning out; which then turned into babysitting a COLD dead fire; which then turned into sleeping in a gravel pit all night, waking up for about 2-3 hours in the morning, then trying to go back to sleep in a mobile sleeper trailer (the "catacombs"). Blah. I'm done complaining about it, at least we all made it home safe and ALIVE. Two folks died while we were out there; one was burned over on the Panther fire, north of us; one was on the Olympic National Park fire crew and was killed by a falling tree. After we left, that helicopter went down and 9 more people died. It's been a bad year.
I'd love to go out again this year, just to make up for how unsatisfying this last roll was. Doubt it will happen until September or October, if at all, with the amount of work we have to do here at the park!
We are on hold with cutting trees down at the park while we do a site analysis for every front country area in the park. We should be done early this week; then I think we're just going to clear cut EVERY SITE. We're calling it a "buffer cut". It's the safest way to do things, given the high chance of trees falling over from the wind.
I have to move out of my crappy cabin by Sept 15th, thank goodness. My living situation will improve; however, there is a required class I need to take for grad school at Colorado State in Fort Collin every Friday. Surprise! I wasn't going to take any classes until January when I am off work so I can live in Estes and be around for school, and for pre-season work next spring. So now, once the road closes, every Thursday night I need to drive the long way around just for a 2 credit class on Friday. I want to get a place to live in Estes, but I can't pay double rent! I'll have to get creative...
Hopefully the east side crew leader gets that promotion they should be flying soon and I can put in for his job so I can get back over there and this won't be an issue, but we'll just have to wait and see!
Yesterday I finally went and got a new tattoo... actually, 4 baby sea turtles swimming across my back. One for myself and each of my siblings. Linda and I both wanted to get Galapagos Island-related tattoos since that's our goal to go there some day, which will probably be in like 20 years... 2 hrs 15 minutes and I think that's my max time I can sit under the needle. Very cute though! I'd like to add more water/bubbles/something to tie it together more and give it more "movement" but we'll see when I get the money/pain tolerance to hit it again. ;)
Other news is that I've been going through some very tough stuff lately; if you don't know what it is, then don't worry about it, I've got my mom doing enough of that as it is! ;) But thank you everybody who has been supportive and kept my spirits up. Things aren't back to normal or "good" but I'll get through it...
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| From Ukonom Comple... |
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| From Ukonom Comple... |
This is how firefighters have fun in camp when they're supposed to be sleeping... shaving mohawks into people's heads
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