Sucks to be Ford...

Too bad my entire family is associated with the Big 3 in some way or another. Thankfully, my stepdad is retiring from Ford soon and won't have to worry about all the uncertainty and volatility of working for them... it's only going to get worse before it gets better, right? Unfortunately, my mom still has to deal with the constant threat of layoffs/forced retirement. She's been spared each round of cuts so far... I can only hope her lucks stays good for another couple years, when she'll have her 30 years in and can finally buy a good quality import off her retirement funds! ;)

Work is good. We can't burn piles when it's not windy enough to disperse the smoke, so I had Monday and today (Thursday) off. Tuesday and Wednesday was more snowshoeing up and down Deer Mountain, burning piles and falling over in the deep, heavy, wet snow (it's been about 40 degrees). One heck of a quad and buns work out, that's for sure! Logan starts Doggie Day Care tomorrow; we'll see if I get to work or not. Next week, we have Tues-Thursday off (no burn bosses around to take us out). What to do with all that time off...?? ;)

I guess Steve and I are no longer friends. After he nixed me from his wedding party because I'm "not a guy", I haven't been speaking to him. It's so insulting and ridiculous!!! Breaks my heart, 11+ yrs as best friends and he gets sexist on me. So, that's a big bummer.

Well, Logan is waiting for me in the truck. I think I'll take him for a little walk, maybe check out the dog park for the first time. I'm sure there's more news but having a puppy in the car keeps my online time short!

An almost dreary day in Estes

From Winter 2006-2007

 

Today is the first dreary day we've had in Estes. It's overcast and grey, we had some fresh snow this morning but it's stopped and just been cold. At least there's no wind. It's much like a Michigan winter day... but even as I'm typing this, the clouds are lifting and I see some blue in the horizon. Gotta love Colorado!

Click on that photo of Logan to see the latest pictures of my handsome four-legged friend. As of Wednesday, he was 12 weeks old and 32 pounds. I'm sure he's put on more weight even in the past few days. He's a great alarm clock too - he never fails to wake me between 6:45 and 7:15 am to go outside and eat breakfast. My friend Kim is letting him out in the middle of the day; I also found a really cheap doggie day care that I can drop him off so he's not crated all day. The lady that runs it also works on socialization - introducing him to lots of strangers, weird noises, situations, etc - so he'll be ready for anything! I'll probably start a puppy kindergarten class soon, but I have a feeling he'll be ahead of the class before it even starts. ;)

I didn't go ice climbing in Ouray. But I am on my way to Chris and Edy's to watch the Patriots hopefully win... so gotta make a beer and chips run! Tomorrow I start another week of trudging through the snow and eating lots of smoke while burning piles on Deer Mountain... At least I'll get in shape FAST!

Hot and cold

I started working with the fire crew on Tuesday. My first day of work, we snowshoed (my first time ever) up Deer Mountain. It wasn't windy enough to burn piles (ironic, because Estes is SOOO windy... if it's not windy enough, the smoke won't disperse and settles in town, which is not good) so we spent all day shoveling 2-3 feet of snow off of slash piles and got off early. It was tiring but felt good to be working again.

Yesterday, it was windy enough to burn. We parked on the south side of Deer Mountain and went up, over and down the north side of Deer Mountain, with our fire packs, shovels and drip torches - probably an extra 50 lbs of stuff, wearing only a cotton t-shirt, a polypropelene (moisture wicking) shirt, and a Nomex fire shirt, Nomex pants and gaiters... in 17 degree weather, wind blowing icy snow on the exposed ridge in our faces...

Yeah, I've been unemployed since October and it shows. I was EXHAUSTED just on the hike up. All uphill, without snowshoes until we got to the top... then we strapped them on because the snow was 3-4 feet inside the forest. I haven't done this much physical work, yet alone in these extreme conditions, in a long time. Once we hiked down to the piles, we had to shovel more snow off of them, then light them (they actually burn pretty easily despite all the snow) and make sure they don't get out of hand and start lighting the standing trees on fire. I mean, these piles were letting off 20-30 foot flame lengths, and it does get into the green trees and start torching them from the bottom up. Plus, all the dead snag trees were a hazard, and the deep snow... Let me put it like this. I was supposed to do 15 piles; I only got to 9. One guy did 20. Now, this was my first day, and most of them were on hot shot crews so they're in great shape... But I just couldn't keep up. And, I was not used eating all that smoke, so I was hacking and my eyes were watering. After we light the piles, we go back and "chunk" them - we jump into the pit left by the pile (usually 10-15 feet diameter, still very hot like a huge bonfire) and take the unburned ends on the outside of the ring and throw them into the middle, to try to completely burn everything. This, we do without snowshoes on. So I was hiking uphill in 3-4 feet of crusty snow with all this gear, jumping down into the 3 foot deep pits that are still burning, eating more smoke...

I didn't know if I could even hike out by the end of the day, I was so tired and sore. Everything from my neck, to my arms, my quads, my butt... soooo exhausted. We strapped our snowshoes back on and hiked up up UP the mountain and back down the other side, coughing the whole way. It was 30-45 minutes hiking out. Put this all together, and you have one worn-out Lisa.

I coughed all evening and my body hurt more and more. There was no way I was going to be able to do this again today, 2 days in a row. It's just TOO MUCH too soon. Between inhaling smoke and the cold air, and my aching muscles, I know I couldn't have made that hike today. I called in and told them that physically I just couldn't do it. Not a big deal. They understand, because they've had since November to get used to it... hard to just jump into something like that. I have Friday off to go ice climbing, and will be going in again on Monday.

I was so tired that I couldn't make the shrimp fettuccine that I was going to attempt last night. Instead, Tim and I finally got my belated New Year's tradition chinese food. :)  We tried to watch a movie, and I couldn't even stay up for it (Gladiator, which is one of my favorites)... I passed out, drooling on poor Tim ha ha. I'm only half kidding about the drooling part. :P

I slept like a log last night and had crazy dreams. One was that the pocket on my jacket ripped open, and Logan pulled all the stuffing out. I didn't know how on earth I was going to fix it! Another part, Tim asked me if I was excited for our big vacation. I was very excited, except I don't know where we were going. The weirdest thing is that I didn't know I was dreaming. I woke up thinking my jacket was broke, and that I was going somewhere with Tim. ;)

Logan is getting more shots today. His other ear finally popped up and he looks like a real german shepherd! Need to get some new photos on here soon. He's over 30 lbs and, though he's super smart, he's a little stubborn and loves to nip and mouth. He loves to "talk" but doesn't bark much. He's pretty much housebroken and not nearly as shy as he was before. I can usually expect to sleep from 10 pm until 6:30 or 7 am without him waking up... but then, he needs to go potty and expects breakfast! While I am working, I keep him on a leash indoors so he can get to his crate and water; I don't want to keep him in that little crate all day, but when I let him loose he hangs out on the couch, eats my slippers, and goes potty in the corner. He doesn't make a mess when I keep him in a small area, and he has a huge crate coming any day now (48" tall; will fit him when he's an adult!). If you go to the Silver Creek Kennels website and scroll down, you'll see something cute and funny that the breeder wrote about Logan. ;)

They still haven't posted the notice for that crew leader hazard tree job that I want; It may go from Resource Management to be directed by the Fire program. I doubt we'll be on the West side of the park as much as before, but I ran into Doug (the maint. supervisor on that side) and he told me he expects me to come back over there and he'll make arrangements so I can bring Logan. ;) 

We'll see if I'm going ice climbing in Ouray. It's like an 8 hour drive, and gotta figure out how much the hotel/renting equipment costs... and, I'll have psycho puppy to attend to while we are out there (yes, he'd be going with me).

That's the latest and greatest. I'm just gonna chill out while my aching body and congested lungs repair themselves today, while the wind blows the old, icy snow into huge drifts and the clear blue sky is deceptively inviting. By the way, snowshoeing is so much fun!! I highly recommend it if you've never tried it; they are light weight and easy to walk in, and keep you floating on even the deepest snow! It makes walking in winter more fun. ;)

Logan at 11 weeks old

Tim drinking Glenlivet scotch and watching the Eagles lose at the Rock Inn... with our "turkey feather" Eagle mascot and Randall the bear

Bruce and the Eagle, after shotgunning two Old Style beers

A comic from the local paper about all this damned wind!

Working! Not going to MI!

That's right, I've got a job! The fire crew picked me up for a month or so as an "AD hire" (kindof the fast track to temporary employment for a while with the gov) so I'll be burning slash piles in 3 feet of snow and blowing wind, maybe get to stay on the west side for a few days also. So that means I won't be coming back to MI. Kindof bummed but then again it will be fun working with the fire folks and making money is always a plus. ;)

Looks like next Thursday I'm going to Ouray, CO to do some ice climbing with Kevin (Tim's friend), his girlfriend Kim, Logan, and a few other people. I've never ice climbed, should be fun!! I love it down there in Ouray, Tim and I went there when we hiked those 14ers.

Guess I'm watching football at the Rock tonight... Go Eagles!

An Inconvenient Truth - WATCH IT!

Yes, that's right. Al Gore's documentary about global warming - An Inconvenient Truth - watch it now. Make your friends and family watch it. I don't care what you think about Gore as the should've-been president or anything like that. It's an eye opening look at the science and facts, and the images of the melting polar ice caps and glaciers (Glacier National Park; Switzerland; Greenland)... I mean, you can SEE it. I remember learning about this stuff when I was in elementary school; even then, I worried than in my lifetime that I would see this happen. In fact, I had totally forgotten that I had my own little "environmental club" in 3rd grade or something, I sent away for a kit in the newspaper. Now, it was only my sisters and maybe a couple friends in this "club" and we never did much but plant some little weenie twigs from the Arbor Day Foundation that all died... But it was fun. ;)

I'm hanging out at the Barking Dog Cafe in Lyons waiting for my awesome new Goodrich T/A KO tires to be put on my truck. I got them for a great price (but they're still expensive)... But maybe, just maybe I can make it up the driveway. At least I'm set to drive back to MI.

It snowed again today. Not as much as they thought - originally over a foot, but only got 3 inches maybe - but still, this snow is abnormal here. Actually, here's a good article about how even the Yoopers (residents of Michigan's upper peninsula) are noticing that there just may be something to this global warming thing.

Besides that, just hangin' with my pupper dog, drinkin' at the Rock, and hittin' the gym every day. Fun fun fun! Gosh, I can't wait til April and I can run a chainsaw again!