I have come to the conclusion that life is just a bunch of graduations ...

Both literal and metaphorical.

I'm sitting in the lobby of Walsh Hall right now, leaning against Nicole's and my stuff. I've already been up for three hours; the TLs paraded through our halls to wake us at 4 am. The lobby was a mess as of people and luggage. There was a mass exodus around 6:30 am, when the majority of vans left for the airport.

It's just a few stragglers now (and by a few, I mean about fifteen). Most are waiting for the train shuttles to start. Nikki and I are waiting for Enterprise to open its office so we can get a move on as well. We weren't going to get the car until noon, but it is 7 am, the latest we can stay is 11 am, and we really can't take waiting any longer, especially now that everyone else is gone. The weather has been beautiful the past several days, but now there's a freezing cold rain that has settled over the region. Kinda makes it easy to leave ... except I'm not leaving right away.

Nikki and I will have some fun in Ned for a few more days, visiting with a bunch of other wildfire people who will also be hanging around the area for a bit. And then I'll be home again.

So that's that. Done and done. The reflections on all of this still have not been very forthcoming in my mind. I think I need a week to decompress and then I can do so. It seems only fair to conclude this blog with a sense of closure. ...But not now. I'll keep you posted.

By this time tomorrow, I'll be an NCCC graduate

So graduation is tomorrow. After graduation, I'll be home in a week.

I could chose this time to wax poetic about the time I've spent in this program and how the last ten months have changed me. But who couldn't do that after experiencing something like this? Besides, my mind right now is too filled with little last minute To-Do lists regarding packing. Almost all of my possessions are in boxes or suitcases, with only a few toiletries and my graduation uniform fully exposed in the open air. Also elbowing their way into my cluttered mind are To-Do lists that will take effect once I drop my suitcases on the floor of my bedroom back home.

I'm also trying to clear my mind of the recurring job-search anxiety. I just posted my resume on Monster. I'm sure I'll do another job search soon. But for now, that's where I am.

I want to go!!!

I'm aware that lives are in danger and that fighting fires isn't a game or a sport and that people are losing everything as a result of these fires ...


I want to go to Santa Barbara!!!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aRu20NS81r7s&refer=us


*sigh*

Back in Denver ... oh my ...

Good grief, I'm not even doing that much and I still let a week go by between posts ...

Okay, anyway ...

On Monday of last week, we didn't work and instead spent a good chunk of the day cleaning the bunkhouse and packing up. We also hung the swing, finally! It took us long enough. On Tuesday, we returned to Denver and settled in. On Wednesday, the majority of us turned in our line gear so it could be issued to the new wildfire teams; Joanna, Scott, John and Chris kept their stuff because they were going to the field day for the new teams. A bunch of us crossed paths with some of the Class VX wildfire people over those few days. They're really cool kids, very nice and eager to learn. I was talking to one and answering the questions he had about the fires I had been on.

Unfortunately, the new class might be in for a bit of a rude awakening. I heard that on their field day, they only had two water bottles and their fire shelters in their packs, and they dug a straight line that was on flat ground. Our field day pretty much felt like the real thing. We dug up, across and down a slope and then re-dug part of the line because they wanted the prescribed burn area to be larger. Our fire shelter deployment drill was a bit more intense too, from the sounds of it. But they'll get the hang of it when they start their season.

So there's a 2500 acre fire in Santa Barbara. I'm chomping at the bit, but there's nothing I can really do -- I have no gear.

I went for a run last Thursday and ended up with a sore throat from the cold air. That turned into a headache, mild nausea, chills, hot sweats, and body aches. So I spent the whole weekend feeling like I had the flu, and without much of an appetite. On Monday, things got a bit better except that I noticed my gums felt a little sensitive and it hurt to eat a little. I ate yogurt for breakfast, and had soup for lunch and dinner. Sheesh. On Tuesday, they were noticeably swollen. On Wednesday, I managed to eat something that required chewing. They seem to be feeling better each day, still a little sensitive. I am just falling apart, honestly.

This week has been pretty low key regarding our schedule. We cleaned a truck last week and the other two were cleaned by some Class XV kids who needed some "extra instruction," so we didn't have to take care of the vehicle this week. We had a community meeting on Monday, and the rest of the day to work on our debrief. Jamie McCleary actually called me on Monday, she's in charge of organizing our travel (among other things) to and from the campus for the program. Apparently the travel agency they use couldn't book a train for the government rate so I'll be flying home instead. We had off on Tuesday for Veterans Day. On Wednesday we had another meeting to discuss our education award. We presented our debrief yesterday morning and turned our portfolio in, which was the biggest thing we had to do. Last evening, Blake and I worked on our team's quilt square for the "Memory Mural." The team decided they'd like to make it a version of our "Message Boar," a message board that Blake started with Earth 4 to post interesting facts, and other funny jokes that the team shared. The rest of us adopted it when our teams were combined. So we put the squares for E 4 and 5 next to each other and made a replica of the "Message Boar," but with new facts and categories. I'll try to get a picture of it, along with a picture of the original board from the bunkhouse.

So here it is. My last weekend in AmeriCorps. It was snowing earlier in the morning, it seems to have settled at the moment. A lot of people are really ready to be done and head home or move on to what's next for them. I think it's just being back in Denver. I know if we were up in Ned, even if we were chipping, we still wouldn't necessarily want to be done yet. But here we are.

I feel like I'm aging out all over again

Well, this past week was rather uneventful. The Phillies won the World Series. Yay! Go Phils! Finally! And ... of course, I'm two thousand miles from home. But, oh well, they won. Good for them.

We had Monday off because of the fire over the weekend. Hawk left for Chicago on Tuesday. We also had our evaluations with Chad, Owens and Emily. Everyone had a good eval, it all went rather smoothly. Chad and Owens tried to mess with a few of us a little. On Wednesday Chad led a little tutorial on how to apply for a job with the Forest Service (or a similar agency with regards to wildland firefighting, such as the Bureau of Land Management). It's a bit more complicated than just sending in a resume. Fire resumes are supposed to be long, detailing all of the experiences you've had on crews and with a department. You also have to have a profile on a website that the Forest Service uses to look at potential employees.

Beyond that, we just went back to Kelly Dahl to chip the rest of the slash from the trees we had dropped last week. It's all come full circle, it seems. On Friday, we turned in a few things from our gear that the work center had issued us (face shrouds from our helmets, fusees, first aid kits), as well as our tools, boxes of MREs and cubies (five-gallon water jugs in boxes). It was quite sad and a bit surreal. I felt like I was aging out from drum corps all over again -- I'd had my last show, we were breaking down the equipment and putting everything away. They let us out early, so we said our farewells to Chad, Owens and Egan and went down to the house.

I went for a run, stained and sealed the bench and then got into my Halloween costume to parade around in Ned for the festivities. It was lots of fun, there were a lot of character costumes this year. I was a gypsy, which came together a lot better than I had anticipated. Nikki was Sarah Palin, Blake was Freddie Mercury, Scott was Iron Man, Ervin was Chris Meloni's character from Wet, Hot, American Summer.

So that's all then. Tomorrow, we'll clean the house top to bottom and get packed up. We head back to campus in Denver on Tuesday. We were originally supposed to work for another week, but we have to head back early to turn our gear in so it can be signed out immediately to the new wildfire teams, now that the cycles have overlapped for our campus. So that will leave me with not a whole lot to do on Thursday and Friday, probably. I'll probably drum up something to keep me occupied. I'm getting my hair cut on Saturday morning and it's kinda crazy exactly how much I'm looking forward to it.

But that's that. I think I'll save my reflections on the end for another post, this one has gone on quite enough.

Catching up a little ...

My apologies for not posting sooner. I've been pretty busy after work for the past week or so. I'll explain ...

First of all, the marathon was a great success. John, Chris, Harrison, Keenan (wildfire team leader) and Chad all ran the full marathon, with John finishing at an impressive 3:36. This is his sixth marathon. Joanna, Jared (E4), Hawk (a FS guy) all ghost-ran the half marathon. I capped for Nikki, so that she could get some ISP hours by volunteering (capping is when you try to inform and recruit new members for AmeriCorps by setting up tables and booths at public events, schools, etc). Capping was actually pretty successful, we met a lot of people and got the word out. Blake and I left early to go grocery shopping, as it was a Sunday.

Last week wasn't anything special in particular. We went back to one of the camp grounds, Kelly Dahl, where we had cut at the beginning of the season. We had a few more trees (160 or so, allegedly) to cut and chip. The bole wood (the trunk itself) was going to be collected for industrial purposes. So, in addition to limbing the tree and chipping the slash, we had to drag all of the boles to the road and try to line them up.

It also snowed last week. It made cutting particularly chilly. I had two pairs of long underwear on the one day.

The real reason I wasn't able to get online much last week was because we were working on our gift to the Forest Service. It is a yearly tradition that the wildfire team gives a gift to their Forest Service work center. There is a basketball net, as well as some adirondack chairs and a birdhouse from previous classes. For the longest time, we could not come up with an idea. Then someone suggested a soap box derby car. It seemed amusing and fun, but it never materialized.

Finally, the weekend before last we said, "Okay. Are we going through with this? If not, we need to find something." It wasn't a firm goal, but we really wanted to have the gift done prior to the seasonals getting laid off (they all turned in their gear this past Friday). The soap box derby car, we finally admitted, wasn't going to work - it was fun, but it didn't really relate to our work, nor did it serve any real purpose. Suddenly, someone suggested a porch swing. That weekend, Blake and I went online to find plans on how to construct a swing, as well as a frame for it (we didn't think hanging the swing from the bunkhouse awning would be a good idea since it's not our place). We got all the plans and a list of materials. On Monday, Ervin went down to Boulder to take care of a few things while we were all at work. While he was in Boulder, he got everything we needed at Home Depot.

We started working on it Tuesday night. That evening, we snuck into the work center and cut all of the pieces for the porch swing itself. On Wednesday, we couldn't do anything because the work center was being used after work. Thursday, we constructed the porch swing and cut some of the pieces for the frame. On Friday, I actually went down to Boulder to see a show, but the people who stayed in for the night assembled the frame.

We were going to hang the swing on Saturday, but then ... around 3:00, we heard that there was a fire started by a car along the side of the road near Lyons (outside of Boulder). The seasonals had just turned in their gear the day before, so we were pretty much the only resources left on our forest, aside from Chad, Egan and Owens. Chad told us to be ready, just in case it panned out. Well, it did. Paul, Chris and I moved our stuff to one of the squad trucks, while everyone else made phone calls to get everyone who was in Boulder back up to the bunkhouse. We managed to get everyone rounded up and head out in less than two hours. Once we got to the fire, we dug some line around it with the other firefighters who were there. After that, we laid out some hose and mopped up until after dark. We wrapped up and headed back to Boulder. On the way back, Chad got us dinner at a really cool New Orleans-style restaurant in Lyons called Oscar Blues.

They requested us for the next day, so we all got up early and headed out. There wasn't any food in the house, because Sunday is normally my shopping day. Luckily, we managed to get someone to go for us (I made a list while I was eating breakfast on the off-chance that we could swing such a favor). But in the mean time, there wasn't really anything to bring for lunch, so we all ate MREs (Meal Ready to Eat, or Meal Rarely Enjoyed, if you prefer). It's a little funny because this fire was a few firsts for me: it was my first local fire (a little crazy, considering it's the end of a quiet fire season and I managed to get to do two national dispatches). It was also the first time I had ever eaten an MRE. Somehow, I got through two dispatches without eating them. So everyone told me I had to eat one, which was fine because I couldn't pack a lunch anyway. So I did. It wasn't bad at all; I had spaghetti with meat sauce, as well as some crackers and cheese spread.

We spent the second day gridding for a spot fire that had popped up across the road -- we found it, it was dead out. After lunch, we then mopped up until they let us go. Chad gave us off on Monday. We presented the swing to everyone after we got back from the fire. We're going to hang it tonight, hopefully.

Rumor has it that this is our last week of work. We're supposed to head back to Denver next Tuesday so we can turn in our fire gear for the next class of wildfire teams. We actually may get to meet some of them on Friday because Chad asked for help with their field day after their wildfire classes. It's so strange that it's almost over. We've been doing this for so long that it had the feeling as though we would just continue. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself. I'll certainly miss the chainsaw. Cutting such a fun thing to do. Gosh. It's really almost over.

Tomorrow night, I hope to watch the rescheduled Phillies/Rays game and ... well, I won't jinx them. I just hope that the outcome is good, my city deserves it.

Your garden hose has it easy ...

Things have been back to business as usual. After our trip to Storm King on Thursday, we cut a little on Friday and did some saw rehab. Nothing too exciting over the weekend. I was actually looking forward to grocery shopping. So little had been spent during the time I was gone because almost the rest of the entire team was on a prescribed burn for about a week. I wasn't concerned with the budget as I went to Sam's and Wal-Mart. But, try as we did ... we were still under budget. Oh well, there's plenty of good food and that's really all that matters.

We had Monday off because of Columbus Day, which was a nice treat. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we had a pumps class. We learned about everything concerning pumping water on fires, things like portable pumps and engines, how to hook them up, different hoses and fittings, how to effectively apply water and foam to fires, and so forth. There was also a little math class involved, as we learned how to calculate necessary pumping pressure based on how long the hose lay was, the fittings involved, etc.

Last night, I made some chili and the team had dinner in front of the tv as a whole so we could watch the Presidential debate. After that, I flipped on the rest of the Phillies/Dodgers game and I got to see my team win the pennant. The Phillies are going to the World Series for the first time since I was eight. Granted, that's nothing compared to the Red Sox, but don't get me started on which city has experienced more misery as sports fans.

Anyway, today was our field day for the pumps class. We went around three different stations in small groups. We learned how a Forest Service engine works with regards to delivering water to a fire. We also hooked up pumps in a variety of ways.

We have a lot of people from the wildfire teams converging on Denver this Sunday for the Denver marathon. Our whole team is going to either run, volunteer or cap. It should be a fun, but long day. Of course, the first thing I wondered was how late I'll get around to grocery shopping. I'll have to deprogram myself after I get out of NCCC, haha!

Photos update

Memo: I posted links to albums from my Oregon dispatch and from the Storm King Mountain hike. Enjoy!

The Storm King Mountain hike

Today the Forest Service took us to Storm King Mountain in Grand Junction, CO. There’s a memorial trail that leads to the site where 14 firefighters died in fighting a fire in 1994, the greatest number of fatalities on a single incident. It was a two-mile hike up to the crosses that marked where each firefighter died. We stopped at a few look-out points along the way and read the corresponding signs regarding wildland fire fighting and the mountain. There were two helitack firefighters who perished, along with nine Prineville hot shots and three smokejumpers.

We hiked with our packs on, partly to better understand what the firefighters were up against that day. Once we reached the memorial, there were old snags covered with t-shirts from other hot shot crews who had visited the site. There was also an AmeriCorps baseball cap. Each cross had lots of trinkets and firefighter items. People left everything from flowers to a cutting wedge and a scrench.

The most incredible thing was to realize how the firefighters had made it as far as they did, running up a line they had cut earlier in the day with their packs on. It was not easy country to hike and we were going at a casual pace. Even more astonishing was how the two helitack guys made it even farther, about a quarter-mile away from where everyone else perished.

After everyone took the time to appreciate the site, we hiked back down to the rigs, where we loaded up and went to a park nearby that had a memorial to the hot shots from Prineville. A similar memorial is also established in Prineville, OR, where the hot shot crew was from.

I wish I could say more about visiting the memorial, but it’s something that needs to be experienced. While hiking around the crosses, I could only try to imagine what was going through their minds. One of the hot shots, Bonnie Foltby, was 21, the age of two of our teammates. And until this visit, I had never realized the gravity of the work we’re doing. It was clear, from all of the things left by others, that the memorial on Storm King is truly sacred ground for wildland firefighters.

We had seen a documentary on the Storm King fire that explored how the firefighters perished, but it was interesting to actually be in the place and tie it all together. We all kept running through the speculated scenarios with each other, how they ran up the line, how they tried to escape, how the fire burned, how they fell, some so closed to each other and others farther apart. One hot shot, Scott Blecha, was so close to the top of the ridge that it’s heartbreaking to see. One of the smokejumpers was from the Missoula base that my crew visited on the way back from Oregon. It was strange to make that connection, since I had only been there a few days before.

As we hiked down, I turned around to look back up at the site. In the documentary, it zooms out to show all of the crosses on the hillside. But, with fourteen years gone by, a lot has re-grown and you can’t see the crosses anymore. What you can see, though, is a charred snag at the top of the ridge, overlooking the memorial. From a distance, the snag itself looks like a cross.

If you want to read more about the event, this website does a pretty good job on explaining everything, along with some pictures of the area. You can also read Fire on the Mountain by John Maclean.

Oregon Dispatch, Part IV

9/29/08 7:43 AM
We’re mopping up in the same spot today. Surprise.

Fire info: 1000 acres, 30% contained.

JT thinks that they just want to try and hold the lines until Friday or Saturday, when it’s supposed to rain. Containment has increased and size hasn’t changed, so things seem to be going well. The SIT report said the expected 100% containment could be achieved by Oct. 3, which is Friday, and our last day of work. Things might be somewhat chill here if it all goes as planned.

-9:38 PM
Mopped up again. There was a big sketchy, scary tree that was burning from the inside and it was on a tripod of bark at the base. I worked the hose for a bit while mopping.

Alpha, the AmeriCorps rig, got a flat after work.

I’m gonna miss JT, and my squad. The crew, once again, is awesome. There’s a lot of humor and fun, no matter what we’re doing.

I’m sleeping under the stars again. I may do it for the rest of the role, it’s easy enough.

It’s quite nice.

9/30/08 8:27 AM
Fire info: 1000 acres, 40% contained

We worked the most active part of the fire yesterday, which was essentially the mop up of a burn out around the edges of a meadow with sketchy trees in the black.

We’re getting plenty of action, which is better than staging for IA.

I’ve had some conflicting feelings lately. At one moment today, I may have realized that this job is not the career for me, long term. But with all the great people I meet, I feel like I’d be missing out on sharing some awesome experiences with them and I’d feel like I’d be disappointing people for bailing after one season. I dunno.

-6:50 PM
We went back to the same spot, mopped up a little, had another relaxing lunch where we took our time. After lunch, I worked the hose one some flare ups. We went to a gas station after work to fuel up, air up our tires a bit and just waste a little time.

10/1/08 7:32 AM
Fire: 808 acres, 60% contained

That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a fire shrink. It’s clearly under control.

We’ve got the same assignment today, we’re hoping to drag it out through Thursday. It’s supposed to rain Friday night, JT said he hopes we’ll get demobed Friday so we don’t have to sleep through it. I don’t really care, just as long as I could get two days R&R after the role.

The leaves are changing colors, it’s nice to see a bit of that, especially being from the east.

-6:39 PM
We had another relaxing lunch. Another sketchy tree fell nearby beforehand. While we were mopping up, we heard it crack a few times and we could see it swaying a bunch. Shane drew our attention to it because it he called out that it was going to fall. It didn't, though. Instead, it tipped with the wind for a good while. JT (crew boss) and the saw boss were going to investigate it and maybe take it down if it was possible. I kept an eye on it while Kira and I were working on some spots. Shane was also watching it from his vantage point. Then, I could hear a strong breeze about to come through the area so we all stopped and waited. Sure enough, the tree tilted to at least 45 degrees, went a little more and then we heard it snap and it came down. It was a relief to finally have down.

We had a hose butterflying competition after lunch. Butterflying hose is when you grab one end and then weave the hose around your arms in a figure-eight pattern. Each squad put someone up to represent and they all played Bear-Hunter-Woman to decide the competing order (kind of like Rock-Paper-Scissors, Woman beats Hunter, Hunter beats Bear, Bear beats Woman).

After some nagging from Diana, I spun a broken pounder handle for the crew to show them a little what colorguard was like. The pounder handle spun like a sabre, it worked surprisingly well.

We gathered by the trucks after all the hose was gathered. The squad boss in training from my squad had everyone do push ups with packs on as a way to mockingly build crew morale (he was in the Navy). Jared from AmeriCorps went against someone from North Zone to see who could chug two quarts of their water faster. Jared won.

-8:37 PM

So we’re on the demob list for tomorrow. I’m a little conflicted about that. I’m fine with going home, but … I want to stay all fourteen. It’s only two more days, I’m having lots of fun with this crew. Going back means going back to the responsibilities of my team. I’m not keen on that, not yet. It’s like leaving a drum corps tour and going back to real life. Also, this is minor but, I want my two days off and I’m not sure that it’ll happen if we don’t work the full fourteen.

I’m looking forward to hotel fun, though. Kira, Jane and I have mused over having a little spa time the first night of travel. Shower, shave the legs, scrub the dirt out of ever pore.

I dunno. Maybe JT can work his magic at briefing. Then again, the fire is shrinking and we’re losing our purpose. I guess we’ll see.

10/2/08 9:28 AM
We’re about to leave camp, we got demobed this morning. I’ve showered and Kira and I made our dispatch t-shirts. We’re keeping the same configuration for the drive home, so George will be riding with us. JT said we’d be taking a "more northern route," so we’re wondering if that means that we’re going somewhere in particular.

10/3/08 8:54 AM
Montana! I was obsessed with Montana for a while, thanks to a little state report I did in fourth grade. I don’t remember any of it, but I know that for a long time, I just wanted to move to Montana because I love the mountains.

We headed north through Oregon and stopped at some falls, the second highest waterfall in the nation (I forget the name). You could see Washington state from across the highway and that’s actually where we ended up going. We stayed in Spokane last night, of all places.

-6:01 PM
We stopped at the smokejumper base in Missoula. It was so cool! It really makes me want to be one, even though the physical requirements are pretty beyond my reach without extensive, obsessive training. I guess I’d like to be a smokejumper in the same way that everyone wants to be a famous rock star or something. Missoula itself is a sweet little hub of a town, too.

10/4/08 9:59 AM
We drove so much yesterday. We went all the way until 11:00 PM so we could make it to Sheridan, WY. As we drove through Casper, WY, Jared and I were looking out the window when we drove by the Troopers’ bingo hall (the Troopers are a drum corps, Jared and I both marched corps). We looked at each other and we were like "Uh … was that THE Troop??" It definitely was, they’re from Casper and their sign had the crossed sabres with the number 11. That was a nice little surprise.

Oregon Dispatch, Part III

9/27/08 7:42 AM
After the spots yesterday, JT suspects that the fire won’t be downsized and transitioned to a Type 3 tomorrow, it may take a bit longer. We’ll see.

-9:13 PM
We went up to the same point as yesterday. We didn’t have to haul the rest of the hose, thank goodness. Our performance yesterday may have earned us some brownie points with Butch, our task force leader for our division. Instead, we dug some line around the spots from last night and mopped up a little in the black. Slow day, good day.

Camp is moving tomorrow, we’re packing up after breakfast. For the rest of the role, we’ll either be driving to breakfast and dinner or MREs for breakfast and drive to dinner. Hopefully it’ll be real food all the way.

We got done work early, so I got to shower. Yay! I now know that I can go at least a week.

9/28/09 7:27 AM
So we broke down camp this morning and circled up to find out that we’re actually getting demobed today, but we’re going to another fire that’s about 3 hours away.

Fire info:
Rattle Fire – 18,078 acres, 60% contained
Kitson Fire – 1000 acres, 25% contained

-8:55 PM
We got to the new fire camp, checked in and waited around for a bit. We found out that we were working that day, so we headed over to our division and mopped up for a bit. Tomorrow may be staging for IA (initial attack) stuff, who knows.
This fire seems better organized but there are more creepy-looking contractors, it seems.

We’re sleeping under the starts tonight because camp would take took long to break down, should we get called to some IA stuff. Never done it before, hopefully I won’t get a ton of bug bites out of the experience.

I have a cell signal! Woo!

-9:14 PM
Almost forgot … while mopping up today, Kira and I came up with a t-shirt idea for this role. On the front, it’ll say "Northern Colorado Mop Shots" (instead of Hot Shots) and on the back it’ll say, "I’ll grid your hot spot." Heh.

Also, there’s oak here. Ack! I haven’t seen any yet, but I feel itchy thinking about it. JT says the patches that have appeared on my hips are pack rash, but I dunno. Then again, it could be psychosomatic.

Oregon Dispatch, Part II

9/23/08 7:28 AM
Everyone is coughing or sneezing, kind of like the last dispatch with the oak but this time it’s a cold.

Rumor is that camp is going to relocate tomorrow. I don’t know how that will work.

Fire info: forgot to look today, but from what I heard, the size hasn’t changed much. I really think we’ll just be mopping up this whole time.

Sent my postcards this morning. One to the team, one to the family.

I got seven hours of sleep last night, but I was sweating my butt off even though it was supposed to be the coldest night so far. When we woke up, it was 18 degrees. It’s gone up to 32.

No blisters so far, knock on wood. I still haven’t showered. I’m not going to until we have another day where we got off a little early. I’m doing cleansing wipes showers for now.

More coughing, less runny nose. This usually means I’m getting better. I just hope this cough dies down. It’s just as annoying as the congestion.

-9:52 PM
I’m gonna get plenty of sleep again tonight!

We finished the rest of the line this morning, then gridded and mopped informally for the rest of the day. The task force leader said it would be cool if we took an "afternoon break," so we did.
More and more crews are demobing, but no more are coming in. I think everyone is aware that we could potentially stay the full 14, but we need to take it easy – we don’t want to run out of work by going too hard core every day.

Fire info: 17,145 acres, 48% contained

I coughed a lot today, blew my nose a little. The Sudafed has worn off and I still feel okay. The coughing is a tad annoying, but oh well. At least I’m getting better.

Shane stayed back in the rigs today because he sprained his ankle yesterday.

I was gonna shower tonight since we had extra time but I got a little confused and thought it was later than it actually was so I just washed my hair and face in a sink and called it done. Maybe tomorrow …

It’s not so cold today/tonight.

We switched task force leaders today and got a great review from the ones that we had.

9/24/08 7:11 AM
Guess fire camp isn’t moving, no one has said anything about it.

Not coughing as much. Yay! Getting better! I’m still taking some Sudafed today, though.

-9:34 PM
Today was rough, I didn’t end well. We hunted for hot spots first with a GPS. It sorta worked, we hiked all over the place to look for heat. After lunch, we pulled hose from the lines, we’ve begun to "rehab" the area. We were on the edge of the wilderness where my squad dropped our portion of the hose.

What bugs me most was how weak I felt trying to haul the hose. It was the fact that JT gave us a little "chill out" pep talk, saying that we don’t want to work ourselves out of a job. And yet everyone has us motoring through to get all of the hose pulled. Uh? So what are we going to do tomorrow? All I know is that if we get sent home early, I don’t want to hear any complaining.
So the end of the day was a little rough for me, physically. My legs had had enough, my hip hurt and my pack has been sitting/hanging unevenly for the past two or three days so that it tugs on my right shoulder but not my left.

On a more positive note, Jane is so obviously totally in her element. I’m really happy for her. She looks like she’s supposed to be here.

I didn’t shower tonight, loading up at the end of work took way longer than I thought. Oh well again. I still don’t feel dirty.

I felt okay today, even after the breakfast Sudafed wore off.

I heard a guy talking on the way to our little camp area, he said they’re downsizing the camp to five crews, plus a few engines and sending everyone else home. Hopefully, we’re one of the five staying.

Not much change in the fire info, didn’t seem worth reporting.

We saw a few flames on the hill near where we park. Spotting? Who knows?

Oregon Dispatch, Part I

I’m back! My plan is to do what I did last time, to make a whole bunch of posts that recount my time on dispatch. Sit back and enjoy!

9/18/08 8:35 AM
So here we are again. After work yesterday, we got home early. So Nikki, Jo and I were having a snack when the phone rang. Jo answered and it was Chad. He said that they were on a conference call and Travis and I should make sure we’re ready to go as early as that night (though he doubted it, he said the next morning was far more likely).

I woke up at 4:30 am, showered and got ready. While I was eating breakfast, Travis told me that he was gonna try and get out of the role for family reasons. Won’t go into it, not my place. So Mary, a FS person, and I ended up driving an AmeriCorps truck (Alpha) to the Boulder office to meet up with Squad 1-2 and drive to the work center in Fort Collins. Jane, from the North Zone AmeriCorps team, is going in his place. Jared (originally from Earth 4) and Kira are also along for the role. We’ll be riding in Alpha on the way to Oregon. JT is crew boss again, yay! There’s also another guy on the crew from North Zone who went on my California dispatch as well. We have Egan, George and Diana from South Zone, our work center.

I’m going to try my damndest to improve on last time. I complained a lot. I don’t want that, I left last role feeling like I disappointed people by whining about my oak. Not this time. I’m going to try and stay as positive as possible.

And now … for the fire info:
Rattle Fire, Umpqua National Forest, Oregon
Tuesday, Sept 16: 11,200 acres, 25% contained
Spot fires up to 2 miles
Boulder Creek Wilderness, mostly
COLD at night, 20s (70s during the day)

-11:01 AM
We just stopped in Rollins, WY and we stopped at the same rest stop as we did on the way home last time!

-12:09 PM
We’re stopping in Rock Springs, WY for lunch. I’ve been reading A People’s History of the United States lately and I just came across a passage … "In Rock Springs, WY, in the summer of 1885, whites attacked five hundred Chinese miners, massacring twenty-eight of them in cold blood." (p.266) Now, all we’re doing is stopping for lunch in Rock Springs, so we’re not touring the town or anything. But my guess is that there’s probably no acknowledgement of this incident anywhere in the town. I guess it just made me wonder how many other events of that nature have been passed over in our nation’s history. I mean, the point of Zinn’s book is to bring such things out into the open. But, still … there’s probably a lot of history that residents don’t know about their own communities, myself included.

-9:41 PM
So Kira’s parents found the SIT report online – they were kind of amazed that they found it, haha – and the fire as of today is 14,000 acres, 30% contained (mostly dozer line), 1000+ people working it.

9/19/08 6:41 PM
Fire camp!! So, for the last 30 minutes of the drive, we listened to any song on any iPod that had the word "fire" in it. Lame, I know, but still fun. I’m not on the saw squad, I’m on one of the regular, hand crew type squads. Diana is my squad boss. Kira’s on my team. No info on the fire yet. I don’t have a cell signal at camp, what’s that all about? For once, Verizon works but AT&T doesn’t. Usually I’m the one with the signal and no one else. Oh well.
We had dinner, the tent is set up. We’ve got an assignment tomorrow, 5:30 am wake up.

9/20/08 7:18 AM
Gear is all set. I woke up feeling like I have camp crud. What the heck? It’s a scratchy throat and a runny nose. I must have caught something before we left Ned. It better clear up!

Fire info: 14,227 acres, 28% contained

So we may just be mopping up and digging contingency lines (augh!) or we’ll be doing direct attack with a bunch of other crews. Apparently there are 8 hand crews like us so the work could be nice and spread out. I’m still dreading the hike, though, from the looks of the terrain around us.

-10:07 PM
We ended up mopping up along a line, after spending half the day in the rigs, driving around trying to find our task force leader. We’re working in an old growth forest area, we’re surrounded by colossal trees. I got to work the hose a bit toward the end of the mop up, had to dart up the hill (it’s steep) after a few little flames. The hike wasn’t so bad, but then it’s Day 1 and we didn’t work for half the day, so …

I’ve yet to shower, we’ll see how long that lasts.

9/21/08 7:12 AM
Fire: 16,225 acres, 28% contained

I am super congested this morning, but then George gave me some Sudafed that he got from the med tent (apparently we’re both sick). It worked wonders! I feel pretty good, still congested a little but not worn down. It also probably has something to do with the fact that I got seven hours of sleep last night. Amazing! I’m not showering for the rest of the dispatch! I actually don’t feel too dirty. But then, it’s just the beginning of Day 2.

-6:33 PM
We mopped up all day, had to remop a few areas (a little bitter about that but there’s a lot of stuff on the ground). The echoing thud of massive trees falling surrounded us for the day, a few snags sounded a little close. Some of the very distant ones sounded like waves crashing when they fell.

There was lots of disorganized gridding. We wold start out in a nice line and then just kind of scatter because some hot spots that we found would take longer than others to snuff out. We also had to stand around a bit to wait for the sawyers to take care of some of the snags and smaller trees.

It sprinkled on and off throughout the day. We left early because it started to rain steady and get cold and the task force leader didn’t want anyone getting too wet and chilled.
I am filthy. I feel okay, but I really hope I start to get better. Today was a pain, constantly having to blow my nose. George stayed back today to see if it could help his condition improve faster. I’m definitely not the only one sick, then.

-9:12 PM
We got off so early from work that I’m in bed! I was going to shower but I decided against it. A hot shower might help how I feel but 1) it might not help that much, 2) it takes time and 3) sleep might help more.

9/22/08 7:28 AM
I got eight hours of sleep! I feel pretty good. Still a little congested, but good. I was gonna go to med this morning but it wasn’t open, or I went to the wrong tent. I’ll try again tonight because I also want to swing by information and get free stamped postcards! Sweet!

We have the same assignment as yesterday (mop up) but higher up in the same area.

Fire info: 16,907 acres, 48% contained

I’m coughing a little more today.

-9:12 PM
We mopped up, cold trailed and gridded a little today but it pretty much turned into Seek and Destroy. The weather warmed up a little today, the sun actually came out. Around 3:00 pm, we started digging line along the black where the burn out stopped. We heard that there was a bet placed between JT and the task force leader as to whether we could finish the line today. We ended up digging a line that stretched pretty far, but we still fell short. We never did hear what the terms were.

The hike as we dug the line sucked a little, my feet are feeling it. We dug for about four hours.

I got my free, stamped postcards with Kira, I’ll probably write them now.

I can feel my Sudafed wearing off, ack! More people are getting sick.

The grapevine ...

Today was another day on the trails in Left Hand. We installed more posts today. Tomorrow is running cable through the posts. Chad had us hike to the installation locations with our packs on, so in addition to doing a very quick and intense work out this morning, we also did a little PT hike. I'd like to think that I redeemed myself for Monday and Tuesday today because I stayed on the heels of the person in front of me the whole time. But, then again, Chad didn't really hike us too hard. Soooo ... I dunno. Improvement, but I'm not going to relax about it.

When we got back, Nikki, Jo and I were sitting around the kitchen table sharing a snack when the phone rang. It was Chad and he said that they were having a conference call at the moment. It's nothing to get too excited about but Travis and I need to make sure we're ready to leave for a dispatch as early as tonight, though he said it's more likely to happen tomorrow. We may be doing that hurricane relief call, but he didn't really specify, he just said to be ready.

So that's it. Just wanted to give fair warning in case my blog doesn't show any updates for three weeks.

I am sucking air big time

Well, it was probably for the best that I missed the hike on Sunday morning. Yesterday we skipped PT and left early for Evergreen, as per usual. But when we arrived, Owens (a FS guy) led us on a PT hike before beginning cutting for the day. Oof! I was totally sucking air. I haven't done a PT hike in a while but I haven't fallen behind since the very first hike we ever did. It sucked. Well ... it was more like I sucked. But anyway, yeah. It was rough.

And then we had all sorts of issues while cutting. Well, not really. It was more just that Nikki and I were exhausted after the hike so we were moving pretty slowly. She took two trees and I swamped them and then she had me take a tree because she's not too comfortable with the bigger ones. I dropped that one and then I moved on to another which not only sat back on me, but the holding wood snapped and it twisted and got hung up opposite from the direction I was trying to drop it. It ended up pinching the bar, so we had to unscrew the power head from the saw and wrench the bar out, which led to the tree falling. Oy. It was just one of those days that I wanted to forget as soon as possible.

Today was also a little rough. For the rest of the week, we're doing project work on a trail in Left Hand Canyon. We're rerouting some road and so posts need to be installed through which cable will be strung for guard rails. We had to load about five pallets of concrete and then hike all the way up to the top of the road, where we then inserted the posts into the holes and set them with the concrete. Once again, I was sucking air on the hike up the hill. The work before and after the hike was fine, though.

I'm not sure what it is, but I hope I'll move beyond this really discouraging plateau of weakness that suddenly seems to have set in or I'll reacclaimate myself to the altitude (but I really don't think that's it).

Update: No hike for me

So ……….. yeah. I didn’t get a hike or a call. I woke Ervin up around 10:30 because I needed someone to go grocery shopping with me (there was a Red Sox game on so Travis was not about to go). While he took his time, the rest of the team came back from the hike. They didn’t make it to the summit because of the snow and ice, but they still had a good time. So Paul ended up going with me to Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart, but he slept in the truck. Birthday Boy has had a long weekend with not a whole lot of sleep.

On a positive note, I did a damn good job this week, we got a ton of good food. But still … I’m irritated that I didn’t get to go on the hike. I knew that would happen. At this point, I hope that, if there is a dispatch, I don’t get called until after this weekend because I want to hike a fourteener before I leave Colorado. Bah.

Just another week

Well, I’m sitting here not doing much when I could be hiking Long’s Peak with a bunch of my teammates. But I’ll get into that in a second.

On Tuesday, we went back to Unit 35 to do some more thinning around alpine clones. This is the same unit where, the week prior, we got the truck stuck and did some old mine spelunking. So we managed to start and finish our areas of the unit, leaving only one or two clones left and they were the hardest to get to. It was a bit of a rough hike in and out of the unit, but there wasn’t much to cut so it balanced out. Still, swamping kind of sucked, trying to make piles was a little challenging and dragging the stuff was also a bit difficult because of the hills.

We skipped PT on Wednesday and Thursday because our new cutting unit is an hour-long drive to Evergreen. It’s a clear cutting assignment, so we have big patches where we just cut down all the trees that are marked (and 99% of them are marked). I’ve been cutting partners with Ervin all week, with Fetsch (a FS guy) and Travis in patch and we’ve barely made a dent in it, it’s one of the bigger patches. But then, we’ve also had some technical difficulties that have slowed us down on both days. The first day, Ervin had a tough time with a few trees getting hung up and one that sat back on him to the point where we had to remove the power head of the chainsaw from the bar and try to pull the bar out of the tree. The next day, while I was using our saw, Virginia, it began to sputter and then stopped. I tried to start it again but it wouldn’t stay on, so we began to take it apart to see what happened. It was smoking when we took off the cover. We began to take it apart and then we realized, with Fetsch’s help, that the bearing had completely melted. Oops. We’re still not sure how it happened, but we suspect that the chain was tightened too much. Virginia’s chain had been spinning while idle for the whole week, so we would tighten the chain a lot and that would slow the spinning a bit. But I guess we didn’t realize how tight we had gone with the chain. Luckily, we had a spare saw in one of our trucks, so I grabbed her and we continued with the patch.

Friday was a saw rehab day. Virginia is okay, thank goodness. We replaced the bearing and a few other parts that had suffered as a result. Her chain still spins, but that’s beyond our expertise at this point. Chad let us out early, so we began celebrating Paul’s 21st birthday. We had cake when we got back to the bunkhouse. Later on, we went down into Ned and celebrated.

On Saturday, I went down to Boulder and got my phone situation taken care of (for the most part). My phone had acquired this wonderful habit of shutting off for no reason while I would be in the middle of a text or phone call. It was never the battery, it would just turn off suddenly. So I got a replacement phone and I went to the AT&T store in Boulder to get all of my stuff transferred. They managed to transfer all of my pictures but they couldn’t get my ringtones to switch to the new phone. So I’ll have to call customer service again and figure that out. Whatever. I also got a really cute dress at Ross. It was a normal Saturday.

I was going to go to bed early last night in order to prepare for this hike we had been planning on all week. A bunch of us were going to try to hike Long’s Peak, which is one of the 14,000+ ft hikes. When I got back, though, I heard from Nikki and Joanna that they had been with Mary (a FS girl) when she got a call from Tim (a FS guy) who told her to be ready as early as Sunday to leave. There’s the possibility of a dispatch heading to the Gulf to help out with hurricane relief, especially with all of the downed trees and debris. Nikki said that they might want an A faller for every B faller that goes. They were also cleaning one of the trucks yesterday in preparation for the trip (allegedly). So I made the decision to not go on the hike the next day. I asked Ervin about the whole thing and he said that, while he hadn’t gotten a call from Chad or anyone saying anything definite about a dispatch, it would suck if I went on the hike and then we got the call because that would be a huge turnover of time before I could make it back to the work center.

So I didn’t go. And now here I am, sitting around, waiting for someone to join me for grocery shopping. Everyone else left for the hike around 3 am. Bah. I swear, if I don’t get some indication of a dispatch today, I’ll be miffed.

Note to self: add "A Faller" to resume

Nikki, Blake and Chris are finally back. Joy! =) Unfortunately, just as our team reassembled, John and Adrienne left tonight to go up to Estes Park because they're heading out to California with Alpine tomorrow. Alas. But this is what Ervin said would happen at a certain point -- it would be rare to have the entire team together in the same place for more than a few days. Now that the NoCo (Northern Colorado) crew is back, and John and Adrienne are going out with Alpine, there's talk of organizing the next NoCo crew. I would be on that crew. Woo! Two dispatches. That's luck in such a slow season. But we'll see, there was chatter about it, but also talk of how it won't go out for a while.

Speaking of Nikki being back ... on Friday, Joanna and I went down to Denver. She had a friend in town for business and we also wanted to go out in the city with Nikki since we didn't get a chance to during transition week because of Nikki's dispatch. So that was good fun. We made our way back up to Ned on Saturday and it was a big reunion in Ned that night because everyone was back from dispatch. On Sunday, it was grocery shopping as usual. Chris came with me, which was nice and different, and also helpful because Chris is a vegetarian so I have that to consider now when I shop.

Today, we all finally tested for our A Faller certifications. We had to be at the work center by 6:30 am to load some saws because we had a two and a half hour drive to Grand County where we worked with the Sulfer Ranger District because they had a C Faller certifier. Everyone had a chance to cut down at least one practice tree. John and Adrienne went first, taking their practice trees and then testing, one after the other. This enabled them to leave early so they could get back to the bunkhouse and organize before they had to head up to Alpine. After lunch, Paul took his two practice trees and then I did the same. There are a TON of beetle-kill trees in that neck of the woods, but it was really difficult to find one that didn't have a lot of hazards to mitigate. Still, I managed. And then I tested for my A Cert. It went really well, I was glad. My cuts were cleaner than the two practice cuts, so that's good.

So we're all A Certified now, which basically puts us on the level of apprentice. It means that we can cut without a B Faller watching our every blink, but we've kind of been doing that already in our cutting units. This just makes it official.

I don't know what we're doing tomorrow. Probably cutting. There's been talk of prescribed burns sometime in the near future. Exciting! Yay fire! Haha.

Back in Ned!

Well, I managed to get a cab from Englewood back to campus. All in all, transportation worked out smoothly.

I spent Monday down town in the city. A bunch of us just went to hang out and we ended up walking around the Taste of Colorado festival. We all go Amazon.com gift certificates for test driving some new Kia models (yeah, no thanks). And then, I found out from one of the event brochures that Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was playing on the main stage of the festival! So, we all hung out and listened. I got pretty close up to the stage, but then I needed some air so I enjoyed the music on the lawn with the rest of my group. There were several couples swing dancing near us and they were pretty darn good! It was like a swing class decided that the concert would be a good day to have practice outside.

On Tuesday, we managed to head back up to Nederland after dinner and room check out. Originally, Kevin was going to make us stay until Wednesday morning. Thankfully, we didn't have to. So I did a little grocery shopping with Joanna while everyone else unpacked. Once we got back, I unpacked my things and finally settled into my room.

We didn't do much at work the next day. We spent a lot of time just waiting to do something. Joanna, Scott and I pulled up some metal fence posts and then put more up and wired some plastic orange fencing to them. That was pretty much it.

Yesterday, we were going to a new cutting unit. Unit 1 was finished so we were off to Unit 35. We were driving up a pretty gnarly dirt road when Ervin decided to park in a little pull off. Scott was backing him up and the truck promptly bottomed out on a small mound of dirt. The rest of the day was spent digging out underneath the truck so the undercarriage wouldn't get damaged when we tried to get it unstuck. Since that took up the majority of our day, we didn't cut at all. One of the FS guys found a cave that was an old, abandoned mine shaft. So we all grabbed our head lamps for a little spelunking and discovered who had a good head lamp and who didn't. Mine is better than the one I was issued for my gear, but it's still not so great. Oh well, it will suffice.

Today was another wash out unfortunately. When we got to the work center in the morning to be ready for PT, I noticed some fog rolling around the mountains nearby. By the time we were ready to start PT, the fog was on us. It's chilly and damp out today, so Chad let us go early since we couldn't really cut and probably weren't going to get called to any smoke reports or fires or anything. Bah. I really wanted to cut, too.

Nikki, Blake and Chris come back tomorrow! Yay!

On Monday, we're all finally going to test for our A Faller certifications. The FS people said that we shouldn't be too worried, it's pretty impossible to not get certed. But I'm sure we're all still a little nervous. I know I am. I wish I could have had a day of cutting just to get back into the swing of things before the test on Monday. But, oh well.

That's all for now. I think in my next entry, I'll discuss the composite team and post about our new members, who aren't really new -- we're just all on the same team now. But I get the feeling I'll be mentioning them a lot more now as a result.

Always blogging from the airport ... you would think I had a real job or something.

Well, my week down the shore was quite the treat. The last few days got cloudy before I could get any sun, but that's okay. At least I was on the beach. We cut the vacation a day short and left Friday evening after hitting the boardwalk and getting some Mack's pizza in Ocean City.

I spent Saturday watching a Katharine Hepburn marathon on TCM with my mom. Other than that, I didn't do much. My dad made steaks for dinner. This morning I woke up late and went for a bike ride with my dad. It quickly became obvious that I hadn't been on my bike in a year, my elbows hurt and I am tiiiired. After that, I showered and packed up. My mom surprised me with a Roxy hoody that I saw in Ocean City. It's lined with faux sheepskin, so it will definitely keep me warm as things get colder Nederland (well, it's already cold as it is up there).

When I get back tonight I get to look forward to taking the DIA bus to Denver and then getting my suitcase onto the Light Rail and hopefully getting a taxi for the two miles up to campus. I won't be in the mood to climb that hill at 9:30 at night.

That's really all. It was good to be home. I love being there, I can't wait to get back. I really can't imagine living anywhere else, despite all the places I have now lived (and by "all" I mean ... ooooh ... three or four other places, temporarily). I miss a lot about PA ... the crickets at night in the summer, the way everything smells, being right in the middle of rural and urban Greater Philly. Well, I've got two months left of AmeriCorps and then I get to spend plenty of time appreciating home while trying to find a job.

"Bury my heart on the Jersey Shore..."

Well, I've been down the shore and on my break for a few days. My flight home was almost unbearable, thank goodness it was shorter than anticipated. I'm already sunburned and I've run out of ways to lie on the beach where said sunburn won't get more exposure. Ah, well.

Transition week ended well. Everything was done and relatively on time. I feel like I earned my break.

I haven't been doing much. My typical vacation routine is to sleep in, get on the beach by noon and sit/lie around for about for hours, just reading. My evenings have been spent watching coverage of the DNC back in Denver. I was in Denver during the Pennsylvania Primary, and now I'm back to Philly while the DNC is in Denver. I can't really win.

I added a few links to the blog, things to provide more information on wildfires in the country, as well as a blog I found tonight from a guy who is on a California Hotshot crew.

I also found a really funny shirt which I just ordered from Threadless.com: "Don't Play with Matches".

Additionally, my dad showed me a really cool picture of a tanker plane that he found:

I don't have any information from the photo, but based soley on the way the ground just drops off and the bush in the left hand corner, I swear I was there. I'm probably full of crap, though =)

This flight tonight ...

Okay, so things got pretty interesting yesterday. Our new team, composite Earth 45, had our briefing in the morning. It went pretty smoothly, so that's good. In the afternoon, I went to the team leader meeting with Kevin. During the meeting, he got a call from Chad saying that Paul was definitely getting called up to go out with the Alpine Hot Shots and that he needed to leave for Ned that evening so he could head out the next day. After Kevin droned on and on, I left the meeting and went to inform Paul. It was decided that Joanna, Scott and I would drive Paul up in one of our trucks and then return after dropping him off. I called the work center and left a message for Chad to call me back and give me more info for Paul -- when he had to be up the next morning, what he needed in addition to his gear, etc.

So we loaded up the truck with some stuff we wanted to take up to Ned before we go back in a week (though Jo and Scott would be working as of Monday because they've got the other break). Room inspections took a while, so we decided to get dinner before leaving. Around dinner, I got a call back from Chad. He said that he managed to get Scott called out with Alpine as well, so now Scott also needed to pack up. I called Kevin to let him know and he decided that Joanna would have to move up to Ned with them because she had no other way of getting there over the weekend to go back to work on Monday (don't authorize her to drive the truck by herself or anything ... *rolls eyes*).

Needless to say, Jo was upset. She's going to be up there all weekend and all week by herself (unless Ervin returns from his dispatch some time next week). I called the other bunkhouse and talked to some of our Forest Service compatriots and asked them to look out for her and make sure she wasn't feeling lonely. So she left Thursday evening and then I had nothing to do. I had no team left, pretty much.
I ended up hanging out with Jane from Earth 7. We went for a run together, then went out for a little bit. It was fun, nothing big, but it was nice to spend time with her and Nicole because I don't normally hang out with them. So yay to new friends.

Today the entire corps went to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. We used their obstacle courses for leadership and team building activities. Originally I was dreading it, having gone over stuff like this multiple times in college for my major. But it was surprisingly fun. I enjoyed both parts of the obstacle course. I have to say, though, that my fingers are killing me. I have so many splinters in my hands, I can't even count them all. So they're really tender right now.

Okay, that's all for now. I should shut down because we should be boarding soon. I'm taking a red-eye home tonight. A little nap, a little repacking and then it's down the shore! Yay! I'm going to sit on the beach every day and read for hours.

Okay, let's see if you can stay with me here

Well ...

We got out early on Friday, as you know. Earth 5 went home and did some packing. After dinner, I headed out in the rain to UC Boulder's outdoor theater to watch a Shakespeare play, Love's Labour's Lost. Yes. I sat in the rain and watched Shakespeare. I had tickets to it, someone else was supposed to go with me but they went on dispatch. So I went to get my money's worth. It was quite good, actually. Around the third act I noticed that the rain had stopped. It was a little cold, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. One of the actors actually reminded me of a friend who, coincidentally, is a stage actor and really into Shakespeare.

The next morning, we loaded our truck up with things that we wanted to move to Nederland so we wouldn't have to bring them back to Denver. We also put all of our nonperishable food in there. A few people ran that up to the bunkhouse in Nederland while the rest of us cleaned. Once we were finished all of that, we were off. We stopped at Panera for a team dinner on the fly. No one really wanted to drag out the round any longer and three team members were missing, so we didn't really have much desire to do a full-on team dinner.

We got back Saturday night. I was exhausted after running around with all of this new ATL stuff that I have to do for Ervin. So I just went to bed.

On Sunday, I put my free day to good use -- I went into the city to the Denver Art Museum. That was also quite fun. There wasn't much (Philly is actually bigger, surprisingly), but there were a lot of interactive features to the museum. http://www.denverartmuseum.org

And then Monday began. I had a lot to do: Balance the budget, getting Media, CAPper and Service Learning paperwork from the teammates responsible for those tasks, the Project Completion Report with its list of Quantifiables, Project Evaluations from members ... Basically, I spent my entire day in the office, getting help from someone, printing something, copying something, emailing something. Yeesh. It carried over into today. We had our briefing this afternoon, but beforehand I was running around to everyones' rooms to get their Reflections for the portfolio, doing their "room inspections" (whatever), talking to Kevin (Earth Unit Leader) about the vehicle predicament, talking to Bobby (Supply Manager) about the vehicle predicament ...

Which brings me to the explanation. Now, follow carefully and I'll do my best to be concise. Between Earth 4 and 5 there are four trucks. As I mentioned in a previous post, a few team members are joining other wildfire teams and the remaining members of Earth 4 and 5 will merge into a team. On Friday, the last day of Round 3, Travis, John and Adrienne, were driving downtown to get haircuts in Boulder when some guy rear ended them. They're fine, Travis was not at fault and the truck is still driveable. But the fender is bent and the tailgate, while it still functions, is difficult to open and close to the point that it needs to be fixed. So that truck is being signed back to Bobby and we'll keep Earth 4's trucks for our use, as well as Earth 5's other truck when it returns from dispatch.

But that's not the predicament. Right now, the team consists of Joanna, Scott, Paul, John, Adrienne, Travis and myself. Nikki, Blake and Chris are on a dispatch, as is Ervin. John, Adrienne, Travis and I will be taking the scheduled AmeriCorps Fall Break next week. Joanna, Scott and Paul are taking the other break later in September. As such, they'll be heading up to Nederland to work next week. However, in discussing the truck situation with Kevin, he called Chad to find out the work situation. Scott and Paul were put on the call list for the Alpine Hot Shots and they apparently have a pretty good chance of getting called as soon as Friday. If this is the case, Joanna will be the only one at the work center next week. According to Kevin, this violates AmeriCorps's "Buddy System" policy, so he has to run it by our director to see if Joanna being by herself is kosher. If she's going to be allowed to spend next week up in Ned by herself, she'll need to sign out the budget with me because Ervin isn't here. The rest of us will have to return here to Denver after our breaks because we have a community meeting on Tuesday after Labor Day and we'll sign out the other two trucks then. However, there will only be four of us and, technically, three people are supposed to be in a government vehicle if it is being driven somewhere. And I honestly have no idea when Ervin's getting back from dispatch. Got that? Yeah.

But somehow I've managed to keep my head above water thus far. I think the worst is over. The rest of the week expands a little and it looks like I'll have more time to myself or to get things done without having to be somewhere, so that's nice. Boy, oh, boy. It's funny. I never thought I would actually do anything as an ATL ...

Transitioning ...

I forgot to mention! Yesterday, Travis and Coby returned from their dispatch to California! It's nice to have him back. And he's oak free, thankfully for him.

Well, it's been raining since yesterday's smoke report. But that didn't stop PT today. When we got to the work center this morning, we ran 1.5 miles, did sit ups, push ups and chin ups to qualify for a position with the Alpine Hot Shots. Alas, my mile and a half was not fast enough. Oh well. I think I'll be fine enough with normal dispatches.

Other than that, today was just a full saw rehab day. Joanna and I gave FSU a thorough cleaning and then I sharpened the hell out of the teeth. I threw my first chain yesterday which may have bent a raker, but using it seems to have bent it back into alignment.

Toward the end of the day (while I was still sharpening), Chad finally gave the word that a dispatch was going out. Nikki, Blake and Chris had been on stand by since before Travis got back. So Chad told them that they had a 14:00 departure time and they started getting busy. They took one of Earth 5's trucks and loaded up their gear. Meanwhile, Chad let the rest of us go early to give us more time cleaning our houses and packing up for the move back to Denver tomorrow. So we said our goodbyes to Nikki and headed back to Boulder around 1:30. I'm going to miss Nikki terribly. It's already painfully obvious that she's not around.

Another week down ...

Well, this was been our last week in the Boulder house. We’re heading back to Denver Saturday evening and Transition Week begins on Monday. This last week was pretty nice.

In my last entry I mentioned that my friend Sean passed through Denver this weekend. It was really nice to spend time with him, I haven’t seen him in a long time. On Thursday, we ended up working for Open Space, so we finished work early. I had my team drop me off at the bus stop and I took a bus down to Denver. When I got off, I called Sean and he told me to head up to the ballpark and buy a ticket because the Rockies game was apparently pretty deserted. I guess it was the make up game for the one that was rained out the day before, but not too many people rescheduled their plans to use their tickets or something. Anyway, I bought a $20 ticket for an upper level seat behind home plate but I ended up sitting with Sean and his girlfriend about ten rows behind the visitor’s dugout. It was a great way to start the weekend and I had a lot of fun. Taking a day off was totally worth it.

This past week, we’ve still been cutting at Unit 1. Things were arranged a little differently this week: we partnered up with someone and signed out a saw and that has been our responsibility for the whole week. Joanna was my partner, I’ve really enjoyed cutting with her. Our saw has been pretty cooperative, which is unusual for me because I always feel like every saw I touch, I destroy. Not really; it’s just that usually I can’t get any saw to stay on without throttling it. It’s a little frustrating when you’re trying to make a back cut to drop a tree and your saw keeps dying.

Anyway, on Monday, M Squared and I woke up two hours earlier to drive Ervin up to Estes Park’s fire cache. He was dispatched with a fire use crew – one that sets prescribed burns and such – to Idaho. As a result, I’ve been in charge of the team stuff all week. Ervin went over it with me the night before. I’m pretty much just keeping track of all the logistics – hours, paperwork and so forth. It’s kind of a pain in the ass, but this is what I signed up for. It makes colorguard captain for Surf feel like a walk in the park and it actually makes me nostalgic for it, haha.

We had our last day of Open Space work on Wednesday. All we did was haul bags of dirt left over from the trail we had built in previous weeks using these crawler machines, which were basically motorized wheel barrows. It took a team of us about 45 minutes to make one full trip. Craig and Kristen got us pizzas for lunch, which was really sweet of them. They let us out early and we gave Craig a gigantic bucket of sunflower seeds; he’s trying to quit smoking so we always see him with sunflowers. I thought he would just be amused by the gift but he actually really loved it, it was great to see. We’ll miss Craig, he always made even the most mundane work fun. He was a little like Rory in that respect.

Yesterday, Joanna cut for about an hour before she had to run Blake to Denver to get a new ID. So once she left, I paired up with our supervisor, Chad, and cut for him. The last time that I cut for Chad, I felt like a total failure. Okay, not really. But I had been really confident for a while regarding the progress with my cutting skills. And then I come to find from his critiques of my cuts that I’ve got a lot of work to do and I was no longer confident about getting my A Faller Certification. Well, yesterday was a change because he wasn’t looming over my shoulder and it was much more relaxed. I threw my first chain yesterday, which is when the chain is pulled off the saw. When I went to put it back on, I found out that I had a bent driver (the part of the chain that slides into the bar and around it). Saw rehab will be interesting today.

Around 3:00, Chad had us all shut down and get back to the trucks because he got a smoke report over the radio. We hopped in quick and drove out to Lyons before we heard that the fire was 10 ft x 10 ft and they had “adequate” support. So we were cancelled. Bah. Oh well.

Aw, shucks!

I was doing so well getting all caught up and then I fell behind again! Okay, here we go ...

Friday night was a lot of fun. After work, I met up with Jenna, Jamie and Ana and got to catch up with them. They were staying with Jenna's cousin, who lives in Longmont (right next to Boulder). We went out to dinner for sushi because Jenna's cousin gave them a gift certificate. We all thought it was $50 but found out when we went to pay that it was actually $100! So that was quite the treat. Then we walked around Pearl and Broadway for the loooongest time trying to find a place to go dancing. Eventually we found a place off the main mall on Pearl Street and had ourselves a good time. It was actually the only time I got the chance to hang out with them because their cousin ended up having a bunch of stuff planned for the for the rest of the weekend. Still, it was good to see people from home.

The Miners Days festival turned out to be quite the let down. It paled in comparison to Frozen Dead Guy Days.

As far as work as been concerned, things have pretty much been routine. We're still cutting and piling at "Unit 1" near Sugarloaf road. For Open Space last week, we did more trail building but with Earth 4 along side, so work went a little faster. We got out extra early that day because of the heat and both teams decided to hit Boulder Creek along Canyon to go swimming. That was a nice change, there was a rope swing and such. I mostly sat on rocks and tried to get as much sun as I could. I'm so pale! Ordinarily at this point in the summer, I've got a nice tan going.

On Friday, I had quite the mission to ship my dad's birthday gift. I'd go into it, but I think I'll wait until I'm certain it arrived at its destination. On Saturday, we had an ISP removing invasive species (a certain kind of daisy) from a meadow along a creek up near Nederland. I'm officially officially done with ISP. Originally, I was done but I wanted to do more hours to have a bit of a buffer and I'm thankful I did because apparently our ISP sheet for the MS walk that we did back in May has gone missing. We can only imagine that it got lost en route to being sent to campus. That was 5.5 hours! I'm trying to track someone down whom we worked with that day, a volunteer coordinator or something, so we can get it confirmed that we worked. But our ISP this past Saturday was 6.5 hours so I know I at least made up for the loss.

That evening, we all gathered down at Outback Saloon in Boulder to celebrate a Forest Service birthday with a little karaoke. That was a lot of fun, especially seeing our boss sing! On Sunday, I baked a pie (raspberry peach) for Harrison's birthday. I also managed to have money in the food budget to get ice cream to go with it.

It's Harrison's last week, unfortunately. He'll be taking fall break next week and then moving to another wildfire team. Things have developed in this way: as a result of losing Brittany at the beginning of the wildfire season, losing Laura during last transition and now losing Coby for fourth round due to Team Leader trainings, Earth 4 is now down to eight members on their team. As a result, our Unit Leader decided to dismantle the team and use them to fill holes on other wildfire teams that will be created when members leave in fourth round for Team Leader training. To make things fair, some of our teammates volunteered to leave our team. So Harrison is taking his break with his new team now and then will head to his new location after transition week, which is the week after next. M Squared will also be leaving, but after transition week. The remaining members of Earth 4 will be merged with our team and we'll have eleven living at the bunkhouse in Nederland for fourth round.

I'm conflicted with the whole situation. A part of me is not happy with how they went about deconstructing a team and just scattering them. I look forward to living with the remainder of Earth 4, but I'm going to miss my teammates and the Earth 4 members who will no longer be working out of Nederland with us.

In other news, I'm taking Friday off because I have another friend in town. My friend Sean is moving from Boston to LA to start his career as a lawyer after three years of law school. He's driving the whole way and will be arriving in Denver tomorrow. So I'll be taking off right after work to head to Denver and spend some time with him.

Today we had a break. Adrienne, John and I went up to the work center an hour early to do optional PT. The rest of the crew arrived around the usual time, but after briefing we loaded up to go to the FS's seasonal picnic celebration. They had it in Rollinsville at the old work center. A bunch of people whom I don't recognize made some speeches and recognized some people. Some of the FS members from our work center were recognized for being excellent employees in one way or another. Then there were games and food. It was nice to just be able to hang out with everyone.

Last night, I bought my plane tickets for fall break. I'll be heading home late on Friday, August 22 (actually, I'm taking a red-eye that's past midnight, so it's technically the 23). My dad is going to pick me up and we're heading down the shore for the week with my mom. I'm scheduled to fly back on the 31 and I go back to work after Labor Day. I can't believe it's almost September already! I'll only have about two and a half months of NCCC when I get back from break. Even more, I can't believe next week is the last week of third round! It feels like it just flew by. I feel like we were just dreading moving down to Boulder, and now we love the place and it ended up being a fun experience.

Memo

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I've changed my photo album links -- I'm now sharing my photos through Google's Picasa program, so things are more accessible. However, there are no photo captions and the albums are arranged a little differently, so things aren't as informative. When I have some free time, I may get around to adding some descriptions to pictures so no one is left wondering. The albums include pictures from my dispatch, so have a look!

Also, two new terms in the glossary. Enjoy!

Oops

Well, today was interesting. This morning, after PT, we were getting ready to load up and go somewhere. I went into the back of the truck I always ride in to get my gloves and my sunglasses from inside my helmet. When I looked in the truck bed, I couldn't see it. Then I looked at the line gear and it seemed like we had fewer bags than usual. So I hopped into the truck and I discovered that my line gear wasn't there. I checked the back of our other truck just to make sure it hadn't been moved over to there instead -- no luck. So I asked Ervin if he knew of anyone taking my line gear. He said he had pulled it from the truck yesterday. It was back at the house in Boulder. Oh, brother. I explained that I had left my gear in the truck because I knew a few of us would be driving it up to Ned that night to hang out. But he had pulled my gear into the house when we got back from work and never mentioned it to me.

So now I had nothing. Absolutely nothing. No helmet, no ear protection, no eye protection, no gloves, no yellow Nomex shirt, nada. Ervin went and told Chad and explained the situation, which is why I think I didn't get in trouble for not having my line gear. Chad had me throw a new bag together from spare stuff in the AmeriCorps cache at the work center. Unfortunately, that took up enough time that both teams had to leave without me for whatever assignment they were going on. So I hung around the work center until around noon when the teams came back. In Ervin's defense, I should have checked the back of the truck. Ultimately, it was just a miscommunication, so it was no one's fault really. Still, it was embarrassing because I know I'm more responsible than that. It's kind of ironic because the day before, Ervin had recounted a story to us about one of his dispatch experiences last year in which someone else was left in charge of his gear while traveling and that person left his helmet behind. He said that the moral of the story was to stay in charge of your own gear and not pass the responsibility on to anyone else.

But it was certainly the right day to not have my gear: apparently, all the teams did was drive around for about an hour and a half before getting word that the smoke report they were following was a false alarm. So they came back to the work center, we all had lunch and then we rehabbed saws for a little while. Our team followed Chad's rig down to Boulder and waited around for him while they ran errands. Around 4:30, he let us go as long as we stayed at the ready until 5:30. So we went home, did our Weekly Progress Report and chilled out until we were officially off the clock.

In other news, I'm looking forward to this weekend because I have friends in town. Jamie, Jenna and Ana, girls I worked with at Tortillas! back home have spent part of their summer on a road trip across the US. They called me when they were in L.A. and told me they'd be coming through the Boulder/Denver area soon. They're getting in tonight and they'll be here until Sunday or Monday. I have a packed weekend ahead of me. We're planning on hanging out the whole weekend. On Saturday, I've invited them to join me and some of my teammates in Nederland. The town is having its Mining Days festival, in which they celebrate the mining history of the town with chainsaw competitions, rock breaking competitions and setting of dynamite (so I've heard). It sounds like a fun time and I want to show the girls around the town because it's definitely a memorable place.