Where am I now, you say?

Well, as was the inspiration to start this blog back in 2007 to begin with, I've started a new chapter in life. Prematurely at that. When I left Utah in August of 2009, it felt like a part of me died. My life was steeped with adventure between my work with Raytheon Polar Services Company and Colour Country Bureau of Land Management while working with Zion Helitack. Whether for work or play, I was constantly on the move and it satisfied my taste for adventure in the interim. However, throughout the 2008-2009 austral summer, the desire to want more out of my career slowly crept its way to the forefront of my mind. So I chose not to renew my contract for the following austral summer with Raytheon, chose to inform the BLM that I would not be returning for a GS-04 Range Technician position again, and decided to lay temporary roots back in Northern VA while I pursued becoming a Paramedic.

My last fire of the 2009 fire season on the UT/NV border.

I applied to work for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority in July of 2009 while I was still in Utah. When I moved back to VA, I started working for Physicians Transport Services as an EMT-Basic.....a job that I both loved and hated for the 6 1/2 years that I worked there. My interview, written exam, and physical agility test for MWAA were conducted in October and on Christmas Eve I was given a job offer. I slowly started working my way to becoming a Paramedic while working with MWAA. At some point early in my time with MWAA, I vowed to work at minimum 5 years for MWAA before I even thought about leaving Northern VA. I became an EMT-Intermediate (in Virginia at the time, the scope of practice between EMT-Intermediates and Paramedics weren't really that different. Most of the DC metro area was using Intermediates and Paramedics interchangeably to staff "medic units") in 2012 and continued working towards becoming a Paramedic while gaining more experience on MWAA, Loudoun County, and PTS ambulances. 

My office for the first half of this decade.

So I became a Paramedic in 2013 and started thinking towards the future. I applied to work for a middle-east sub contractor (who will remain nameless until I'm done with this contract in order to avoid the OPSEC mafia) in spring of 2015 with the hopes of quickly saving up some cash to buy a house in Boise. I made a personal promise earlier in the year to be living in Boise before Maleigha turned 10 which gave me 5 years to make it happen. . Thanks to a group of unscrupulous assholes, a hack into the OPM significantly delayed my security clearance being granted. I finally got the ball rolling in October of 2016, finished my hiring process, and was giving a start date of late December. A lot of my friends and family knew this was coming but I waited until I had an actual departure date and travel itinerary before I gave my notice of resignation to MWAA.

Last shift at MWAA with C-Shift at Dulles/IAD

So a week after my resignation, I was driving to Boise and was somewhere in Kansas on I-70 when I decided, fuck it, I'll move to Boise right then and there and rent a place versus put stuff in storage. So I found a pretty cool rental in the North End of the city not too far from down town, and began the process of changing my home base [hopefully] for the next 10 years. I drove back to VA and was on a plane to Kabul, Afghanistan a couple days later. 

Flying over a rugged corner of Iran

So here I sit in a dusty corner of Kabul dodging stray cats while living the expat life with a vacation back to the states every couple of months. The job is utterly mundane and repetitive but the money is good and we're reasonably spoiled. My contract is up at the end of the year at which point I'll be looking for work in Boise while starting part 2 of this chapter in my life. I applied to work for National Outdoor Leadership School's (NOLS) Wilderness Medicine Institute as an instructor...a dream of mine since I took the EMT program in Midpines, CA back in 2008. Other than that, the immediate future involving 2017 is a mystery...

7 days left...

A week from now, I'll be leaving McMurdo. The only difference this year being that I know I won't be coming back next season (at least for the next year or two). I'm sorta bummed about that. The Antarctic Fire Department hired on a new chief this year after our last one quit. He seems like a great guy and an amazing leader and I really want to be a part of the department next year to see where he takes it. Alas, school (for the first time in a few years) comes first. Anyways, the South Pole is due to close in a couple days for the winter which means Williams Field will be closing soon as well. Usually, at this time of year, every department is scrambling to get ready for the winter before their staff is whittled to nothing. The fire department is no different. We have an entire station's worth of stuff to bring in from Williams Field once it closes. We have several vehicles that need to be driven into town, winterized, and parked (somewhere) outside of station 1. We have our own personal matters to deal with as well. Having our baggage palletized for transport as cargo by the military (also known down here as "Bag Drag"). We have room inspections, town "debts" to take care of (library books, DVDs, gear rentals, etc). With a week to do it in, everyone is busy. Another thing that this time of year is notorious for is the partying that happens. Usually there are a couple dumb-asses out of the population that end up doing something so grotesquely stupid in the name of end-of-season partying that they end up getting reprimanded (or even fired) and the rest of us have to listen to our supervisors or station management belittle us on how we should be more "morally responsible". It's already happened and I'm sure that's not the last time.

The closer and closer we get to our redeployment dates, the more I think about my daughter, my family, and my friends. I'm ready for the spring and summer. I'm ready to see the people I've been missing for 5 months. I'm ready to move on for the time being...r