Denver and New Zealand Finally!!!

It's weird thinking that after today I won't see the United States for almost 6 months. It's also a blessing in a way. I've always thought it was a relief getting away from the politics and other issues currently plaguing our country and reading up on them while I'm 9,000 miles away. I spent my evening after the first part of my orientation with my friend at a concert outside of Ft Collins, CO. I got back to my hotel around 4 AM on the day I had 3 hours of OSHA training and 20 hours of flying and waiting to get to New Zealand. Thank God I was able to use my time spent flying for sleeping. I was out before we left the ground in Denver and I woke up as we were on final for LAX. On our 13 hour trans-Pacific flight I slept for about 7 hours. We arrived at Auckland sometime around 0545 this morning. Despite what one would think, New Zealand Customs and Immigration is a pain in the ass to get through. Well, immigrations is pretty easy. You give them your passport and (for us Raytheon employees) your request for a 9 month visa to last you for your deployment, they stamp your passport, and you move on. The hard part is making it through Bio-security. Because I had been hiking through dirt with my hiking boots (as inquired on your New Zealand Customs Entry Card given to you on the flight) I had to step aside into the Bio Security inspection area, dig through my pack and show them that my boots were in fact clean irregardless of the fact that I had told them I washed them. A friend of mine actually had to have his boots washed by the inspectors before he was allowed to continue on. As if that wasn't a pain enough, Raytheon, in all of it's infinite wisdom, scheduled me for a flight from Auckland to Christchurch with an hour and 5 minutes to get my baggage, get through immigrations and customs, get through biosecurity, walk 15 minutes from the international terminal at Auckland International Aiport, wait in a line of 15 people to check in for my flight, wait in another line to pay for my excess baggage, and then make it through the security screening to get to the gate where my plane was waiting...literally waiting for me. They were calling my name over the intercom after they had made the final boarding call for my flight as I was walking up to the gate.

Now I'm in Christchurch and it feels good to put all of that behind me. The only thing I have left to do is pick up my cold weather gear tomorrow, organize my stuff so that I can fly with the alloted weigth I'm allowed and prepare myself for a 5 hour flight and 4 months down on the ice...

Last Night in VA - First Day of Orientation - Denver

My last night in the DC area was spent, surprisingly, at the firehouse. I left there and said my goodbyes early in the morning only to run around and take care of last minute errudns and pack...considering I hadn't truly "packed" at all over the pst week when I had been telling people I had. I've come to the conclusion that I've found a niche in life...at least for now. I managed to pack for 5-6 months away from home, fly across the country wih no hassle, and start a new (sorta) job without skipping a beat what so ever. It feel really good to be on my way to McMurdo. I ran into a lof of old friends from the last Austral Summer...a lot of whom I didn't expect to be returning. There are a lot of changes with Raytheon Polar Services Company and the United States Antarctic Program. I mean, a lot of changes. For the most part, I don't forsee them ruining my time spent down at McMurdo this season...oh well, 5 days to go before my deployment...

Friends

Today was spent visiting and hanging out friends. The afternoon was spent at a good friend of mine's house for his birthday. I met him at the firehouse and we've known each other since 2002. He's currently in Naval flight school so I definitely don't see him as much as I would other friends from the firehouse. At his party were several other really good mutual friends with whom it was awesome to be able to hang out with outside of the firehouse. Most importantly, I was able to hang out with one of my best friends, Christine Jefferies, who I gave a ride to said party. It was good to hang out with her just the two of us to talk about our problems and new found joys in our life. I feel I don't have as many people as I use to throughout the summer to talk to in that fashion. I left my friend's party in the evening to hang out with 2 of my best friends I've known since elementary school. There's nothing like people you've known since your childhood. You definitely share a special bond that you won't be able to recreate with people you meet after you turn 18. It was pretty cool to just sit and chill and be bored together...just like in elementary, middle, and high school. I even got a chance to talk to someone I use to be really good friends with in high school that lives around the corner from me. I sometimes forget how good I have it here at home with the friends I've made and kept....

Back at the Firehouse

I can't begin to tell you how great it feels to be back at structural firefighting. A season of wildland can be mentally draining sometimes. It's a near blessing to retreat to the comparatively simplicity of structural firefighting. I ran as the officer on engine 6 Wednesday night, my first night back:





I was surprised that our station officer actually put me up in the front seat being my first night back but I wasn't really worried that I had forgotten anything so I just did what I was told. Asides from an uneventful roll-over accident and listening to a triple shooting take place in a neighboring fire department's first due, it was a slow night. Tonight was no different. We haven't turned a wheel and I doubt we will.

It was good to see all the people I had been missing again. There are a lot of new faces around the firehouse but the old ones are still there as well. The one thing that sucks about going back to McMurdo is the fact that I'm leaving my family (both at home and at the firehouse) again for several months.

The Drive Home

I made it home early yesterday evening after 3 days of driving. I stopped in Denver (Well, Ft Collins, really) and crashed at a friends place after a leisurely drive from Cedar City then pushed it across the rest of the United States. Nebraska sucks ass. I'll just throw that out there. I'll never drive across the midwest on I-80 again. It didn't dawn on me how weird it felt to be back until at night when I could taste the humidity in the air again. It did feel good, however, to be back. The drive back was very uneventful. Monday I drove from Ft Collins to Peoria, IL:


View Larger Map

The next day, Peoria to home:


View Larger Map

Anyways, it's good to be back. Now, I count down the nine days till I leave home again for McMurdo....

Last Day at Work and Goodbyes

While at Bryce Canyon National Park working on the Puma Rx Burn, it was decided by my management that for the sake of simplicity regarding the logistics of getting me back to Cedar City from Bryce Canyon, I came back home on Thursday instead of Friday evening with the intention of handing my gear in Friday afternoon. After some saw work and a few other tasks, we had lunch at a decent restaurant instead of out of an MRE, I said my goodbyes to my crew mates that were staying there through the weekend and drove back home. Friday, I handed my gear in and took care of a lot of federal paperwork which made that day my official last day with Zion Helitack (at least for this season). I emailed the Board of Directors back at Ashburn to terminate my Leave of Absence on Tuesday considering I may do the crazy and run duty the night of the day I get back (I doubt my mother will be to happy with that). There are a lot of people I want to say goodbye to here but they're all out and about around the area and I doubt I'll see all of them. Asides from climbing in Cedar Canyon with my roommate, I didn't do a whole lot during these two days.

Never Forget....

For the past 7 years, I've constantly received a barrage of email and text forwards from friends and strangers "reminding" (or at least attempting to) me to never forget September 11, 2001. Coincidentally, none of them were firefighters. I can probably speak for every firefighter, EMT, police officer, and any other public safety official when I say that we don't need reminders. When you lose that many of your own brothers in an incident such as the planes crashing into the WTC towers, you'll never forget it. It's impossible. I thank those that do have the foresight to send me those forwards...I definitely haven't forgotten. For the rest of you, however, don't you forget either.

Wildflowers by Tom Petty

My roommate Karleen's fascination with this song has made listen to it to the point where I started actually hearing what was being sung. At this point in my life, the song makes a lot of sense to me and I'm feeling more and more that I can relate to what Tom's singing. Anyways...

Wildflowers
by Tom Petty

You belong among the wildflowers
You belong in a boat out at sea
Sail away, kill off the hours
You belong somewhere you feel free
Run away, find you a lover
Go away somewhere bright and new
I have seen no other
Who compares with you
You belong among the wildflowers
You belong in a boat out at sea
You belong with your love on your arm
You belong somewhere you feel free
Run away, go find a lover
Run away, let your heart be your guide
You deserve the deepest of cover
You belong in that home by and by
You belong among the wildflowers
You belong somewhere close to me
Far away from your trouble and worry
You belong somewhere you feel free
You belong somewhere you feel free

WMI WEMT Quotes...

As I sit here sans stitches on my day off trying to earn some CE credits towards my EMT certification, I can't help but reflect back upon the valuable lessons I learned whilst in Yosemite taking my Wilderness EMT class. These are actual quotes from students and instructors in my class courtesy of the fabulous Haley Bercot...



"In emergencies, as in life, you have two choices: spread calm or spread chaos."

"NEVER perform CPR on Frozen people. It could break their frozen little hearts."

"WMI does not recommend peeing on any wounds in any situations."

"Let's say the situation is extreme, hopeless, no help around . . . can we, ya know, cauterize wounds?"

"if you want to survive to the age of 25, be female . . . or surround yourself with females who make good decisions."

"There are two reasons why that patient's treatment would be delayed. First of all, his respiratory rate is under 30, he's got a radial pulse, and he's following verbal commands. Second of all, he's trapped underneath a steel beam and we're not going to be able to get to him any time soon anyway."

"Sometimes you get pregnant ladies who are nice and in good health; other times you get crack hos who didn't even know they were pregnant."
"Is crack ho a mecial term then?"

"9am in the morning after a night of heavy drinking is not the best time to ask for an anal massage."

"Yeah, I think having lots of sex and spending lots of time outdoors counts as self actualization."

"If I ever faint as a result of 'baring down' for a bowel movement, feel free to shoot me."

"oh ha ha that's humerus"

"What type of EMT do you want to be?"

Every State Line by Ani Difranco

I'm not going to go too deep into my reasoning for picking the lyrics of this particular song to post purely for the fact that I really don't like to talk about politics (as well as my opinions on current politics) in a public forum. Anyways, last night I happened to watch Spike Lee's When The Levees Broke which opened up several emotions and feelings that had subsided since Katrina. I didn't finish the entire film because I had to go to bed but I had been thinking about that movie most of the day. This morning, I stumbled across this Ani Difranco song that has stuck around in my head and emotions for most of the day. I know the song doesn't have a whole lot to do with Katrina but it does have something to do with a lot I think is wrong with our country...


Every State Line
by Ani Difranco


I got pulled over in west Texas
So they could look inside my car
He said are you an American citizen
I said
Yes sir
So far
They made sure I wasn't smuggling
Someone in from Mexico
Someone willing to settle for America
'Cause there's nowhere else to go

And every state line
There's a new set of laws
And every police man
Comes equipped with extended claws
There's a thousand shades of white
And a thousand shades of black
But the same rule always applies
Smile pretty, and watch your back

I broke down in Louisiana
And I had to thumb a ride
Got in the first car that pulled over
You can't be picky in the middle of the night
He said
Baby, do you like to fool around
Baby, do you like to be touched
I said
Maybe some other time
Fuck you very much

And every state line
There's a new set of laws
And every police man
Comes equipped with extended claws
There's a thousand shades of white
And a thousand shades of black
But the same rule always applies
Smile pretty, and watch your back

I'm in the middle of Alabama
They stare at me where ever I go
I don't think they like my haircut
I don't think they like my clothes
I can't wait to get back to New York City
Where at least when I walk down the street
Nobody ever hesitates to tell me exactly what they think of me

And every state line
There's a new set of laws
And every police man
Comes equipped with extended claws
There's a thousand shades of white
And a thousand shades of black
But the same rule always applies
Smile pretty, and watch your back

A little town in Pennsylvania
There was snow on the ground
A parked in an empty lot
Where there was no one else around
But I guess I was taking up too much space
As I was trying to get some sleep
'Cause an officer came by anyway
And told me I had to leave

And every state line
There's a new set of laws
And every police man
Comes equipped with extended claws
There's a thousand shades of white
And a thousand shades of black
But the same rule always applies

Ticketed!

As I found out last year, one of the most exciting things about the Raytheon deployment process is getting the email stating that your travel itinerary has been prepared. As I was sitting here working and hanging out at the St George Municipal Airport (we're helping out with the shuttle of some scientists to a remote field spot just inside the Grand Canyon's National Park Boundary), I got the email from Raytheon with my travel itinerary which states I leave home (from Regan Airport and not Dulles) on the 26th of this month. Usually, when you get to this point in the deployment process you're pretty much done. All one has to do now is, well, deploy. The issuance of your itinerary definitely brings one closure knowing that there exists a definite date as to when you leave your home. So now I know I have only 10 days to see family, friends, run at the firehouse, pack, take care of somethings for post-Antarctic travels, and get some climbing in before I head south. The deployment process is almost over for me. The hard parts out of the way but my travels (again) are just beginning...

The Future

10 days are left till I drive home. It dawned on me last night that next week was my final week here in Utah for the rest of the season. Throughout the day, people have asked me if I was excited to get home or if I was excited to be going back to Antarctica. I really wasn't until the barrage of questions which drove the concept about the Austral Summer being so close hit me.

I had been hounding the travel department at Raytheon regarding my ticketing for my travels over the past few days. It wasn't until yesterday that I learned that my request to Captain Pahl to bump my deployment to an earlier day had actually been answered and approved. So instead of leaving 4 October I'm leaving on 2 October which puts me leaving Dulles around the 26th or so...which means even less time at home, probably 10 or 9 days. Either way, I'm still pretty excited knowing that by the 30th of this month I'll be in Christchurch, NZ.

As I said several times, I'm excited to get home but I'm sorta sad I won't be spending as much time at home as I had hoped. I'm still planning on taking next fall, spring, and summer off to work on my EMT-Intermediate and possibly my Paramedic. So far, unless something better comes a long, I definitely plan on going back down to McMurdo during the 2010-2011 Austral Summer. Surprisingly, despite how much I enjoy traveling and changing the seasons up, I'm looking forward to the stability that next fall will bring. Oh well. It's all in the future right now...

Skiing and Days Off

Day 2 of possibly 4 off from work. I find myself with an urge to go skiing somewhere. It may just be doing research on skiing around Christchurch and my approaching deployment down to McMurdo that's got me excited for some skiing and skinning. I picked up my skis from the ski shop where I had my bindings installed. As cold as its been here in Cedar City, one can only think that there's snow somewhere around Utah at 10, 11, and 12,0000 ft elevation. I haven't been able to do as much as I wanted to this "weekend" on account of my finger. I can't climb nor play my guitar (big bummer). I can, however, hike, read, and surf the internet so the day(s) haven't been wasted too much. Oh well. 13 days left in Utah, 32 till I'm back in McMurdo

Getting Ready to Move On

As my day at work draws near its end, I can't help but think about the 15 days I have left in Utah. Two weeks from tomorrow I'll be driving home to Great Falls, VA. I've been thinking about home a lot the past few days. I've been thinking about how I miss my mother and how I miss Ashburn. The Ashburn Volunteer Fire & Rescue Department, of which I've been a member since December of 2002, has gone through a lot of heartship and a lot of change in the past 12 months...most of for which I've been either across the country or out of the country all together. I received an email today stating that there are talks of an engine heading down to assist with with Hurricane Gustav. I want nothing more than to be there along side whoever steps up to help staff that engine heading down but I won't be home in time. After the summer wildland fire season next year, I'm planning on taking 2 semesters off to work on my Paramedic. I'm starting to really long for next fall.

I'm waiting till I get home before I start counting down till my 4 Oct deployment date down to the ice because at 34 days it's still depressing knowing I have that long to wait before I'm back in the place I love so much. For now, I'm enjoying my last couple of weeks here as well as preparing for adventures and academics to come...

Lots of fire....for two days

Irregardless of my injury, I was called by my boss around 2030 and was told of a fire near Bryce Canyon National Park. The unfortunate thing about it was that I had to be at the air center at 0430...that's right, 4:30 in the AM. We began working on the Straight Wildfire Use Fire around 0600. The entire day was actually pretty exciting. A lot of backburning and a lot of line digging. I preferred the burning over the line digging (asides for other obvious reasons) because of my finger (I had to put a splint on because I could feel my stitches tugging when I moved my finger). Because of my disability I was primarily carrying a driptorch for most of the day setting back fires. Nightfall came and a lot of things went wrong with the incident's management. With another burn plan going on separate from ours, the sole trail that provided access (as well as egress back to our vehicles) for our entire division got burned over. While we hiked all the way around the fire (as night fell) we realized the gravity of our situation as we were walking amongst burning snags and unburned fuel below us: We managed to survive the night as well as a few hours in the morning only to head to Toquerville, UT for a running 20 acre fire. After a couple hour drive back towards Toquerville and Cedar City, we made it to the fire and were almost put to work immediately but we had to wait for a few retardant lines to be put in by the heavy tanker working our fire:




For 2 days of solid firefighting, these two fires have probably been the most fire I've seen all season...

Stitches

In the tradistion of everything that is me, I managed to start of the first houer of the firdt day of my tourr at work with a scrench (paert scewtdriver and paert wrench used on chainsaws) almost a 1/2 inch into my finger. Thinking I was ok, I managed to go 5 minutes beforw realizing the gravity of my situation and driving myself to the ER for stitches and a lovely workman's comp claim.




As minor as the injury was, I went back to work on what my doctor called "modified" duty not necessarily "light" duty. At first I didn't think it was a big of a problem than it turned out to be by the end of the day until I realized how much of a pain in the ass it was to type with a bandage that doubles the width of your finger. You'd be amazed how much you take advantage of having two index fingers...

3 weeks

Today marks exactly 3 weeks till I drive back home to DC. It's been a very long season with a lot of ups and a lot of downs. Some of the roommates I've gained and met over the past week have become very good friends of mine and I'm pretty thankful for that. Work has been very slow. We're beyond the point where we try to use busy work to keep us occupied. Our afternoons at the air center are spent talking with each other, miscellaneous tasks around the base, and the occasional impromptu nap. Friday we participated in a rather fun prescribed fire...other than that that's the only flame I've seen for a few weeks.




I should be getting my tickets for my flight to the ice any day now (after I fax in my Terms of Agreements which I've already done so twice this summer). I haven't started counting down till my deployment date yet because looking at that number would just depress me. For now, I'm just going to count down to the 15th when I drive back to Virginia. I wish I had something more exciting for you but, sadly, thats it...

Back to Work

So I now have 28 days and counting till I drive home from Utah. After a bout of food poisoning, I started working again only to leave Utah for Arizona to do a project just outside of the Grand Canyon. Although it wasn't fire, it was nice to have an easy task of building loads of fencing materials and hiking 4 miles into to receive them while our helicopter long-lined them into us. Near the (normal) end of our shift, we got dispatcehd to a fire in the Fishlake National Forest right outside of the town of Circleville, UT where we worked until 2100 hrs and made it back to the airbase around midnight only to leave again at 0600 to go back to the same fire. At least we're not sitting around doing nothing...

Tomorrow starts the beginning of my 3 day break. Because of some issues with my landlord and him possibly screwing me over, I'm going to spend most of that time talking with a lawyer(s). I'm definitely going to try to get into the park if I can. I definitely feel I'm starting to come out of the funk I was in because of the Line of Duty Deaths from the Iron Complex. I have 4 weeks left here so hopefully they'll be good ones.

A Better Day with Things to Do

Today I'm sick. Deathly sick. Sometime within the past 48 hours I contracted food poisoning (for the second time this year) and I've been paying for ever since I woke up this morning (I have been literally paying for it as well...$500 for an ER visit...). I called out from work sick today, went to the hospital, got some anti-biotics and here I sit in front of my computer. I feel I've been pretty hard on myself the past couple of weeks and its been seriously affecting my performance as a firefighter (both wildland and structural as I found) as well as my normal ability to think decisively, quickly, and clearly. I decided to take my mind off my mental and current social problems and focus on things that I need to worry about as well as the things that usually bring joy to me.

Being in Salt Lake really got me excited for the up-coming main body season at McMurdo Station as it did last year. It was cool meeting up with those I spent 5 months with last season as well as meeting the new folks coming down in September and October. The one thing that sucked about SLC was the fact that I may have failed my IFSAC test for Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting but I'll deal with that when I find out for sure.

Now that I'm back home I have other things to keep me busy when I'm not at work. My landlord is (at least I think so) trying to screw me out of my room so he can move 7 girls into the house. He tried getting me to move out by tomorrow without even looking at my lease. His assistant came over to tell me that I had to leave until I told her that my lease was not up. Considering I had asked my landlord over 5 times for a copy of my lease, she went to their office to get it only to find out that my lease is up on the 30th and he still has 7 girls he promised to house in this house. So now they're trying to move me across the street into a room I have to be out of by the 25th. They're solution for the other 5 days? Pay me $100 for "my troubles". I don't know what I'm going to do yet but at least I still have more time.

Asides from that, not much else is going on. I took a small trip to Brian Head, UT to get a pair of bindings installed on my skiis. Now I'm back at the house and resting.

I'm trying to get ready for McMurdo the best I can without being at home (DC-home). I'm planning (or at least trying) to go to Morocco shortly after my redeployment in Late February/Early March which means I may need to get a visa and a few other things to facilitate a climbing trip be it alpine/mountaineering or rock climbing. There have been a lot of changes for the United States Antarctic Program this year...one of them being the Hold-In-Christchurch option for people deploying to the ice. It use to be that you could mail something from the states directly to the CDC so that it could be held there throughout your deployment awaiting you when you arrived. Now that they've done away with that, you have to have things shipped directly to McMurdo and then you can ship it to Christchurch to be held...crazy, I know.

All in all, I'm glad to be back and I can't wait to get down to the ice. Hopefully we'll see some more fire before I drive back to the East Coast...

Depressed - Back in Cedar City

I arrived back into Cedar City at around 2200 hrs this evening only to become overwhelmed with guilt and depression. The past 10 days in SLC have been hard but fun. Hearing word of the S-61 that crashed in California on the fire my crew was on hit me pretty hard. I've kept it in the back of my mind since I first heard of the news last week. Now that I'm home, it's hit me harder than ever. I feel guilty for leaving my crew right before they had to endure such a horrible event. While I was away from California where they had been stuck for 2 weeks they were having to deal with one of the most devastating fire aviation accidents in several decades. I heartfully feel for my boss, Michael Reid. He was the first person on the scene of the crash and he had to deal with the coordination of aircraft be used for fire suppression of the crashed S-61 and medivacs. He's going through a really hard time right now and I pray for him and my crew everyday. A lot has happened since I left. All 5 of my roommates have moved out leaving me in the house alone (which is actually a good thing). My crew had to attend a Critical Incident Stress Debriefing to deal with the crash. Like I said, I feel guilty and horribly depressed for not being their to support my crew, my brothers and sisters, in their time of woe and need. I feel like I left them, bailed on them, abandoned them. What I feel bad about the most is the fact that I left to learn how to fight aircraft fires and how to rescue victims of aviation accidents only to not be there for my crew when they needed me to help them deal with the lost of a fiery crash with 9 dead. All I know is that I have 4-5 weeks left in the season and I can't wait for it to be over....