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| From Blogger Pictures |
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| From Blogger Pictures |
I have a lot of work to do as you can see. I probably should get off blogger and get started...
16 April 2011
A Saturday Ruined By Rain
I have a horrible habit of not checking the weather on a regular basis...especially considering my hobbies and line of work. Today I was planning on heading to Maryland Heights to climb throughout the afternoon. I woke up at about 1100 this morning to a shit load of rain and a lot of howling wind. So much for climbing. Instead I'm taking the time to facebook stalk some friends and organize the heap(s) of shit I've yet to sort out since I moved back home from Ashburn in February. My climbing equipment, camping equipment, cold weather outerwear, books, papers, etc are all mixed together in various storage bins which I have to make a rhyme or reason out of.
I have a lot of work to do as you can see. I probably should get off blogger and get started...
I have a lot of work to do as you can see. I probably should get off blogger and get started...
Forced Hiatus from Blogger
Note: for some reason my computer would not log onto blogger. I'm going to try to post post-dated entries on here over the next week or so.
16 January 2011
Ice Climbing Road Trip - Day 2
Bob and I had discussed an early wake up the night before about an hour or more before the showdown in our hostel room. He had wanted to wake up at 0600. I was hoping for a little bit later wake up call. Despite my subtle protests we decided on a 0600 wake up. To my surprise I awoke around 0700 still plenty tired and sore from the day before. We quickly packed and headed to a local diner in New Paltz for breakfast. With New Paltz being a quick jaunt off of I-87, we were quickly on the road heading for the Catskills Mountains. Our destination which we had discussed over breakfast was to be Stoney Clove located near Phoenicia, NY off of NY 214. Although a very quick drive, once we got off of the interstate, the drive up 28 and onto 214 became quite scenic. NY Rt 28 skirts the western border of Catskills Park which, much like the rest of the area at this time of year, was speckled yet covered in some spots with snow. Ice flows of all shapes and sizes lined several parts of the road:
When we drove through Phoenicia and turned on to Rt 214 we could notice a large cloud dumping snow on the exact area on which we were to be climbing. I'm not sure how Bob was feeling but I was ecstatic about the enjoyable misery of postholing through powder on the side of a mountain to climb some ice.
The drive from New Paltz to Notch Lake where we were to park took about an hour. We were hiking well before 0900. Despite it snowing and howling, once in the tree line it wasn't bad at all. Albeit steep, the hike was relatively easy. There wasn't as much snow as we had though on the hill side and there was already a trail blazed by various other parties that had visited the ice over the course of the winter.
Still hurting from the day before I passed the reins to Bob who led the first climbs of the day. The ice was rock solid and full of pockets thanks to a solid season of climbing. The sound of Bob's and my tools sinking in the ice was quickly absorbed by the falling snow. What most people don't know about snow is that the normally hollow structure of snow flakes is what makes snow falling so peaceful to us. Each individual flake does its part to absorb all the white noise we don't usually notice and take for granted. When said noise is not there, we're left with the peace and tranquility that snowfall and snowy landscapes usually bring with them. After a few hours of climbing, the skies attempted to clear and did so succesfully a few times.
I followed Bob for most of the day. My arm was screaming but I didn't let it stop me from climbing. The ice had been used so much over the winter that I spent most of my time hooking versus actually swinging my tools. There were several climbing areas at the top of the particular mountain we had hiked. We started off at an area called Sun Wall which proved to be a very easy WI2/3 in rating. We moved up the valley to an area called The Playground which ended up being a little bit more difficult than Sun Wall. We kept moving our way across the slope and up the valley until we started to get tired and the skies darkened again. The climbs had two things in common that worked against us the entire day: 1) topping out of the climbs required negotiating almost 5 feet of muddy grass and tree roots. Every climb, which we later found out this to be notorious of Catskills ice climbs, the ice ended just short of the top which led to very interesting finishes of the climbs. 2) Each sections of ice were separated by a deceivingly long and almost alpine traverse through thigh-deep snow. Enter the postholing. A couple times we thought about belaying each other in between the climbs only to sack up and pray we didn't fall in the end. The mountain side was even steeper in between the climbs and being 800 feet above the base made for a long glissade (slide) through a bunch of trees that didn't look at all fun to hit.
The last climb of the day ended up being a two pitch climb due to an incredibly steep hike (70 degrees!) up a snowy/ice slope to another mini-ampitheatre of ice Bob and I decided to forgo climbing. It was nearly 4 PM, it was getting late, and Bob had a Jets game to watch shortly. We decided to rap off a tree back to the base of the climb in order to start down climbing back to 214.
After an hour and a half of scraping my crampons on shitty ice and rock or down climbing small sections of vertical ice, we finally made it down to 214 about 3/4 of a mile up the valley from Bob's car. Tired and sore, we packed up and headed back to Phoenicia to get dinner and watch the game. We left by 2000 and drove back to New Paltz where we spent the rest of the evening hanging our rope, outerwear, and climbing gear in order to let it dry only to pass out by 2200.
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| From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking |
When we drove through Phoenicia and turned on to Rt 214 we could notice a large cloud dumping snow on the exact area on which we were to be climbing. I'm not sure how Bob was feeling but I was ecstatic about the enjoyable misery of postholing through powder on the side of a mountain to climb some ice.
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| From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking |
The drive from New Paltz to Notch Lake where we were to park took about an hour. We were hiking well before 0900. Despite it snowing and howling, once in the tree line it wasn't bad at all. Albeit steep, the hike was relatively easy. There wasn't as much snow as we had though on the hill side and there was already a trail blazed by various other parties that had visited the ice over the course of the winter.
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| From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking |
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| From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking |
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| From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking |
Still hurting from the day before I passed the reins to Bob who led the first climbs of the day. The ice was rock solid and full of pockets thanks to a solid season of climbing. The sound of Bob's and my tools sinking in the ice was quickly absorbed by the falling snow. What most people don't know about snow is that the normally hollow structure of snow flakes is what makes snow falling so peaceful to us. Each individual flake does its part to absorb all the white noise we don't usually notice and take for granted. When said noise is not there, we're left with the peace and tranquility that snowfall and snowy landscapes usually bring with them. After a few hours of climbing, the skies attempted to clear and did so succesfully a few times.
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| From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking |
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| From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking |
I followed Bob for most of the day. My arm was screaming but I didn't let it stop me from climbing. The ice had been used so much over the winter that I spent most of my time hooking versus actually swinging my tools. There were several climbing areas at the top of the particular mountain we had hiked. We started off at an area called Sun Wall which proved to be a very easy WI2/3 in rating. We moved up the valley to an area called The Playground which ended up being a little bit more difficult than Sun Wall. We kept moving our way across the slope and up the valley until we started to get tired and the skies darkened again. The climbs had two things in common that worked against us the entire day: 1) topping out of the climbs required negotiating almost 5 feet of muddy grass and tree roots. Every climb, which we later found out this to be notorious of Catskills ice climbs, the ice ended just short of the top which led to very interesting finishes of the climbs. 2) Each sections of ice were separated by a deceivingly long and almost alpine traverse through thigh-deep snow. Enter the postholing. A couple times we thought about belaying each other in between the climbs only to sack up and pray we didn't fall in the end. The mountain side was even steeper in between the climbs and being 800 feet above the base made for a long glissade (slide) through a bunch of trees that didn't look at all fun to hit.
The last climb of the day ended up being a two pitch climb due to an incredibly steep hike (70 degrees!) up a snowy/ice slope to another mini-ampitheatre of ice Bob and I decided to forgo climbing. It was nearly 4 PM, it was getting late, and Bob had a Jets game to watch shortly. We decided to rap off a tree back to the base of the climb in order to start down climbing back to 214.
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| From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking |
After an hour and a half of scraping my crampons on shitty ice and rock or down climbing small sections of vertical ice, we finally made it down to 214 about 3/4 of a mile up the valley from Bob's car. Tired and sore, we packed up and headed back to Phoenicia to get dinner and watch the game. We left by 2000 and drove back to New Paltz where we spent the rest of the evening hanging our rope, outerwear, and climbing gear in order to let it dry only to pass out by 2200.
15 January 2011
Ice Climbing Road Trip - Day 1
Shortly before New Years, I had been climbing ice with a friend of a friend at Overland Falls in Shenandoah National Park when on our way out I ran into a friend of mine Bob Graver, coming up to the falls to climb. Somewhere during our conversation I lost focus on packing up to head out and had left my shell gloves there at the water fall. Luckily, Bob picked them up for me. Since Bob and I live some distance apart (about an hour to be exact) we figured the best and most efficient means of me picking my gloves up from him would be to go climbing together and get them then. About a week ago, I had remembered this and shot Bob and email to see if he wanted to go climbing this weekend (MLK Day weekend). Happily Bob said yes and we decided to head up to the Catskill Mountains for our trip. Last night we finally hashed out a few of the details and figured since it's [sorta] on the way, we'd stop at the Narrows, a group of waterfalls on the side of PA Route 32 outside of Kintnersville.
Today, we met up in Vienna, VA where I left my jeep in a parking garage in favor of Bob's much more fuel efficient Subaru Outback. We left Vienna around 1100 and headed for Fredrick, MD to pick up US 15 toward Harrisburg, PA. From there we picked up Interstate 78 and headed east for Hellertown near Allentown where we picked up the back roads towards Kintnersville. The waterfalls at the Narrows begin just off of the shoulder of PA 32 overlooking the Delaware River.
We pulled into the roadside parking lot, geared up, and started the two minute walk to the main falls which we found we had all to ourselves. Not bad for 14:00 on a Saturday of a holiday weekend! The ice looked solid and well developed. We strapped our crampons on and started walking towards the first set of falls. The ice felt pretty good beneath us and we couldn't here any flowing water (which is a good thing mind you).
The first couple sets of falls weren't that big: maybe 6 or 7 feet tall rated at WI4. Quick scrambling over these made for fast moving and an almost careless attitude for the climb. The next couple sets of falls, however, were starting to get a little taller. The first set over 10 feet I placed a screw not for fear of falling and hitting the ground (I knew I was hitting the ground if I fell regardless of me placing a screw or not) but for fear of hitting the ground, sliding off one set of falls, hitting the ground, sliding off the second set, and, well you get the picture. That is exactly what happened after placing the second screw of the pitch on the second set of falls that was way taller than the ones I first encountered. At this point was at the 4th or 5th set of falls from the bottom of the waterfall all together. I placed a screw while standing at the base and started climbing. I had started to reach over the lip of the falls when my ice tools hit a patch of rotten ice, peeled off, and sent me flying backwards. I fell about 10 feet, hit the ground, slid about 6 feet, fell off the set of falls below where I slid, fell another 5 feet, and slid about 5 more feet before the screw caught me. At one point throughout the sliding I was wondering when I was going to stop sliding and/or falling and what part of my body was going to stop me? At the time I was sliding on my back head first unable to see where I was heading. When I came to a stop I laid on the ground for a minute waiting for the adrenaline to wear off to see what hurt. My legs could move: great. My head and neck didn't hurt: superb. My left arm, however, was howling. I stood up with my legs shaking like shit and waved to Bob. The wind had been knocked out of me so I didn't say anything to him just yet. My arm was shaking pretty good as well. Bob screamed to me, "All you alright?!" which I simply just acknowledge and started to expose my arm. I knew I had hit my arm pretty hard when I saw a bruise the size of my wallet on the backside of my forearm; a feat for someone with complexion as dark as mine is hard to accomplish. I figured it wasn't broken considering the pain wasn't excruciating nor was I screaming. I stood there for a few more minutes shaking out my arm and hand (that all of a sudden started hurting just as badly while Bob was talking to me from the bottom. Apparently when I went out of sight, slack ended up in the rope which allowed my fall/skid/fall. Thankfully, I didn't break my neck or back, nor got impaled by my tools. I picked up my tools and tried out my arm which let me know right away it was not happy by shooting pain up to my elbow from my hand after smacking it against the ice while swinging. Without hesitation I said fuck it and kept going refusing to get injured on the first pitch of the first climb of a 3-day climbing trip. I got to the top of the first pitch, set up an anchor, and belayed Bob as he cleaned the screws I had placed. Bob apologized for the slack which I wasn't really worried about. I was ok and it was a simple mistake that I make all the time. I gave Bob some screamers and a couple more quickdraws and he took off to lead the 2nd pitch. The 2nd pitch started off like the end of the first pitch: a few short leads on WI4 ice that brought you to an amphitheater of WI3-4 ice upwards of 50-60+ feet. By the time Bob cleared the smaller falls and made it to the base of the larger ice, we had run our rope out. Shocked, Bob set up an anchor on a tree of to the side and belayed me up while I cleaned for him. I was moving slow. My hand and arm hurt like hell and I was having a hard time gripping my tool. I had to choke up on my left tool so I wouldn't bang my hand into the ice as I swung which through me off balance as I pulled up to reach for the next move(s). Luckily I made to the top of the 2nd pitch without falling. The main part of the falls themselves were huge offering several different ways to top them out. I decided to rest for a bit a belay Bob while he climbed a couple of them.
After spending about 30-45 minutes climbing the falls to ourselves another party worked their way up to where we were to share into the fun. Bob climbed one more line and then we decided to start rapping back down since it was getting dark and we still had a couple more hours of driving ahead of us to make it to New Paltz, NY. We rappelled off the tree we had been using as a belay and made it to where I had belayed Bob from the bottom of the 2nd pitch when we realized that Bob had left his backpack (and his car keys) up from where we rappelled. We yelled up to the party above us who offered a trade of them bringing the backpack down if they could rap down on our rope still anchored to the tree above. Done deal! When they made it down we decided to join forces (and ropes) in order to rappel all the way down versus rappelling two separate pitches. At this point is was dark and headlamps were in order.
We made it back down to the road, removed our crampons, and hiked back to the car all by 18:00. We got out of our boots and hit the road for New Paltz. I passed out for most of the drive and woke up as we were getting off of Interstate 87 onto NY 299 heading into New Paltz.
We pulled into the New Paltz Hostel, secured our bunks, took showers, and relaxed a little bit. Our bunk mates seemed to be from all walks of life. The guy in the bunk below me, a genuinely friendly and nice dude, seemed to be a rambler in the true sense of the word: from his tattered jacket, dark-green probably-at-one-time blue Dickies barely hanging onto his frame, speckled glasses, and weathered face, he seemed to live out of a bunch of plastic grocery bags he carried around in a small duffel bag. Let's call him John. John, although friendly and very happy-go-lucky, could not grasp the concept of the whisper...which is very important in a hostel bunk-room after 23:00. This characteristic will come back into play shortly. Our next bunk mate whom we will refer to as Jeff was a very happy, heavyset Hispanic dude in his mid-30s who also was incredibly polite and very passive. If he felt he troubled you in any way which included walking in front of your view of a TV with nothing but static on it, he would apologize profusely even after you told him several times it was ok. Jeff also had an issue with either heights or ladders because he waffled back and forth staring at his top bunk before going to the head guy of the hostel to address his issue. Since there were no other bottom bunks available Jeff went back to the bunk-room to conquer his issue with the bed. Upon attempted to scale his bunk Jeff slipped and planted his foot rather hard into the bunk of our third bunk mate whom we will refer to as Jack. Jack, like the other two was a friendly guy with a little bit rougher personality. Now I swore like a sailor and Bob would let out an epithet here and there but as far as anyone else in the building Jack was the only other person who spoke with a coarse vocabulary like I did. Jack was sound asleep when Jeff accidentally stumbled into his bed. Jack sprung up and reacted quickly: "What the fuck is going on!?" Jeff almost had a heart attack and stumbled over the several ways he knew how to apologize as he feared for his life. Jack quickly calmed down and reassured Jeff who managed to get into his bunk with little issue. This was the last we had heard of Jeff for our brief nightly stay there for I'm sure he was mortified by even thinking of trying to get out of his bed and back in until Jack left. Enters John. Our bunk room was sealed off from the common area by two doors suspended from the ceiling on tracks that recessed back into the walls. John managed to bang both doors into walls very loudly, trip over something on the floor, dumb his duffel bag and God-knows how many plastic bags onto the ground, and proclaim, "Shit!" (again in a way that can not be considered anything like whispering) all in a matter of seconds. Again, fast to the trigger, Jack sprung out of bed and screamed, "Ok what in the FUCK is going on in this fucking place?!". John, in a not so subtle voice pierced what little silence was left with a long-winded explanation as to what happened. "Dude, just stop. Just fucking stop and keep it down so SOME of us can get some sleep" cried jack. John continued his doing his thing all the while verbally explaining to himself everything that he was doing: from looking for his tooth brush to counting his money. For about 20 minutes this went on until Jack finally got out of bed and got in John's face and asked him very forcefully to keep it down or get out. As they stood my head was 4 to 5 feet away from them at the same level. I prayed to got if they started swing I would not get hit with a stray punch or get shot or something. After all, I was already hurting from the fall earlier in the day. Finally Jack went back to sleep, and I fell asleep when John went to take a shower. I woke up a couple times throughout the night to John's tossing and turning, but I managed to get a few hours of sleep after Bob and my first day on the trip...
Today, we met up in Vienna, VA where I left my jeep in a parking garage in favor of Bob's much more fuel efficient Subaru Outback. We left Vienna around 1100 and headed for Fredrick, MD to pick up US 15 toward Harrisburg, PA. From there we picked up Interstate 78 and headed east for Hellertown near Allentown where we picked up the back roads towards Kintnersville. The waterfalls at the Narrows begin just off of the shoulder of PA 32 overlooking the Delaware River.
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| From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking |
We pulled into the roadside parking lot, geared up, and started the two minute walk to the main falls which we found we had all to ourselves. Not bad for 14:00 on a Saturday of a holiday weekend! The ice looked solid and well developed. We strapped our crampons on and started walking towards the first set of falls. The ice felt pretty good beneath us and we couldn't here any flowing water (which is a good thing mind you).
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| From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking |
The first couple sets of falls weren't that big: maybe 6 or 7 feet tall rated at WI4. Quick scrambling over these made for fast moving and an almost careless attitude for the climb. The next couple sets of falls, however, were starting to get a little taller. The first set over 10 feet I placed a screw not for fear of falling and hitting the ground (I knew I was hitting the ground if I fell regardless of me placing a screw or not) but for fear of hitting the ground, sliding off one set of falls, hitting the ground, sliding off the second set, and, well you get the picture. That is exactly what happened after placing the second screw of the pitch on the second set of falls that was way taller than the ones I first encountered. At this point was at the 4th or 5th set of falls from the bottom of the waterfall all together. I placed a screw while standing at the base and started climbing. I had started to reach over the lip of the falls when my ice tools hit a patch of rotten ice, peeled off, and sent me flying backwards. I fell about 10 feet, hit the ground, slid about 6 feet, fell off the set of falls below where I slid, fell another 5 feet, and slid about 5 more feet before the screw caught me. At one point throughout the sliding I was wondering when I was going to stop sliding and/or falling and what part of my body was going to stop me? At the time I was sliding on my back head first unable to see where I was heading. When I came to a stop I laid on the ground for a minute waiting for the adrenaline to wear off to see what hurt. My legs could move: great. My head and neck didn't hurt: superb. My left arm, however, was howling. I stood up with my legs shaking like shit and waved to Bob. The wind had been knocked out of me so I didn't say anything to him just yet. My arm was shaking pretty good as well. Bob screamed to me, "All you alright?!" which I simply just acknowledge and started to expose my arm. I knew I had hit my arm pretty hard when I saw a bruise the size of my wallet on the backside of my forearm; a feat for someone with complexion as dark as mine is hard to accomplish. I figured it wasn't broken considering the pain wasn't excruciating nor was I screaming. I stood there for a few more minutes shaking out my arm and hand (that all of a sudden started hurting just as badly while Bob was talking to me from the bottom. Apparently when I went out of sight, slack ended up in the rope which allowed my fall/skid/fall. Thankfully, I didn't break my neck or back, nor got impaled by my tools. I picked up my tools and tried out my arm which let me know right away it was not happy by shooting pain up to my elbow from my hand after smacking it against the ice while swinging. Without hesitation I said fuck it and kept going refusing to get injured on the first pitch of the first climb of a 3-day climbing trip. I got to the top of the first pitch, set up an anchor, and belayed Bob as he cleaned the screws I had placed. Bob apologized for the slack which I wasn't really worried about. I was ok and it was a simple mistake that I make all the time. I gave Bob some screamers and a couple more quickdraws and he took off to lead the 2nd pitch. The 2nd pitch started off like the end of the first pitch: a few short leads on WI4 ice that brought you to an amphitheater of WI3-4 ice upwards of 50-60+ feet. By the time Bob cleared the smaller falls and made it to the base of the larger ice, we had run our rope out. Shocked, Bob set up an anchor on a tree of to the side and belayed me up while I cleaned for him. I was moving slow. My hand and arm hurt like hell and I was having a hard time gripping my tool. I had to choke up on my left tool so I wouldn't bang my hand into the ice as I swung which through me off balance as I pulled up to reach for the next move(s). Luckily I made to the top of the 2nd pitch without falling. The main part of the falls themselves were huge offering several different ways to top them out. I decided to rest for a bit a belay Bob while he climbed a couple of them.
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| From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking |
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| From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking |
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| From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking |
After spending about 30-45 minutes climbing the falls to ourselves another party worked their way up to where we were to share into the fun. Bob climbed one more line and then we decided to start rapping back down since it was getting dark and we still had a couple more hours of driving ahead of us to make it to New Paltz, NY. We rappelled off the tree we had been using as a belay and made it to where I had belayed Bob from the bottom of the 2nd pitch when we realized that Bob had left his backpack (and his car keys) up from where we rappelled. We yelled up to the party above us who offered a trade of them bringing the backpack down if they could rap down on our rope still anchored to the tree above. Done deal! When they made it down we decided to join forces (and ropes) in order to rappel all the way down versus rappelling two separate pitches. At this point is was dark and headlamps were in order.
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| From Miscellaneous Climbing and Hiking |
We made it back down to the road, removed our crampons, and hiked back to the car all by 18:00. We got out of our boots and hit the road for New Paltz. I passed out for most of the drive and woke up as we were getting off of Interstate 87 onto NY 299 heading into New Paltz.
We pulled into the New Paltz Hostel, secured our bunks, took showers, and relaxed a little bit. Our bunk mates seemed to be from all walks of life. The guy in the bunk below me, a genuinely friendly and nice dude, seemed to be a rambler in the true sense of the word: from his tattered jacket, dark-green probably-at-one-time blue Dickies barely hanging onto his frame, speckled glasses, and weathered face, he seemed to live out of a bunch of plastic grocery bags he carried around in a small duffel bag. Let's call him John. John, although friendly and very happy-go-lucky, could not grasp the concept of the whisper...which is very important in a hostel bunk-room after 23:00. This characteristic will come back into play shortly. Our next bunk mate whom we will refer to as Jeff was a very happy, heavyset Hispanic dude in his mid-30s who also was incredibly polite and very passive. If he felt he troubled you in any way which included walking in front of your view of a TV with nothing but static on it, he would apologize profusely even after you told him several times it was ok. Jeff also had an issue with either heights or ladders because he waffled back and forth staring at his top bunk before going to the head guy of the hostel to address his issue. Since there were no other bottom bunks available Jeff went back to the bunk-room to conquer his issue with the bed. Upon attempted to scale his bunk Jeff slipped and planted his foot rather hard into the bunk of our third bunk mate whom we will refer to as Jack. Jack, like the other two was a friendly guy with a little bit rougher personality. Now I swore like a sailor and Bob would let out an epithet here and there but as far as anyone else in the building Jack was the only other person who spoke with a coarse vocabulary like I did. Jack was sound asleep when Jeff accidentally stumbled into his bed. Jack sprung up and reacted quickly: "What the fuck is going on!?" Jeff almost had a heart attack and stumbled over the several ways he knew how to apologize as he feared for his life. Jack quickly calmed down and reassured Jeff who managed to get into his bunk with little issue. This was the last we had heard of Jeff for our brief nightly stay there for I'm sure he was mortified by even thinking of trying to get out of his bed and back in until Jack left. Enters John. Our bunk room was sealed off from the common area by two doors suspended from the ceiling on tracks that recessed back into the walls. John managed to bang both doors into walls very loudly, trip over something on the floor, dumb his duffel bag and God-knows how many plastic bags onto the ground, and proclaim, "Shit!" (again in a way that can not be considered anything like whispering) all in a matter of seconds. Again, fast to the trigger, Jack sprung out of bed and screamed, "Ok what in the FUCK is going on in this fucking place?!". John, in a not so subtle voice pierced what little silence was left with a long-winded explanation as to what happened. "Dude, just stop. Just fucking stop and keep it down so SOME of us can get some sleep" cried jack. John continued his doing his thing all the while verbally explaining to himself everything that he was doing: from looking for his tooth brush to counting his money. For about 20 minutes this went on until Jack finally got out of bed and got in John's face and asked him very forcefully to keep it down or get out. As they stood my head was 4 to 5 feet away from them at the same level. I prayed to got if they started swing I would not get hit with a stray punch or get shot or something. After all, I was already hurting from the fall earlier in the day. Finally Jack went back to sleep, and I fell asleep when John went to take a shower. I woke up a couple times throughout the night to John's tossing and turning, but I managed to get a few hours of sleep after Bob and my first day on the trip...
01 January 2011
Welcome 2011
It's a brand new year: 2011 to be exact for those of you that didn't know. A lot of people hated 2010 for some reason. Yet as I look back on last year, I can't say it was a bad one for me. If anything, a lot of good things happened to me throughout the year: For one, I strengthened my relationship with my mother which was one of the main reasons I stayed back in this area to begin with. I strengthened my relationships with my friends...especially the ones at Ashburn Vol. Fire & Rescue Dept. I got hired as a paid firefighter with MWAA and was (still am) stationed at Dulles Airport. I've met some really good and genuine people with whom I hope I will stay in contact with no matter where my life takes me. On top of that, I completed one of the first steps to becoming a Paramedic locally and became an EMT-Enhanced (as of writing this I'm still waiting on my card). Yes, 2010 wasn't too bad. 2011 I have a decent amount to look forward to. If all goes well, I'm hoping to be an EMT-Intermediate by the end of the year. If all goes really well, then by the end of June! With a job that pays a little bit better than $11.80 an hour, I'm hoping to travel a lot more. I miss the freedom and adventure of living out west. I miss Antarctica desperately. I don't see myself living in either two for a good while but I can still travel a bit from here, the DC area. For now, I'm going to miss 2010 and everything it's done for me. At the same time I'm going to welcome in 2011 and pray that it's just as fruitful as 2010 was.
31 December 2010
Sexually Frustrated Antarcticans
Even the animals are sexually frustrated in Antarctica!
'Sex pest' seal attacks penguin - BBC NEWS/SCIENCE
'Sex pest' seal attacks penguin - BBC NEWS/SCIENCE
06 November 2010
Obsession
Today, I didn't have much to do. I woke up at 11 (on purpose) at the firehouse, went home, checked my mail, went to the post office, Five Guys for lunch, then came back to prime my furnace with my landlord/friend. After that, well, I did very little productive work. One thing I did that has been on my mind the past couple of weeks was lay out my climbing gear and check out the equipment I'd use for ice climbing. After sitting like a child Indian-style around wall-to-wall climbing gear spread out over my carpet, I decided to some ice-climbing related "things" to pass the time. I pulled out all the clothing I'd wear for a 10-15 degree day sans strong winds. I got dressed, then I practiced knot-craft with my gloves, clipping and unclipping carabiners with my gloves, ice-axe handling, hooking, I did ice-axe pull-ups on a tree branch with everything on including a backpack, I went crazy. It's a good thing not many people can see me in my yard unless they try hard enough because I looked ridiculous. But I was having a blast. Said ridiculousness, however, led me to ask myself the question as to whether or not I was obsessed with climbing or not. Sure, I've been saying it for years but have I reached a level where that healthy obsession has become something obnoxious for others to deal with or something that has consumed my life? Haha, is their such a thing as an unhealthy obsession with climbing? I'm sure a lot of dirt-bag climbers out there would beg to differ. I guess until 12-step programs are advertised for climbers I'm pretty safe. Anyways, who's up for some New Hampshire ice climbing this month?
17 October 2010
Down to Earth by Peter Gabriel
The hippie in me fell in love with this song instantly after watching Disney's Wall-E.
Down to Earth
by Peter Gabriel
Did you think that your feet had been bound
By what gravity brings to the ground?
Did you feel you were tricked
By the future you picked?
Well come on down
All these rules don't apply
When you're high in the sky
So come on down
Come on down
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow upon the mountains
We've got rivers down below
We're coming down to the ground
To hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze
Did you think you'd escaped from routine
By changing the script and the scene?
Despite all you made of it
you're always afraid of the change
You've got a lot on your chest
Well you can come as my guest
So come on down
Come on down
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow upon the mountains
We've got rivers down below
We're coming down to the ground
We'll hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze
Like the fish in the ocean
We felt at home in the sea
We learned to live off the good land
We learned to climb up a tree
then we got up on two legs
But we wanted to fly
When we messed up our homeland
and set sail for the sky
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow upon the mountains
We got rivers down below
We're coming down to the ground
We'll hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze
We're coming down
Comin' down to earth
Like babies at birth
Comin' down to earth
Redefine your priorities
These are extraordinary qualities
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow upon the mountains
We've got rivers down below
We're coming down to the ground
We'll hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow upon the mountains
We've got rivers down below
We're coming down to the ground
We'll hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze
Down to Earth
by Peter Gabriel
Did you think that your feet had been bound
By what gravity brings to the ground?
Did you feel you were tricked
By the future you picked?
Well come on down
All these rules don't apply
When you're high in the sky
So come on down
Come on down
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow upon the mountains
We've got rivers down below
We're coming down to the ground
To hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze
Did you think you'd escaped from routine
By changing the script and the scene?
Despite all you made of it
you're always afraid of the change
You've got a lot on your chest
Well you can come as my guest
So come on down
Come on down
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow upon the mountains
We've got rivers down below
We're coming down to the ground
We'll hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze
Like the fish in the ocean
We felt at home in the sea
We learned to live off the good land
We learned to climb up a tree
then we got up on two legs
But we wanted to fly
When we messed up our homeland
and set sail for the sky
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow upon the mountains
We got rivers down below
We're coming down to the ground
We'll hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze
We're coming down
Comin' down to earth
Like babies at birth
Comin' down to earth
Redefine your priorities
These are extraordinary qualities
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow upon the mountains
We've got rivers down below
We're coming down to the ground
We'll hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze
We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow upon the mountains
We've got rivers down below
We're coming down to the ground
We'll hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze
07 October 2010
An Accident Within the First 18 Hours of Owning A Vehicle: The Beginning of the Era of the White Whale (Summer 2009)
One of the best (and worst) decisions I made last summer was trading in my 2004 Nissan Xterra for a 1993 Ford F250. The X, surprisingly, was on it's last leg. Having blown a rear main seal twice in a year and not to mention the fact that I put well over 110,000 miles on the thing within 5 years, I was having some major doubts it would make back to the DC area at the end (well my end) of the 2009's fire season. So I decided to trade it in for whatever 4wd vehicle I could find that would match it's value. Now, Xterra's depreciate pretty easily after you buy them. Maybe it was just how hard I had ridden the poor vehicle over the decade...either way it wasn't worth shit when came time to trade it in. I was looking for other Xterra's or diesel pick-up trucks withing an 8 hour radius of Cedar City, UT. After a little over a month of searching I found the perfect truck for me: an all white 1993 Ford F250. The truck itself was located on a used car lot in Twin Falls, ID 6 hours away. Since I had been planning on visiting my daughter that week I decided to kill two birds with one stone. I took all the essentials out of the X and started making my way up I-15 for Twin Falls.
The truck itself was not for the faint of heart. The diamond plate running boards had seen better days. At one point the bed had been lined (very cheaply). Then, it was peeling and flaking like it was going out of style. The cab had a funk of chewing tobacco and body odor. To me, however, it was perfect. The bench seat in the front fit me comfortably. With an inch to spare on either end of me, I was able to lay completely stretched out across the bench. Fabulous! No more reclining my driver's seat to sleep at rest stops. It had a back bench seat that was accessible only by reclining the front bench seat. The truck came with 31" tires and a hell of a V8 diesel engine with an aftermarket turbo. I was sold. After some paperwork and a test drive, I transferred everything from the X to the truck and took a moment to say good-bye to the X-Terra. I still miss it to this day but I don't know if I'll buy another Xterra...but that's for another post all together. After a few hours at the dealership, I pulled out with my new [by ownership] truck and hit the road for Boise.The truck was pretty damn big...easily the biggest vehicle I've ever owned. Right away I dubbed it the White Whale.
I spent a day and a half in Boise. Things were going great with the truck. My first purchase was a truck box I got from a Home Depot in Twin Falls, ID. After that I bought a head unit in Boise which installed in the Best Buy parking lot on Franklin Ave. I left directly from Maleigha's mother's house to head back to Cedar City which is about a 7 to 8 hour drive [Note: many a woman I have come across has turned their nose up at the White Whale. Maleigha on the other hand fell in love with it when I let her crawl in and around on it...or at least that's how I interpreted her...]. I was making good timing as far as how early I left in the afternoon. I had expected to be in Cedar City late in the evening. Everything was going great until I got to Ogden, UT.
In the tail end of rush hour, I hit Ogden, UT on I-15. The truck was handling beautifully. Traffic was heavy but everyone was moving briskly at about 70-75 mph. As I was making my way through traffic I started coming up on the driver side of a tractor-trailer. Now, my dad had always taught me to be weary of traveling along side a semi at anytime. You never know if he's going to have a blow out or if he's going to lose control of the trailer. This lesson has always been stuck in my head since I was 16 so I waited for the car in front of me to gain a little distance so I could zip straight pass the trucker. I was about 20 feet behind the tractor-trailer in the lane next to him when all of a sudden I saw a puff of white smoke and a black object shoot sideways off the trailer of the semi into my lane directly in front of me. When it fell within range of my headlights I recognized what it was right away: his tire. "Fuck me!" was the first though that came across my mind when I realized that there was no way in hell I was going to dodge this shredded tire 20 feet in front of me all the while driving 75 mph with traffic all around me. The only thing I could do was put a death grip on my steering wheel and pray for the best. I remember feeling the front end of the truck launch into the air followed by the rear end. My hood buckled as if something hit it from the inside but other than that the truck kept rolling as if nothing happened to it. As I looked in my rear view mirror I saw several cars swerve to miss the 3 foot tall piece of rubber that I had shredded even more. I thought to myself, "Hell yeah! This is one tough vehicle!" High off of my new found confidence I started to regain my speed to catch up with traffic. After a few seconds of acceleration, I started to lose power and my accelerator was getting spongy. I took my foot off of it for a couple seconds and hit it again. My pedal was even spongier the second time around. Eventually, I felt a snap and the pedal went straight to the floor. At the same time, I noticed the needle on my tachometer start climbing as my engine started racing. Slowly I started to uncontrollably gain speed in the rush hour traffic. 75. 80. 85. 90. 95. Pegged out. The speedometer's needle stopped at 95 but I could feel myself still steadily accelerating. At this point, I had to take evasive action to not hit other motorists on Interstate 15. Never before up until this point in my life had I been more scared shit less. For a brief moment I started panicking. Once I remembered I had a horn and that I grew up driving on metropolitan Washington DC highways, I dealt with the speed temporarily as I started troubleshooting ways to slow down. I jumped on my brakes which helped only till about 40 mph at which point they started smoking and being overrun by the engine. I knew if I threw it into neutral at whatever absurd number of thousands of RPMs it was running, I'd probably blow up the transmission. My only other option was to turn the truck off and pray to God that I could main control without power steering. At that same time as if God was listening to the aforementioned prayer, I noticed a off ramp for UT 134 or W 2700 N St in the northern part of town. I cut off a few cars and another semi at a speed of over 100 mph and aimed myself to barrel down the off ramp. Once on the off ramp and straight I killed my engine. I soon realized how horrendous the manual steering was on a truck that size at which point I started the engine again to aim for a field near the intersection of the road below and the Southbound off-ramp. Once I had the field in my sight, I killed the engine and rode the breaks until I came to a stop on top of a Juniper bush near the intersection. Now I have no shame explaining to yall how badly I was shaking. I took a minute to gather myself and breathe. When I got, popped my hood, and cleared out the smoke, I found a piece of tire the size of a college text book sitting where an oil tube going into my turbo should have been and a snapped accelerator cable. For some God awful reason, the springs on Ford throttle assemblies will rotate the throttle 1.5 times backwards leaving it open without any tension being applied to it (i.e. a throttle cable attached to an accelerator). I gave AAA a call and had the tow truck driver tow it to the nearest Advanced Auto Parts. Now, this is why I believe in karma (again, for another post): after dropping my truck off in the parking lot of Advanced Auto Parts, I decided to sleep for the night and deal with everything in the morning. The tow truck driver, now off duty after having dealt with me took it upon himself to make sure I got to whatever motel I wanted to go to within Ogden. All I have to say is pay it forward people and it will come back to you! I made it to a Motel 6, went to a bar nearby for a much needed drink, and slept for several hours.
I woke to have my truck towed to a AAA approved shop nearby where I was told the only thing I needed to have done was get a replacement throttle cable installed. Perfect. $35 part, $85 of labor and I was back on the road. We found the breather tube for the oil behind the turbo. A hose clamp or two later and I had it back on within a couple minutes. Now this shop had no cables in stock so I had to wait till 1600 in the afternoon for the cable to get there and for them to take the 10 minutes to install it. So the entire day I spent walking around downtown Ogden on top of a couple rounds of pool with a Jazz guitarist named Jimmy I had met in a bar where I ate lunch. At 1700 I was back on the road. 2000 I was back in Cedar. I moved some things into the truck, checked under the hood to make sure everything was still OK, and went to bed early considering I had to work in the morning. Little did I know that this was only a preview as to what was to come with my ownership/partnership with the White Whale.
The truck itself was not for the faint of heart. The diamond plate running boards had seen better days. At one point the bed had been lined (very cheaply). Then, it was peeling and flaking like it was going out of style. The cab had a funk of chewing tobacco and body odor. To me, however, it was perfect. The bench seat in the front fit me comfortably. With an inch to spare on either end of me, I was able to lay completely stretched out across the bench. Fabulous! No more reclining my driver's seat to sleep at rest stops. It had a back bench seat that was accessible only by reclining the front bench seat. The truck came with 31" tires and a hell of a V8 diesel engine with an aftermarket turbo. I was sold. After some paperwork and a test drive, I transferred everything from the X to the truck and took a moment to say good-bye to the X-Terra. I still miss it to this day but I don't know if I'll buy another Xterra...but that's for another post all together. After a few hours at the dealership, I pulled out with my new [by ownership] truck and hit the road for Boise.The truck was pretty damn big...easily the biggest vehicle I've ever owned. Right away I dubbed it the White Whale.
I spent a day and a half in Boise. Things were going great with the truck. My first purchase was a truck box I got from a Home Depot in Twin Falls, ID. After that I bought a head unit in Boise which installed in the Best Buy parking lot on Franklin Ave. I left directly from Maleigha's mother's house to head back to Cedar City which is about a 7 to 8 hour drive [Note: many a woman I have come across has turned their nose up at the White Whale. Maleigha on the other hand fell in love with it when I let her crawl in and around on it...or at least that's how I interpreted her...]. I was making good timing as far as how early I left in the afternoon. I had expected to be in Cedar City late in the evening. Everything was going great until I got to Ogden, UT.
In the tail end of rush hour, I hit Ogden, UT on I-15. The truck was handling beautifully. Traffic was heavy but everyone was moving briskly at about 70-75 mph. As I was making my way through traffic I started coming up on the driver side of a tractor-trailer. Now, my dad had always taught me to be weary of traveling along side a semi at anytime. You never know if he's going to have a blow out or if he's going to lose control of the trailer. This lesson has always been stuck in my head since I was 16 so I waited for the car in front of me to gain a little distance so I could zip straight pass the trucker. I was about 20 feet behind the tractor-trailer in the lane next to him when all of a sudden I saw a puff of white smoke and a black object shoot sideways off the trailer of the semi into my lane directly in front of me. When it fell within range of my headlights I recognized what it was right away: his tire. "Fuck me!" was the first though that came across my mind when I realized that there was no way in hell I was going to dodge this shredded tire 20 feet in front of me all the while driving 75 mph with traffic all around me. The only thing I could do was put a death grip on my steering wheel and pray for the best. I remember feeling the front end of the truck launch into the air followed by the rear end. My hood buckled as if something hit it from the inside but other than that the truck kept rolling as if nothing happened to it. As I looked in my rear view mirror I saw several cars swerve to miss the 3 foot tall piece of rubber that I had shredded even more. I thought to myself, "Hell yeah! This is one tough vehicle!" High off of my new found confidence I started to regain my speed to catch up with traffic. After a few seconds of acceleration, I started to lose power and my accelerator was getting spongy. I took my foot off of it for a couple seconds and hit it again. My pedal was even spongier the second time around. Eventually, I felt a snap and the pedal went straight to the floor. At the same time, I noticed the needle on my tachometer start climbing as my engine started racing. Slowly I started to uncontrollably gain speed in the rush hour traffic. 75. 80. 85. 90. 95. Pegged out. The speedometer's needle stopped at 95 but I could feel myself still steadily accelerating. At this point, I had to take evasive action to not hit other motorists on Interstate 15. Never before up until this point in my life had I been more scared shit less. For a brief moment I started panicking. Once I remembered I had a horn and that I grew up driving on metropolitan Washington DC highways, I dealt with the speed temporarily as I started troubleshooting ways to slow down. I jumped on my brakes which helped only till about 40 mph at which point they started smoking and being overrun by the engine. I knew if I threw it into neutral at whatever absurd number of thousands of RPMs it was running, I'd probably blow up the transmission. My only other option was to turn the truck off and pray to God that I could main control without power steering. At that same time as if God was listening to the aforementioned prayer, I noticed a off ramp for UT 134 or W 2700 N St in the northern part of town. I cut off a few cars and another semi at a speed of over 100 mph and aimed myself to barrel down the off ramp. Once on the off ramp and straight I killed my engine. I soon realized how horrendous the manual steering was on a truck that size at which point I started the engine again to aim for a field near the intersection of the road below and the Southbound off-ramp. Once I had the field in my sight, I killed the engine and rode the breaks until I came to a stop on top of a Juniper bush near the intersection. Now I have no shame explaining to yall how badly I was shaking. I took a minute to gather myself and breathe. When I got, popped my hood, and cleared out the smoke, I found a piece of tire the size of a college text book sitting where an oil tube going into my turbo should have been and a snapped accelerator cable. For some God awful reason, the springs on Ford throttle assemblies will rotate the throttle 1.5 times backwards leaving it open without any tension being applied to it (i.e. a throttle cable attached to an accelerator). I gave AAA a call and had the tow truck driver tow it to the nearest Advanced Auto Parts. Now, this is why I believe in karma (again, for another post): after dropping my truck off in the parking lot of Advanced Auto Parts, I decided to sleep for the night and deal with everything in the morning. The tow truck driver, now off duty after having dealt with me took it upon himself to make sure I got to whatever motel I wanted to go to within Ogden. All I have to say is pay it forward people and it will come back to you! I made it to a Motel 6, went to a bar nearby for a much needed drink, and slept for several hours.
I woke to have my truck towed to a AAA approved shop nearby where I was told the only thing I needed to have done was get a replacement throttle cable installed. Perfect. $35 part, $85 of labor and I was back on the road. We found the breather tube for the oil behind the turbo. A hose clamp or two later and I had it back on within a couple minutes. Now this shop had no cables in stock so I had to wait till 1600 in the afternoon for the cable to get there and for them to take the 10 minutes to install it. So the entire day I spent walking around downtown Ogden on top of a couple rounds of pool with a Jazz guitarist named Jimmy I had met in a bar where I ate lunch. At 1700 I was back on the road. 2000 I was back in Cedar. I moved some things into the truck, checked under the hood to make sure everything was still OK, and went to bed early considering I had to work in the morning. Little did I know that this was only a preview as to what was to come with my ownership/partnership with the White Whale.
A New Approach
It's been a couple months since I last posted. Laziness can be an evil snare. During my hiatus I was discussing my blog with a friend of mine who's a poly sci major at Catholic University and an intern at a pretty reputable online media source. My friend is an avid writer both due to her course load and her recreational writing. She suggested that I write sometimes just for the sake of writing and not necessarily just because something major or interesting happened in my life. I had start to do that a little but I definitely don't write as much as I should considering how much I enjoy it which is the important thing. Another thing I kick myself for is not writing about a lot of the adventures I've manage to land myself in. So here's what I'm going to do. I'll write about my feelings and my interpretations one the events to which I'm exposed through out my day to day (or more realistically week to week) life. I'm going to write about the dumb things I do on a regular basis. I'll write about some of the more interesting adventures I wind up on as well. I'll even fill readers in on stories from the past few years that I've neglected to post here once or twice a week. I use the word readers as if I have scores of people jonesing for a hit on an RSS feed from tmbevans.blogspot.com. To be honest, I'm happy to share my experiences with those that wish to listen to me or actually care and want to hear about what I do throughout my day to day life but in all honesty I write this blog for myself. This is my digital diary. If someone doesn't like my blog google is only a few keystrokes away. Anyways, I digress. I hope to transform my blog into a more fluid one. Feel free to give me feedback on my writing.
16 June 2010
Simple rules that can make your travels through life a little more enjoyable
I often take inspiration from other peoples experiences and, after doing so, I try to change the way I live my life in order to live it better. As a traveler and someone who not only meets hundreds of new people a year but often has the opportunity to touch or change their lives I am always trying to find better ways to not only treat them but treat myself. While talking to a friend who was upset about a glitch in her travel plans, I recalled 2 websites I had stumbled across that I often reference to keep my outlook on life positive and make the most of the everyday experiences I gain. I want to share them with anyone that reads this blog. Enjoy.
http://www.nomad4ever.com/2006/11/25/50-life-lessons/
http://www.vagabondinglife.com/rules-of-vagabonding/
http://www.nomad4ever.com/2006/11/25/50-life-lessons/
http://www.vagabondinglife.com/rules-of-vagabonding/
MWAA
Somehow, I managed to get hired on to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority's fire department. I completed my first week of orientation to the Airports Authority and it's fire department and I started my first regular shift yesterday. I'm ecstatic to be working there. Great people, experienced firefighters, experiences I won't have anywhere else my career takes me, my current job (next to the Antarctic Fire Department of course) probably takes the award for being the best one I've ever worked. I will explain more about the MWAA Fire Department as well as what working there entails in time but for now I wanted to share my excitement with this new job.
04 May 2010
Future Job Prospects
To keep yall up to date with my future job prospects, here's what I have going on:
1) Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Fire Department/Crash Fire & Rescue. Well,after a few months of work the MWAA police finally finished my background check which moved me onward to the next phase of the hiring process, the physical exam. I took it and came to find out that I need to take one more test, a stress echocardiogram before I can move on with the process. I normally have a minor arrhythmia called ST depression which can sometimes signify various cardiac problems. So in order to prove to MWAA that I do not indeed have some sort of cardiac deficit, I have to complete this last medical test...on their dime thank God. If all goes well, I could be starting there as soon as June 7th.
2)Raytheon Polar Services Company - Antarctic Fire Department. I applied to go down as a Winfly and Summer Primary (early August 2010 till February 2011) and a Winter alternate (February 2011 till October 2011). Considering this will be my 3rd season down there, having only skipped one season, and having a decent track record as far as my evals go, I'm hoping I'll be considered to go back down this time around. Who knows, I may even winter down there and pull a full 14 months in Antarctica...
3) Warren County Fire & Rescue. I applied to work part-time for this county in Northwestern VA. If I end up staying here in VA whether I work for MWAA or continue working for PTS I'll try to pick up shifts here and there in Warren County.
4) Yellowstone National Park - Structural Firefighter. I applied for a permanent position at Yellowstone National Park as a structural firefighter. I figure I may be able to weasel my way onto some wildland fires if I get hired and take the job which will allow me to keep my qualifications current on my red card. Having surpass the requirements for the position which included Firefighter I, Firefighter II, and Driver-Pump Operator pro board certificates, I'm hoping I'll at least get a phone call or an email regarding this position. I fell in love with the place driving through it on my way to Boise in 2007 so I'm sure working at the fire department there would be a hell of an experience.
As of right now, nothing's for certain. But having many options can't hurt. I'd much rather have make one hard decision picking out one option out of several versus not having any at all...
1) Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Fire Department/Crash Fire & Rescue. Well,after a few months of work the MWAA police finally finished my background check which moved me onward to the next phase of the hiring process, the physical exam. I took it and came to find out that I need to take one more test, a stress echocardiogram before I can move on with the process. I normally have a minor arrhythmia called ST depression which can sometimes signify various cardiac problems. So in order to prove to MWAA that I do not indeed have some sort of cardiac deficit, I have to complete this last medical test...on their dime thank God. If all goes well, I could be starting there as soon as June 7th.
2)Raytheon Polar Services Company - Antarctic Fire Department. I applied to go down as a Winfly and Summer Primary (early August 2010 till February 2011) and a Winter alternate (February 2011 till October 2011). Considering this will be my 3rd season down there, having only skipped one season, and having a decent track record as far as my evals go, I'm hoping I'll be considered to go back down this time around. Who knows, I may even winter down there and pull a full 14 months in Antarctica...
3) Warren County Fire & Rescue. I applied to work part-time for this county in Northwestern VA. If I end up staying here in VA whether I work for MWAA or continue working for PTS I'll try to pick up shifts here and there in Warren County.
4) Yellowstone National Park - Structural Firefighter. I applied for a permanent position at Yellowstone National Park as a structural firefighter. I figure I may be able to weasel my way onto some wildland fires if I get hired and take the job which will allow me to keep my qualifications current on my red card. Having surpass the requirements for the position which included Firefighter I, Firefighter II, and Driver-Pump Operator pro board certificates, I'm hoping I'll at least get a phone call or an email regarding this position. I fell in love with the place driving through it on my way to Boise in 2007 so I'm sure working at the fire department there would be a hell of an experience.
As of right now, nothing's for certain. But having many options can't hurt. I'd much rather have make one hard decision picking out one option out of several versus not having any at all...
03 May 2010
A Pale Blue Dot
I had a profound, somewhat life changing even occur tonight for me. While surfing the internet, I came across a blog posting signifying the 20th anniversary of the Voyager 1 spacecraft's photo of the earth while at the edge of our solar system. Also known by the famous title, "Pale Blue Dot", American Astronomer Carl Sagan wrote on this photo:
Now, I've always considered myself a humble, humane, and sincerely nice person but looking at that picture of our home and reading Sagan's words truly changed me tonight. They have changed how I will forever look at our world and the people in it. They have changed how I will treat people from now on. I'll let Sagan's words speak for itself. I challenge any one that reads this to look at that photo and read what Sagan has to say regarding the planet we live on.
"Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known."
Now, I've always considered myself a humble, humane, and sincerely nice person but looking at that picture of our home and reading Sagan's words truly changed me tonight. They have changed how I will forever look at our world and the people in it. They have changed how I will treat people from now on. I'll let Sagan's words speak for itself. I challenge any one that reads this to look at that photo and read what Sagan has to say regarding the planet we live on.
14 April 2010
April Thoughts and Excitements
The snow is long gone here in DC. It's been beautiful out the past few weeks. Even seasonal allergies couldn't keep me at bay. This time of year is usually a tense and exciting time. For the past couple of years, April has been a month spent getting ready to drive out west for the summer. It's usually a month where I spend a lot of time hanging out with the special people in my life and saying "see ya in a few months". April is also the time I usually get my employment offers with Raytheon and when I start getting ready to head back to Antarctica. As much as I started kicking myself for not choosing to go out west this summer, I'm glad I had the foresight to apply to go back down to McMurdo this Austral summer. While I await word as to whether or not I will be hired to go back down this upcoming season, the feeling of unhappiness still lingers within. I do, however, embrace this melancholic feeling. My unhappiness with living back in the DC area as led me to a profound moment in my life. It has only been during these past 8 months that I've come up with all kinds of wild thoughts about what to do with the rest of my life from this point forward. For one, I need to move out west...the sooner the better. I've also toyed with the idea of wintering in Antarctica next year which has lead me to wonder as to whether I'd like it and want to do several cycles of 14 months down in McMurdo followed by 2 months off or if I'd hate it after I survived a winter and would never want to go back. I'm really hoping to work a couple seasons of fire in both California and Alaska then perhaps moving over into the law enforcement realm and become a park ranger. Wishful dreaming right now but first I have to survive a summer here in DC then find a way out west and, well, maybe stay out there for good...
17 March 2010
Radio Cure by Wilco
While working on my car and listening to Wilco, this song came on and stopped me in the midst of what I was doing. Last year I was in a relationship that shortly turned into a long distance relationship after a week or so of dating. This song reminds me of making the choice to leave a loved one behind all the while being driven by some unseen force. It reminds me of being across the country from someone you love, all the while feeling the hopelessness and pain of the distance between them, searching the radio or your own music collection for songs that remind you of the person and that can ease your pain.
Radio Cure
by Wilco
Cheer up, honey I hope you can
There is something wrong with me
My mind is filled with silvery stuff
Honey kisses clouds of fluff
Shoulders shrugging off
Cheer up, honey I hope you can
There is something wrong with me
My mind is filled with radio cures
Electronic surgical words
Picking apples for the kings and queens of things I've never seen
Oh, distance has no way of making love understandable
Cheer up, honey I hope you can
There is something wrong with me
My mind is filled with silvery stars
Honey kisses clouds of love
Picking apples for the kings and queens of things I've never seen
Oh, distance has no way of making love understandable
Oh, distance has no way of making love understandable
Oh, distance has no way of making love understandable
Oh, distance has no way of making love understandable
Cheer up, honey I hope you can
Radio Cure
by Wilco
Cheer up, honey I hope you can
There is something wrong with me
My mind is filled with silvery stuff
Honey kisses clouds of fluff
Shoulders shrugging off
Cheer up, honey I hope you can
There is something wrong with me
My mind is filled with radio cures
Electronic surgical words
Picking apples for the kings and queens of things I've never seen
Oh, distance has no way of making love understandable
Cheer up, honey I hope you can
There is something wrong with me
My mind is filled with silvery stars
Honey kisses clouds of love
Picking apples for the kings and queens of things I've never seen
Oh, distance has no way of making love understandable
Oh, distance has no way of making love understandable
Oh, distance has no way of making love understandable
Oh, distance has no way of making love understandable
Cheer up, honey I hope you can
16 March 2010
Breaking Point
I feel I've reached a breaking point in my life. I've tried hard over the past 7 months to justify as to why I didn't go back to McMurdo and why I'm not getting ready to head out west for another fire season. Hindsight, I look back and realize that they were just that: excuses. Now I will say being back has made me realize how much I love the friends I have here between friends from the fire department and friends from high school. I have, however, fallen into a mild depression from being away from everything that the DC area does not have: snow-capped mountains, endless deserts, fresh air, laid back outdoorsy people, etc. I also miss the adventures that come with those experiences whether one likes them or not. I feel people are probably getting tired of hearing about driving to Vegas on a regular basis from Cedar City, getting drunk with good people in Antarctica, losing my luggage on some international flight, watching sunsets in Rarotonga, exploring the Boise Night Life with fellow wildland firefighters, or living up dozens of other experiences I'll never forget. The past week or so, I have come to realize that these stories are masking my true feelings about being back home. I know what I need to do but it's hard to take that giant committing leap. I have applied for a Lieutenant's position with the Antarctic Fire Department again. This time I'd be heading down for the winfly season (early August). Who knows, I may even do something as crazy as staying for the winter as well! Don't get me wrong, I do love what the DC area has to offer...but there is more to life than the metro area...and when you get a taste of it, well, that addiction is hard to shake...
The Importance of Pondering and Memories
Prior to me being born and my subsequent adoption, my parents moved into a quiet little neighborhood in Great Falls, VA right around 1980. Our house sat at the beginning of a pipe stem nestled into the surrounding woods. A single level house with a loft, a basement, and a deck envied by most in our neighborhood, it was all that we needed and we never complained. When it was built, a row of conifers, a mix of black spruce and eastern white pine, were planted on the southern edge of our property separating our yard from the main road. A large, blue-stemmed goldenrod on the same side of the house as the conifers grabbed your attention with it's bright yellow flowers especially in the spring as you drive down our street. Probably the most dominating feature of our property was the large, rounded willow tree in our front yard whose sheer volume engulfed the northwest corner of our house for nearly two decades. The same willow robbed a smaller white pine of it's equally deserved attention as they shared the same corner of our house. Our house had a very small courtyard one would have to walk through as they came to our front door. On one side of the courtyard was a rather robust and prickly holly bush frequented by the neighborhood robins, warblers, and chickadees. The other side boasted a small oak that for some reason never reached full maturity.
Slowly over time, our house has seen some changes. The exterior color went from a very drab collage of browns to subtle blues that manage to contrast perfectly with the green of our surrounding yard. A sunroom was added onto our house on top of most of the deck leaving a small 2 meter by 2 meter sitting area outside accessible only from the sunroom. My bedroom over looks this remnant of our deck. I built a garden for my mom next to our drive way which boasted a variety of perennials and shrubs she would change up every other year or so. We eventually planted a Rose bush next to the Goldenrod bushes. A heart-leafed aster went in between them later. I have a lot of fond memories in and around our house: helping my dad with the yard, building a garden pond for my mother, trips to the nursery, building forts in the the pines, etc. Even at a young age, I knew life would go on and change but I never thought our house would. My childhood home, to me, was infallible.
Today has probably been the nicest day so far this year. With bright skies, robust colors, and a warm breeze, I lazily strolled to our mailbox out on the main street. As I turned around and stood in a spot I frequented to frame the house for photographs, I looked at our yard and marveled at the change it has gone through over the years. The Willow has long lost its volume to pruning, wind, and snow/ice storms. The black spruce has aged into some twisted Dr. Seussian dwarf of a tree. The pine in front of our house fell victim to the first storm of the winter when it toppled over at the roots (it took me 3 days to finish felling and bucking that damn tree). While looking at this changed landscape I couldn't help but relive the changes I've experienced in my life. I thought about my dog, Corolla, long gone and how he loved to run through leaves. I thought about my neighbors (who have long since moved away to the town of Leesburg), the Linton's, and how they mowed their lawns religiously in a clockwise fashion every Friday or Saturday (the husband has since passed away). I remember climbing most of the trees around that have fallen into some state of decrepitude (the willow, the spruce, and the pine(s)). Most vividly, I remember my father. I remember how happy he looked working on our cars or mowing the yard with me. I remember pruning the trees with him every spring. My favorite memory was as I laid in bed almost every summer night, while trying to fall asleep, I would quietly open my window when I heard him open the door leading to our shrunken deck. I remember listening to him sit silently in the tranquility of our summer nights. I had always wondered what he was thinking when he sat out there: was he looking at the starts reminiscing of working for NASA during the Gemini and Apollo programs? Was he reflecting on Vietnam? Was he reflecting on life in general? Out of the many hundreds of times he would spend the last several minutes of his night out on our deck, I never learned what he was thinking. Today, after standing by our mailbox for a few minutes, I finally understood the importance of such pondering...
Slowly over time, our house has seen some changes. The exterior color went from a very drab collage of browns to subtle blues that manage to contrast perfectly with the green of our surrounding yard. A sunroom was added onto our house on top of most of the deck leaving a small 2 meter by 2 meter sitting area outside accessible only from the sunroom. My bedroom over looks this remnant of our deck. I built a garden for my mom next to our drive way which boasted a variety of perennials and shrubs she would change up every other year or so. We eventually planted a Rose bush next to the Goldenrod bushes. A heart-leafed aster went in between them later. I have a lot of fond memories in and around our house: helping my dad with the yard, building a garden pond for my mother, trips to the nursery, building forts in the the pines, etc. Even at a young age, I knew life would go on and change but I never thought our house would. My childhood home, to me, was infallible.
Today has probably been the nicest day so far this year. With bright skies, robust colors, and a warm breeze, I lazily strolled to our mailbox out on the main street. As I turned around and stood in a spot I frequented to frame the house for photographs, I looked at our yard and marveled at the change it has gone through over the years. The Willow has long lost its volume to pruning, wind, and snow/ice storms. The black spruce has aged into some twisted Dr. Seussian dwarf of a tree. The pine in front of our house fell victim to the first storm of the winter when it toppled over at the roots (it took me 3 days to finish felling and bucking that damn tree). While looking at this changed landscape I couldn't help but relive the changes I've experienced in my life. I thought about my dog, Corolla, long gone and how he loved to run through leaves. I thought about my neighbors (who have long since moved away to the town of Leesburg), the Linton's, and how they mowed their lawns religiously in a clockwise fashion every Friday or Saturday (the husband has since passed away). I remember climbing most of the trees around that have fallen into some state of decrepitude (the willow, the spruce, and the pine(s)). Most vividly, I remember my father. I remember how happy he looked working on our cars or mowing the yard with me. I remember pruning the trees with him every spring. My favorite memory was as I laid in bed almost every summer night, while trying to fall asleep, I would quietly open my window when I heard him open the door leading to our shrunken deck. I remember listening to him sit silently in the tranquility of our summer nights. I had always wondered what he was thinking when he sat out there: was he looking at the starts reminiscing of working for NASA during the Gemini and Apollo programs? Was he reflecting on Vietnam? Was he reflecting on life in general? Out of the many hundreds of times he would spend the last several minutes of his night out on our deck, I never learned what he was thinking. Today, after standing by our mailbox for a few minutes, I finally understood the importance of such pondering...
 |
| From Home - D.C |
07 March 2010
A Spiritual and Personal 180
Life.....is a journey. That maybe a super trite and cliche sentence but it's the best I got as an intro into
14 February 2010
Valentines and a Muzzle of Bees
I really hate Valentines day. The idea of professing one's love for another person on a single day out of the entire year through gifts and other monetary displays of affections sickens me. I guess that's why I'm still single. Never the less, the romantic side of me is still forced to think more about love on this day than any other thanks to 14 February's commercialization. Usually when I think about love it's in the form of favorite "love songs" of mine and what they mean to me. One of my all time favorites is Muzzle of Bees by Wilco. I'm not going to go into what the song means to me because it's hard for me to put it into words. I'll let you figure out what it means to you.
Muzzle of Bees
by Wilco
There's a random painted highway
And a muzzle of bees
My sleeves have come unstitched
From climbing your tree
And dogs laugh, some say they're barking
I don't think they're mean
Some people get so frightened
Of the fences in between
And the sun gets passed from tree to tree
Silently, and back to me
With the breeze blown through
Pushed up against the sea
Finally back to me
I'm assuming you got my message
On your machine
I'm assuming you love me
And you know what that means
Sun gets passed, sea to sea
Silently, and back to me
With the breeze blown through
Pushed up above the leaves
With the breeze blown through
My head upon your knee
Half of it's you, half is me
Half of it's you, half is me
Muzzle of Bees
by Wilco
There's a random painted highway
And a muzzle of bees
My sleeves have come unstitched
From climbing your tree
And dogs laugh, some say they're barking
I don't think they're mean
Some people get so frightened
Of the fences in between
And the sun gets passed from tree to tree
Silently, and back to me
With the breeze blown through
Pushed up against the sea
Finally back to me
I'm assuming you got my message
On your machine
I'm assuming you love me
And you know what that means
Sun gets passed, sea to sea
Silently, and back to me
With the breeze blown through
Pushed up above the leaves
With the breeze blown through
My head upon your knee
Half of it's you, half is me
Half of it's you, half is me
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