What a freaking tease! Ike had us in his sights for quite a while, but in the last 36 hours before landfall made a pretty significant move. It only shifted about 100 miles up the coast, but because of the way it hit and immediately moved northward instead of continuing west it left us with a windy night, but not much more. As of now (noon central time on Saturday) we haven't even seen a drop of rain. They keep telling us to expect some hellish thunderstorms to be spun off the hurricane later today but I just don't see it.
Obviously the folks a little up the coast didn't make out quite so well. Honestly I wish the thing had kept it's path down this way. It would have devastated the shrimping industry and the bulk of the fishing community on the coast, but the rest would have been ranch and ag land vs. the 4th largest city in the country. Not to mention, it's a heck of a lot easier to evacuate the 70,000 people that live in the 3 or 4 counties down this way compared to the millions up there.
Anyway, nothing can be done now! We're just waiting to hear from co-workers whose homes and workplaces were in the direct path of the storm to see what kind of help they need. We'll probably be heading up to East Texas on Monday or so to help our folks up there cut their way into their homes in the pineywoods area of Texas. They are still getting hammered pretty hard right now and the whole area still looks like pick-up sticks from the last few storms.
Anyway, thanks for the phone calls and text messages, etc. Much appreciated!!!
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
For the love of...
I'm getting kind of tired of these hurricane teases. I can't say that I really look forward to getting hit dead on, but I'm getting tired of watching people run around freaking out only to barely see any effect. That said, I'd much rather be in a place where people are prepared, but we were prepared for the last three storms, now it's just becoming a joke. I might feel differently if I owned my home, or had kids to deal with, etc. but I don't, so bring it the &#%@ on!!!
The image below shows the current projected paths for the next one, along with a big ole' red X in the lovely town I call home. Looks like chances are pretty good this time around, but when I lived in Florida we always joked that the only way to avoid a storm was to be predicted as the target the whole time! We'll see what happens this time!
Updated...now we're talkin! I think that hurricane magnet on my ass from a few months back has been reactivated and now Ike is just waiting for me to bend over! Come and get it, Ike!
UPDATE:
It will pretty much be a non-event for me now. The storm shifted 100 miles up the coast and put us on the "dry" side of the storm. We're still under a voluntary evac they enacted when we were in the direct path but they shut down the assisted evac center and sent the national guard folks further up the coast late this morning. We'll see tropical storm winds and maybe some hurricane gusts but it's doubtful. The power has been flickering for the last hour, but we lose power when someone farts in the right direction so it's a no brainer that we'll probably be without power at some point. I'm pulling for tonight while I'm sleeping. That would be just bueno.
The image below shows the current projected paths for the next one, along with a big ole' red X in the lovely town I call home. Looks like chances are pretty good this time around, but when I lived in Florida we always joked that the only way to avoid a storm was to be predicted as the target the whole time! We'll see what happens this time!
Updated...now we're talkin! I think that hurricane magnet on my ass from a few months back has been reactivated and now Ike is just waiting for me to bend over! Come and get it, Ike!
UPDATE:
It will pretty much be a non-event for me now. The storm shifted 100 miles up the coast and put us on the "dry" side of the storm. We're still under a voluntary evac they enacted when we were in the direct path but they shut down the assisted evac center and sent the national guard folks further up the coast late this morning. We'll see tropical storm winds and maybe some hurricane gusts but it's doubtful. The power has been flickering for the last hour, but we lose power when someone farts in the right direction so it's a no brainer that we'll probably be without power at some point. I'm pulling for tonight while I'm sleeping. That would be just bueno.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Mmmmm....saline!
Saline has always been the bane of my existence, primarily because it usually had to do with my not taking appropriate care of my contacts and thus always being in pain when saline was in the picture. I take back all those bad feelings though as I spent the better part of the afternoon/evening getting pumped full at the ER after getting my ass kicked by the 107 heat index today. I spend most of my time working outside, often with fire which only adds insult to injury. No fire today, but a few things snowballed and the result was me so dehydrated that when I finished a couple mile hike back to my truck I (though I know better) downed a bunch of water and gatorade. That lasted for all of about 5 minutes before my stomach said "no honey, not today, I'm just not in the mood" and started sending it all back out the way it went down. Oddly enough (again, though I know better) I kept drinking more and my stomach kept kickin' it back up, eventually to the point that even a sip of water to take some Advil led to a "just wutchu you thinkin bout' bitch, didn't you hear me the first time?" from my stomach. I eventually got on the road, but I was so dizzy I felt like I was drunk and I could hardly keep my eyes focused. I pulled over and thankfully a couple co-workers were able to run out and pick up me and my truck. Anyway, on to the hospital...first of all, this is my first visit to the ER (that I remember anyway) as a patient outside of a major metropolitan area and without some sort of appendage pointing in the wrong direction. I walked in to see one other person in there and was brought back within about 30 minutes (I was bumped a couple times, by a stroke and a girl that busted up her head on a water slide). So here's where this entry goes from being about dehydration to being about the beautiful staff of the ER! WOW! First of all, everyone there was awesome. It doesn't hurt that all of the nurses, the nurse practitioner and the doc were all beautiful, but mainly they just did a damn good job with everything they were doing. I really appreciated the incredibly hard (yet joking, mostly) time both the triage nurse and my primary care nurse gave me about letting myself get soooo dehydrated. My first thought was damn, I'm going to have to get dehydrated more often, this was a pretty pleasant experience and I like these people, not to mention direct inject of saline! I don't think I've mentioned it to anyone yet, but at the end of the month I start in the EMT program at the local college and only found out this morning that this hospital ER is the one where I'll do my clinicals! I think I'll have to get in there during some of the busier times to see more stuff, but it sure does seem like it will be a great place to put in those hours!
I guess that's about it. I've backlogged on other stuff I should write a message about. We'll see whether or not that happens.
I guess that's about it. I've backlogged on other stuff I should write a message about. We'll see whether or not that happens.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Let's get this party started!!!
Alright, I've been harassed by several people lately about not updating this thing. My standing response is "get over it." That said, being that I'm on a wonderful vacation with nothing but time on my hands I'll go ahead and post a quick message.
The pool is wet, the keg is tapped and Wii Rock Band is ready to go. Let's get this party started! My dad's siblings (5 of them) and a few cousins are on their way down to Atlanta for a mini-reunion. Folks will filter in over the next day and a half to party for the next few days, culminating with a white water rafting trip on Saturday. We did this once before when my mom's family all came to town with great success. This time we've got two boats worth of people with ages ranging from 24 to a bit older. Hopefully we come home with the same number of people we arrive with! This is the first time in a while that all of the siblings have been together so we'll just have to see what kind of shenanigans we can cause.
So far my vacation has involved a significant amount of sitting by and in the pool, whitewater kayaking with my sis on the Chatooga River (though with the water so low it was more like tubing with some occasional watery bumps) and catching lunch with Robert, Betsy and little (but not so little) Jonathan this afternoon. What a cool little kid they've got! Oh, I've also spent a fair amount of time kicking my dad's butt out on the horseshoe pits he put in out back. The only thing more impressive than the pits he installed is the winning streak I have on said playing field!
I'll be sure to pass on some pics of the festivities!
The pool is wet, the keg is tapped and Wii Rock Band is ready to go. Let's get this party started! My dad's siblings (5 of them) and a few cousins are on their way down to Atlanta for a mini-reunion. Folks will filter in over the next day and a half to party for the next few days, culminating with a white water rafting trip on Saturday. We did this once before when my mom's family all came to town with great success. This time we've got two boats worth of people with ages ranging from 24 to a bit older. Hopefully we come home with the same number of people we arrive with! This is the first time in a while that all of the siblings have been together so we'll just have to see what kind of shenanigans we can cause.
So far my vacation has involved a significant amount of sitting by and in the pool, whitewater kayaking with my sis on the Chatooga River (though with the water so low it was more like tubing with some occasional watery bumps) and catching lunch with Robert, Betsy and little (but not so little) Jonathan this afternoon. What a cool little kid they've got! Oh, I've also spent a fair amount of time kicking my dad's butt out on the horseshoe pits he put in out back. The only thing more impressive than the pits he installed is the winning streak I have on said playing field!
I'll be sure to pass on some pics of the festivities!
Monday, June 23, 2008
Yo yo yo!
I kind of feel like I owe an update. I can't be shown up by Angel who is a posting fiend lately!
I'm really not sure what's been going on with me lately. I think I posted about my first trip up to Nebraska when we went up there to burn. I spent another week or so in a different part of the state for a conference for work. Kind of fun...included folks from up and down the central U.S. as well as Meso-America and the Caribbean. It was held up at a conference center in Nebraska City that was one of the most amazing places I've ever stayed. The food was absolutely off the hook and they had activities planned for us every night that typically included an open bar starting with dinner through the first two hours of whatever was planned. I had been doing a lot of jogging and working out for the few months before I went up there and had knocked off upwards of 15 pounds. In one week I managed to put it all back on with the crazy food up there. Fresh Apple pie available at every meal? I mean come on! Anyway, had a good time and learned a lot. Really more of a vacation with co-workers rather than a work event. The highlight of the event was a tornado warning that had us all sent to the basement of the conference center. Growing up in Georgia, a tornado warning wasn't exactly new. What WAS new however, was having the bartender from upstairs decide that as long as he was down there, and the big tub of beer waiting to be taken up to the bar was down there, that there was no reason he couldn't serve beer in the basement! The tornado warning with beer service was a first. At least here we didn't have to get down on our knees and kiss our ass goodbye like we did back in elementary school.
Work...our summer season is starting and our summer seasonal guys are on-board. We've gotten on a few fires recently but mainly we've just been working on training together and getting equipment ready. My whole crew headed a few hours north on some wildfires yesterday but unfortunately I'm a moron and sliced my knee open on an oyster reef while fishing this weekend so I'm on the bench for a few days waiting for my knee to explode in infection. Apparently oysters can carry some pretty nasty bacteria and it's often suggested that you don't hang out in the coastal waters with an open wound. I didn't help matters by actually slicing myself on one. How I ended up in the water on my knees is a whole different entry for a different time, but it involves two of us ending up with one single kayak filled half full of water and desperately trying to beat an approaching storm back to shore and then having to walk a mile down a dirt/gravel road being sandblasted by the 30mph winds blowing in our faces (and into my open wound). Fun. I promise.
Now I'm hanging out hoping that the minimal puffy infection that has set in gets its ass kicked by the antibiotics I started today. We'll see!
I think I'm done for now. Toodles!
I'm really not sure what's been going on with me lately. I think I posted about my first trip up to Nebraska when we went up there to burn. I spent another week or so in a different part of the state for a conference for work. Kind of fun...included folks from up and down the central U.S. as well as Meso-America and the Caribbean. It was held up at a conference center in Nebraska City that was one of the most amazing places I've ever stayed. The food was absolutely off the hook and they had activities planned for us every night that typically included an open bar starting with dinner through the first two hours of whatever was planned. I had been doing a lot of jogging and working out for the few months before I went up there and had knocked off upwards of 15 pounds. In one week I managed to put it all back on with the crazy food up there. Fresh Apple pie available at every meal? I mean come on! Anyway, had a good time and learned a lot. Really more of a vacation with co-workers rather than a work event. The highlight of the event was a tornado warning that had us all sent to the basement of the conference center. Growing up in Georgia, a tornado warning wasn't exactly new. What WAS new however, was having the bartender from upstairs decide that as long as he was down there, and the big tub of beer waiting to be taken up to the bar was down there, that there was no reason he couldn't serve beer in the basement! The tornado warning with beer service was a first. At least here we didn't have to get down on our knees and kiss our ass goodbye like we did back in elementary school.
Work...our summer season is starting and our summer seasonal guys are on-board. We've gotten on a few fires recently but mainly we've just been working on training together and getting equipment ready. My whole crew headed a few hours north on some wildfires yesterday but unfortunately I'm a moron and sliced my knee open on an oyster reef while fishing this weekend so I'm on the bench for a few days waiting for my knee to explode in infection. Apparently oysters can carry some pretty nasty bacteria and it's often suggested that you don't hang out in the coastal waters with an open wound. I didn't help matters by actually slicing myself on one. How I ended up in the water on my knees is a whole different entry for a different time, but it involves two of us ending up with one single kayak filled half full of water and desperately trying to beat an approaching storm back to shore and then having to walk a mile down a dirt/gravel road being sandblasted by the 30mph winds blowing in our faces (and into my open wound). Fun. I promise.
Now I'm hanging out hoping that the minimal puffy infection that has set in gets its ass kicked by the antibiotics I started today. We'll see!
I think I'm done for now. Toodles!
Monday, May 5, 2008
A sad...sad...day.
For the first time in many, many years...I missed Cinco de Mayo. I don't know what happened. I said the date numerous times today in conversation, wrote it down a few times and even responded to someone that asked the date. It was May 5th every time. Never did that fact that it was Cinco de Mayo register It took me opening up Google and noticing that there was a mariachi band playing and dancing around the logo to realize it.
I guess I didn't technically miss it as there is about an hour to go here in Central time, but alas, not a chance of me dragging butt to the local Mexican place (or one of the other 30 in town) to grab a margarita and shout ole.
I did celebrate a little via Tim and Angel calling and leaving me an audio postcard voicemail with the mariachi band from my second favorite Mexican restaurant in NYC playing in the background. That probably should have tipped me off, but no.
Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there. I'll have to double up on margaritas next year, or maybe on Quatro de Julio with the family in Atlanta.
Alas...hope everyone had a good Cinco de Mayo, whether you remembered or not!
I guess I didn't technically miss it as there is about an hour to go here in Central time, but alas, not a chance of me dragging butt to the local Mexican place (or one of the other 30 in town) to grab a margarita and shout ole.
I did celebrate a little via Tim and Angel calling and leaving me an audio postcard voicemail with the mariachi band from my second favorite Mexican restaurant in NYC playing in the background. That probably should have tipped me off, but no.
Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there. I'll have to double up on margaritas next year, or maybe on Quatro de Julio with the family in Atlanta.
Alas...hope everyone had a good Cinco de Mayo, whether you remembered or not!
Friday, April 25, 2008
Oh the humanity (and the irony)!
Oh the Humanity...
So I've been up in Nebraska with my crew for the last week to assist with some burning that needs to happen on TNC property up here. Yesterday we got just a little bit of fire on the ground, barely getting stuff to burn and for the rest of the trip we've been completely weathered out with either crazy high winds or crazy high or low humidities. We've had a little bit of everything. This morning, however, we woke up with 3 inches of snow on the ground. Eye opening to say the least. I haven't seen snow for 4 years and I don't own a winter coat. Another guy on my crew (from Texas, mind you) has only seen snow once before in his life, back in the mid-80s as a kid. Oy veh! is all I have to say. With the weather no good for burning we have two choices, either hang out and don't get paid or find work to do, so we've been out cutting trail, cleaning up old trail, fixing and constructing fence and as of today, freezing our asses off working (completely unprepared) out in the snow.
Oh the Irony...
Today we spent the day out on the preserve, snow freakin' everywhere, working on cutting down juniper trees. The juniper is a tree formerly planted to provide wind breaks for old homesteads but is now encroaching and taking over the prairie that is one of the most endangered ecosystems that the country has to offer. So the irony...today is Arbor Day and we, The Nature Conservancy, were out cutting down trees. It just brought a smile to my face when someone mentioned it this morning. One of the guys we work with in Texas always just laughs and talks about how insane it is that the home of the Arbor Day Foundation up here in Nebraska is located in an area surrounded by endangered prairie yet they continuously take pride in planting trees all over the darn place, exacerbating the problem of declining habitat. Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there. It's odd to be out in the middle of nowhere, with no phone service, etc. but have access to satellite internet.
The preserve has two herds of buffalo grazing on 61,000 acres. They are beautiful to look at and awfully darn tasty too.
And the snow...WTF!
So I've been up in Nebraska with my crew for the last week to assist with some burning that needs to happen on TNC property up here. Yesterday we got just a little bit of fire on the ground, barely getting stuff to burn and for the rest of the trip we've been completely weathered out with either crazy high winds or crazy high or low humidities. We've had a little bit of everything. This morning, however, we woke up with 3 inches of snow on the ground. Eye opening to say the least. I haven't seen snow for 4 years and I don't own a winter coat. Another guy on my crew (from Texas, mind you) has only seen snow once before in his life, back in the mid-80s as a kid. Oy veh! is all I have to say. With the weather no good for burning we have two choices, either hang out and don't get paid or find work to do, so we've been out cutting trail, cleaning up old trail, fixing and constructing fence and as of today, freezing our asses off working (completely unprepared) out in the snow.
Oh the Irony...
Today we spent the day out on the preserve, snow freakin' everywhere, working on cutting down juniper trees. The juniper is a tree formerly planted to provide wind breaks for old homesteads but is now encroaching and taking over the prairie that is one of the most endangered ecosystems that the country has to offer. So the irony...today is Arbor Day and we, The Nature Conservancy, were out cutting down trees. It just brought a smile to my face when someone mentioned it this morning. One of the guys we work with in Texas always just laughs and talks about how insane it is that the home of the Arbor Day Foundation up here in Nebraska is located in an area surrounded by endangered prairie yet they continuously take pride in planting trees all over the darn place, exacerbating the problem of declining habitat. Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there. It's odd to be out in the middle of nowhere, with no phone service, etc. but have access to satellite internet.
The preserve has two herds of buffalo grazing on 61,000 acres. They are beautiful to look at and awfully darn tasty too.
And the snow...WTF!
Friday, April 4, 2008
Mmm...pizza.
I haven't had a decent slice of pizza since I moved away from NYC 3 years and 10 months ago (except, of course, for when I've visited NYC since then). I'm sorry, but Papa John's, Pizza Hut, Dominos is to pizza what Taco Bell is to Mexican Food.
I had to call and apologize to a co-worker today because I gave him a lot of crap a few months back when he was telling me that the pizza place in my town's little mall was amazing pizza and that he's never had better. I'm not sure what made me decide to give it a try today, but I did and I'll be damned if it wasn't AMAZING! Not just good for being in a little town or good compared to what I've seen passed off as pizza over the last few years, but just freakin' good!
Tim and Angel...I thought you might also appreciate that as I left the pizza place in the mall and walked to the exit I noticed a "Chinese massage" deal set up in the middle of the atrium. $12 for 12 minutes. I just started laughing and realized there was another story I probably could have included in my 8 random things. Oh, that and throwing out my back doing a Michael Jackson crotchgrablegkickspinmove walking down 168th St.
I had to call and apologize to a co-worker today because I gave him a lot of crap a few months back when he was telling me that the pizza place in my town's little mall was amazing pizza and that he's never had better. I'm not sure what made me decide to give it a try today, but I did and I'll be damned if it wasn't AMAZING! Not just good for being in a little town or good compared to what I've seen passed off as pizza over the last few years, but just freakin' good!
Tim and Angel...I thought you might also appreciate that as I left the pizza place in the mall and walked to the exit I noticed a "Chinese massage" deal set up in the middle of the atrium. $12 for 12 minutes. I just started laughing and realized there was another story I probably could have included in my 8 random things. Oh, that and throwing out my back doing a Michael Jackson crotchgrablegkickspinmove walking down 168th St.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
8 Random Facts...
Ok, so back in August my friend Amie “tagged” me in her blog. As a result of being tagged I was tasked with posting a list of 8 random facts about me on my own blog as well as tagging another individual. I’m sure Amie thinks I dropped the task like a hot rock being that it is now April, but believe it or not, it’s been on the to do list, I’m just a very good procrastinator. She chided me a little, especially after Timmy C. compiled a list of random facts for me and sent them to her, but she let me off the hook without much more harassment. I’ll have to give Tim some credit for suggesting some of these as he literally has a list (written down, no kidding) of stuff like this. He routinely refers to stuff that I have long since forgotten and I was the one involved. That said, here goes…
Before I begin let's review the rules:
1) Post these rules before you give your facts
2) List 8 random facts about yourself
3) At the end of your post, choose (tag) people and list their names, linking to them
4) Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged
1. By the time I finished 2nd grade I had lived in 6 states (Washington, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Hampshire and Georgia), and since then have lived in 5 more states (Ohio, Kentucky, New York, Florida and Texas).
2. While standing in the green room of New York’s City Hall awaiting the inauguration of Michael Bloomberg as Mayor of NYC I split my pants (wide freakin’ open) while bending over. Bette Midler was standing next to me.
3. I left a job I loved in NYC in order to volunteer with AmeriCorps for a year. Wasn’t quite what I expected, but I did a second year and my experiences completely changed my outlook on what I wanted to do with career and life. Now I set shit on fire for a living.
4. I get paid to set fire. Sometimes I get paid to put it out. Either way, huh…huh…fire.
5. With a bit of force on a door trying to keep it open so another passenger could get on, I once single handedly shut down service on the N/R Subway line in all of Manhattan. If the same thing happened today I would probably be breaking some patriot act law and be tried as a terrorist. At the time I just laughed a little with the only other guy that noticed that what I had done caused the door to come off track and force the train out of service during rush hour.
6. Following a playoff game between the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves I rode the subway home while under my breath whistling the Atlanta Braves’ tomahawk chop chant. The NYC cop I was standing next to in a packed to capacity train leaned over and whispered to me “It’s my job to protect you if you piss off these folks whose Mets just lost, but I won’t be able to control more than a couple of them. You’re on your own with the rest.” I stopped whistling the tomahawk chop chant.
7. I kayaked around the island of Manhattan a bunch of times, but the first time I did it was to accompany a swimmer in the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (28.5 mile race around the island). While I kayaked around the island he swam around the island, non-stop, without being able to ever touch a boat. My ass was sore after 10 hours in the boat, but he swam the whole thing. I never complained about being tired on another ‘round the island trip.
8. During rehearsals for a concert I helped produce had the privilege of standing in the hallway of a sound studio in conversation with BB King, Eric Clapton and Willie Nelson. I have incredible disdain for celebrity in general, but aside from sitting down on a bar stool between Norm and Cliffy this pretty much did it for me.
I guess in order to make this episode complete I’m supposed to tag someone else. I guess it gotsta be Miss Angel. I’m not good enough at this to make a link, so I’m going to have to break that part of the rules from above.
Before I begin let's review the rules:
1) Post these rules before you give your facts
2) List 8 random facts about yourself
3) At the end of your post, choose (tag) people and list their names, linking to them
4) Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged
1. By the time I finished 2nd grade I had lived in 6 states (Washington, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Hampshire and Georgia), and since then have lived in 5 more states (Ohio, Kentucky, New York, Florida and Texas).
2. While standing in the green room of New York’s City Hall awaiting the inauguration of Michael Bloomberg as Mayor of NYC I split my pants (wide freakin’ open) while bending over. Bette Midler was standing next to me.
3. I left a job I loved in NYC in order to volunteer with AmeriCorps for a year. Wasn’t quite what I expected, but I did a second year and my experiences completely changed my outlook on what I wanted to do with career and life. Now I set shit on fire for a living.
4. I get paid to set fire. Sometimes I get paid to put it out. Either way, huh…huh…fire.
5. With a bit of force on a door trying to keep it open so another passenger could get on, I once single handedly shut down service on the N/R Subway line in all of Manhattan. If the same thing happened today I would probably be breaking some patriot act law and be tried as a terrorist. At the time I just laughed a little with the only other guy that noticed that what I had done caused the door to come off track and force the train out of service during rush hour.
6. Following a playoff game between the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves I rode the subway home while under my breath whistling the Atlanta Braves’ tomahawk chop chant. The NYC cop I was standing next to in a packed to capacity train leaned over and whispered to me “It’s my job to protect you if you piss off these folks whose Mets just lost, but I won’t be able to control more than a couple of them. You’re on your own with the rest.” I stopped whistling the tomahawk chop chant.
7. I kayaked around the island of Manhattan a bunch of times, but the first time I did it was to accompany a swimmer in the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (28.5 mile race around the island). While I kayaked around the island he swam around the island, non-stop, without being able to ever touch a boat. My ass was sore after 10 hours in the boat, but he swam the whole thing. I never complained about being tired on another ‘round the island trip.
8. During rehearsals for a concert I helped produce had the privilege of standing in the hallway of a sound studio in conversation with BB King, Eric Clapton and Willie Nelson. I have incredible disdain for celebrity in general, but aside from sitting down on a bar stool between Norm and Cliffy this pretty much did it for me.
I guess in order to make this episode complete I’m supposed to tag someone else. I guess it gotsta be Miss Angel. I’m not good enough at this to make a link, so I’m going to have to break that part of the rules from above.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Oy, here we go again...
I've made a habit over the last few months of making sure my friends up north are well aware of the beautiful weather down here in South Texas while they are shoveling out their driveways up there. Well, I think ole' karma is getting me back. Today is the third day in a row of 90+ degree weather. Humidity isn't anywhere near what it will be this summer, but humidity or not I'm just not ready yet for 90+ weather. The mosquitoes are starting to come out and it won't be long before they are out in force. See the video below for an example of what "out in force" means. The video was taken on my cell phone through a truck window while out mapping a ranch. Believe it or not, the video doesn't show anywhere near the worst clouds of mosquitoes, just a taste.
So, still some pretty darn beautiful weather down here, but I have a feeling it will get ugly and stay ugly just around the corner.
So, still some pretty darn beautiful weather down here, but I have a feeling it will get ugly and stay ugly just around the corner.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
At last, my vote will actually matter...
For the first time since I have been old enough to vote I live in a place where my vote in a presidential election (the primary anyway) will actually mean something. It's kind of exciting. For the last three presidential elections I lived in places where, whether the primary or general election, the results were obvious long before election day for the given state. I think that will be true in Texas when the general election comes around, but for now, in the Democratic primary every vote really is going to mean something.
Texas has one of the oddest election procedures I've encountered. I voted first thing this morning, but the popular vote only goes to elect a portion of the delegates. Every Texan has the option tonight to attend their local caucus to vote yet again, this time to assign a second portion of delegates to one candidate or another. So essentially I got the chance to vote twice today in the same election. I don't pretend to understand, and honestly I don't really care to understand, and I'd have to be pretty fired up in the future to go through the caucus deal again, but for this time around I'm enjoying seeing how the process works.
My local caucus had about 60 people (which apparently is unheard of turn-out, with a typical group of 15 to 20 people) and there were some interesting characters there. The two gentleman I stood next to for most of the event were talking and discussing the last time they had attended a local caucus. One last attended to vote for Mondale, and the other for McGovern. They were both there to vote for the same person tonight.
Texas has one of the oddest election procedures I've encountered. I voted first thing this morning, but the popular vote only goes to elect a portion of the delegates. Every Texan has the option tonight to attend their local caucus to vote yet again, this time to assign a second portion of delegates to one candidate or another. So essentially I got the chance to vote twice today in the same election. I don't pretend to understand, and honestly I don't really care to understand, and I'd have to be pretty fired up in the future to go through the caucus deal again, but for this time around I'm enjoying seeing how the process works.
My local caucus had about 60 people (which apparently is unheard of turn-out, with a typical group of 15 to 20 people) and there were some interesting characters there. The two gentleman I stood next to for most of the event were talking and discussing the last time they had attended a local caucus. One last attended to vote for Mondale, and the other for McGovern. They were both there to vote for the same person tonight.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Things have been cookin' down here in south Texas. We just had a group of firefighters from the Bureau of Land Management in Utah and Oregon come down for training with us and we put fire on just under 5,000 acres in about a week. It was a long week, filled with long days (and lots of overtime!), but thankfully the weather took a slight turn for the worse and gave us a little break to catch up. The group was great and we had a pile of fun on and off the fireline. Even though the training was technically for them, we learned a lot about the way we work and also picked up a lot of good info on fire suppression from the folks who spend a lot more time fighting fire than we do.
Here are a couple photos and a video from one of the recent fires. I have a fantastic video but for some reason the upload fails every time I try putting it on You Tube, so this one will have to do.
We spend a lot of time lighting the downwind side of the burn unit so that the fire slowly backs into the wind, creating a "blackline" that will prevent a faster racing "headfire" from crossing our firelines. The pic above is the headfire being lit off an ATV. After spending hours creating the backfire and blackline the fun part comes with lighting off the headfire that will burn up most everything in its path within a few minutes.
Life in general is going pretty well too. Not a whole lot going on. We recently tried out a tiny little BBQ shack on the side of the road out in the middle of the next county over and found it to be some of the best food I've ever eaten. Thankfully we pass the place all the time heading to and from ranches we work on so a few of us have made a point of getting out there as often as possible. The guys down from the Northwest thought the trip past the place was the non-fire highlight of the trip.
I never would have thought it, being such a tiny town and all, but Bill Clinton came through stumping for Hillary a couple weeks back. They only announced that he was coming the evening prior and it was mass chaos for such a little town to pull their act together to host a former president, but they did it, in true South Texas fashion it turns out. The speech was supposed to happen in the town square park, with room for up to 800 to a thousand people. Unfortunately it spent all day raining, so they decided to move it into the town's theater that seats about 300 leaving a whole pile of people outside in the rain wanting to get in. I went down to see if I could get in and was within the last 10 people let into the theater before it hit capacity. We waited there until about 5 minutes after he was supposed to start speaking, when the organizer came in and said that it had stopped raining and because there were an additional 500-600 people outside in the streets they were going to move it back outside. Not only did they move it outside, but they scrapped the whole park/gazebo/podium plan and instead hoisted the ex-president up on top of the tool box in the bed of a Dodge Ram pick-up right in the middle of an intersection. When it was over Clinton spent about an hour and a half working the rope line, shaking hands and kissing babies. I brought my photograph with him that was taken when he participated in one of the last events I worked on in New York. Thankfully Clinton's body guy was the same one I worked with a couple times and after a quick conversation made the re-connection with him and was able to get the picture signed. His people collected a lot of stuff that people were handing across the line to have signed and I couldn't believe it, but it seemed like pretty much everyone got back what they had handed over to be signed.
Overall it was a good time. To a degree it made me yearn for the fast paced event work, with stuff changing all the time and dealing with the security and logistics, but the next day I got to go and light fire to 1,300 acres and you just can't beat that.
That's about all for now.
Here are a couple photos and a video from one of the recent fires. I have a fantastic video but for some reason the upload fails every time I try putting it on You Tube, so this one will have to do.
We spend a lot of time lighting the downwind side of the burn unit so that the fire slowly backs into the wind, creating a "blackline" that will prevent a faster racing "headfire" from crossing our firelines. The pic above is the headfire being lit off an ATV. After spending hours creating the backfire and blackline the fun part comes with lighting off the headfire that will burn up most everything in its path within a few minutes.
Life in general is going pretty well too. Not a whole lot going on. We recently tried out a tiny little BBQ shack on the side of the road out in the middle of the next county over and found it to be some of the best food I've ever eaten. Thankfully we pass the place all the time heading to and from ranches we work on so a few of us have made a point of getting out there as often as possible. The guys down from the Northwest thought the trip past the place was the non-fire highlight of the trip.
I never would have thought it, being such a tiny town and all, but Bill Clinton came through stumping for Hillary a couple weeks back. They only announced that he was coming the evening prior and it was mass chaos for such a little town to pull their act together to host a former president, but they did it, in true South Texas fashion it turns out. The speech was supposed to happen in the town square park, with room for up to 800 to a thousand people. Unfortunately it spent all day raining, so they decided to move it into the town's theater that seats about 300 leaving a whole pile of people outside in the rain wanting to get in. I went down to see if I could get in and was within the last 10 people let into the theater before it hit capacity. We waited there until about 5 minutes after he was supposed to start speaking, when the organizer came in and said that it had stopped raining and because there were an additional 500-600 people outside in the streets they were going to move it back outside. Not only did they move it outside, but they scrapped the whole park/gazebo/podium plan and instead hoisted the ex-president up on top of the tool box in the bed of a Dodge Ram pick-up right in the middle of an intersection. When it was over Clinton spent about an hour and a half working the rope line, shaking hands and kissing babies. I brought my photograph with him that was taken when he participated in one of the last events I worked on in New York. Thankfully Clinton's body guy was the same one I worked with a couple times and after a quick conversation made the re-connection with him and was able to get the picture signed. His people collected a lot of stuff that people were handing across the line to have signed and I couldn't believe it, but it seemed like pretty much everyone got back what they had handed over to be signed.
Overall it was a good time. To a degree it made me yearn for the fast paced event work, with stuff changing all the time and dealing with the security and logistics, but the next day I got to go and light fire to 1,300 acres and you just can't beat that.
That's about all for now.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
and the mercury rises...
It's been a rough couple weeks, with temps getting down into the 30s a few times and spending a lot of time in the 40s. All is good though because today we were back above 70 and we'll be there for the better part of the next week and a half at least, with Tuesday slated to be almost 80. I grew up hating the heat. The extreme heat combined with the humidity can still test my nerve, especially when it includes literal clouds of mosquitoes, but two years in Florida and a year in Texas have made me realize just how nice 75 degrees in January (on a regular basis) can feel, especially when hearing on the news about blizzards and freezing temps all over the country.
So, to all my friends and family shivering in their boots, digging out their cars or even just turning on the heat...kinda sucks, doesn't it!?!?!?!?! Victoria, Texas doesn't have a whole lot to offer, but it's nice doing nothing while wearing shorts and a t-shirt driving around with the windows down and the sunroof open.
So, to all my friends and family shivering in their boots, digging out their cars or even just turning on the heat...kinda sucks, doesn't it!?!?!?!?! Victoria, Texas doesn't have a whole lot to offer, but it's nice doing nothing while wearing shorts and a t-shirt driving around with the windows down and the sunroof open.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
20/20
I'm excited to say that at my one week visit after Lasik I was able to read a slightly on the fuzzy side 20/20 line on the eye chart. It took a little work but I'll be damned if I didn't get them right. It was an improvement from the initial vision test immediately following the surgery and the halos at night have improved immensely in the last week. Best of all, I didn't screw up any of the drops or go and rub my flap open during my sleep. I did manage to wake up every morning with my eye cup/patches in disarray having been pulled off while sleeping, but thankfully no damage.
I'm back to fire duty starting tomorrow so we'll see how it goes in the smoke, but I've pretty much bought stock in Refresh eye drops so I should be good to go.
That's about all I've got for now.
Oh, and Angel, you need a toaster?
I'm back to fire duty starting tomorrow so we'll see how it goes in the smoke, but I've pretty much bought stock in Refresh eye drops so I should be good to go.
That's about all I've got for now.
Oh, and Angel, you need a toaster?
Saturday, January 5, 2008
I can see!!!
After 16 or so years of contact lenses and glasses, I can freakin' see! Went under the lasers yesterday morning, compliments of my company's flex spending account that will slowly bleed me dry one paycheck at a time, but that's alright...'cause I can freakin' see!
The laser shootin' was the easy part. Now the part where I stick to giving myself 4 different drops 4 times a day over the next month while also remembering not to rub my eyes begins. Kind of scary knowing that one lapse in memory involving a sleepy eye rubbing can mess everything up, but I've been pretty good so far. Being paranoid helps a bit.
So...what else has been going on?
Not a whole lot, really. Finally the summer rains subsided and dried out and we've been burning like crazy. We brought on two new seasonal crew members (who are both amazing) as well as another full time employee who is temporarily living with me. Moving into the middle of January we'll be burning up a storm if the weather continues to cooperate.
Christmas in Atlanta was fun. A long drive both ways, but I enjoy driving and it let me get away without any time constraints or worrying about my sinuses exploding on the return trip as they nearly did last year. I found out the hard way that time that a week of allergy madness just doesn't mix with air travel.
Spent New Years up on a National Wildlife Refuge northwest of Austin of a pile of friends. I think sleeping outside under the stars on New Years and waking up next to what was left of a fire is about the most amazing way I've ever spent the holiday and one I definitely hope to repeat. It was a chilly 20 degrees upon waking, but I was well insulated and loved every second of it.
Can't say I really have much more to share at the moment. I hope everyone had a great holiday season and that you aren't too upset about getting back to work!
It's in the balmy mid-70s this week down here, so don't hesitate to ring me up for a visit if you need to thaw out a bit.
The laser shootin' was the easy part. Now the part where I stick to giving myself 4 different drops 4 times a day over the next month while also remembering not to rub my eyes begins. Kind of scary knowing that one lapse in memory involving a sleepy eye rubbing can mess everything up, but I've been pretty good so far. Being paranoid helps a bit.
So...what else has been going on?
Not a whole lot, really. Finally the summer rains subsided and dried out and we've been burning like crazy. We brought on two new seasonal crew members (who are both amazing) as well as another full time employee who is temporarily living with me. Moving into the middle of January we'll be burning up a storm if the weather continues to cooperate.
Christmas in Atlanta was fun. A long drive both ways, but I enjoy driving and it let me get away without any time constraints or worrying about my sinuses exploding on the return trip as they nearly did last year. I found out the hard way that time that a week of allergy madness just doesn't mix with air travel.
Spent New Years up on a National Wildlife Refuge northwest of Austin of a pile of friends. I think sleeping outside under the stars on New Years and waking up next to what was left of a fire is about the most amazing way I've ever spent the holiday and one I definitely hope to repeat. It was a chilly 20 degrees upon waking, but I was well insulated and loved every second of it.
Can't say I really have much more to share at the moment. I hope everyone had a great holiday season and that you aren't too upset about getting back to work!
It's in the balmy mid-70s this week down here, so don't hesitate to ring me up for a visit if you need to thaw out a bit.
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