:Literary Incontinence

Again, it’s been longer than I had planned on between posts. I wish I had a better excuse, but the honest reason is “I’ve been way too busy.”

I’m “on call” as I write now, but things are quiet for the time being. I’m hoping that it stays that way - I’m feeling more relaxed than I have in quite a while. I just got out of the shower, my first in four days. Apparently, someone had taken it upon themselves to “adjust” our hot water heater several days ago. Their intentions were good, I’m sure, but the result has been a distinct lack of any water that even comes close to resembling “hot.” I hate taking cold showers, especially when the only times I have to take showers are early in the morning and late in the evening when the desert cools way down. Calls to maintenance have been to no avail.

Several things of note have happened since I last posted. I’ll try to mash out a quick summary of some of them.

I found myself involved in a SAR from the “operations” side of things last week. I was having an “out of office” day up in the mountains, surveying snow conditions on top of Mount Phillips with two friends. We had barely sat out from our drop-off point when the call went out on the radio that there was a scout in distress near the peak of Phillips. I think all of us had a pretty good idea right away that we’d get wrapped up in things somehow. We continued up canyons and peaks to our destination, monitoring the radio traffic as we went.

Several hours later, we reached the peak to find the scout and his crew still there. I got to perform an abbreviated field assessment and even use a stethoscope, haha! I determined that the scout was in no immediate danger, despite his subjective report of being an “8″ out of ten on the pain scale. I told him that I was no expert, but that my guess based on the information I had was that he had developed bronchitis. Forty-five minutes later, when the medic arrived, she said almost the exact same thing, which made me feel pretty good. I haven’t got to use my EMT training a whole lot since becoming certified, and it was nice to have that kind of validation.

The rest of my “out of office day” was spent hiking back to the Cimarroncito Turnaround from Mt. Phillips. All in all, it was another 20-mile day for me, though this time was over much more rugged terrain than my Beaubien day. We got back to the car at about midnight, after stopping at Cypher’s Mine for dinner and to see their evening program called The Stomp. I have to put in a shout out to Cypher’s Mine - their staff was incredibly hospitible. We came walking into camp just as they were sitting down to dinner and they went out of their way to make room - and more food - for us. They’re now tied with Beaubien for Dave’s “Most Hospitable Staff” award.

The hike from there down to the turnaround was by moonlight again. It was nice being with people, since we were hiking down the same canyon where I had been stalked by a mountain lion in 2003. At that time, I was also hiking at night, but I had been alone. All things being equal, I like having other people with me better, hehe. I was exhausted and sore afterwards, but it was not nearly as bad as my previous 20-mile day. I’ve got pics from this day that I’ll get around to posting somewhere… sometime… soon. Probably. Maybe. I hope.

I was happy to entertain my first guests of the summer last weekend - my parents came down to hang out for a few days. They hopped on the train in KC and rode it to Raton, where I had the Phil-Shuttle pick them up. From there, they took my car down to Albuquerque to visit my Grandma there for a few days. On the way back though, they spent some time with me around CHQ here and some of the nearby towns. It was great to see them, and a wonderful way to spend my first two REAL days off of the season. On Monday I gave them a ride up to Raton to catch their train headed home.

On the way back from Raton, I was met with a strange sight: smoke coming off of Tooth Ridge. It took me a few miles to convince myself that it was indeed smoke I was seeing, and I pulled over and snapped some pictures of it for proof. I headed right for the radio room as soon as I got back to CHQ, partly in case I could be of any help, and partly (maybe mostly) because I wanted to know what was going on.

All in all, the Tooth-Ridge fire was never more than an acre. The alarm had gone out quickly enough that the helicopter dumping water on it (yes, helicopter. it was pretty sweet.) took care of most of the flames. Apparently the ground crew only had to do mop-up and perimeter. It was a little bit of a close call, especially being so close to base camp, but it was dealt with quickly and professionally.

We had another bit of a scare just today, with a small (and I mean tiny) fire up north. Several teams from staffed camps were able to control the grass fire with just Indian Packs and fire tools before the response teams even got there. Again, we were lucky that it was noticed and reported almost immediately. During the call today, I was in and out of the radio room making phone calls to ranch officials and the local Forrest Rangers. It’s pretty weird to me to be on the “other side” of emergency response. After dealing with grass fires here and there for almost 4 years with Riley County, I did NOT want to be in that radio room just listening to the action tonight. I would have given just about anything to be out there eating smoke and digging trenches. I guess it’s something I’ll have to get used to. I’ve asked a little bit about the Philmont Fire Department, which is all-volunteer… that may be something I’ll have to pursue a little more.

Overall, I’m pretty happy lately when I actually have time to stop and think about my mood. I’m REALLY looking forward to my next set of days off, when I’m going up to the Valle Vidal with some friends for three days! This will be my first time up in the Valle and I can’t wait!

Time to crash, I’ve been writing this on and off all evening and it’s now midnight. Hasta la pasta!

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So I just wrote the previous blog today - the one about how much I was enjoying biking to campus. And this afternoon I had something happen that almost changed my mind.

I was sitting around the house, not doing much at the time, when my pager went off. (The pager that I take with me for firefighting.) There had been a 10-48 (automobile accident) between a pickup and a bicycle at Denison and Jardine and they were paging Riley County first responders. While I’m not a first responder, I noticed that this was about a block and a half from my house, so I grabbed my keys and jetted out - “en route, non-emergent, POV.” I got there in about 3 minutes to see that a fire truck from MFD was already on scene, with 4 or 5 guys kneeling around a girl who was screaming bloody murder. I jogged past the greek house I parked in front of with my gear in hand and approached a female cop who was taking a statement… from my friend Chelsea! I was shocked and a little worried until I realized that Chelsea had not been involved, she had just witnessed the whole thing. I identified myself and asked the cop if they needed any help. With two squad cars and an engine on scene, though, they were doing alright. I talked briefly to Chelsea about what happened and watched the paramedics treat the victim.

I won’t hesitate to admit that I was a little shaken up by it all. I’ve been on the department for a year now, and I’ve been to a few dozen calls in that time. This was the first with so much screaming though. The only other call with serious injuries that comes to memory was one of my first - a collision between a semi and a stationwagon. Both passengers in that stationwagon had been in critical condition and I got to watch the extrication then clear a path through the crowd for the ambulance. The big difference was that both of those passengers had been unconscious. This girl today was definitely fully aware. The crazy thing was that she did not seem to be hurt that badly. From what I could see, I would say abrasions to the shoulder and possibly part of the face, and probably a broken arm. The paramedics performing triage were trying to get her arm into a splint, but she kept shaking it around and screaming about how bad it hurt. Of course it’s going to hurt if you shake it around!

When I think about it, it wasn’t the situation or the blood or the pressure that got to me at all… it was just the screaming. That’s something I’m going to have to be aware of I suppose. While I was a little shaken, I was pleased to note that it didn’t seem to interfere with my judgment or thought processes at all. I was clear-headed and ready to do what I had been trained to do -or whatever MFD might need help with- the entire time. I hope this continues to be the case in the future.

Anyway, I came home and watched SNL’s “Best of Will Ferrell” with Alex to calm the nerves down, and ended up having a relaxing evening. It’s Thursday night, so you all know what that means… it’s Aggieville time! D=out

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This semester is going great. I am keeping very busy -which is the way I like it- and having the time of my life. In fact, I might go so far as to say that this might be shaping up to be my best semester of college yet. Here’s some updates on several facets of my busy life.

Big Cats is going great now that lines of communication with the cheer squad have opened up again. The first couple of weeks were very busy; we walked 6 nights out of the first 9 I was in town. The newbies are doing an absolutely amazing job. They’ve got tons of energy and are more than happy to help out with anything. It is a real pleasure to lead such an enthusiastic group. Much earlier in my Big Cats career, when the legendary Kendell “Boss” Powell was wearing the captain’s hat, I remember the rest of us on the squad feeling kind of frustrated by the fact that Boss didn’t walk much with the rest of us. She said that she would rather just manage and let us do our thing, almost like she was burnt out. I think I know now what she meant. I still feel very dedicated to the program, but I just don’t have the enthusiasm I used to. I don’t know if that’s just something that goes away over time, or if I’m burnt out from years of fighting with the athletic department, but that’s the way it is. I don’t have any regret about this, however. I am very content coordinating and doing ground crew while the next generation has their time in the spotlight. Who knows, I might pull rank and walk at a game or two this year just to remember how great it felt.

My teaching is going alright. All of the classes I was assigned to teach meet at 8:30 in the morning which -needless to say- BLOWS. I am definitely not awake at that time, and neither are my students. After teaching last year, I expected this year to be a breeze, but it seems that there are several factors working against me. First is the fact that I am not only teaching the psychology lab like last year, but also an Enhanced University Experience “study skills” type course for incoming freshmen. The course is set up in a rather confusing way, even to me as the instructor. The saving grace here is a fantastic textbook. I don’t usually buy into self-improvement lessons, but this one is very well structured. It is very easy to learn from, and as a consequence, very easy to teach from.

The other major block I’ve hit is that the professor I am teaching in conjunction with is new. He has a new book, new teaching styles, and hasn’t yet seemed to find a “groove” in his class. This is pretty frustrating from my standpoint because it makes my job of supplementing his teachings much more difficult. I expect it to improve as the semester continues though, so hopefully my class will smooth out as well.

Already some of the naivety in my freshmen students has gotten annoying, but not to the point where it bothers me. Yet. These kids are starting out wide-eyed, with absolutely no idea what lies ahead. Part of me envies them: they are just starting out on a crazy adventure that I am reaching the end of. I can’t help but think back to my own freshman year and some of the questions I had or things I was confused about. It blows my mind to think that was only four years ago. Everyone I know, myself included, has changed so much in that time, it seems like another life. The original derb crew: you guys know what I’m talking about.

Firefighting is going well. I didn’t even have my pager turned on for the first couple of weeks I was in town, mostly because I didn’t have time and my car wasn’t in service anyway. Lately though, I’ve been going to training again and the pager is back on. Pat and I have started training with station 3 down in Ogden in addition to regular county training and whatever training we get from station 12. We got to know a lot of the people at station 3 through the Firefighting 1 certification class we took down there. They were all fun to work with, seemed to know their stuff, and trained regularly, so one day we just asked if we could train with them as well. I haven’t been to a single call since I’ve been back in town, but I suppose that’s a good thing. Still, some action would be nice.

There’s a lot more going on, including working at AXO as a houseboy again, rewiring the headlights in my car (or not), Life at The Bunker, Our first huge party of the year (which freaking ROCKED), and me being sick because I barely sleep anymore. At this juncture however, I think I’m going to work on that last one and hit the sack. More updates later.

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