Updated about 3 versions of WordPress, so we’ll see how it goes…
Not much new on the work front, just getting our early season training out of the way and making guesses as to when fire season will start. So far there’s been enough rain to keep things wet and cool in SW MT, but that looks like it’s about to change. I’m calling for us to start getting IA fires by the middle July at the latest.
Alright, in the 6 or so months since I last updated the blog, a lot has happened with not much resulting from it. I’m still in Missoula working for the DNRC as a seasonal Lead Crew on the SWLO helitack crew, and having fun with those folks. I’ve decided to enjoy one last summer in Missoula before my pursuit of a real job pulls me somewhere else.
This season marks my ninth year in wildland fire… Nine years ago I never would’ve imagined I’d be doing this for a living. For that matter, four years ago I was still unsure of what I was going to do. It’s been good the past few months to put aside a lot of the daydreams and “silly” ideas about what I would do “when I grow up.” I’ve finally found what I really enjoy doing (most of the time), and am going to pursue it to the fullest.
I’ve been dealing with a lot of personal demons this past winter and spring as well. The passing of a beloved grandmother left me dealing with bouts of hereditary depression (it runs rampant in my family… not a good thing) that really influenced my ability to make “good” decisions. Thus I feel as though in the past six months I have made one bad decision after another, both career-wise and personally. But with the coming of summer I have made it my goal to bring things in my life back into balance, and hopefully I will succeed. Onward to Success!
Well, that’s enough raving for now… Soon to come, more fire stories and pictures!
Long time no write, so here goes.
I decided before Christmas to decline the job offer in California, based on the likelihood of my being able to get a permanent position somewhere close to home this spring. I have a few leads on jobs that I should be able to get, but I’m not counting chickens before they hatch. In any event, I’ll know by mid-March if any of this was a good idea. I decided I’d much rather stay here in western MT or north Idaho than go to California, even though the job offer was pretty good.
I also dropped out of school at UM. It was getting way too expensive (the last 9 credits on the BA would have meant adding another $5-6K to my student loans) and I really didn’t need the History degree anyway. I also was just burned out on taking tests. I still think that college tests are a joke, as I really don’t feel that I personally need a tested environment to learn. Tests are tough for me because while I am a quick learner, and am good at school in general, I am a horrible test taker. Basically I got tired of having to prove that I really did learn something every few weeks in class. Maybe I’ll come back and finish the BA one class at a time, but that’s not real high on my list of priorities.
Every semester I try to hike the M trail on the last day I’m on campus. This time around it coincided with a clear day and some snow on the mountains, so I packed a camera along with me.
Missoula in the morning
Looking up the Rattlesnake
Lolo Peak and Lolo Creek
Sign at the top of the M
Looking east toward Bonner
Looking past the Loyola L up the Rattlesnake
As I was driving home last night from visiting relatives in the Bitterroot, I heard on NPR that loud noises makes us dumber. The scientist who they were interviewing said something to the effect that loud noises distract and confuse people to a certain degree, as evidenced by the fact that, say, when people are watching football (or some other sport) in a sports bar, and a game you’re not watching has something exciting happen, you’ll turn and look at what caused the commotion, temporarily shifting your attention from what you were doing.
Why did this grab my attention, you ask? Well, working in helitack for several years now has shown me that for whatever reason, people sometimes do really strange things when near a helicopter. I’ve had hotshots superintendents with 20+ years of fire experience hop out of a helicopter, spot where they want to go, and head for it, even if it means walking towards the tail rotor. I’ve had to physically grab people and shove them in the right direction, again, because they headed towards the tail rotor. It’s a very explicit rule when working with helicopters that, to stay safe, you stay away from the rotors when they are moving. It’s just good sense, and any normal person will agree, when the rotors aren’t turning.
Now, when you add the noise of the turbine engine, the whopping of the main rotor, and the buzzing of the tail rotor (which is moving roughly seven times faster than the main rotor), and it starts to get interesting. Us rotorheads obviously get desensitized to this after a while, but it no doubt gets the adrenaline pumping to walk under the rotors and go to work. In the helitack world there is a term for the distracted state that some people get into when around a running helicopter – “rotor psychosis.” While it is something that I train all my crewmembers to look for, I never really thought that there was a real explanation for it. I just understood that it was some combination of adrenaline, psychology (spinning rotors make for a good nerve-wracking experience), and the confusion of not being able to think because of the noise.
Now I know there’s a good scientific explanation for it. See, you really CAN learn something new every day.
