Bugger

Don't you hate those people who always look good in photos? Even at 7am? Even after a hard 5K. Grr. So, as promised, here's some pics of Debbie and I. The Thanksgiving Day run was held in Balboa Park in San Diego. It was raining. At one point it was even pouring. Like Seattle kind of rain.

This is Deb and I before the race. All I can say is that I think I was very tired. Deb looks great. I should have kicked her right before the picture.

Dude, it was wet. You can't see it, but we're in an gated off beer garden after the race. The thing is, you can't go grab your beer and go find an awning to sit under. You must stay in a designated area so as not to be wandering loose in the park with alcohol. Also it ensures that everyone drinking in that area is indeed of age. So it was pouring. I had just changed into a warm (and dry) t-shirt and jacket after the race (because I was soaked). As you can see here, we were not incredibly dry. Again, Deb looks fantastic, and I've decided I'm not allowed to smile that big in photos anymore. I was seriously tired though... in my defense.

It may not look like it, but I'm very content right here. I was cold and wet and for some reason my face looks swollen, but I was very happy. I think we stood in there enjoying our beers for at least 15 minutes in the pouring rain. It was around 9am. Oh, and the beer was Stone IPA. I don't think I would've stood in the rain that long for a Bud Light. Ok, maybe I would've. We had a lot of fun though. I had a decent 5K, something to be proud of. And it was definately exciting to be drinking beer in that atmosphere. Drew was there too, but for some reason, Deb hasn't posted pictures of him yet on her facebook. Yes, I stole these photos, without permission. But there's my disclaimer, so it's legal.

Off-season

Well fire season is officially over. I think I needed it to be. I've seen more of my friends in the past couple weeks than I have all year. I feel like this is what I've been missing all summer. I just don't get to see anyone during the summer months so now I'm making up for it. As soon as I get pics from my pals, I'll post them. There was yesterday morning having beers in the beer garden after the Turkey Day 5K in the pouring rain with Debbie and Drew, Thanksgiving at Natalie's, and even a few days ago, the girls went out for Italian... and the next morning: coffee at the butt-crack of dawn. Pics to come!

Snow!!!

We had our first snow of the season on Sunday morning (November 9th). I woke up to white stuff everywhere, and as I was leaving for work, a very pretty flurry had started.

The night before:

I did absolutely nothing to doctor up this image. Gorgeous sunset!

Being as I was taking pictures of the sunset that night, I had my camera waiting on the kitchen table for this:

I realize that may not be exciting to some of you, but I just wasn't expecting it. It was much more fabulous in person.

There were still a few small flakes coming down, but most of it started to melt as the morning went by.
This is what it looked like as I was leaving for work. It had started to snow pretty good by then. The snow on my jeep melted because I had started it up 20 minutes earlier and the heater was on inside.

On my way to work, I snapped this picture. There were a lot of other pretty things to take pictures of later (like snow at work, ice crystals in the trees, etc) but by then I was over it.... maybe because I have to work in this now. Yuck! Corey (our apprentice) and I went for a run in it. It wasn't too bad, but I shudder to think we'll be doing fuels projects in this all winter. I certainly don't get paid enough for this.

My Crew

Now that the fire season is officially over, here is my crew. I know, it's kinda late, but we've been gone on a fire and things have been hectic since we got back.

Left to right: Eric (captain), Louie, Lanolin (Jason- he's allergic to sheep's wool), Me, Christian, Kyle, Chris (engineer), Dominic (in front).

So all the temps/seasonals have been layed off for the winter. All that remains of this crew are myself, Chris, Eric, Dominic, and another Apprentice who isn't in the picture: Corey.

Brrr!!! Part II

The cold weather has been making me especially lazy lately. This morning I had a brief mental conversation with my bicycle that ended in something like “no way”. So I scrubbed my bath tub instead. Until my dear friend Debbie called. As we were ending our conversation, she mentioned how she was off to the gym. Enter guilt trip. But please realize it was 20 degrees colder here than it was there. So I agreed to go ride my bike.

Excellent idea. I’m just so very sorry that you can’t hear the sarcasm in my voice. We have actual weather up here. At first it wasn’t so bad. I took off down through the valley on the sunny side, bundled in bike pants, a fleece pull-over, and knitted gloves pulled over my padded bike gloves. The wind either did not exist or it was at my back. I went about 3 miles and turned around… only to be hit head on by a 10 degree 50 mile per hour wind. From the front, then the side, then the front, then the side. The wind was so cold and strong my eyes watered to the point of being blind. My body tensed from the cold, my ears ached. And every few seconds, a strong gust of wind would throw me towards the edge of the road. Dirt and pavement swam back and forth in front of me as cars occasionally whizzed by. I swear I was heading downhill, but instead of shifting with the terrain, I had to shift with the wind. It was incredibly miserable.

So somewhere between mile 4 and mile 5, I agreed that I deserved to purchase a trainer for my bicycle. That would be a small contraption that converts your regular outdoor bicycle into an indoor stationary bike. I wasn’t going to due to the recent collapse of our economy as we know it, but this was the last straw. I had suffered through a pathetic yoga/Pilates fusion DVD the night before and needed a good cardio workout to make up for my lack of effort. But I can’t see encouraging myself to brave anymore winter winds just to get a workout in.

And of course now that I’ve placed the order, the winds have calmed and the weather has warmed up. But I’m not fooled. I’ve been told we’ll get our first snow around Halloween.

By the way, we had “picture day” a few days ago, so stay tuned for crew pictures!

Brrrr!

It's noon, and we've finally hit a toasty 49 degrees (F). We've all been extended the last few days due to red flag warnings, high fire danger, etc. Last night it got down to 12 degrees (F), and didn't rise above freezing until after 9am. Not that I doubt that fires will take off running in sub-freezing temperatures, but the act of getting up before sunlight has yet to warm the land is painful if not down-right ridiculous. When I got into my car this morning, it was just light enough for me to confirm that there was indeed frost on the roof of my jeep. I was however, very excited to find no ice to scrape off my windshield. There's something to be said about low humidities. I don't even own an ice scraper yet.

Yesterday day we went down to another station to cover for days off for that crew. We passed farms along the way that had icicles hanging from those big irrigation sprinklers. Unfortunate. Worse than that, we're on fire restrictions up here and have been since July, which mean no campfires anywhere. Who would camp where you can't have campfires? Especially where it gets below 20 degrees at night? Well we were fortunate enough to be tasked with being the jerks to go put out everyone's campfires that were rebels enough to light one in the first place. I felt like a jerk, but in our defense, there are signs up that say no campfires... only gas portable stoves.

Let that be a lesson to you. Always call ahead to see if campfires are allowed. If it's anywhere in Southern California, the chances are you can't have a fire.

My House

First, I’d like to start off with a picture of a little coyote who was roaming around our station. There’s a few of them.

Now onto my house. You’ll have to excuse the lack of furniture and décor, as well as the mess of things that don’t quite have their own place yet.
So here’s my house. I plan on putting something on the front porch to take up that empty space in the right corner. Obviously, there’s the front door. It leads into the kitchen. The top window is my bedroom. If you go to the left, that’s my deck.

Here’s the deck. If you go down the stairs on the other side, it leads to a storage shed as well as down into my front “yard”. Really it’s just a bunch of trees. Maybe I’ll do something with it later, but for now it’s unimpressive. If you walk in to the door here, it leads into my living room.


This is the view to the west, looking from the deck. The view is really hard to capture on camera in either direction because the trees are in the way.


This is the kitchen, obviously. On the right hand side by the side window is where my little breakfast nook with stools is going to go. It’s not here yet. I eat on my living room floor.

So turning directly around is the first glimpse at my living room. The door to the deck is on the left. Like I said, it lacks furniture and décor, but that’s in the works. And yes, my roomie is my bike… for now.
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This second picture is as you turn the corner into the living room. Again, notice my beautiful bike.

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This is turning around and looking from the corner of my living room (where the funky lamp was sitting). The door on the left is the bathroom, right before you go up the stairs to the loft. Obviously that’s the kitchen again on the right.

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This is my bathroom. Just like any other bathroom I suppose.
It has a toilet, sink, bathtub, and shower. It also has some pretty high shelves that don’t hold much because I can’t reach them. I’d show you, but it’s really hard to get pictures in small rooms.
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So, up the stairs we go. It may look a little dusty… that’s because it is. I haven’t gotten that far into my cleaning yet. I feel like I’ve hardly been home. Yes that’s my shoe rack up there on the right. I don’t have closets. Still working on solutions for that. One thing at a time.

This is my bedroom loft. No doors or walls that face the living room, so it has a very wide open feel to it. Very cool in my opinion. I love it.

My bedroom again with the shades drawn to block out the afternoon sun.

For a little different perspective, this is looking down into my living room from my loft. Strange, I know, but this is also pretty hard to capture on camera. Maybe I’m just not trying hard enough, but I’m hungry and I need to go grocery shopping.
So there you have it in a nutshell. Come and visit to make a little better sense of it all.