This past weekend was great. I got to get out of camp from Friday-Sunday see some good people and have a good time. On Friday Miguel, Teresa, Vanessa, Sarah and I all met up at Teresa's house and cooked a wonderful feast of dirt cake, rice crispy treats, bean dip, and smoothies as an after dinner snack. It was delicous. From there I went over to Miguel's place to hang out for the rest of the weekend. Miguel is just recently engaged, and asked me to be a groomsman...should be a great time. It was nice to be able to go over to Miguels, not only to see him and hang out, but also because I was able to bring Boomer with me, and did not have to worry about him all weekend.
Boomer loved it, he got to play with two other dogs the whole weekend and got good and worn out. Not nearly as worn out as Miguels sister's dogs did though. The one dog Boomer got along with most (Buddy) I think was happy to see him go. Buddy was all about playing for the first hour or two, but I don't think he realized that Boomer wasn't going to quit until he could go no longer. After about 2-3 hours of franitcally runnign around the sofa and play fighting, Buddy was doing all he could to hide from Boomer, but Boomer always managed to find him and harass him. It was good though, they all slept well that night.
Now I get to look forward to my first full paycheck on Friday...that will be nice.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Thursday, January 25, 2007
It has arrived...
Television that is...I am finally reconnected with the outside world, and it feels good. Thank you dish Network. Turns out we got a pretty good deal with it and were able to split it three ways, so it should be fairly reasonable.
This week finally warmed up. Today and yesterday we were in the fifties and should be tomorrow as well, so that is great to work in as well as to help melt some of the snow. As far as work this week, it has been a lot of preparing for the work that is going to need to be done when Mitch is gone for the next week. We got lumber for making 100+ boxes, cut them to size and have begun staining them, went over how Dave and I are going to fix a fenced in dumpster area that was destroyed by a bear last fall, talked about fixing decks, learned how to use the wood splitter, got trained on how to use a chainsaw, as always continued plowing and staying ahead of the snowfall, replaced the steering mechanism on the gator, and filled the rest of the time with other small projects. It has been great experience to learn how to do much of these things, and I know I will carry it all with me in the future.
On another note, I recently have been thinking about positions available at camp this summer. It is strange though, because every time that I tell my roommate a position I am interested in, he suddenly has an interest in the same exact position despite what he had previously said. For example: this past week Dave and I were having a conversation about what positions we would most want at camp. I said probably Assistant Program Director, Unit Director, and Maintenance director in that order. I asked him and he said Unit Director, and Assistant PD. We talked a little bit about how we both were interested in similar positions, and I told him not to worry about fighting for the same spot for a couple reasons: A. I don't even know if I am coming back, and B. Even if I did and the current program director selected him over me, I would have no problem with that (the better man won) (or at least they think!) but anyway then yesterday I was talking with the Program Director and somehow we got on the topic of the Trips Director - which I had totally forgotten about position wise - and it hit me that that would be a great position for me and would move to the top of my wish list. I told Dave this and he suddenly wants to be Trips. Whatver.
I think then make a point to tell the program director - in front of Dave - that I would like to talk to him about plans for the summer sometime when he has time, and make note about the position of trips direcotor.
So then this evening Dave comes back from using the Internet and says that he just talked to Toby (Program Director) and basically started an interview and that Toby thinks he would be a great Trips Director and all of a sudden is super excited about doing that. Which is fine with me once again, who knows if I will even be here and Toby will choose who he feels is the best, but I guess it is a little annoying is all, but as I told Dave - I am not too worried about it - The one thing that I have learned in my life is that somehow regardless of what happens I always manage to land on my feet, and I know I will do the same here.
Well Boomer is starting to get restless and is chewing on his leash, so I better get going.
This week finally warmed up. Today and yesterday we were in the fifties and should be tomorrow as well, so that is great to work in as well as to help melt some of the snow. As far as work this week, it has been a lot of preparing for the work that is going to need to be done when Mitch is gone for the next week. We got lumber for making 100+ boxes, cut them to size and have begun staining them, went over how Dave and I are going to fix a fenced in dumpster area that was destroyed by a bear last fall, talked about fixing decks, learned how to use the wood splitter, got trained on how to use a chainsaw, as always continued plowing and staying ahead of the snowfall, replaced the steering mechanism on the gator, and filled the rest of the time with other small projects. It has been great experience to learn how to do much of these things, and I know I will carry it all with me in the future.
On another note, I recently have been thinking about positions available at camp this summer. It is strange though, because every time that I tell my roommate a position I am interested in, he suddenly has an interest in the same exact position despite what he had previously said. For example: this past week Dave and I were having a conversation about what positions we would most want at camp. I said probably Assistant Program Director, Unit Director, and Maintenance director in that order. I asked him and he said Unit Director, and Assistant PD. We talked a little bit about how we both were interested in similar positions, and I told him not to worry about fighting for the same spot for a couple reasons: A. I don't even know if I am coming back, and B. Even if I did and the current program director selected him over me, I would have no problem with that (the better man won) (or at least they think!) but anyway then yesterday I was talking with the Program Director and somehow we got on the topic of the Trips Director - which I had totally forgotten about position wise - and it hit me that that would be a great position for me and would move to the top of my wish list. I told Dave this and he suddenly wants to be Trips. Whatver.
I think then make a point to tell the program director - in front of Dave - that I would like to talk to him about plans for the summer sometime when he has time, and make note about the position of trips direcotor.
So then this evening Dave comes back from using the Internet and says that he just talked to Toby (Program Director) and basically started an interview and that Toby thinks he would be a great Trips Director and all of a sudden is super excited about doing that. Which is fine with me once again, who knows if I will even be here and Toby will choose who he feels is the best, but I guess it is a little annoying is all, but as I told Dave - I am not too worried about it - The one thing that I have learned in my life is that somehow regardless of what happens I always manage to land on my feet, and I know I will do the same here.
Well Boomer is starting to get restless and is chewing on his leash, so I better get going.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Another Day, Another Dollar
What a day...Mitch was out today, so he left us a note for things to do...1. finish gluing mattresses together and place them in appropriate cabins, 2. shovel off ice covered stairs in the winterized cabins...3. shovel paths to and from cabins...4. finish winterizing the windows in clints house...5. take an ice pick up on clints roof and chip away the 10 inch layer of ice build up that has frozen and is causing a damn....after 6 hours of shoveling and ice picking, my back has just about had it....but on the bright side, it was a gorgeous day to be outside...at one point - while i was on clints roof, i even stripped down to a cutoff t-shirt and jeans it was so nice!
The rest of this past week was filled with collecting all the camps bunk mattresses and hauling them to the shop and then reinforcing the seams with a seam sealer glue, and then bringing them back to the cabins...a long and tedious project, but one that needed to be done...on Thursday we at least got a break from it and had to go into the Springs to do an all day training session, so that was nice.
I think I have decided against the Canyonlands National Park internship for a couple of reasons...1. I figure I can save just as much money and get paid more if I stay here, and 2. I know Boomer would not be allowed in the park and it would be pretty hard to work and live there and not be able to take him out with me on walks or things like that. Plus I think having him go through - hopefully - most of his puppy hood stages here at camp is a good thing...Particularly when he is kenneled in the afternoons, he thinks he should not be in there and often you will hear him barking a few times as you walk by the house. I have a feeling though that some of that is because Fenway will come near the house and Boomer will catch her scent.
Tomorrow I am looking forward to meeting up with some old friends in the springs for lunch and possibly more. I have not seen Teresa and Miguel in a long time, and it will be good to catch up. Miguel just recently moved into a place with his soon to be wife and Teresa has only 3 weeks before she leaves for Russia for two years to serve out her Mission, so it will be great to see them both.
Dave(co worker who also lives out here) just decided to get dish network cable tv out here. It is going to come in on Tuesday, and I am really looking forward to it. I can only play so many games of Freecell and watch so many movies before I start to get a little stir crazy, so it will be nice to be able to stay in touch with what is going on in world.
On that note, I am getting pretty tired and I think I am going to go back to my room, pop in a movie and watch it until I fall asleep.
The rest of this past week was filled with collecting all the camps bunk mattresses and hauling them to the shop and then reinforcing the seams with a seam sealer glue, and then bringing them back to the cabins...a long and tedious project, but one that needed to be done...on Thursday we at least got a break from it and had to go into the Springs to do an all day training session, so that was nice.
I think I have decided against the Canyonlands National Park internship for a couple of reasons...1. I figure I can save just as much money and get paid more if I stay here, and 2. I know Boomer would not be allowed in the park and it would be pretty hard to work and live there and not be able to take him out with me on walks or things like that. Plus I think having him go through - hopefully - most of his puppy hood stages here at camp is a good thing...Particularly when he is kenneled in the afternoons, he thinks he should not be in there and often you will hear him barking a few times as you walk by the house. I have a feeling though that some of that is because Fenway will come near the house and Boomer will catch her scent.
Tomorrow I am looking forward to meeting up with some old friends in the springs for lunch and possibly more. I have not seen Teresa and Miguel in a long time, and it will be good to catch up. Miguel just recently moved into a place with his soon to be wife and Teresa has only 3 weeks before she leaves for Russia for two years to serve out her Mission, so it will be great to see them both.
Dave(co worker who also lives out here) just decided to get dish network cable tv out here. It is going to come in on Tuesday, and I am really looking forward to it. I can only play so many games of Freecell and watch so many movies before I start to get a little stir crazy, so it will be nice to be able to stay in touch with what is going on in world.
On that note, I am getting pretty tired and I think I am going to go back to my room, pop in a movie and watch it until I fall asleep.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
I can't feel my toes!
These last couple days have been pretty brutally cold here in CO. Thursday and Friday we didn't make it out of the single digits, so it made working in that weather extremely cold. However on Friday we were lucky enough to burn up and enormous pile of scrap wood (we are talking 10 feet into the ground, 15 feet above ground and 30 feet in diameter) and that was pretty crazy. It put off enough heat for us to work in just t-shirts and gloves, as we tended to the fire and made sure it did not get out of control.
On Friday morning I took Boomer in to get neutered and found out much to my dismay that they want me to wait another month before getting it done. Apparently one testicle still has not dropped for him, and they would much rather wait until he is closer to 6 months. Which is pretty unfortunate, because I lost out on an hour of work time just to bring him down there and find out that it cannot be done. It is amazing how much extra add ons they try to get you to do also. There is a 50 dollar blood test, a 35 dollar microchip implantation, and then a 12.50 registration fee that they highly recommend. All the add ons make this quite the operation!
Over the weekend I made it into town to make a few phone calls, buy some groceries, and get a phone card, so that I will be able to try calling back the Canyonlands National Park person during one of my lunch breaks this week. It will be nice to be able to make a few calls without depending on people calling me from now on.
Other than that not much new has happened - Friday night we got another 3-4 inches of snow and I woke up to another 3-4 today...it is supposed to be warm throughout the rest of the week, but then snow again over the weekend, so we will see what it brings. I hope it's not too bad, as one my good friend Miguel just got back from Texas last week and Teresa and Sarah should be back from Costa Rica soon as well, and I would like to be able to meet up with them at some point!
Today I am going to leave you with an interesting quote I came across today while reading "The Golden Spruce," by John Vaillant. It's a true story about a logger turned environmentalist, and this quote made me stop and think a little, so I thought I'd share it...
"If you had the power, to create all matter, including life, and you could synchronize those creations, perfectly, what would you do if one life form, was apparently abusing, all other life, including themselves?
If the original 'INTENT,' of your creation, had apparently been twisted, from 'RESPECT,' to hatred, from compassion, to oppression, from generosity, to greed, and from dignity, to defilement, what would you do?
How would you convince, people, that material temptations, social status, and education institutions, are used, to preserve and perpetuate, the status quo, with very little real, consideration, for the future, of life, on earth?
...How would you, as "CREATOR OF LIFE," show your contempt and revulsion, for the institutions, and the individuals, who are supposed to protect life, but are apparently, doing something quite different instead?"
On Friday morning I took Boomer in to get neutered and found out much to my dismay that they want me to wait another month before getting it done. Apparently one testicle still has not dropped for him, and they would much rather wait until he is closer to 6 months. Which is pretty unfortunate, because I lost out on an hour of work time just to bring him down there and find out that it cannot be done. It is amazing how much extra add ons they try to get you to do also. There is a 50 dollar blood test, a 35 dollar microchip implantation, and then a 12.50 registration fee that they highly recommend. All the add ons make this quite the operation!
Over the weekend I made it into town to make a few phone calls, buy some groceries, and get a phone card, so that I will be able to try calling back the Canyonlands National Park person during one of my lunch breaks this week. It will be nice to be able to make a few calls without depending on people calling me from now on.
Other than that not much new has happened - Friday night we got another 3-4 inches of snow and I woke up to another 3-4 today...it is supposed to be warm throughout the rest of the week, but then snow again over the weekend, so we will see what it brings. I hope it's not too bad, as one my good friend Miguel just got back from Texas last week and Teresa and Sarah should be back from Costa Rica soon as well, and I would like to be able to meet up with them at some point!
Today I am going to leave you with an interesting quote I came across today while reading "The Golden Spruce," by John Vaillant. It's a true story about a logger turned environmentalist, and this quote made me stop and think a little, so I thought I'd share it...
"If you had the power, to create all matter, including life, and you could synchronize those creations, perfectly, what would you do if one life form, was apparently abusing, all other life, including themselves?
If the original 'INTENT,' of your creation, had apparently been twisted, from 'RESPECT,' to hatred, from compassion, to oppression, from generosity, to greed, and from dignity, to defilement, what would you do?
How would you convince, people, that material temptations, social status, and education institutions, are used, to preserve and perpetuate, the status quo, with very little real, consideration, for the future, of life, on earth?
...How would you, as "CREATOR OF LIFE," show your contempt and revulsion, for the institutions, and the individuals, who are supposed to protect life, but are apparently, doing something quite different instead?"
Monday, January 8, 2007
Another day another dollar...
60 degrees.....sunny....2.5 feet of snow....what a day...Beautiful. Today we did a myriad of things...The day started with Dave and I shoveling snow and about 6 inches of solid ice off the top of bunk beds that had been covered with tarps, placing crates underneath them to help prevent the ice formation and tightening down the tarps, from there our attention shifted to cleaning a grill, fixing a bell tower, and cleaning out the attic of the trips shed, to finally the dark, cramped, hope you not claustrophobic atmosphere of climbing in the culverts - which are about 4 feet around with ice cold river/snow runoff flowing though them - crawling through them about 150 yards dragging a rucksack behind you to put rocks larger than your fist in and then hauling them out the other end so that the culverts do not get clogged. Hard work, but fun work! Keeps me in shape and keeps me active so that is all I can ask for.
Unfortunately today when my boss was plowing with the tractor, Boomer repeatedly got in the way and made things a little difficult for him, so I think Boomer may be staying in the kennel while we are working more often now...unfortunate, but if he is slowing down work than that has to be done.
On the plus side....today I got a phone call back from another SCA position in Arches/Canyonlands National Park that would start Feb 22 and run until May 15th - which would be perfect for them to pick me up full time over the summer! Hopefully anyway...I still need to call them back and talk to them, and my excitement in tempered a little bit because I know that dogs are not allowed in National Parks, so that could potentially and most likely cause a major problem with that plan.
I also was able to schedule an appointment with a Vet in Woodland Park today for Boomer to get neutered on Friday, so that is good...for me....not necessarily Boomer.
Other than that, it's just plugging away as usual....I find it hard to search for jobs out here due to our setup and not being able to use the phones w/o calling cards, and the Internet being fairly slow, so that is a bit frustrating, but, it is what it is and it is up to me to make the best of it, and so far I am.
Unfortunately today when my boss was plowing with the tractor, Boomer repeatedly got in the way and made things a little difficult for him, so I think Boomer may be staying in the kennel while we are working more often now...unfortunate, but if he is slowing down work than that has to be done.
On the plus side....today I got a phone call back from another SCA position in Arches/Canyonlands National Park that would start Feb 22 and run until May 15th - which would be perfect for them to pick me up full time over the summer! Hopefully anyway...I still need to call them back and talk to them, and my excitement in tempered a little bit because I know that dogs are not allowed in National Parks, so that could potentially and most likely cause a major problem with that plan.
I also was able to schedule an appointment with a Vet in Woodland Park today for Boomer to get neutered on Friday, so that is good...for me....not necessarily Boomer.
Other than that, it's just plugging away as usual....I find it hard to search for jobs out here due to our setup and not being able to use the phones w/o calling cards, and the Internet being fairly slow, so that is a bit frustrating, but, it is what it is and it is up to me to make the best of it, and so far I am.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Final Destination?
We made it!! Boomer and I have arrived at Camp Shadybrook. the drive was long, but Boomer was about as well behaved as I could have asked for. He would either sit in my lap ( and rearranged himself about 40 times) and sleep or lay on his bed and sleep; with only minor states of agitation in between. We must have timed out trip just right, because from the look of the broken power lines, ice covered fences and numerous cars/truck/and semis rolled over in the ditches Nebraska must have gotten a pretty nasty ice storm right before we got there.
Boomer is quite the funny dog in all this snow here...I have to pave the way for him or else he gets stuck and even after I pave the way he still sinks in up to his nose. But he loves it and he loves having free roam of the camp. I guess the program director has a dog too, so that will be nice, hopefully they get a long well and don't have any problems.
I got all moved in and am ready to go to work....only one problem...apparently my background check hasn't gone through all the channels yet, so legally I cannot work, which sucks, because the sooner I can get paid - the better. I also just found out that I will not get my first paycheck until a month after I have started work, which will also suck....good thing I have a little bit of a cush in my checking account - let's hope it lasts that long!
Boomer is quite the funny dog in all this snow here...I have to pave the way for him or else he gets stuck and even after I pave the way he still sinks in up to his nose. But he loves it and he loves having free roam of the camp. I guess the program director has a dog too, so that will be nice, hopefully they get a long well and don't have any problems.
I got all moved in and am ready to go to work....only one problem...apparently my background check hasn't gone through all the channels yet, so legally I cannot work, which sucks, because the sooner I can get paid - the better. I also just found out that I will not get my first paycheck until a month after I have started work, which will also suck....good thing I have a little bit of a cush in my checking account - let's hope it lasts that long!
Monday, January 1, 2007
Heading Down that Dusty Road
Well here it is...tomorrow I leave for Colorado, I've got my car packed so tight it is - as a good friend of mine would say - "it's tighter than a twelve year old." But surprisingly I've got everything I wanted and then some so that is really good. I even managed to fit my computer inside there somehow...no if I only had somewhere to put it once I get there! :) oh well I'll figure out something. It's hard to know what to pack and what to leave behind when everything about this move is so - who the hell knows what is going to happen - I could be there just until the summer and then back for grad school, or I could be there for years with a new career in sight...
I took Boomer on a bit of a test drive yesterday. I took him to Eau Claire to see a few buddies of mine one last time before I head out. He did really well. He got a little restless after about an hour in the car each time but it only lasted about 5 minutes and then he realized that there is not much he can do and he settled down. There will be even less for him to do now that his space is limited to the front seat only. It is going to be a really interesting 10hour drive with him tomorrow. I am going to have to pick up plenty of energy drinks to keep me going and motivated to keep him happy!
One thing that I do know for sure though is that he is going to love where he is going. He got his first taste of snow last night and he had a ball. He pushes his nose down in it and creates a mini snowball which he then of course attacks...creating several other mini snowballs to attack. He also loves the slip'n'slide abilities he has on snow...He'll run full bore one direction and then stop and slide as far as he can go. It is very entertaining to say the least, and now that the Denver area just got dumped on twice in the last two weeks, I am just he will just love it out there! Now if we can just make it through tomorrow...
I took Boomer on a bit of a test drive yesterday. I took him to Eau Claire to see a few buddies of mine one last time before I head out. He did really well. He got a little restless after about an hour in the car each time but it only lasted about 5 minutes and then he realized that there is not much he can do and he settled down. There will be even less for him to do now that his space is limited to the front seat only. It is going to be a really interesting 10hour drive with him tomorrow. I am going to have to pick up plenty of energy drinks to keep me going and motivated to keep him happy!
One thing that I do know for sure though is that he is going to love where he is going. He got his first taste of snow last night and he had a ball. He pushes his nose down in it and creates a mini snowball which he then of course attacks...creating several other mini snowballs to attack. He also loves the slip'n'slide abilities he has on snow...He'll run full bore one direction and then stop and slide as far as he can go. It is very entertaining to say the least, and now that the Denver area just got dumped on twice in the last two weeks, I am just he will just love it out there! Now if we can just make it through tomorrow...
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