Sunday, June 26, 2005
Fire it up
It would be much easier to list the similarities between Idaho and Louisiana than the differences (they both went to W and I can't think of many others).
Here I regularly hike in the mountains (the highest point in La. is Mt. Driskill at 535 feet), have forgotten what humidity is and have stayed a night in a yurt (a simple round wooden Mongolian mountain shelter).
We also have huge wildfires and Joe and I are part of the Statesman fire team, which almost makes up for the lack of violent crime in Boise. We're both much more amped than, say the citizens of Idaho, about wildfire season and I secretly pray daily for 100-degree temperatures and lightining.
Because of our wildfire responsibilities, Joe and I got to go through some rudimentary fire training the other day. To be a firefighter you have to pass a pack test by walking three miles with a 45-pound vest in 45 minutes. So Joe and I lined up with about 30 firefighters and hopefuls and put on the vests to get a taste of firefighter life.
Joe made the time with two minutes to spare, I did not. To my horror, my shins cramped about 5 minutes into the walk and, embarrassingly, I missed the time by two minutes (To add insult to injury, the firefighter spokeswoman could see I was in severe pain and asked me if I wanted to drop my pack and call it a day before I finished the three miles. Out of pride, I refused.)
Fortunately I have all of fire season to redeem myself and prove I'm worthy of donning the Nomex and boots.
Here I regularly hike in the mountains (the highest point in La. is Mt. Driskill at 535 feet), have forgotten what humidity is and have stayed a night in a yurt (a simple round wooden Mongolian mountain shelter).
We also have huge wildfires and Joe and I are part of the Statesman fire team, which almost makes up for the lack of violent crime in Boise. We're both much more amped than, say the citizens of Idaho, about wildfire season and I secretly pray daily for 100-degree temperatures and lightining.
Because of our wildfire responsibilities, Joe and I got to go through some rudimentary fire training the other day. To be a firefighter you have to pass a pack test by walking three miles with a 45-pound vest in 45 minutes. So Joe and I lined up with about 30 firefighters and hopefuls and put on the vests to get a taste of firefighter life.
Joe made the time with two minutes to spare, I did not. To my horror, my shins cramped about 5 minutes into the walk and, embarrassingly, I missed the time by two minutes (To add insult to injury, the firefighter spokeswoman could see I was in severe pain and asked me if I wanted to drop my pack and call it a day before I finished the three miles. Out of pride, I refused.)
Fortunately I have all of fire season to redeem myself and prove I'm worthy of donning the Nomex and boots.
# posted by Druz @ 3:55 PM 
