I know, its been a while

It's been like two weeks since my last post, but you're gonna have to get over it - I've been busy.

Well, maybe not busy the whole time. For three days after my last post, it was business as usual; some dingus messes themselves up, I fly them to some lovely and exotic destination like Phoenix. The most memorable thing was the x-ray I saw of a patient who fell of a horse. It wasn't so much the fall that did them in as the sudden stop at the end.

So that's why one leg is now two inches shorter...

The next big sequence of events started on the fourteenth, when I was announced as Chief Pilot for Eagle Air Med. This was expected, but not for another few days at the earliest. As the Chief Pilot I needed to attend the monthly staff meetings, but these were on what were originally my days off, so I had to reschedule my drive to California and move a few commitments around.

Then Stacey got a flat tire. Apparently she had managed to cut the sidewall. No one in town (all two tire shops here in Blanding) had her size of tire, so the full-size spare was put on and the bad tire placed in the spare well. She had it replaced when she got to California (she headed out before me since I had the schedule change).

SHOUT OUT TO AMERICAS TIRE: they replaced her tire free, even though she hadn't bought the supre fancy warranty or whatever it was (it was on the car less than a year). They had her tire replaced on the rim, and the rim on her car in an hour free of charge. This is why we drive six hours just to find an America's Tire when we need anything tire-related.

The staff meetings went well, but I am now the seneca captain for the staff meetings, and I forgot what it's like to fly a Seneca in the summer over the desert - it was two days of getting my ass kicked by turbulence, definitely worse on the second day than the first (on the second day we also had a bitch of a headwind that just prolonged the misery).

As soon as the second day staff meetings was over, I packed a few things and I bailed for California. This went well, all I took was a thirty minute nap in Tuba City. And then I got to Barstow.

Initially I was doing eighty and my ETA of six-am was looking like it was gonna hold. And then traffic came to a standstill. It took twenty minutes of station surfing before I found out what was wrong: A fatality in the Cajon Pass. The 15 South was expected to be closed for a while. As it turns out, a while was three hours. Finally, after sitting for two of those hours with my engine off, I was able to continue. On the plus side, this delay was so long that it completely covered rush hour, so I thankfully didn't have to deal with that as well.

Once in OC, I had lunch with a friend, went to AFI to see one or two more, and headed over to Fry's. It has been forever since I was in there, and I forgot just how much crap they have in there that I don't need, but can't live without.

Initially I went in for a new headset for my laptop. While in there I conveniently remembered that I needed a laptop chill pad - I found a pretty sweet two-fan unit with a USB charging hub built into it. Shortly after that I remembered that Stacey's birthday was coming and I really needed a gift. That's when I picked up an XM receiver. They didn't cost too much, and she wouldn't be stuck with listening to the same songs over and over again on her iPod, so I grabbed it and checked out. The rest of the day was without event, though I did get to try a Captain's Mug, made especially strong for my altitude-earned alcohol tolerance. I don't have the recipe, but if there are comments requesting it, I will make it it's own post. Seriously though, people are gonna have to leave comments.

The next day was the whole reason we came to California - the wedding of a member of the CSUF/Softball gang. About six years ago, there were about six weddings that happened with people from this group (mine and Stacey's included). Not a whole lot has happened since - well there was the baby period when they were all having babies, and another wedding from the CSUF/S gang, but that was about it. The bachelor table had shrunk, but was holding a steady membership.

Then, one of the group members showed up at a camp out with a girl. Normally, this wouldn't have merited a second thought. But this specific bachelor had never been seen with a gal on his arm, ever. He talked about them, and we were pretty sure he wasn't gay, but we were kinda starting to think these girls were imaginary. Now you see why this was such a big deal. Anyways, we saw her a few more times (others probably saw her waaaay more than I, just because of work and such), she was well received, and became a regular attendee of the groups get-togethers.

Well, on Saturday they were married. We couldn't make the ceremony (cause I needed sleep in the worst way), but we for damn sure were gonna make the reception. However, first it was time to meet a person that I had to reschedule with last time, and we had three and a half hours to sit and visit over beer and appetizers at the Belmont Brewing Company in Long Beach.

How I sit and "visit"

Afterwords, it was off to the reception; It was held at the Japanese Garden on the CSULB campus. Honestly, we had no idea such place existed, but you can bet your ass if we did, we would have booked it for our reception. You know, provided there was a usable church in the area...

I mean, just look at it...

...It's even got a waterfall...

...and koi in the pond (we were all given little bags of fish food to feed them).

The bar was soft (no hard liquor), but it was open. The modus operandi was to use sake in place of liquor for mixed drinks - sake-tini, sake-and coke, sake-beach iced tea, etc. I really didn't feel like getting the beer-sweats, so I went with the sake-beach iced tea. After downing four of them (you gotta get that pre-buzz going or it's all for naught), it was time to be seated, and a short time later the couple of honor arrived.

The fun table.

Our table. Note the dapper gentleman behind and to the left, deep in rhetorical conversation. (Oh, and that's the only pic of a sake-beach iced tea I have - the one in front of me.)

Stacey playing with the fans left for us at the tables (they're Japanese fans).

During the toasts a great blue heron had decided it was time for eating. He flew down to the water in the middle of the garden, stared down for a second, then proceeded to grab a big fish out of the water and fly into a tree where it ate the fish. About twenty minutes later the spectacle was repeated, but this time the fish was consumed on the water, for all to see. I really wish I had pictures of this as it was quite hilarious. Instead, here's a picture of their cake.

Picture semi-related.

Dinner was crazy good; steamed greens, salads, roast beef, salmon with a cream sauce, various breads, etc. Wine was free poured for the table, a really nice Cabernet Sauvignon. Actually, we were all a little surprised at how good it was. One of things I kinda laughed at (mostly cause I was buzzing), was that the bride and groom were well displayed for all to watch them eat. Awkwaaaaaarrrrd....

"Here we see the bride and groom in the wild, feasting on wedding buffet. The groomsmen and bridesmaids are hungry but they will have to wait their turn"

The first dance was a short time later, and I think enjoyed by everyone.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Protip: when you have a plant that looks suspiciously like marijuana, a bunch of buzzed smart asses, and the need to keep things "classy", you might want to think about removing said plant, or said smart asses start having waaaaay too much fun with it.

If it looks suspicious...

...Make a lapel-decoration out of it...

...And take a group photo with said lapel decorations.

We got to walk the entirety of the garden, and it was pretty cool. They have a zen garden, and some pretty sweet little secluded areas if you need a break or want to get a quick freak on (hey, I won't judge you, you know, any more than I already have).

Us not getting our freak on (blame Stacey).

The zen garden and Stacey (seems like one would negate the other...).

During our walk, I saw what I think is the classiest person I have ever met. They definitely stepped up their game, and set the class bar higher than it has been before.

That's a polo shirt and a clip on tie.

Not too long after that the cake was cut. I don't know why, but there seems to be some divergent curve bakers follow when making cakes for special occasions: The nicer the cake looks, the more it tastes like plain old cake (or even like straight up shit as I've found in a few instances). However, this cake was pretty damn good despite it's elegant appearance.

Use two hands! (that's a sex joke.)

The end was nigh when it was dark, and the bouquet toss was completed.

Ok...it's dark...

...Bouquet is tossed, and...

...fight's on!

The next day was Fathers Day. Not w hole lot happened: Brunch at El Torrito (hadn't done that in a looooong time, seems to be better than I remember), followed by a long BS session back at the in-laws, and in-n-out for dinner (animal fries FTW). Then over to Hero's in Fullerton for a Guinness with some friends before heading back and crashing for the night. Shit, I just now realized I didn't call my dad...whoops!

The next morning I left to head home at five. I didn't want to deal with rush hour, and would rather get through the California desert before it got uncomfortable warm.

Half way home.

About three hours into the drive, I got a text message from Stacey saying that the XM receiver I bought her wouldn't activate, as the receiver's ID was already shown as being activated. I was just starting to think how this was just awesome since the receipt was with me, and I should have known better since Fry's, awesome as they are, sticks used-merchandise out on the shelf for sale like it was new (this has long been a complaint of most Fry's shoppers). Luckily Stacey was able to make another call, and the people on the other end (presumably with XM) straightened it out and got her receiver working.

I got to Flagstaff in decent time (six-ish hours), only to find out that the 89 North was closed due to a fire. This meant having to add about another hour to the remaining drive since I now had to drive through Chinle to get home. After getting lunch (Taco Bell) and new wiper blades (the old ones were soooo worn out) I tried to stop at my usual brewing supply store, but they are apparently now closed on Mondays. They hadn't updated their website so I had no idea.

It didn't matter where in town you were, you could see the fire easily. Guess it was started by a dumb ass and a campfire, allegedly.

It wound up being a long drive home, but I made it, with day light remaining, and Stacey four hours behind me. As much as I enjoyed the actual stay in California, it was nice to be home after all the travel issues and such. I decided that I was just going to get Chinese food here in Blanding because A) It's honestly pretty damn good, and B) I hadn't had my Blanding Chinese fix in a while and had been jonesing for some.

Imperial Wok - that means it's good enough for an emperor! Seriously though, it's good as hell.

Today has been pretty easy; picking cherries in the am, and bumming around the house. The cherries I picked for California were partially ripe, some were even a little sour still. Now though, they are deep red, and are turning almost black. I picked a gallon, halved and pitted them, and froze them. I plan on fermenting them with apricots (when they're ripe) to produce an apricot-cherry melomel (mead made with fruit). I think I am going to do the same with the pie cherries when they are ready. I may send a few bottles of each out as well, we'll see.

"I'm gonna turn you into alcohol so hard!"

This morning our new weapon against these irritating little bastard biting midges (no-see-ums) arrived. It wasn't cheap, but we're really hoping it will help eradicate some of the population. It's a CO2 trap, burns propane to create CO2 and heat to fool the bugs into coming close, and once they get near the CO2 source, the internal vacuum fan sucks their ass inside and deposits them into a collection basket where they dehydrate and die. We also got an octenal attractant, as is listed biting midges specifically as a species that it was particularly effective for.

It uses fire to kill mosquitos and such. What's not to love about it?

Hopefully things will stay busy, just not as hectic. I think most of the major changes at work are through, so now it's just settling into the job. I will try to post more often, but I can't promise. Oh, and for the record, I saw another one of the CSUF/S group bachelors (one I've always seen sans woman) with a girl at the wedding. She seems like a really nice girl, and it would be really nice if the next wedding we went to was theirs.

Back in Chinle

Last night was my last night in Gallup (allegedly for the month).

I had my car mostly packed except for a few minor things and was just about to call dispatch when my work phone rang. Thinking it was dispatch calling to tell me to go ahead and leave for Chinle, I picked up. And that's when things changed, as they are want to do in aviation; I had to pick up a GI bleed in Crownpoint and get them to ABQ. So much for things being easy.

So I wound up getting off two hours later than I expected. This actually worked out decently - instead of driving to Chinle, I figured I might as well go home. I needed to pick up my headset which had recently returned from being repaired in Oregon, swap cars with Stacey (the Yaris had to get a new windshield to pass state inspection and was registered in Utah for roughly half of what California charged me last year), as well as get some more food, pick up my replacement ATM card (replacement for the card I lost in Hawaii), and I wanted to see how the fruit trees and such were coming along.

After sleeping for most of the time I was home, I was able to get a good look around the property.

The Bing cherries are very near to being ready to eat.

The tart/pie cherries aren't as near ripeness as the Bing cherries, but there's like a couple thousand of them in the tree.

The apples are gonna be at least another six weeks till ripe I think .

The rose arbor is now in bloom, and has turned out far nicer than I thought it would.

I'm now considering a third possible mead to start in the fall-ish: an tart/pie cherry-apple mead, probably with a yeast that would allow a sweeter finish (since the apples I don't think would be all that sweet). We'll see, first I'll have to talk Stacey into letting me stick yet another carboy somewhere that will probably be in the way of something.

A major problem we have found is that we have a serious no-see-um (biting midge) issue. From everything I've been able to read/research, I think our best bet is going to be a CO2-type trap with an attractant. If it doesn't get rid of the biting midges, it will at least keep the mosquitoes down to a minimum. The root cause of all this is a pond that is fairly full from the major snows we had this winter. The water is stagnant and the only predators that frequent the water are a handful of ducks making it a prime breeding ground for midges and skeeters.

Stacey was awesome enough to wash my car while I slept. So not only did I have a new windshield and new license plates I had a clean car as well, almost even forgot about the six-inch dent/crease that one of the girls put in my car with the door of Stacey's car. Anyhoo, my newly registered, clean car packed, I headed for Chinle...and right into a dust storm. Figures.

I haven't been in the Chinle crew house for a while now, and the dust storms have definitely taken their toll on the crew house.

You can not stop the dust from coming in (note: my foil job is to keep out the light for day-sleeping, not for dust control, as it would obviously fail at that).

Luckily, as of the time I'm writing this, there are some thunderstorms moving through the area dumping rain (pretty decently from the sound of it). Hopefully that'll keep the dust at bay for at least a little while.

I think I might try to head home in a couple days to spend the day at the house, depending of course on how busy it gets and how much sleep I need. In the mean time, I have my new Motorola Droid (which is scary fast, even here in Chinle) to play with and get all set up and what not.

Quick Week

I have been fairly busy, between flying and other duties, and so this last week has gone by rather quickly.

I've been averaging about a flight a night, most of them to ABQ. Nothing reminds you of how much life can suck like seeing the aftermath of the actions of others. The first reminder was a minor (the underage kind, not the underground kind), who had attempted to walk home after being unable to get a ride. During the walk, for whatever reason, there was an altercation and the minor had their ass handed to them by some jackass with a baseball bat (they were alive when we left the hospital with a good prognoses).

The second was only a couple days later, when we transported an adult who had been hitchhiking when some ass hat in passing car threw something at the hitchhiker. The substance thrown is still as of yet unidentified, but it left third degree burns on the victims chest and arm. And the next time you think you have it rough, think of this: The patient continued to hitch hike to the hospital over two days.

Anyhoo, that's been the craziest it's been here. Since I've been on nights, I have taken advantage of the fact Walmart is open twenty-four hours here. It's actually kinda nice, going there at four am after my shift is over to get what I need. Of course, I've found a few odd things while there...

Wait, it's $1.97 for one, or $4.48 for the twin pack promising to save me money?

They expecting a couple of buses to crash on the side of the road or something?

But by far the most retarded thing I found was the "Hawaiian Coffee."

So, it's eleven percent then?

The weather has been warm, but is in the middle of a cooling trend now. I've been picking up lighting on the strike finder, but so far I haven't really seen too much of it, save for a couple days ago when we flew by a lighting storm - no rain, just lightning. It was entertaining for the few minutes it took us to fly by it.

Virga on the way to ABQ.

A few days ago I got to go to Zuni for the first time to pick up a patient (I'd been there before, but only for training). It's probably the oddest airport we go to: It sits literally in between two neighborhoods, and it's not uncommon to find on the runway people having a yard sale, sleeping, or cars parked. Add to this, it's not overly long (4,807'), at altitude (6,454'), and narrow (50'), and you got yourself an interesting time. Luckily, this time there were no odd occurrences, and all went well. (Hopefully next time I can get a picture, however it's going to require the help of someone else since I have my hands full trying to get into Zuni.)

The other day I found a couple of new types of M&M's at the store.

Two new kinds to add to the M&M resume.

The pretzel ones were ok; they had a crunchy but grainy texture and left my mouth dry. The strawberried peanut-butter-and-jelly ones had the opposite effect, being very sweet and left my mouth feeling more hydrated than when they went in, as if they were liquid filled or something. (Note, they aren't liquid filled, and don't even have any visible jelly that I could see when biting one in half.) I think the pretzel M&M's would be best with beer. I think this brings the total types of M&M's I have tried to eight - that is types I have tried after stumbling upon them wherever I am, I'm sure if I went to the M&M store in Vegas it would probably triple that number.

I am in Gallup for the night before heading over to Chinle for the next six days. Then it's off to California for a wedding and to see some friends.

Speaking of Gallup, when I went to replace the trash bag today, I found what I can't help but think is a generic, poor man's version of something else entirely.

For all your date rape needs. Including disposal.

Mead Review

Last night I had my first actual glass of mead.

Well, first I had to go to Walmart at three thirty in the morning to get a corkscrew since there doens't seem to be one here at the crew house. Surprising, the amount of people shopping that early in Walmart, but then again I guess sometimes spending your guvment money just cant wait.

After pulling the cork I poured a glass. It's not horrible, it could be way worse. My major criticism of it in fact is that it's too sweet. It's almost sickly-sweet, but not as bad as plum wine (which is one of the few liquors I've found that I just can't really deal with). Of note is the slight carbonation it has retained, which I think makes it a little nicer. It seems to have mellowed out a little in the bottle, based on the smell I remember at racking and the smell last night at opening.

The alcohol content tested out to something like twelve and a half percent, so it is decently strong - about on par with standard wines.

It may be sweet, but will still f--k you up.

I'd like to try making some more, though with a few minor differences. I think I'd like to try a different strain of yeast (maybe a turbo yeast in hopes of seventeen percent alcohol), and a bit less honey (so it finishes drier).

I might even create a second, lower alcohol (i.e. twelve percent) batch in my other carboy using apricots and cherries from my trees since their getting ready to produce ripe fruit.

I'm also playing with the idea of bottling them with some carbonation - I'm still not certain about this as I really don't want to have to go through all the hassle of using champagne corks or cages, etc. However, if I can manage a slight carbonation I should be able to get away with just a normal cork. The other thought I had was using beer bottles with standard caps (or maybe oxygen reducing caps) to overcome this, but that means sanitizing a lot more bottles than if I used wine bottles.

I plan on probably drinking the rest of the bottle tonight, since last night's initial amount didn't leave me with a hangover (something I was actually really worried about).

Still in Gallup

Not a whole lot has happened since I got to Gallup.

I've been decently busy here, busy enough to keep me entertained for at least part of my shift. A pleasant surprise was the latest addition to the Gallup crew house.

I now get paid to play ping pong, among other things.

I have forgotten just how gently you need to hit a ping pong ball to send it sailing at your opponents crotch at the speed of sound.

The other day I saw my first wildfire of the year, and I'm sure I'll see hundreds more before winter.

Like the first drops of rain before a hurricane.

The couple spots I had frozen at the doctors office are doing their thing, and it's kinda fascinating to watch the progression of frostbite, even if it's purposely induced.

Beyond that, not much has happened. We're planning a trip to California in a couple weeks, and I'm trying to plan my days off for the next three months or so. Oh, and I'm trying to figure out what to get Stacey for her birthday.

I have a picture that was sent to me, I think it was taken in 2004-ish. Every damn time I open my picture folder it's the first one I see and it makes me laugh. I remember it was taken whilst camping, but honestly I can't remember what the hell is going on in this pic. However, with that said, you'll notice it was taken in the night time (cause we sure as hell wouldn't be up that early in the am), and therefore must assume alcohol was involved. Possibly a lot of alcohol. Most likely a lot of alcohol.

I laugh when I see this. Every. Damn. Time.

A Little Wore Out

Been a long couple of days.

Last night I thought I was going to get off early since I started early. This was not to be; we got a call for a transport around one-thirty am. All said and done, I wasn't able to go off till around five-fifteen. Oh well, such is life.

On the way home I was able to get a few pictures. Unfortunately, with spring comes many, many flying insects that insist on attempting to resurface ones windshield. My camera was thinking I really wanted to get a picture of said dead bugs, and thus kept focusing on them. I wound up having to stick my arm outside.

Monument Valley at sunrise.

Early morning light on the monuments. And the roof of the VW.

I got home around seven, slept for an hour, then went to a doctor's appointment. I have a small growth on my wrist that I wasn't really worried about. However, on the ride home from Hawaii I happened to read an article about someone who died of skin cancer, and this of course freaked me the hell out. Luckily, the doctor didn't seem to worried about it, electing to attempt to freeze it off before doing something more invasive.

I have never played with liquid nitrogen, much less had it applied to my skin. It was...interesting. It didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would, but it wasn't exactly pleasant - not unlike getting a tattoo. On the plus side, now I know what frostbite feels like. It's supposed to take three to four weeks before the effectiveness can be determined, so we'll see what happens.

After the doctor, I got a few more hours sleep, then had to leave for Gallup. Unfortunately my iPod was dead, but I found a binder of CD's in the car so I got to listen to something other than Navajo drums/chants, which all start to sound the same after a half-hour.

The first state line I came across was Colorado. I had to stop and take a picture of the sign.

So...colorful...

Colorado is colorful, but around this part the only colors are white (snow in the winter) and dirt (the rest of the year). To actually see some color is I beleive at least another hour from this point.

The next state line was New Mexico, which is allegedly the "land of enchantment." I couldn't get a picture of the sign, but I did get one of the area not too far after.

Pictured: alleged enchantment.

It was not too long after taking the above picture that I had an experience that totally made my day. The first thing I saw was her rear end, and I wanted nothing more than to put my hands on it, to run a finger up and down, to caress and admire it with all the tactile sensation I could muster. Her curves were graceful, stance anticipatory, reputation well known. One could tell by a simple glance she needed someone with just the right touch; someone who could both let her be aggressive and use what she had, while at the same time control her in the way that she needed to be controlled.

She was sitting up, like it didn't matter who saw her bounce and sway to the road. People could see me looking, and I didn't care; I could imagine what she would smell and feel like if I was inside of her, and it was awesome.

She's a 1970 Plymouth Road Runner GTX, one of the best American muscle cars ever.

I wonder how much work she's had done.

After a while, she turned off, and left my sight. The remainder of the drive was a little boring but thankfully short after that. I arrived, unpacked, settled in, and waited for a call that would not come.

I brought a couple bottles of the meade (well, technically it's a melomel since it fermented with fruit) that I racked before leaving for Hawaii. I haven't really had a chance to taste it since I racked it, but I do remember it smelling and tasting a bit like orange juice that's gone bad, so I have taken to calling it "Orange Stank". I was going to get into it when I got off duty tonight, but since I've only had like five hours of sleep in the last thirty-two hours, and don't want anything to get in the way of just straight crashing for the next twelve hours or so.

I'll be here in Gallup for the next ten days. Hopefully Stacey and the girls can come out and see me this weekend if it's not too busy. It is nice to be close to liquor stores and a Walmart, though I never thought I would have uttered those words. It does make getting drunk and making bad decisions a bit easier, and makes getting drunk and making bad desicions in Walmart almost a necessity.