Screw you and your pool Arizona Curtis', we Republic Curtis' bought a trampoline that we jump on in the rain. While the kids are smiling now, it quickly degenerated into a fight. And has ended in a fight everytime they jump on it. Good times. Not much else has been going. I did have a very educational day today however, and will list the things I learned in chronological order:

1. My supervisor can apparently change my schedule without informing me, causing me to sit at work for 45 minutes this morning before I try to call him, get his voicemail repeatedly, leave a message saying since nobody else is here I'm leaving, then stop by another foreman's house, to have him ask me why I'm wearing work clothes. He found it all very amusing. I guess somebody should laugh.

2. I can loose a pair of $100 sunglasses within 50 feet of my rig.

3. Next time I buy a new pack, I need to remember to switch the toilet paper over, otherwise Simon will tell me he needs to poop and won't use anything but toilet paper, necessitating a walk back to my rig to get toilet paper.

4. Just because Simon has to poop "really, really, really bad" does not in anyway mean he will try to move in any fashion that could be referred to as "quick".

5. Even with the use of a GPS, or maybe because of it, I still have the ability to walk in a very large circle through the woods.

6. Even a four year old knows when you're lost.

7. Four year olds apparently don't know the difference between having to poop and having to pee.

8. Once Simon says he is sure he doesn't have to poop, and you've used all your toilet paper to change Dylan's diaper, Simon will have to poop again, necessitating a walk to the "If You Build It, They Will Come" outhouse I found last year in the middle of the woods.

9. When a two year old says he doesn't want to walk anymore, he means it and will sit in the middle of the trail crying. Even if you offer to carry him, he will throw a fit and say he wants to stay right here. And he means it.

Hope everybody's doing well. Considering.

I'm home from the Rattle Fire. It was pretty fun, just SUPER steep. One section of line dropped 2000 feet in a little less than 3/4 of a mile. My camera is in my rig, so I'll post some pictures of the fire blowing up in a few days. In the middle of the assignment I got sent to Tokatee Ranger Station to stage for initial attack that never happened. In the three days I was there the fire grew 11,000 acres. The fire quickly realized their mistake and ordered me back. I had all sorts of interesting things happen to me. A bulldozer operator asked me what the plan was one day and when I told him he said he didn't want to do it and went home. Wierd. I was supposed to be a trainee, but they never had a trainer for me, so I had to do everything on my own, which isn't supposed to happen. Whenever I brought it up my Division Supervisor would say I would do something I was qualified to do, then end up having half the division checking with me for their work assignments. We're going to buy a trambampoline tomorrow, so I should be posting pictures of me in neck brace that I'll have to wear after Faith takes me to the hospital because I'm too darn old to be learning how to do backflips. I don't have to go back to work til Sunday, when I'll begin my four month detail as the Assistant Fire Management Officer of fuels. I'll be doing all the planning for fuels treatment on the district, which I don't really want to do, but I got tricked into it. Apparently the FMO is quite a bit smarter than me, which is the only way I can explain how he got me to agree to a detail into an AFMO position with out me finding out if it was the operations of fuels AFMO. Operations is what I wanted, but we'll see how this goes. Probably too much desk time for me, but I'll get paid more and I can work pretty much whatever hours I want. Hope everyone's doing well.

So this morning before I left for work I told Faith I didn't think I would be going on any more fire assignments due to the fact that I can't really talk about, but I'll fill you in later when I find out for sure, anyway, then I showed up to work, took some Job Corps students that we had working for us to breakfast and my head boss shows up at the resteraunt and tells me I'm leaving at 1200 for the Rattle Fire in Oregon. I'm going as a task force leader trainee, which means I have a bunch of different resources working for me, the typical configuration is usually a 20 person crew, 3-5 engines, and a dozer, though that can change depending on what the mission for the task force is. I brought my camera this time so I'll be able to post some pictures when I get home. Two of my bosses just came back from that fire, and they said they're starting to spike people out in the wilderness, which means they fly people in to a remote camp and you stay there until your time's done, which means I won't have access to a computer like last time. Should be fun. Hope everybody's doing well, talk to you in a couple of weeks.

Oscar is really concerned about this guy:

Faith and the boys caught him yesterday. They're going to feed him grasshoppers today. That's about all that's going. I'm working all my days off this weekend. I went grouse hunting one night after work, but didn't get any, and a few of us at work are planning a big hunting/camping adventure with wall tents and/or backpacking in to an old camp one guy's grampa used to ride horses into. Should be fun. Hope everybody's doing well.