home.sweet.home.
i figured i should update following my adventures in the interior of our wonderful province. i've been home for almost 3 days now. finally got a good night's sleep in last night for the first time in two and a half weeks.
i left my house on the 23rd at 5:30AM on no sleep. i had only finalized my commitment the friday afternoon, leaving me less than 12 hours notice. i then had to go quit my job at the fair, turn in my uniform and all that jazz. patrick and i went to shoot some pool near his place in north van since he happened to be at the fair picking up his sister while i was dropping off my stuff, so i went and got whipped. not whipped, but i lost every game except the first and that was because he scratched on 8 ball. they were all pretty much down to the last ball though and had chances to win. alas, i couldn't put it away.
by the time i get home its almost 1, and i still haven't packed, so i decide i won't sleep since packing will take me at least an hour and i was worried i wouldn't wake up. i was originally planning to cacth the 5:10 bus to arrive at the departure point at 6. but i screw around chatting with friends on the computer, and packing becomes last minute (what's new?). thus, i miss the bus and end up taking a cab for $20, leaving me with $10 for a week until i get paid. there was a cameraman at the armouries filming us the whole time we were getting ready, so i'm pretty sure i got the news that day. obviously, i didn't get a chance to confirm that. arriving in vernon that afternoon, we do procedural check-in, eat, and that's our day.
firefighting training the next day, mostly classroom, then 2 hours or so of just rolling hose, and learning how to use the tanks. wee, i can read the instructions on the tank. i'm a "S100 fire control specialist" as certified by the bc forest service.
after that we sit around for two days doing nothing before leaving for chase, home to 2000. i'm making my $100/day sitting there eating so i don't complain. when we got there at night we had to set up our cots in the dark. we expected to go out the next day but then sat around that day too.
the days would then look like this--
5:30 AM reveille.
personally ready to leave camp by 6:30 with all gear.
loading trucks with kit and equipment.
actually ready to leave on trucks at 7ish.
actually leaving after waiting around for at least half an hour, on the last day after almost 2 and a half hours (thanks for waking us up at 5:30, guys).
finish working at 5ish.
ready to leave for camp at 6ish (with my group always the first to leave in the morning and last to return at night).
arrive at camp, finish putting stuff away at 7-7:15.
half an hour wait for the shower (they got smart after the first 2 days and brought in more showers. w00t).
finish showering at 7:45 (before they install more showers).
food stops serving at 8:00 (extended to 8:30 when they get smarter).
free time to "party" on the 2 drinks/day in the "rawking" town of chase, bc on a curfew at 10. at this time of night, town consists of a coffeehouse, two pubs, a pizza shop, and a grocery store.
bed at 10:30/11.
repeat for 5 more days.
then we got some r&r, so we headed back to vernon the night after a day of work. the truck carrying my group's stuff got lost in a forking CONVOY. so we waited 2 hours after everyone else had their stuff and was relaxing in town. i also got stung by a damn wasp when we went to check on a group of trucks rolling up to see if it was ours. it ran over a wasp nest and got 4 of us, me being the last one and having already walking just about halfway back into the building. so a group of us went to the only club open (it alternates with the other one) and it kinda sucked. to be fair, it was tuesday night and it was a town of maybe 50000. drunkeness ensues however, so its all good.
end up being woken up after just 6 hours sleep because my buddy matt and i planned on going to kelowna that day. caught the 10 AM shuttle into town and hung out at the mall till noon, then caught the greyhound to kelowna at 1ish. we went to the army camp there to check it out, then got on the same bus going in the wrong direction away from downtown. argh. their transit system is screwy too, different from vancouver's. apparently we were supposed to pay because the transfers we had were only for certain stopping points. but when i explained we weren't locals and were just on a daytrip on r&r from firefighting, he instantly became 10X nicer. they love the firefighters up there.
we end up staying on the bus for over an hour, during which when the bus emptied we found out it was headed away from the downtown. passed through rutland, aka slutland according to the driver. the bus stops at a high school and suddenly the bus is absolutely packed with hawties. i love you, kelowna. we would have gotten so much play if we were wearing our uniforms, its not even funny. double argh.
finally made it downtown, walked around for a bit. stopped off at a strip club real quick, then headed on the bus back. so we didn't end up doing much there. i'll be back for sure.
we went back to the base camp to get ready for a night out, and ate at the earl's in town. it was karaoke night at the club, which is the local cougar bar. and it was the typical small town bar. *shudder* my friend had a heavily made up 55 year old on him. i got to break my karaoke cherry with hotel california, and it was funny because we had something like 20 of us army guys there, so we were all yelling whenever one of us would sing. another guy, jimmy, was a major showman doing knocking on heaven's door. super funny. i leave before 1:30 when i find out at 1 that i have to be up at 7:30 the next morning for procedural departure, since i'm leaving. grrrr.
i got to go home on the 4th, when i wasn't expecting to leave till the 5th, so that was good. made it in at 11:30 after a 9 hour greyhound back down. also found out i get paid to the 11th, which was even better. since i was on contract 14 days, they give me 4 extra days of leave pay even though i'm at home. and since they can't pay leave for the weekend, i get that factored in for pay too. all in all, just about 2 grand in 2 weeks. not too shabby.
okimdonebye.
i left my house on the 23rd at 5:30AM on no sleep. i had only finalized my commitment the friday afternoon, leaving me less than 12 hours notice. i then had to go quit my job at the fair, turn in my uniform and all that jazz. patrick and i went to shoot some pool near his place in north van since he happened to be at the fair picking up his sister while i was dropping off my stuff, so i went and got whipped. not whipped, but i lost every game except the first and that was because he scratched on 8 ball. they were all pretty much down to the last ball though and had chances to win. alas, i couldn't put it away.
by the time i get home its almost 1, and i still haven't packed, so i decide i won't sleep since packing will take me at least an hour and i was worried i wouldn't wake up. i was originally planning to cacth the 5:10 bus to arrive at the departure point at 6. but i screw around chatting with friends on the computer, and packing becomes last minute (what's new?). thus, i miss the bus and end up taking a cab for $20, leaving me with $10 for a week until i get paid. there was a cameraman at the armouries filming us the whole time we were getting ready, so i'm pretty sure i got the news that day. obviously, i didn't get a chance to confirm that. arriving in vernon that afternoon, we do procedural check-in, eat, and that's our day.
firefighting training the next day, mostly classroom, then 2 hours or so of just rolling hose, and learning how to use the tanks. wee, i can read the instructions on the tank. i'm a "S100 fire control specialist" as certified by the bc forest service.
after that we sit around for two days doing nothing before leaving for chase, home to 2000. i'm making my $100/day sitting there eating so i don't complain. when we got there at night we had to set up our cots in the dark. we expected to go out the next day but then sat around that day too.
the days would then look like this--
5:30 AM reveille.
personally ready to leave camp by 6:30 with all gear.
loading trucks with kit and equipment.
actually ready to leave on trucks at 7ish.
actually leaving after waiting around for at least half an hour, on the last day after almost 2 and a half hours (thanks for waking us up at 5:30, guys).
finish working at 5ish.
ready to leave for camp at 6ish (with my group always the first to leave in the morning and last to return at night).
arrive at camp, finish putting stuff away at 7-7:15.
half an hour wait for the shower (they got smart after the first 2 days and brought in more showers. w00t).
finish showering at 7:45 (before they install more showers).
food stops serving at 8:00 (extended to 8:30 when they get smarter).
free time to "party" on the 2 drinks/day in the "rawking" town of chase, bc on a curfew at 10. at this time of night, town consists of a coffeehouse, two pubs, a pizza shop, and a grocery store.
bed at 10:30/11.
repeat for 5 more days.
then we got some r&r, so we headed back to vernon the night after a day of work. the truck carrying my group's stuff got lost in a forking CONVOY. so we waited 2 hours after everyone else had their stuff and was relaxing in town. i also got stung by a damn wasp when we went to check on a group of trucks rolling up to see if it was ours. it ran over a wasp nest and got 4 of us, me being the last one and having already walking just about halfway back into the building. so a group of us went to the only club open (it alternates with the other one) and it kinda sucked. to be fair, it was tuesday night and it was a town of maybe 50000. drunkeness ensues however, so its all good.
end up being woken up after just 6 hours sleep because my buddy matt and i planned on going to kelowna that day. caught the 10 AM shuttle into town and hung out at the mall till noon, then caught the greyhound to kelowna at 1ish. we went to the army camp there to check it out, then got on the same bus going in the wrong direction away from downtown. argh. their transit system is screwy too, different from vancouver's. apparently we were supposed to pay because the transfers we had were only for certain stopping points. but when i explained we weren't locals and were just on a daytrip on r&r from firefighting, he instantly became 10X nicer. they love the firefighters up there.
we end up staying on the bus for over an hour, during which when the bus emptied we found out it was headed away from the downtown. passed through rutland, aka slutland according to the driver. the bus stops at a high school and suddenly the bus is absolutely packed with hawties. i love you, kelowna. we would have gotten so much play if we were wearing our uniforms, its not even funny. double argh.
finally made it downtown, walked around for a bit. stopped off at a strip club real quick, then headed on the bus back. so we didn't end up doing much there. i'll be back for sure.
we went back to the base camp to get ready for a night out, and ate at the earl's in town. it was karaoke night at the club, which is the local cougar bar. and it was the typical small town bar. *shudder* my friend had a heavily made up 55 year old on him. i got to break my karaoke cherry with hotel california, and it was funny because we had something like 20 of us army guys there, so we were all yelling whenever one of us would sing. another guy, jimmy, was a major showman doing knocking on heaven's door. super funny. i leave before 1:30 when i find out at 1 that i have to be up at 7:30 the next morning for procedural departure, since i'm leaving. grrrr.
i got to go home on the 4th, when i wasn't expecting to leave till the 5th, so that was good. made it in at 11:30 after a 9 hour greyhound back down. also found out i get paid to the 11th, which was even better. since i was on contract 14 days, they give me 4 extra days of leave pay even though i'm at home. and since they can't pay leave for the weekend, i get that factored in for pay too. all in all, just about 2 grand in 2 weeks. not too shabby.
okimdonebye.