The First Snow

September 30th - 6:00am. I awoke in a daze. There was a sound near my dresser that sounded like a mouse or small critter clawing their way out. I turned on the lights and couldn't find anything. I went and made coffee. Then I came back into my room. The sound was still there. Then I discovered what it was. It was raining. It looked like a dark and gloomy day. Nothing too exciting just your general run of the mill gloom. Well okay that isn't true. It was cold. 39 degrees cold. Which in Montana is yes, shorts weather still. But there was wind. The biting wind that accompanies the rain and cold. I left my house and went to my car. As I was driving along I looked up at the mountains to the west of me like I normally do. What I saw should not have surprised me but it did! SNOW! I was stunned! I drove to school amazed. We got to class to take our test but it turned out that our instructor was snowed in at his place in Butte with the reports of a downed electrical power line. 10 inches in Butte. To the left here is a picture taken by my roommate from the top of Mcdonald's Pass.

After sitting around trying to figure out if we were going to take a test or not we ended up bagging that and going to the Smoke house. We practiced inner search techniques with patient rescue. Dragging a dummy is fun, but a lot of work. We went through a few tanks of air. We had some back ups but 15 people rotating bottles on a consistent basis makes having a bunch of bottles over having a few bottles a thing of paramount importance. So once we drained the bottles we ended up going back to the campus. It was cold and rainy and wet over at the smoke house and it felt good to be in our turn out gear. Back at campus I got my pack and went to English. Then it was time for PT.

We were going to be doing calisthenics by cards. Here is an example. Each suit equals a work out. Push ups, sit ups, etc. So say if hearts was push ups. For every hearts card that was drawn you would do 10 push ups. However Dave (our instructor) decided that we would just run. So we set out to run from campus, up and around the capital building and back. A two mile run up the mountain and back. It wasn't bad. The cold kept us from over heating. We were supposed to go as fast as our slowest person however a lot of people did not like that pace so they ran ahead. I went at a comfortable pace. I didn't want to over do it and I have nothing to prove. I'm just wanting to get in shape. From what I gather, in fire fighting, it's not how fast you can run, but how far you can run.

After that I went home and thawed out. Took a warm shower and started doing homework. Today October 1st is the only sunny day we're supposed to have a for a few days. After that it's supposed to rain and storm and be cold. But it sounds about right for this time of year. But that will help me keep my butt studying. I have big projects coming up. But anyway enough procrastinating, time to get my English Project done. Stay tuned for more news as it develops on Smoke Before Fire.

* Here is a photo taken outside of my house of the snow the day after it happened.*