D-Day 2010

Well, it was a whole week ago, but this year's anniversary of D-Day, when Allied forces invaded franceland because franceland decided it was a good idea to avoid war by not fighting Adolf Hitler, was a fun one. The highlight was having the opportunity to watch a reenactment of Allied forces attacking and capturing a German gun emplacement at the local military base/museum. It took a bit on account of slow internets, but here are photos!

"German" forces march in front of the audience before the battle.

All their equipment was authentic from World War II.

It's a BMW! This reminds me of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

This really makes me want to get to work restoring my Jeep, which is 1943, like this one.

The German 75mm anti-tank gun fires at Allied troops.

Allied troops fire back, and destroy the gun.

The main gun down, Allied forces advance on the "German" forces taking cover behind these fortifications.

Allied soldiers flank the German position, and bring out shotguns for close-quarters combat.

Pistols are also good for close-quarters.

Take no prisoners! I mean, totally take prisoners. They might... know stuff. (They did the re-enactment twice that day, and after the second one the Allies shot all their prisoners just for fun.)

This guy is cleaning and maintaining the German MG34 machine gun, the predecessor to my favorite machine gun, the MG42. These are very finely machined, making them not the most reliable in the field. The MG42 was almost the same gun, but much less precisely machined, making them less likely to jam in the heat of battle.

They were firing blanks, of course.

Yeah, I totally got to heft the MG34! Sadly, I didn't get to fire it.

The soldier/actors after the battle, posing for a photo.

They gave rides in the BMW. I didn't go on one, but couldn't resist this photo. They really made this guy's day!

It's the fat cigar that really makes this photo.

During the second reenactment, there was a flyover by authentic WWII era A-10 "Warthogs".*

There were quite a few old vehicles at the museum, but of course the 1943 Jeep is my favorite.

*Haha, had you going. "Warthogs" aren't from WWII; they're quite modern, and the flyover was unrelated to the reenactment.

Internship Update

So, I had no idea that having so much free time would make it so hard to blog! Part of the problem is working 24 hour shifts with 24 hours off in between is pretty exhausting; it also doesn't help to have such inconsistent internet access here. I'm still in McAlester, Oklahoma, still training, but in about a week or so I should be "breaking out" as they say, done with training. I was getting really worried that the guys training me were lazy and had really no idea what they were doing despite being hyped as awesome well loggers by the guys in the office, and I've recently found out that I'm exactly right.

One of the guys I was working with left for a vacation, after arranging for me to cover his shifts for the rest of this well. The first day I was supposed to work on my own, another guy, Pat, shows up unannounced saying that the office had sent him to finish training me and help cover the shifts. I was kind of annoyed at first, since I hadn't been kept informed, and since I was looking forward to just working on my own, but it's basically the best thing that's happened so far. I'd had a lot of questions about things I didn't understand regarding well logging, and no helpful answers. Also, the other guy I was training under expected me to know things about logging I that seemed way over my head, until I started suspecting he didn't know what he was talking about.

As it turns out, he and I were making a fairly useless well log, and within one day working with Pat all my confusion has been straightened out, the log finally makes sense, and I finally feel like I've learned something and can handle this job. Even better, at the next well they're sending me to (for British Petroleum), I'll be working opposite shifts with Pat, which makes me feel much less nervous about being solely responsible for the data I collect knowing I've got a good senior logger to set me straight.

There's still a lot of downtime, though, and now that I've gotten into the routine I can get to some non-leisure reading I'm supposed to do for one of my geology professors, which requires more concentration than the light reading I've been doing (I've gone through books seven and eight of the Wheel of Time series since coming out here). Also, I've been rewatching The Office from the beginning, and also watched several new movies. If I feel like it I'll post my thoughts on them (in detail for some) in future posts. For now, super brief reviews:

Iron Man: Awesome! I didn't expect to like it as much as I did, and it is a must-see.

Evan Almighty: Didn't want to watch it until Orson Scott Card said it was worth seeing despite Bruce Almighty. It was surprisingly good, and thought-provoking.

The Pursuit of Happyness: Another must-see. Will Smith is amazing, and so is Jaden.

City of Ember: Very good family movie. Not perfect, but highly recommendable.

The Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor: Don't waste your time. To sum it up: Yetis. And the Chinese chick can talk to them.

I've also been getting sick of fast food, so I bought a burner and a pot and some utensils, and I made soup. It's one of Kate's and my favorite recipes, called Spaghetti Soup, and it's fairly inexpensive and extremely easy to make and makes awesome leftovers, which is why I made it. You may have noticed I put a little spot with links to posts where I include recipes, and there's only my salsa recipe there so far. I mean to expand that section to include many different good recipes that Kate and I like, and I'll post Spaghetti Soup there soon.

I've also been looking for more photo opportunities. There are apparently some good scenic drives within an hour of here, and if I can manage it I might take my camera to some new places, especially since my photos have been getting positive responses on this blog. We had a big thunder storm here tonight (the first I've seen in forever!), so I tried to get a good lightning shot, but no luck. I guess I need to practice and experiment, but a good lightning photo is one of my big goals. I also might try to take some photos on the drilling rig itself, since this one is particularly dirty and has to be seen to be believed if you've never worked oil before. A drilling rig like the one I work at was featured once on Dirty Jobs on the Discovery channel. I did get a cool shot of the rig the other day as the sun poked through the clouds, and I'll use it to close this incoherent post:

My Oklahoma Experience So Far

I'm back in the Bible Belt, and the land of humidity and country music. This past week the temperature stayed in the low 30s for the first time in the almost month I've been here. 50-60°F is too warm for January!

What am I doing in Oklahoma? This semester I am working as an intern with Geosearch Logging, headquartered in Edmond, OK, just north of Oklahoma City. So far I've just been attending classes on well logging and training with experienced loggers, but soon I'll be logging a well on my own. What do I mean by logging? Basically I spend a long day in a trailer at a drilling rig, and as they drill an oil well I sit at a computer watching as equipment monitors the gas coming up from underground, and every once in awhile one of the rig hands brings me a bag full of crushed rock and I file it and tell them what it is. In between, there's not much to do, so I get to read books and watch movies... and get paid for it. Paid quite a bit, actually.

I feel like I've already been all over Oklahoma, and at some point I might be transferred to New York/Pennsylvania area. So far the towns I've done more than just drive through in Oklahoma are Oklahoma City, Edmond, Cushing, Yale, Woweka, Seminole and McAlester, all in just one month. Cushing, OK is known as the pipeline crossroads of the world, because practically all the oil pipelines from the Gulf of Mexico area pass through Cushing. I never got around to taking picture of the sign for Cushing, but I found a good one online:

When I left Idaho, it was anywhere from -10 to 10°F the whole drive until I got south of Colorado. I took a route through Wyoming through some familiar territory from a previous field trip, including Pinedale (and I saw the Camp Davis Formation outcrop all covered in snow). I took a few pictures as I travelled:

One last shot of the Menan Buttes covered in snow before leaving Rexburg.

Snow-covered mountains near the Palisades Reservoir in Idaho.

The Palisades Reservoir covered in ice. Where there wasn't ice, there was steam.

Aspen trees at the Palisades Reservoir.

The icy highway near Pinedale, Wyoming. There was so much ice I had to slow down to 35mph and put my Jeep into four-wheel-drive just to stay on the road.

Snow-covered rocks in Wyoming. This is just east of the Camp Davis Formation outcrop my geology friends will know very well. I saw that outcrop as I was driving, but didn't feel like turning around and stopping to take a photo. This was a better photo, anyway. I didn't notice the Moon was in the photo until I looked at it on my MacBook.

Once in Edmond, I spent some time in the Geosearch office being trained by the office geologist, Bill Graham. The company owner, Joe Struckel, is a major technophobe, and was having trouble using PowerPoint, and since I'd met him before he asked me to help him out, so I earned major bonus points by helping him put together a presentation he was going to give later that day. I also helped Bill Graham do some copy-editing on some of his training materials, and he insisted I put my name on the cover of the sample description manual so there would be more geologist names on it. So if anyone in the future goes to work for Geosearch as a mud logger, one of your training manuals will have my name on it.

After that I got some in-the-field training from a cool guy named Marshal Etter, and between working on rock samples we discussed Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. He was sure to point out that Jimi Hendrix's middle name was Marshal. I got a bit of training from another guy named David Mardis, and then spent one morning on a well with a guy named Dave Schmidt. Dave Schmidt and I talked a lot of politics, and he kept making jokes about having tickets to Obama's "coronation" (sarcastically, of course, we agreed on pretty much everything). It was a fun morning even though I got so much second-hand smoke in four hours that it probably would have been healthier if I had simply smoked a pack (seriously).

At the moment I'm working along side two guys on a well in McAlester, OK, as a last bit of training. One of the guys, Steve, despite being just a few years younger than my parents, is into a lot of the same music as me, and has even heard of Apocalyptica, Emilíana Torrini and Sneaker Pimps, which really surprised me and gives me hope that when I get older I won't be a crusty old man who only likes the music I grew up with. He has a lot of LDS family, which made for some pretty interesting discussion. The other guy I'm logging with goes by Hoover, and he's cool, too. He gave me the coolest keychain ever, a miniature drill bit like the ones used on the drilling rig:

I've taken a few pictures down here in Oklahoma, too:

On I-40 between Edmond and McAlester I saw three trucks parked on an offramp carrying blades for windmills. You can't appreciate the scale of the windmills until you've stood next to one of these.

It was early morning, and the Sun made for cool effects.

We just had a big ice storm, something I haven't seen since I lived in Missouri. Naturally, I went nuts on the photos, and took about a million:

There was even ice on the drilling rig:

This is a good shot of the rig I'm working at right now. They're drilling a well for XTO:

Last night I looked out and saw the Moon and Venus right behind the rig. I'm still trying to get the hang of night shots, but I'm definitely getting better, and it was a chance to try some cool shots that I couldn't pass up. Here's the best one:

I wish I had a tele-photo lens, so I could take this shot from farther back and make the Moon look bigger next to the rig. Another time, maybe.

Meanwhile, this has been a nice break from blogging about politics, and this gets the personal info aspect of my blog caught up to the present. I hope you enjoyed the photos.

Back from Vacation

I'm back from vacation. Kate and I had a great time up north, it was a great way to spend my birthday visiting all five of my old mission areas and showing off the amazing scenery of northern Idaho/Montana/Washington to my wife. The only real downside was coming home and realizing no one got me a mustang, MG42 or DeLorean. Shame on you guys! I did get a subscription to The Limbaugh Letter and Rush Limbaugh's website from Kate's uncle, renewed from when he got me that last year; so that's very cool.

Speaking of which, before I go on, woohoo for Sarah Palin! Now I have someone to vote for, rather than holding my nose while I vote against Obama. We now have a VP nominee with better qualifications and more experience than the Democrat's presidential pick. Also she's willing to push for domestic oil, which is a big plus. Is McCain finally waking up and coming back to conservatism? This gives me hope. As one Limbaugh caller put it today, (mocking Michelle Obama), "for the first time in years I am proud to call myself a Republican!"

Okay, now I'll save the politics for a boring future post.

Two observations from the trip: The Jeep Cherokee definitely gets the best mileage by far at around 55 mph. Also, gas on Indian reservations is much cheaper, since they don't have to charge for tax; as a result, they are the only ones who actually make a real profit on the gas itself.

We left Rexburg late Monday morning, and arrived at Farragut State Park that evening, where we camped for two nights. Farragut State Park is on Lake Pend Oreille, which is pronounced Pondaray by people who, like the french, can't remember what sound half those letters make. Here's Lake Pend Oreille:

If I had it all to do over again, I would totally camp there again. Great scenery, right in the dense forest, and a nice trail around the lake. Next time, though, we'll go prepared to canoe on the lake. The park is right near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (another french name that requires holding your nose to pronounce like they do in france), and as a bonus you have to go through a tiny town called Athol. Yes, I know I'm completely immature, but I think this name is hilarious if you say it out loud and pronounce it wrong. It sounds like a rude word with a lisp, and is extra funny if you say "Entering Athol":

If you notice, I'm actually wearing a coat. The weather was awesome! There was rain, and overcast clouds to hide the evil, oppressive sun most of the time, and it was mid-40s until late morning both days we were at Farragut. Any weather where I think about putting on a coat is good weather.

On tuesday we took a scenic loop around the lake and through northwestern Montana up to Troy, Montana, then back through Bonner's Ferry, Idaho, which was my second mission area. This was just a scenic trip; there's nothing to do in Bonner's Ferry, and no one I really needed to visit.

As we were headed east past Clark Fork on Hwy 200, we saw these cool rock outcrops (you should really click for the full-sized image):

I really didn't take as many pictures as I expected, we mostly enjoyed just driving, and only stopped for the most spectacular things, such as those outcrops. We got back to camp with plenty of daylight left, so we went to Coeur d'Alene because there is a store there that sells a line of purses Kate is interested in. Naturally purses aren't my thing, but since most if not all of you who read this blog are women, you may be interested in these, which are made out of recycled seatbelts:

They're very expensive, so she didn't buy one yet, but Kate was very excited to see them so they were a planned stop on our vacation. Afterward we went into Spokane Valley, about 30 miles west of Coeur d'Alene, which was my third mission area. The best friend I made on my mission I met in this area, but she lives in Utah now, so we didn't visit her. Instead we tried to find our way through a maze of construction; literally every major road in this part of town had been ripped up and was closed to through traffic. I thought the construction crews in Rexburg were lazy with the planning, this was ridiculous! We finally made it to two people I wanted to visit, though, but one wasn't home and the other had moved away. It wasn't a big deal, though; they weren't major reasons for the trip, just old acquaintances.

We ate that night at The Mustard Seed, which is a great Asian (generic Asian, but good anyway) restaurant that is local to Spokane and serves great food. If you ever find yourself in Spokane area, I highly recommend eating there.

The next day we went up through north Spokane (my fourth mission area), which doesn't have much to offer scenery-wise but gives a fine taste of how hard it is to find your way around Spokane. Spokane may be the worst-planned city of all time. It's a maze of one-way streets (none going the way you need, of course), confusing intersections and rude, careless drivers. I've never seen a city that is more frustrating to get around in than Spokane, not even close.

So we passed through that area up to my fifth and final area, north of Spokane in a small town called Deer Park. There were two families we planned to visit here, and fortunately both were home. First there were the Helms in Deer Park, who when I left had been planning an African safari. Cliff Helm is a big hunter, and their house is full of mounts of various animals he's hunted, and he showed off his African kills. I'm not big on hunting, or mounting animals and keeping them at home, but he did have some cool ones, like a leopard and a zebra and a lion and a hyena. Almost five years ago, at the Helms' place, I got to cut up a whole pig (unfortunately I finished my mission and went home right before I'd have gotten to eat it) with a saw and a big knife, and I got to go to the ski slope (before snow) to dig up some small trees for Cliff's landscaping business. Fun stuff.

That night we went up to stay overnight with the Hansens up in Elk, Washington, who are the coolest people ever. I should have taken a picture of their house, which looks like it's straight out of Better Homes & Gardens both inside and out. When I was a missionary there, Galen Hansen had been Ward Mission Leader and superintendent of the school district there, and he and his wife were housing six young troubled girls at their home. These are girls that had been either neglected or abused, and in some cases were only not in jail because they'd chosen to stay with the Hansens instead. Galen has since retired, and Kathie Hansen (who runs a business or something that is in charge of sheltering the girls, a different group now) had found a group home at which to house the girls, which made for a much less noisy house.

When we got there Kathie was in the middle of cooking a meal for a huge family that lived down the street whose grandfather the night before had been killed by a bull. This was my favorite area of my mission, not only for the scenery, but because it was such a tight-knit group of the nicest people ever. The night after we left the Hansens were planning on having a couple dozen extended family members of the Vanderholms (the family who'd lost their grandfather) who were headed in for the funeral. I often get fed up with the exclusivity of Mormon culture, but these guys up in the middle of nowhere are the real deal, true Latter-day Saints; we could have been crazy strangers, and if we'd knocked on their door they'd have given us a room to stay in for the night.

Oh, yeah, and Kathie Hansen is an amazing cook, too. After cooking a huge meal for the Vanderholms she threw together a very good meal for us and her family, and the next morning did the same again for breakfast that included homemade maple and huckleberry syrup. Also she introduced us to possibly the best salad dressing I've ever had, Walla Walla Sweet Onion and Summer Tomato Salad Dressing:

I plan to order several bottles at some point soon; some will go on salad, some will probably serve as a beverage. I want to try their sweet onion and honey mustard, too. Yum.

That night I had a weird dream where I was on a nature preserve on the Helms' property, and he'd captured live African animals rather than dead ones, but they'd gotten out like in Jurassic Park and I was stuck outside and had to defend myself from lions, leopards and hyenas with a big blacksmith's hammer. I think the hammer came from a character in The Wheel of Time who is a blacksmith but also fights battles with a huge axe, but wishes he only had his hammer. This has nothing to do with the trip, it was just a cool dream that I almost forgot until just now.

The next morning we left to go home, and traveled south through Lewiston, Idaho. The trip from Spokane to Lewiston is through very cool rolling hills covered in wheat that I should have taken a picture of. Since I didn't, here's a picture from the internet from near Palouse, Washington, which we passed through:

We took a detour to drive through Moscow, Idaho, which was my first mission area. That's a real hippie town, and if we get a chance in the future we will visit on April 20 someday, to go to HempFest. Moscow is a town that really knows how to celebrate 420.

Then it was back through Lewiston on the way home:

From there we took highway 12 east to Missoula, simply because it was the quickest way home, slightly quicker than going south through Boise.

We almost went through Boise simply because we'd never been there before, but we're glad we took this route because it was yet another awesome scenic drive. It's part of the Lewis and Clark trail, and follows the middle fork of the Clearwater River. If possible I'd love to get friends together and do a float trip down this river, because the scenery is great. For the first half of this leg of the drive we were in more rolling hills, but the road cut through recent (as in Miocene) basalt flows, which were fun to look at. There was one point in particular that had some spectacular columnar joints, but unfortunately there was nowhere to stop the car for a picture. I'll take one when I take that float trip. Afterward it was down into older rock and denser forest, all the way to Missoula. Then it was dark, and we got home at 1am Friday morning. A good trip.

And on the way home on highway 12 we got stuck for awhile behind the BioDiesel bus:

Oh, yeah, and I'm older even than I was now, with more gray hairs. I am now officially older than a quarter century old! I think I get to pay my tuition this year with social security.