Crank That

Hey yall, I haven't written in here for a while so I figure I should get back on it.  Last week my crew went to the Virgin River to do some chainsawing of tamarisk trees.  It was my first chainsaw hitch since training and as much as I love trees I REALLY love killing them. Just kidding.  But these trees are invasive and taking over the willows that this bird the Southwest Willow Flycatcher (I think I mentioned in another post) needs to survive which helps with my guilt of cutting down so many trees.  Also tamarisks are evil so there's that.  Aside from learning how to start the chainsaw while standing up (... it's a very powerful feeling), the best part of this hitch was camping on beautiful soft sand along the river and watching the full moon rise over the mountains.  Perfect.  The downside to the river was having to cross it every morning to get to the work site.  It was painfully cold and most days we woke up with frost on our tents and then had to take our shoes off and brace the freezing water.  I may or may not have cried one day.  And I normally like cold water so it must have been treacherous.  But we are going back tomorrow and then I can fill you in on an another exciting week if I make it through!

On another note, I only have less than a month left with Crew No Love before we are split up :(.  Crew leader training starts in February and I have never been so excited to grow myself! (haha)  Amanda, the lady in charge of training is super cool and filled with knowledge and really seems to get people.  I think it'll be a great experience to work with her.  Knowing that we will have 3 months of training to become a leader has helped me to embrace my flaws/problems (too many) and actually think about them as a chance for growth and bettering myself (who knew)  I can't wait!  Well that about sums up the last few months of my life.  Moo.

A Strange Feeling

There have been several times in my life when I thought I was going to die.  Once I took a bad wipe out on skis and couldn’t get up.  Another time I was trapped under a wave and thought I might drown down there.  But this time was different.  This time I knew I was going to die.  Or at least I thought I did.  It was everything that I had nightmares about.  The weird kind of nightmare where I realize what’s happening and as my body thrashes around the car I feel a sense of peace with the fact that I am going to die.  This obviously comes with the lack of time to think about and understand what dying actually means in this instance.  At least I hope so.  Because as our car slid across the ice and slammed 60 miles per hour into a cement wall I felt exactly the way I did in my dream.   And the thing that scared me the most was my state of serenity in a situation that would normally get my heart racing just thinking about.  When the car finally stopped after what felt like an eternity of ping ponging from wall to wall, I realized that by some miracle we were all still alive.  I climbed out of the driver’s side door, the only door that still opened and stood watching a few nice civilians help my friend Jessica out of the back seat.  I don’t know if it was due to hitting my head so hard or the shock of something like this actually happening, but I collapsed on the side of the road and the next thing I knew I was being carried to the police car and then put on a stretcher to be taken to the hospital via ambulance.

I know accidents happen to people all the time and my friends and I are terribly lucky to be alive and barely injured.  But for a couple seconds I thought my friend was dead, and I can’t stop thinking about how horribly heartbreaking  and life changing it would be to lose a loved one with you in that car.  And it blows my mind how we hit the walls at the exact right angle to survive and how Jessica had her feet on the seat which prevented her legs from being crushed and how no other cars were around to get involved.  Why were we so lucky when so many other people are not?   We were blessed to have experienced such a situation that reminded us to appreciate the ones we love and to really live our lives because we are all granted the chance to do so.