I've had a nutty couple of weeks.  The internet was down for about a week or so, (and to be honest, I debated for a while as to whether or not to just cancel it- it can be such a time-waster for me!!), and I've been working.  A lot.  However, I did eventually get off my butt and get the internet fixed, and we did eventually get rid of our previous project (after copious snags and setbacks, which were as varied as they were frustrating....), and things are settling down a bit. 

I've been doing aerial (fabric, static trapeze, lyra) for the last couple of weeks at a place here in town.  It's been great- I'm getting stronger and more flexible again, and I'd forgotten just how much fun it is for me.  The school recently purchased a corde lisse (rope), and that I'm REALLY stoked about.  I love fabric (so pretty!) but rope is cleaner, and you really have to nail everything you do up there, because there's nothing to hide behind.  On the other hand, it does also result in some truly impressive bruises....

Because I've been spending two (sometimes three) nights a week doing aerial, I've also managed to make some friends outside of work.  That's been really cool, but also kind of strange- I'm not usually that social, but my calender has definitely been full the last few weeks.  There's a group of maybe 10 people that are there regularly, and everyone's very welcoming.  It's nice- I kind of feel like I've found my people!!!

And speaking of buddies from work, several of us are going to go out and hike James Peak on the 26th.  I'm excited about that- I keep wanting to go hiking, as I haven't hiked since I got back from the Canyon, but the weather has been really gloomy both of the weekends I haven't worked, so I haven't made it out yet.  This will be a good way to start the season up here!  Not to mention it's a needed kick in the butt!!  Can't wait! 

Another shot from the Grand Canyon:

A preview of other pics to come:


I spent six days backpacking in the Grand Canyon with my family last week.  It was incredible!!  We hiked in on the Tanner Trail out of Lipan Point, then followed the Escalante Route along the Colorado River for 3 days.  The above was taken the evening of the third day of the trip, from the beach at Escalante Rapids, where we camped that night. We hiked out on the Tonto East Trail, up to Horseshoe Mesa and then on Grandview Trail up to Grandview Point. It was truly the experience of a lifetime, and I'm so glad I got to do it.  Thanks Mom and Dad, for all the planning you guys did, and for giving my brother and I what was, hands down, the most amazing family vacation ever!!!

I feel like I spent most of my week stuffed into the tail boom of the aircraft.  I didn't, of course, but I did spend a lot of time there on Thursday and Friday, and part of yesterday as well.  And there's still more to do on Monday.  Sigh.  Actually, the worst part, hands down, was the install.


( In which I spend lots of time pretzled into various uncomfortable positions and wondering who decided this aircraft mechanic thing sounded like a good career idea )
Result: One mostly reassembled AS350, and one sweaty, cramped, irritated mechanic who's seriously considering a career change...

...but instead had to work today.  Happily, it's the first Saturday I've had to work since late February, so that's a plus.  But it signals the start of another furious round on the treadmill that has been my job this year.

We have an RTS date for our current aircraft- a drop-in that arrived four weeks ago for inspections.  We're shooting to have it out by the 6th of April, which is do-able if we don't run into major problems, but will still be a push.  Since Pitbull's accident two weeks ago, and with the loan of SR to another team, we are back to only myself and DC on the team- which is a blessing and a curse.  A curse, because, well, it means there's only two of us to do the work intended for three (but we're used to functioning this way.  So far, for the three years we've been a team, the longest a third mechanic has lasted with us has been six months.  We can be rather unwelcoming...), and we aren't always productive.  But a blessing because, like I said, we're used to it, and we work together very, very well.  I don't think I've ever been on a team that's worked as well as the one I'm on now.  Nobody gets in anybody's way, nobody bus checks anybody else, and we've all got a great sense of humor.  So if I do have to work all the Saturdays between now and my vacation (which looks likely!), at least I get to hang out with my guys and we have a good time.

Maybe tomorrow I'll go hiking.  Hopefully it will be sunny; today turned cloudy, which makes me a bit sad. In the meantime, though, I have dinner plans tonight, which I get to dress up for (yay!!!  I never get to dress up!!).  And I need to go get ready!

How many ways do I hate DST??  That, I will say, was the one thing Arizona did right- no "reset your clocks arbitrarily" because really!!!  It's the same amount of daylight either way.  You're not gaining and hour, or losing an hour, you're just taking that hour of daylight that yesterday was at the beginning of the day and putting it at the end.  Which means that for the past month or so, I've been getting up for work when it's light.  And now, thanks to DST, suddenly I've been booted back into the middle of winter.

I only mention this because for some reason it really screws with my internal systems for a long time- usually a couple of weeks every year.  And that makes me cranky and bad-tempered, which is miserable for me and all the people around me.  And I'm really confused as to why 48 states are still stuck in the dark ages- after all, the other 2 states that have abolished it are functioning perfectly well.  Surely it is time to get rid of this nonsense???

In other news...

I went back to aerial class on Thursday.  I haven't been since the summer, and oh lord, am I SORE!!  So sore, in fact, that I skipped on hiking yesterday (bad Lena!!  I have a 40 mile backpacking trip with the family in April, and I haven't trained.  At all.  BAD LENA!!!) in favor of a hot bath, a lot of stretching and a nap in the afternoon.  I'm contemplating going again this afternoon...  Must do all of my chores first, though- there's a waist-high mountain of laundry lurking in the hallway that I need to quit ignoring and tackle before it completely takes over.

Speaking of the backpacking trip, I've been badly need of a lightweight rain jacket- I hiked a lot in the fall and am looking forward to doing that again as soon as the weather improves a bit.  So I splurged (only a little!) and bought a Gore-Tex jacket the other night.  In my defense, yes, I do kind of need it (I was taking the outer shell of my snowboarding jacket, which is kind of stiff and very heavy), and what's more, it was ON SALE!  Clearance, even, and fits well.  So I'm happy- can't wait to go hike in the rain!  Now all I need are some pants (unless I intend to wear cargo shorts the whole time, which I might be able to get away with, depending on the weather) and I'm set.

Still contemplating a Kindle...  (hey, I have a backpacking trip coming up!  And I can't very well lug a bunch of books along, right??)

Today: the only guy in the shop more klutzy and accident-prone than I am reclaimed the title of "Most Recently Injured" by falling down the stairs outside the hangar (it was icy) and breaking his collarbone.

I previously had held the aforementioned title thanks to a spectacularly idiotic move- about a month ago I was making a smoothie for breakfast.  In my defence, we'd been working 70 and 80 hour weeks for awhile (my first weekend off since Christmas was President's Day, if that tells you anything), and it was 6 AM (I am Not At My Best in the mornings...).  I have a stick/immersion/hand blender (whatever you want to call it- looks like this: 

except mine isn't cordless.  The sharp spinning bit disconnects from the top where the black line is.  You push the button to make it go.).  I had mostly finished the smoothie and pulled this nifty gadget out of the container.  There was a bit of fruit caught up under the blade, so being smart, I stuck my right index finger up under the blade to pry it out.  And then I hit the button with my left hand.  And then I went to the ER for stitches.  Why I didn't unplug it, I'm not sure.  Why I didn't disconnect the sharp bit from the motor, I'm not sure.  It was a pretty good cut and it does still twinge, even though it's completely healed by now.  My pride, however, has not totally recovered.  And I'm a bit leery of blenders.  (Oh, and anybody remember the razor blade incident of August 2010?  Same finger.)

Before that, my injured co-worker (who, for future reference, I'll refer to as Pitbull) had held the title for about a month after he shot himself in the face with hydraulic fluid.  We swap out every so often.

choose one of the following:

The highest draw from my bank account tonight was:

a) food for the next 3 days or so.
b) my most recent amazon.com order.
c) my bar tab, after spending 3 hours in training on The Software System From Hades.
d) my rent.
e) aerial class or snowboarding.

If you chose b)...you'd be right....(because d) hasn't cleared yet, and anybody who knows me or has followed this blog for any length of time (and, oh gee, you've had to, given that I've been TOTALLY AWOL for the last just about year or so) knows that c) is a SUBSTANTIAL amount. And really, I don't eat that much...except baked goods...and I haven't been doing much baking...sad, so that lets out a).  And unfortunately e) is a massive fail beacuse after all, despite good intentions, I'm really lazy at heart (and both of these options require money.  And, more importantly, TIME.  Which I've been short on, being as I've done NOTHING BUT WORK for the past TWO MONTHS!!!!!!  Not that you'd know.  Cause guess what else I haven't been doing?  Oh yeah!!!  UPDATING!!!!!!!  Good grief, I fail at blogging.  And keeping a positive attitude.  And self-control when it comes to books.)  Oh, but such good therapy...and what an amazing, sustaining place to go when the real world fails and life is crap...wow.  If I had unlimited access to books, who knows the reaches of my endurance or the depths of my capabilities?

Snowboarding!!  In New Zealand, with Mike.  And while we're there, try to convince one of the heli-skiing companies that they need another mechanic (me!!!)!

In an effort to improve my rapidly-headed-for-bedrock attitude about my job, I've been trying to come up with thoughts of good times I've had there.  Nothing this week.  Nothing last week either, or the week before that.  Obviously, this is having the opposite effect to what I intended and I was starting to get really discouraged.  But then I remembered....

...the beginning of February.  It was a beautiful day- sunny, warm enough (surprise!) for me to be outside in only my long sleeved t-shirt and the polo shirt over it, instead of layering on about six jackets.  The air was very clear and the mountains had a ton of snow on them, so the view down the ramp and out across the runway was truly gorgeous.  It was the first day of ground runs for our last project.  Ground runs are cool; given the extensive maintenance we do in the shop, we rarely get to see the helicopters actually operating, so it's a lot of fun.  It's also really satisfying- the culmination of four or five months' worth of parts cleaning, painting, inspecting, and paperwork (all of which can be tedious). 

That day, though, we were out there with an aircraft whose engine I had completely disassembled and reassembled.  I was nervous.  All I could think was "What if the thing doesn't start?  Worse yet, what if it starts and then turns into a fireball and burns the entire aircraft to cinders???"  I am, as I've said before, a chronically anxious engine mechanic.  And sure enough, it refused to start.  Three tries later, I was starting to panic and everybody else was pulling out their troubleshooting hats when the pilot leaned out of the cabin and asked "Do we think the fact that there's a piece of masking tape over the empty slot labelled 'START' on the fuse panel might have something to do with it?"  The fuse was found and installed, the avionics guy was teased mercilessly for nearly causing me a coronary, and the pilot strapped back in and went over his checklist again. 

The first few seconds of a helicopter start up are exciting.  The starter strains at first to get the engine turning, that whine particular to turbines (caused by airflow through the engine) beginning softly, then increasing in pitch and volume as speed increases.  Overhead, the rotors start to turn, slowly, almost lazily.  Even over the whine the engine makes, you can hear the igniters fire- kind of like firecrackers, but a quick, even snap.  Then, finally, as the noise builds and the rotor shadows on the ground whip by with increasing velocity, you can hear the engine light off.  It's like lighting a gas stove- that sudden whoosh!  But louder.  Way louder.  And SO much cooler!!  And then it's time to put your hearing protection on, because at that level of noise, you'll get hearing damage pretty fast.

Listening to that engine- my engine- light off and spool up to ground idle that day was really amazing.  I totally felt like I could take on the world.  Well, okay, maybe not that dramatic, but I did at least want to start jumping up and down and yelling "It works!  It works!!  I took apart a jet engine and put it back together, and it WORKS!!!  And in a couple of days, when ground runs are finished, it's going to lift that helicopter off the ground and go FLY!!"  It was a major high.  And I'll have more of them in the future.  Maybe not the immediate future, but they're coming.  And for now, I'll hang on to that- the memories of past good times and the hopes of future one.