Images from Dry Dock

Life at sea, on land

The Sea Princess recently went through its dry dock, where the ship gets refitted.  Cruise ships are in service 365 days a year.  The day we drop off passengers is also the day we take on passengers.  We get about 2 hours every 2 weeks when we don't have passengers.

So all the things that break and need to be fixed when the ship is out of service go on a big list.  Then that big list gets prioritized, budgeted and slashed.  Then in dry dock, every department completes their list.

At the same time.

24 hours per day.

For 10 days.

This was my first dry dock experience, and it was exhausting.  It reminded me of tech weeks on land, where everyone wants the space, the conditions (silence, darkness, etc), the equipment all for themselves, and they clamor to get what they want.  And when we're done, we're done.  The curtain goes up when we go back in service, and tech week is done.  The show better be ready.

So after a slow start where everyone got everything started, the last few days were a sprint to the finish to get things done, taught and checked off.  And I ended up in the middle of it, for my department, as the department head.

So, a new floor, sound console and main curtain later, the Princess Theater is shining.  The atrium system was completely redone, and all our venues have been health-checked, cleaned and repaired.  And everything, which should be sparkling and shiny and lovely, is a mess.  There is dust everywhere, random bits of kit stashed in corners, tools jumbled and a general sense of disarray and jobs left half done.

Sigh.  So much for the glowing concept of the refit as a magical time to end all worries and make wishes come true.

I'm off to repaint an audio snake to match its white marble surroundings.

Go West Young (wo)man

 From Driggs, Idaho to San Francisco, California, I decided to pick up my 42^nd state.  I went the long way, through Oregon, despite having a very tight time frame.  I left Idaho on Tuesday, August 28^th, and had to join the ship on Friday, August 31^st.  The drive was over 20 hours, and I still needed to rent a storage container and put all my stuff in it.  No worries, plenty of time to see Bend.

So it was onward into the sunset, across blazing hot open range (sometimes literally blazing hot).

I stopped at BLM land to spend the night, pulled well off the highway on a dirt track and pitched camp.  I made myself comfy with a sleeping bag and pad stretched out on the ground, then read myself to sleep.  So much better than a hotel parking lot.  I’m getting the hang of this hobo thing.

Then off to Bend for breakfast, south to California, around the smoky Mount Shasta (woah, that’s tall), and home to San Francisco.

Now to pack up my life into a small locker.  Oh wait, that’s no different than shoving it in a car…

That took less than an hour.  I love not having too many possessions.  Although I was surprised by the way that storage unit filled up so quickly.  I have a fair bit of stuff.  Four boxes worth.  Might be time to purge.

Pictures of Idaho

A recap of my summer in Teton Valley.

US Capitals

I recently dusted off my old memorization of the US state capitals.

When I was growing up, I had a placemat of the United States, which was my only placemat and with me at every meal.  I remember being quite upset when that placemat was being washed and I had to have a regular flower-print placemat that everyone else had.  I have no idea where this placemat came from, as I did not have any other educational placemats, and no other member of the family had any eccentric placemats.  But the result of my beloved USA placemat was that I endeavored to memorize all 50 state capitals.  I never learned that alphabetical-state song, which might have been helpful, but instead just bulldozed through it using sheer force of mind.

This memorization occurred when I was in elementary school.  I remember my second-grade teacher calling out capitals to me on the playground and I went and stood on the corresponding state on our large playground map.  In retrospect, two things strike me: 1) I don't know if the teacher even knew the capitals, and 2) I was quite a precocious kid.

In the years after elementary school, my knowledge lapsed.  I didn't keep up with my memorization, and as memories do, they faded.  But my brother recently introduced me to an interactive online learning site called Memrise.  There, I quickly planted a garden of memories associated with the US states.  Other gardens I am harvesting include the countries of the world with their capitals, and the flags of the world.  (The flags have already come in handy in the Olympics, with the satisfaction of knowing the athlete's country by sight, a split second before they announce it).

As I was recalling the 50 capitals, I began to count how many I had been to.  It is a sparsely populated list, compared to my slept-in states (34) and visited states (42):

I have lived in:

1. Dover, DE

I have slept in:

2. Honolulu, HI
3. Providence, RI
4. Austin, TX
5. Boston, MA
(Washington, DC)

I have been to for the day:
6. Cheyenne, WY
7. Juneau, AK
8. Richmond, VA
9. Annapolis, MD
10. Denver, CO
11. Nashville, TN
12. Little Rock, AR

I have driven through:
13. Harrisburg, PA
14. Concord, NH
15. Hartford, CT
16. Salt Lake City, UT
17. Lansing, MI
18. Columbus, OH
19. Jefferson City, MO
20. Madison, WI
21. Saint Paul, MN
22. Trenton, NJ

I've visited the airport (does that even count?):
23. Phoenix, AZ
24. Atlanta, GA

Which leaves 26:
California
Oregon
Washington
Nevada
Idaho
Montana
New Mexico
North Dakota
South Dakota
Nebraska
Kansas
Oklahoma
Louisiana
Iowa
Illinois
Indiana
Kentucky
Mississippi
Alabama
Florida
South Carolina
North Carolina
West Virginia
New York
Vermont
Maine

There and back again

I have been trying to get my EMT license in either Idaho or Wyoming since the spring, when I heard I would be in the area for the summer.  I have my Pennsylvania license and national registry, so I figured it'd be easy to fill out some paperwork and get my license.

A few months later, I am in the middle of an Idaho license application, which is permanently stalled, and completing the few last steps for my Wyoming license.

I had to drive to Cheyenne to take a written test to get my license, despite being certified in another state, a member of the national registry of EMTs and having completed an EMT training course in the state of Wyoming.  Cheyenne is 8 hours away from where I live.

So I drove to the other side of the state on a two-day journey to take a 150-question multiple-choice test.  Which took me an hour to complete.

Luckily, I was able to get my fingerprints processed for a background check in the same trip, and now I’m one form away from being a Wyoming-licensed EMT.

Finally.

But it was a nice drive.  I toured the varying geography of Wyoming, from the Tetons to the Winds to the wide, rolling range.

And saw a nice sunset on the way.

Summiting Table Mountain

Up in Teton Canyon, on the way to the Grand Teton (as the crow flies), just over the state line in Wyoming, lies a Table Mountain.  Not as famous as its counterpart in South Africa, but still, a Table Mountain.  It's not as imposing, it's not as vast and it's not as picturesque, since it is dwarfed and dominated by the three Tetons not one mile distant.  But it still is a hefty climb, offering a 7-mile approach, 4,000 feet of elevation gain and an above-treeline summit of 11,105 feet above sea level.

I climbed it yesterday, after a group of us had started up one of its trails a couple weeks after we settled in.  Snow turned us back, although it wasn't a hardcore push to the summit.

I came back and started up the North Fork trail.

I attained the ridge, then scrambled up to the summit.

Up top, I spent a leisurely hour eating dinner, enjoying the views and reading a book.

I descended via the Face Trail, which was the most grueling descent I have ever attempted, with hugely steep grades plunging down 3,000 feet of elevation loss over a rocky, loose trail.

Two hours of leg-punishing descent deposited me in the parking lot, ready for a couple days of recovery, but glowing with the views and accomplishments of the day.

A good 8-hour trip.