Life Through the Eyes of an Ambulance Driver

Trip Photos

A while back, sometime in the late 90′s, I read about a place in Southwestern Colorado called the Weminuche Wilderness. Also known as The Backpacker’s Nirvana, it is located in the San Juan National Forest. I made my first visit to there in 1998 with a Philmont friend, Bill Sassani, where we did an overnight trip, and then drove around the area. I was hooked. I wanted to do more exploring in the Weminuche. I’ve made two more additional trips there since then. Once with Wendy in 2007 where we backpacked up the Valecito River. The other time with my brother Chris and a college friend Ramsey where we did some day hiking the week before my wedding in 2009.

There is an historical narrow gauge railroad that runs between the towns of Durango and Silverton called the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (D&SNGR). It runs along the western edge of the Weminuche Wilderness and makes a few stops along the way. I read about how backpackers use the train to access the wilderness, and I soon decided that one day I wanted to make a backpacking trip that took advantage of the train.

In the book Hiking Colorado’s Weminuche and South San Juan Wilderness Areas, there is a hike described using the train to do a trip. The hike starts with the train dropping you off at the Elk Park stop, and then you get picked up at the Neddleton stop. Wendy and I decided to do the hike over 6 days and 5 nights..

Wendy had some additional time off outside of the planned hiking days so we decided to do some extra touring around. Our first day we drove to Telluride, CO where we spent the night at the Victorian Inn. From the door of the inn, you could smell a mouthwatering restaurant. It smelled like a steak place, but I wanted to have a steak at the end of the trip, so we decided to try another restaurant. The inn was located within walking distance of the main strip of town where the shops and restaurants were located. We found an Italian restaurant called the Telluride Bistro. I had the best chicken parmesan I’ve ever had before. After dinner we took the free gondola up to the ski area. It was a nice little moonlit ride up and back.

Telluride, CO

Next morning, during our free breakfast at the inn, we overheard some other guests referring to some snow coming in the next few days. The weather report I had seen earlier referred to a chance of snow, and these folks were talking about inches accumulating in Telluride. It was something to consider. We headed out towards Silverton. The drive between Ouray and Silverton is hands down my favorite drive in the country. Its a beautiful mountain drive that puts you up along sheer rock walls, with beautiful views, colorful mountains, and old mining ruins. Its a windy road that is just fun to drive, so it can be hard to look and drive. We took our time getting to Silverton stopping to read signs and take photos. We ran into some rain along the way too, a precursor to the upcoming days.

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Wendy had some time off over the 4th of July Weekend, so we decided to take a little vacation. We hadn’t really made any kind of plans on what we wanted to do, so we decided to make a road trip out of it. We had both heard that northern California is very pretty, so we decided to head that way. Wendy did all the planning and found places for us to stay and things to do. I was content to just come along for the ride. With the high gas prices, we decided it was better to take my car, Bullet, the Nissan Versa. I was hoping to get good gas mileage with the highway driving, but overall it was about what I got driving around in town here 30MPG.

We left Salt Lake on June 30th. We had to drop Madie off at another boarding place as Dogmode was full for the weekend. Heading west, we crossed the Bonneville Salt Flats. It was an interesting thing to see. Flat white ground. Thankfully, this was the day after a cold front had pushed into the area, so it was pleasant traveling weather.

Bonneville Salt Flats

At the Nevada-Utah border is a town called Wendover. It advertises here in Salt Lake for its resort casinos. This picture depticts how the casino is built literally on the state line making it as close as possible for those looking for a respite from LDS land. The white line in the middle of the road is the state line and it says Nevada and Utah on either side of it.

Nevada - Utah state line

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Merry Christmas everyone.

Wendy and I have been very blessed this year. I know for me it has been the happiest year I’ve had so far.  We are still enjoying our home here in Utah. No kids yet as we are still just enjoying being a couple. The dog and cat are like characters from the Will Ferrell movie Step Brothers when they first met each other. Madie, our German Shepherd, knows she can’t hurt the cat, and Jamin, the cat, knows it so he chases Madie around the house. Never thought I’d see the day when a German Shepherd would run from a cat.

We’ve done a few improvements to our house. Changed out some light fixtures and updated some of the outlets with the help of my father in law Tim and my dad. We’ve also added new french doors to replace the sliding glass door that leads into our back yard. We are hoping to replace some of our single pane windows next year as you can feel the cold air rushing in the house as you walk by them. I’ve been put in charge of taking care of the outside of the house. The yard and what not.

Wendy and I have been enjoying our church we go to. There are a lot of great people there that we’ve enjoyed getting to know over the year. We found a small group Bible study class we really enjoy, and our pastors do a great job of delivering sermons. We both look forward to our Sunday mornings each week. (no, we haven’t converted to the local LDS culture).

Wendy and I have gotten to go on some fun trips this year. Our first trip was to Heber City about an hour from here. We went there for my birthday and valentine’s day. The motel we got was dog friendly so Madie went along with us. While we were up there we did some snow tubing and some snow mobiling. I never knew I could get so sore from riding on a snow mobile, but it was a lot of fun. Wendy and I plan to go rent another snow mobile again this winter.

As a chance to escape our winter and for me to see my beloved Cubbies play baseball, we flew to Mesa, AZ for Spring Training. I have dreamed of getting to go to spring training for a long time and I finally got to go. It was nice to be able to wear shorts and sit in the sunshine after a cold winter here in Utah. We are planning to go back again this Spring.

My brother Chris and his wife Lisa both finished their graduate studies at Virginia Tech this spring. My parents drove up for the ceremony, and Wendy and I flew out. It was a fun trip getting to be with my family. After visiting with them, Wendy and I rented a car to drive up to Washington DC. We were only there for about 24 hours, but we were able to see a lot of sights while we were there. Didn’t get much sleep, and it was a whirlwind visit, but we were excited to get to see some of the American icons that we’ve heard about our whole lives.

We flew to Seattle, WA this summer so I could get to see my Cubs play baseball during the regular season. I have always heard how nice of a ball park Safeco field is in Seattle, and I’ve never been to Seattle, so Wendy and I made a trip of it. We got to watch 3 games and the Cubs lost 2 of 3. It was a rough year, yet again, to be a Cubs fan. Seattle was a nice town. We were able to save some money by not renting a car and were able to get to see a lot still. The weather was perfect, and it only rained one day.

I spent most of my summer riding my bicycle. We live near the base of Little Cottonwood Canyon where Alta and Snowbird ski resorts are located. I rode my bike up that canyon several times a week. I never made it to the top, but I kept making progress. Wendy also got a bike this summer, and I am trying to get her to ride it more for next year. We went on a couple of rides together. We are both currently attending a weekly spin class. Our instructor does a great job of teaching the fundamentals of maintaining good positioning while on a bike.

Both Wendy’s parents and my parents came out to visit us this year. We enjoyed having them visit us and a chance to show off our home to visitors. My parents enjoyed it so much that they have decided they want to move out here. It will be nice to have my parents near by as it is difficult to get back to MS to visit.

Wendy and I continued our backpacking roots with a few trips this year. We planned a trip in September for Glacier National Park. In the mean time, we did a couple of shorter trips nearby to help us get ready for it. We went to the Uintas Wilderness for a 3 day trip. We took Madie with us, and I have never seen that dog so happy ever. She makes for a great backpacking dog. We had a great time too. We then took another 3 day trip to American Fork Canyon. Madie accompanied us on that trip as well. We wore her out hiking, but she loved it. We bought her some saddle bags to carry her food and water.

Our trip to Glacier was wonderful. We had planned to spend 6 days backpacking, but had to come out a day early because of an early snow storm that covered an exposed trail we were to cross. It was a very pretty park. Wendy and I were both glad to get back to the simple life of backpacking. We met some nice folks on the trail while we were there. Surprisingly, Glacier gets a lot of visitors from Washington State. My blog has a more detailed account of our trip.

For our first anniversary, we headed back to CO in September. We rented a cabin near Estes Park and enjoyed touring around Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a great time to visit as a lot of the leaves on the aspen trees were peaking. We had a great time there.

Wendy is still loving her job. She’s a pediatrician for an urgent care network in town. She works evenings and one day a weekend which leaves her with plenty of time to do things with me. We decided that me getting a job wasn’t as important for us as getting to spend time together. It’s been a fun year.

I eventually obtained my UT EMT Basic. It didn’t transfer from CO and I wound up having to retake my EMT Basic class again. Thankfully it wasn’t a hard class, but it was just frustrating having to go through the process again. There’s only one private ambulance company around here, and I may go work for them at some point in the future. I really do miss getting to work in EMS. I’ve also been applying to the local fire departments. My best luck so far has been with the Salt Lake City Fire Dept. I ranked #13 on their list. They hired 12 in November which leaves me #1 on their list for now. Their hiring list is good for another 1 1/2 years. I’m really really hoping they hire more firefighters as this will get me in. With the economy still recovering, local government hiring isn’t as promising as it once was. In the mean time I’ve been ramping up my exercise routines to make sure I’m in shape for any fire academy I get hired for.

Wendy and I are staying home for Christmas this year. We are enjoying having a nice quiet Christmas with just us and the animals. We’ve had a great year and look forward to many more to come.

We hope this finds you and your family in good health and joy.

Jason Cotting

My blog:
http://jasonblog.anvilgear.com/

Pictures:
http://anvilgear.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=10855

Last month Wendy and I took a backpacking trip to Glacier National Park in Montana. We had planned to go there around this time last year, but instead we had our wedding. The plan was to take two days to drive up and two days to drive back while spending 6 days and 5 nights in the back country. Beforehand we did two shakedown hikes to help get us ready for the trip. Both trips were 3 days 2 nights. One was in Uinta Wilderness and the other was in American Fork Canyon. This was also our first time to take Madie with us, and she really enjoyed the trips.

When we left town, we left Madie, our German Shepherd, at doggy day care at Dogmode. She seems to really like it there, and we have been impressed with how well they treat the dogs. We drove all the way to Missoula, MT the first day by interstate. That took most of the day and left us with about another three hours to get to the park. More importantly about the day, according to Wendy, it was Wendy’s birthday! She opened gifts and had cake a couple of days earlier to celebrate.

The next day, we toured around Missoula a little. Missoula is one of the bases where the National Forest service keeps some of its smokejumper wildland firefighters. I was particularly interested in this and was excited to get to see the base. There was a college intern there that was taking care of the visitor’s center and gave us a tour.

This is the base for the National Forest service Missoula Smokejumpers

After driving around town a little more, we headed on to Glacier. We bought a National Parks annual pass earlier this year and used this to get into the park. Once inside we headed to the West Glacier visitors center. I have to say, I was not impressed at all with the visitor’s center. It wasn’t very big and it didn’t display much information. Even the gift shop was just a small room. We later discovered that the newer larger visitor center was on the East side of the park. From there we headed over to the backcountry office where we got our permit for staying in the backcountry. A number of national parks have gone to a backcountry permit or reservation system to help regulate the number of visitors to areas of the park. This helps with overcrowding issues that have been happening in national parks.

The sign to the entrance of Glacier National Park on the West Entrance

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This Spring, Wendy and I decided to go to Phoenix, AZ for a short trip, mostly because I wanted to go see my beloved Cubs at Spring Training. I had never been to Spring Training, but I had wanted to for quite a while now. We were there from 3/28-3/30. It was a great time to go as the weather was on the verge of being too hot, but still nice, and it was towards the end of Spring Training, so the regular season players would be playing more and be taking it more seriously.

Our first stop after getting our rental car was to grab a bite to eat. We drove around downtown Phoenix a bit, but had difficulty finding reasonable parking near the pizza place we wanted to try. Wendy found a soda fountain (thanks to google maps on the cell phone) called MacAlpine’s nearby that we ate at for lunch. It was a nice little place. It was set in the 50′s. The food was good and the strawberry cheesecake milkshake we had for dessert was even better. According to their menu, they are the oldest operating soda fountain.

From there we headed to the Hall of Flame Fire Museum which was located next to the Oakland Athletic’s spring training field where they were playing a game as we drove by. The museum was great. It had a very impressive collection of old fire equipment and history. It had lots of hand drawn and horse drawn wagons as well as old motor driven fire trucks. It was very interesting to learn about the history of firefighting through the years. They had a section dedicated to wildland firefighting as well. I would recommend it to anyone who has the chance to go see it. Pictures

Next we went to the nearby Desert Botanical Garden. Wendy was excited to see wild flowers. I thought it was silly to have a botanical garden in the desert, but they had a lot of cool plants after all. Pictures

After the gardens, we went to check into our hotel. Wendy managed to find a great deal for us at The Hilton Phoenix East. Normally above our price range, but we got it for a great price. It was a nice hotel with large and comfortable rooms. The pillows on the bed were really soft.

While we were out that night we had stopped at a Target so I could get a baseball and sharpies. I hoped to get some autographs at the game. For dinner the first night, we ate at Grimaldi’s Pizzeria. It was some great pizza. You have to build your own pizza, and it was a bit pricey. We got a pizza with pepperoni, Italian sausage, and onions.

Next day, we decided to try to get to the Cubs game early in hopes to get autographs. For breakfast we went to a nearby place called The Good Egg. Really good breakfast with lots of choices.

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I decided to write a blog post to tell the tale of my getting married and the events around it. I’m sure some would love to read about it, and it makes for a good way for me to chronicle it for some day in the future for me. Pictures surrounding this epic tale can be found here. The tale of the engagement can be found on a previous blog post. The wedding date was September 27, 2009 to Wendy Millington. I decided years ago that for my bachelor’s party, that I wanted to go on a backpacking trip with my friends. So, I invited some of my backpacking buddies to go with me on a my trip. My brother Chris and a friend of mine from college, Ramsey, were able to make the trip out here. Both of them were groomsmen in my wedding as well. The trip was to be known as the Bad Ass Bachelor Backpacking Adventure (BABBA). The plan was for us to go to Rocky Mountain National Park in North Central CO for a 5 day backpacking trip. I had poured over a map looking for a good loop route that we could take that wouldn’t be too tough on those coming from lower elevation. I had finally found my route. We were going to start on the Grand Lake side of the park, work our way up to the Continental Divide, and then back down to the North Inlet to put us back where we started. Chris made a nice profile of the trip co_trip

I had flown out to Salt Lake City to visit with Wendy the week before the trip. The house we had signed a contract on had a shady realtor who signed another contract on the house. This had put our house hunt on delay as we had hoped to close on the house on my trip out there. We found another one and we just had to wait for everything to go through. While out there, Wendy picked up cold from one of her patients which she happily passed along to me. We both hoped to be well in time for our wedding. I was more worried about being able to hack it on the trail.

The day I flew back into Denver, Chris and Ramsey both also flew in. I was to arrive within an hour of both of them getting there to try to ensure a small wait time. Southwest was late getting me there by about an hour. Once we all met up, we headed to my car. I had checked the weather before I left Salt Lake and discovered that the weather had gone from beautiful with highs in the 70′s to snow starting the day we were to hit the trail. Ramsey was from FL and didn’t even own a pair of blue jeans. He had his cold weather sleeping bag though. Chris was from VA. I had told him he wouldn’t need his arctic gear as it was beautiful weather. So much for that. More »

Merry Christmas!

Wow, what a year. Last year left off with Wendy and I going to visit each other’s families for Christmas. Now we are married! Lots of good changes have happened.

I proposed to Wendy in May of 2009. We got married Sept 27, 2009 in Evergreen, CO. The wedding was perfect. It was an outdoor wedding with great weather and we had lots of family and friends come to celebrate our day with us. Afterwards we went to Hawaii for 10 days for our honeymoon. We had a great time. The highlight for me was the helicopter tour. For my bachelor’s party, my brother Chris, and a good friend from college, Ramsey, came out to CO with me to do a backpacking trip. The weather didn’t cooperate, so we had to alter our plans, but we had a great time.

I had to resign from my EMT job at the ambulance company, Pridemark, when I moved. It has been an adjustment for me not having a job. I’m in the process of trying to get my EMT certification here in UT so I an get another job. So far, not going so well, but I’ll keep trying at it. I still am pursuing my dream of being a firefighter.

I had the privilege to work with some more great partners this last year at Pridemark. There are some great people who are in the business of EMS and Fire. I rotated through three full time paramedic partners this year, two of them who had just finished paramedic school. Bryan and I had started working together last year, and he found a job with another agency earlier this year. He too was a Boy Scout and a computer geek. We had a good time talking about common interests. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a lot of good calls together. My second partner was just out of paramedic school, but had been a long time EMT at Pridemark. Pierre was a black cloud of death (we call people who attract lots of calls black clouds and those who don’t attract them white clouds). I got to see a lot of great stuff working with him. It was also nice to have some one who had an almost identical mindset on work, politics, etc. Deb was my third partner, and we unfortunately didn’t get to work very long but she was also a great partner. She had a very sweet personality and was also a very smart medic. She made some schedule changes for me so that I could have a good partner to finish off my time at Pridemark. Unfortunately, she got really sick my last week at work and had to go into the hospital. She’s better now, but she had us all scared there for a while. The most impressive thing about it was watching how the Pridemark family stepped up to help out during this time. I can only hope that I will ever be able to work with a group of people like that again. Definitely good people. It was actually a good way to go out as it helped reinforce to me how great the people were that I had been working with the last few years.

It was sad to leave behind friends and everything that I loved about CO, but I believe it was well worth it to finally be married and living in the same town with Wendy (we had known each other for 12 years). I will be returning to Denver for a few days in late January for the Children’s Hospital EMS conference. It will be good to get to see friends then.

Wendy is still working for Kidscare as an urgent care pediatrician. She really loves her job and the people she works with.

We bought a house in Sandy, UT which is a suburb of Salt Lake City. We really like the house. It has a great backyard, and lots of space inside too. I’m excited about have a home to take care of. The neighbors seem friendly, and the street is very quiet. One of the neighbors told me he can be at the ski resort in 13 minutes from his house. Wow, guess I better learn how to ski. I didn’t get much biking in before the weather got cold. I guess its part of getting old that I don’t like to bike when it gets below 40F. There seems to be good places to bike. About a mile from our house, one of the canyons starts winding its way up into the mountains. I’m excited about exploring new rides around here. There seems to be a lot of people who bike here in the warmer weather too.

This week, I got to check another thing off my list. As many of you know, I’ve been wanting another dog since I left MS. Monday, we drove up to Idaho to an animal shelter and adopted Maddie. Maddie is a 4 year old black and tan German Shepherd dog. We were lucky to find a full blooded GSD in a shelter. The family who owned her said she was chasing the neighbor’s cows and was afraid she would get shot. She is a fantastic dog. Really smart and sweet. Wendy and I are really happy to add her to our family. Benjamin, the cat, isn’t quite as excited about it as we are, but we are working on it.

This year, Wendy and I decided to stay at home or the holidays. Between her work schedule and us getting settled into our new home as newlyweds, we thought it would just be best to stay here for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have to admit, I don’t miss the hustle and bustle of the airport around this time. We decorated the house and are planning to cook a big dinner tonight. We are excited to be celebrating the holidays in our new home and starting our own family traditions.

As always, our home is open to visitors who want to make their way to the land of Utah.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Jason and Wendy Cotting

Photos:
http://anvilgear.com/gallery/

The 2009 Cotting Family Portrait

This is kinda late getting written, but I have a great excuse. On the day I left Denver, half of the keyboard on my laptop began to only work intermittently. I discovered that banging harder on the keys don’t make them respond any better.

So I left Denver on Sunday 12/21. Of course, the day after  the crash at DIA. I was afraid I wasn’t going to make it on time. I planned to go to the Park and Ride that RTD offers, but the lot was full. I was bummed because my roommate had given me free tickets to ride the bus. It was going to be sweet. Free parking, but it didn’t work out. So I proceeded to the economy lot. Upon arrival there, I discovered that it was full, and I had to go to the overflow lot. By this time, I had exceeded the cushion I had built in to my leaving from the house time. I rushed my way to the overflow and took the shuttle to DIA. Let’s see $5 a day for 10 days, great, I’ve gone from free parking for Christmas to $50 parking for Christmas. Now that’s a deal!

I got to the kiosk right about the edge of the check in time for having checked baggage. I had already done the online check in, and I just had to check my baggage. Now, off to fight the security gates and try to make it to the gate in time. Security wasn’t too bad and I made it in time to the gate…. to find out that the flight was delayed. I spent 2 hours in DIA delayed, meanwhile I had a connection flight in Houston, TX to get to my destination in San Antonio, TX. Most of the country was delayed that day because of some bad weather. So the reason they gave me that we were delayed leaving DIA is because of bad weather in Houston. I checked the weather radar (because I discovered that DIA has free Internet, its slow and not very good, but its free). Low and behold, there wasn’t a single cloud over Houston. I don’t know what this mysterious weather was that was over Houston, but apparently we couldn’t leave.

Thank goodness I had exit row seats though. When we finally boarded the plane, they wanted volunteers to give up their exit row seats. Maybe I’m just a cold hearted jerk, but I am not giving up my exit row seats. I have long legs, and what ever reason someone else has can’t be much worse than mine. Some nice person gave up their seats and a lady with her leg and arm in cast came back to take his seat next to me. I asked her “Let me guess, skiing accident?” She said some snow boarder on the slopes had run into her without even stopping to see if she was OK. The guy with her chased him down. Then the flight attendants realized they couldn’t allow this woman in the exit row as it was against regulations to have someone disabled to sit there. Seeing as how they crashed one of their planes yesterday, they needed to make sure they played by the rules.

When I got to Houston, I got off the plane about 10 minutes before my connecting flight left. I ran down to find the gate only to find, that once again, my flight was delayed. I was a bit thankful for this as I doubt I would have made it. So, I went off to get a bite to eat. I got a salad at Wendy’s which according to the person working there was the last one. Lucky me, but no free Internet at Busch International Airport.

I got to Houston a little later than had planned. Wendy, came to pick me up and bring me to her parent’s house. Her mom was up waiting for us. It was around midnight when we got there, so we all went to bed. I had a great time visiting with Wendy’s parents. They fed us well and kept us entertained. We went to a swanky restaurant called Tower of the Americas. The food was good. It was like the space needle in Seattle. It rotated and we were able to see a full view of San Antonio. Pretty cool, and my steak was great. We then went down to the Riverwalk and did a boat tour. The lights were pretty and it was fun. We also went to Nixon, TX where Wendy’s dad is from. I got to meet several of Wendy’s Aunt’s, Uncles, cousins, and her grandmother. Its a tradition for them to have a big family party on Christmas Eve at her grandmother’s house. I had a great time meeting her family.

On Christmas day, we opened presents. Wendy gave me an iPod Touch. I couldn’t believe it. That was something I had been really wanting, and  its expensive. I had no idea she would spend that much on me. I guess she’s serious about this  Well, it was a wonderful gift and I have been enjoying it very much, especially at work. Wendy’s dad smoked a turkey that we ate for lunch. It was a really tasty turkey. Late that afternoon, Wendy and I flew to Jackson, MS where my family is.

My mom, brother, and his wife came to pick us up at the airport. We got in late so we got home and all went to bed. My dad was working, but he was going to have the next few days off. This was the first time Wendy had met my family. On Dec 26th, we did our 2nd Christmas, this time with my family. We sprung my grandmother out of her retirement home so she could be with us. The neighbors fried us a turkey for Christmas dinner #2. It was pretty good too. Mom cooked way too much food as usual. My aunt, uncle, and two cousins came up from Louisiana to vist late that afternoon. I hadn’t seen all of them at one time in a long time. It was great seeing them. The next day Wendy and I went to go visit my friend Ramsey from college. He told me he didn’t believe Wendy existed so I had to prove it to him. We also went by and visited a couple of my other friends from school. I had been wanting to introduce her to my friends. She’s a great catch and I want to show her off. One night we at at Cock of the Walk in Ridgeland. They serve southern fried catfish. A home meal I always look forward to. It was really tasty.

Of course we were rushed to try to see everyone and do everything. There’s never enough time to spend at home as you would like to have, but I was glad to get to spend the time that I did have. And I was really glad that Wendy and I got to spend time with each other’s family.

Next year, who knows what is going to happen.

This is a copy of the Christmas email I sent to the people I know who’s email addresses I have

I hope this finds you all doing well.

The last two years have been a big growing experience for me. During this time I have discovered that for most of my life, I have been taking things way too seriously. I’ve been way too concerned with what people think about me. Some may argue that that makes me more compassionate, but I see it as making me too hesitant. I think it’s a fine line. So I am learning to be more relaxed in how I approach things.

I was unable to keep my firefighter job because I had a problem with anxiety. I have since cured my anxiety problem. Anxiety was something that reached into several areas of my life, unbeknownst to me. Life is much more enjoyable without that monkey on my back.

I’m still, unfortunately, working on an ambulance as an EMT Basic. I’m sure most people won’t be able to believe this, but I am incredibly bored with my job.  Last year I had a wonderful Paramedic that taught me how to become a great EMT. She and I have since parted ways to work with other people, but I am indebted to her for all I learned. That by no way means that I am done learning. This is a job that you never know everything. If I were really interested in medicine, I’d go on to get my paramedic, but that is way more responsibility than I want.

In the mean time I am still trying to get hired with a fire department. I haven’t found anyone yet that seems to think that they can’t function without me, but I’m working on it. The only department I have anything going with is West Metro, here in the Lakewood area where I live. I’m #75 on their list. The list is good for 2 years, but with the economy in the tank, I can’t see there being too much hiring going on. I can only hope that there will be a bunch of people retiring from there in the near future.

Wendy and I are still dating. Don’t ask how long we’ve been dating, because I doubt either one of us could tell you when we started. She has been done with her residency for about a year and a half now. She is a pediatrician at an urgent care clinic in Salt Lake City, UT and really loves her job. I’m really glad that she is happy with what she is doing.

We see each other once a month. Our schedules tend to work better with me flying out there. People sometimes tell me I should just move out to Salt Lake. It’s not that easy for either of us. The distance is what is limiting us now. One of these days, someone will move somewhere. We’ll have to see what happens.

We have had some cool adventures during the past year. Earlier this year we went to Grand County, CO where we went to a hot spring, did some snowshoeing, and also went on a snow mobile tour. It was a lot of fun and it was nice to get up in the mountains for a few days. This summer we went to Moab, UT where we did some white water rafting and some sight seeing. Our favorite trip this year was when we went to Grand Teton National Park. We spent 6 days and 5 nights backpacking in the park. On our last day there, I had to chase a bear out of camp. It was a really beautiful place. Pointing the camera in any direction gave you pretty pictures. It was great to get away for a while. I often forget how great the simple life is. Since Wendy and I first met at a backpacking camp, we were both in our element out there. We’ve already decided that next year we are going to Glacier National Park.

If you want to see pictures from our adventures this year, you can go to this link:

http://anvilgear.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=2204

This Christmas is going to be cool. I am flying to San Antonio, TX to spend the first half of the week with Wendy and her family. On Christmas day, we are flying to Jackson, MS to spend the rest of the week with my family. It will be nice to be around family for a change.

I’m still living at the Phat Pad with PJ and Bill “Italian Stallion” Sassani. They are friends of mine that I’ve known since I started working at Philmont. It’s hard to believe its been 5 years since I worked there.

I’m sorry for not being much of a communicator the last couple of years. I plan to be better at it this year. New Year’s resolution maybe?

I’ve become a fan of using Facebook. If you’ve never used it, it’s a social networking site that lets you keep up with people you know. It’s great for seeing what the people you know are up to. I’ve also decided to start writing a blog. Now everyone can keep up with my uneventful life. Yeah!!

Well, thanks for listening to me. May you all have a Merry Christmas and a fantastic New Year!