Fire Cauliflowers and Infertile Zucchini

Well, I am back from the fire. Actually, I've been back for about a week, but I immediately went to night shifts, so I haven't felt like posting.

The rest of the fire went pretty well. I am nearly complete with my training. I did manage to get a helicopter ride out over the fire, which was really cool. I enjoyed seeing the fire from above. However, in the future, I don't think I will do a helicopter tour unless absolutely necessary. For one thing, they're kind of dangerous. The most deaths on fires occur in helicopter accidents. But secondly, and perhaps most pressing, is the fact that I get motion sickness. I did not throw up on the helicopter ride, but I felt pretty awful about midway through. It was really hot and stuffy wearing all that protective gear, and I was in the middle in the back, and it started getting smokey, which made me feel worse. I think the Ops Chief (it was Kato, Lisa) was really afraid I was going to throw up on him, because he made me get out my plastic bag, and then he switched seats so I could sit by the window. Hee hee.

The last night I was on the fire, we got some pretty cool smoke plumes. There's a special name for smoke plumes that form their own clouds: pyrocumulus. If they generate a thunderstorm, it's pyrocumulonimbus. We did have a thunderstorm form one night, although we couldn't see the pyrocumulonimbus from the command post. But the pyrocumulus were pretty awesome. You could actually see them growing like mutant cauliflower.

In other news, my garden survived, although it's still really lame. One thing I learned online is that zucchini plants have male and female flowers. In order to get zucchinis, you have to have both flowers blooming at the same time. This is very difficult to get it if you only have, for example, two plants. That explains why I don't have any zucchini. Now if only I could figure out why my onions still look like chives.

P.S. I have some pictures from the fire, but this stupid computer won't let me use the thumb drive. So I will have to upload them later.