Diggin' Pits....

Last week we had a day in the field learning avalanche skills. This was us digging a pit to gain data about the snow pack. We found an amazingly strong base with a bit of weakness on top. At least that's what it was at this site.

I got to use my new snow saw that my great friend Scott gave me for Christmas. Thanks tons Scott!!

Kelly Deeter was our instructor and she's one of the lead Avi Techs for Keystone Patrol.

Who's this????????

It's me!!!!

Now i just need to figure out how to put it on my profile.

What's C.D. trying to say to me?????

Or is he saying it to Megan who's bugging the heck out of him.

Hmmmmmm??????

DEF-CON 1!!!!!! DEF-CON 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow....Some days just seem nuts on Keystone Patrol and yesterday was one of them.

We have 10-50's (simple knee injuries) and 10-33's (call in the helicopter this person's hurt). Well, yesterday I was on a 10-33 on one of our big jumps in the terrain park. This guy flew off the biggest jump and landed straight on his head. He was unconscious, combative and blood everywhere.

What was cool was we all worked like a very well oiled machine. We had five patrollers working on him all at once and 2 getting the double rig together. A double rig is when we hook two normal sleds together , 1 for the patient and 1 for two patrollers to keep working on him as we slide him to the clinic. We got this guy to the clinic where he was flown to a Denver Hospital.

After this was over me and another patroller where heading up the lift and saw a guy hit a picnic table and slide under it. We went down to help a patroller that was 1st on scene. What was funny was when we were backboarding him and getting him from under the table a call came over the radio from a patroller, Mark, that there was a guest skiing another guest down river run in one of our rescue sleds.

At this point all we could do was start laughing. How could you not. Also we were doing Gang Groom (day time grooming of the slopes) which takes many patrollers. So we were slammed!!!

Def-Con 1!!!!!! Go to Def-Con 1!!!!!!

The picture above was taken of a light board that was made as a joke and hangs in PHQ. It even has a buzzer. It's a joke but yesterday we could have gone to Def-Con 1. You can't read it but under Level 1 it say's...." May god have mercy on our souls".

Uhhhhhhh....Is it jello??

So every morning on patrol we have to do trail openings. All it's about is skiing a run to make sure it safe for our guest to ski it.

Well, the other day while one patroller was opening a run he found a can of something. He brought it back to PHQ and started this guessing game. One guess, one dollar. Everyone had about an hour to place their guess. I think about 12 patrollers took a shot. When everybody's guess was in it was time to open the can.

Pop.........What the hell is that crap???

After much sniffing and poking and staring in awe someone had to eat it. Yikes, who would it be? Kelly Deeter to the rescue.

As you can see from the look on her face, the contents weren't all that tasty. But alas, it was decided the contents were some kind of tuna salad. Someone guessed tuna and he won.

Honestly, we actually do real work on patrol.

By the way, my guess was chocolate pudding.

E-Mail anyone????

I was going through all my photo's and found this one. I always thought it was funny.

This is a picture taken at Everest Base Camp. We were climbing Lhotse and this was a rest day. On rest day's the only thing to do is goof around, play hearts or play chess.

Most of the Everest teams had huge camps....Little cities. They all had satellite dishes, generators, espresso machines, computers and DVD players. Well, we had to make fun of them.

Our camp was set up right at the base of the Khumbu Ice Falls. So, all the other teams had to go through our camp to get on the mountain. We set up our own Sat dish that we made out of pork and bean cans and string. What's funny is we actually had some trekkers come up one day asking if they could send an e-mail.

Oh yeah, the guy in the picture is Gary, our expedition leader.

Ok, Ok, I admit, I did enjoy the movie nights at the camp of the blind climber.

Bucket O' Gout!!!!

What a great photo. In the patrol headquarters we have a line of chairs. When your in there and can go out for an injury or a project you sit in the chairs. The person in the first chair is called, first out.

Well, right by the chairs is where everyone puts their cup for water or coffee. This one patroller has this huge mug. We all thought it was funny that we put that label on it.....Bucket O' Gout. What I think is the best is that he drinks out of the mug with a heart shaped straw.

So funny.

The Outback ain't just in Australia....

At Keystone the mountain that's furthest from the front of the resort is called The Outback. It's height is 12, 408 feet. I love working back there. It's kinda remote and the views are incredible.

As you can see from the pics, the patrol shack is truly a shack. It's perfect for me.

The one patroller trying to pose is named Gizmo. We named her that because no one can pronounce her last name. It's Gamitrio....I can pronounce it but I still like calling her Gizmo.

The present.

"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future,
concentrate the mind on the present moment."

-Buddha-

Boy, is this not the best quote.

I think it's hard not to dream. Where would man be without hope and dreams. I think it is important to not dwell or live in the past or the future but to dwell or live in the present.

Never forget the past, think about the future but LIVE in the present.

This is so funny......

There's a patroller named Ty. Last week he lost the gas cap to one of the snowmobiles. How everyone explained to him the importance of not losing a gas cap was by making up cartoons about him. Some of these were pretty funny.

The great thing was that Ty was off after losing the cap and when he got back this shrine of cartoons was staring him in the face. He has a good sense of humor......Most on patrol have a good sense of humor.

Bring on the grub!!!!!

Keystone has night skiing and we close the slopes at 9 pm. Once a week all patrollers have to work a night shift. Mine is on Sunday nights and, I must say, I have the best group for my night ski.

We all try to do something fun or goofy during our shift. This past Sunday we had....Pot luck dinner. We all brought something to share. Man, the spread was huge. The food just kept coming out of everyone's packs.

Here's a photo of the start of the buffet.

A good week.....

Mostly because I finished my rookie training check off list. Man......Does it feel good to be rid of that.

It's been very slow on the hill this week. I don't think I had one wreck. I guess it gave me lots of time to finish "The List".

I did go along on a grooming ride-a-long. It was pretty cool being in the cab of a grooming cat. Those guys have heat, a big stereo and loads of time. Hmmmm, I wonder what they do all night?

I skied a lot of powder this week. The one thing nice about being on patrol is you ski all the great powder shots. Also you have access to snowmobiles (Doo's) so you get Doo pulls up to all the untracked fluff. SO NICE!!!

The one thing I have to say I don't like about patrol is driving Doo's on the hill around the guest. Man, it's just scary. For some reason, skiers love skiing right at you when your driving the Doo. It just freaks me out.

SO, I have some new photo's and I'll post those in the next few days.

The Prego Patroller.

This is a picture of Hillary and Betsy. Betsy (the tall one) and I had our medical classes together this summer. It was fun getting to know her but now we're on opposite schedules so I hardly see her. Hillary got on patrol and immediately got pregnant. She's a cutie and even looks more cute now in her patrol uniform with a big tummy. Unfortunately she has quit and is headed to California.


Betsy is impressive. She shows that a person can be on a snowboard and still do patrol work. She is just damn tough.

The T-Shirt....

This is a photo of the old Keystone Patrol t-shirt. We're getting new one's printed up but first we need a slick little slogan to put on it.

Hmmmmm.....What will we come up with???

I'll let you know as soon as I know.

Now that's a gang!!!

On the days at Keystone we have night skiing we also do gang groom. This means grooming all the night ski trails during the day. And man.....This is crazy. During this time these grooming cats race up and down trails that we have to close to the public.

The only thing I have to say is, if you want to make a trail popular than all you have to do is close it. I mean it...........A trail won't be skied all day but the minuet you close it, everyone wants to ski it. You'll even have bands of crazed snowboarders hiding in the trees waiting to poach the highly prized combed runs. It's just funny to watch.

On this day I was assigned to escort these cats so people don't run into them. Yes, people run into them ALL the time. Don't ask me how.

Being sick...SUCKS!!

But now I think I'm over it or, at least, almost over it. It's been 4 days since I saw the doc and today is the first day I felt a little normal. Tomorrow I'll head back to patrol and get back to work on finishing that stupid 16 page rookie check off list that's due by February 1st.

As promised, I took a picture of that hideous document of ridiculousness. Why it's so ridiculous is because everything on that document that we need to prove we can do we've already done time and time again. A good example is the ski test. We had to prove we could ski in order to get the job and now we have to prove to some "special skills person" that we can ski. Another is I have to prove that I can ski an injured person down the hill yet for the last 2 months that's all I've been doing.

Oh well, not a big deal.

Today is absolutely beautiful here in Breckenridge. This morning I awoke in time to see the sun rising on Peaks 9 and 10. Truly amazing!!!!

Codeine is a time machine.

WOW!!!!

Ok, cough medicine with codeine is bad....Or is it good.

So around 3 pm yesterday I take my second round as per the Doc's instructions. The first round, for sure, put me out and the second round does the same. I get into an overnight trade and I fall right asleep in a dizzy haze.

I wake up, not knowing where I am, and look at the clock. It says 5:55. I normally get up at 5am and watch the pre market. So I get out of bed to turn on the computer and check my trade and I turn on CNBC. I take my other anti-biotic (one every morning) and splash water in my face. I look at my trade.....Damn it didn't do anything so I get out of it for a very small profit. As I look at CNBC I don't see any stock info. Hmmmmm...What's up?????

So, now I'm wondering what the heck is going on. Is it Saturday morning???? Are the markets closed??????? What the "F"!!!! Now I'm kinda freaking out a bit.

I run over to my computer to look at the clock. What does it say?????

6:22 PM

Oh my GAWD!!!! I was only asleep for maybe 2 hrs.

I ate a grapefruit and went back to bed and today I woke up at the right time of ....... 6:00am.

This morning my best bud Scott sent me an e-mail. It was short but he said, "watch out for the cough medicine." Now that's good advice.

Bronchitis!!!!!!!!!

That's the word from the doc. I've been sick for about a month now and this morning it was so bad that I called in sick to patrol. I went to see a doc and he said I have severe bronchitis. He gave me a prescription for antibiotics and a cough syrup that has codeine in it. HELLO.......That stuff is good. It knocks me out.

So with that in mind, I'm going for more and pass out.

I sure am glad that this blog has spell check. I think I mis-spelled about 13 words.

DUDE....That ain't no ski jump, that's my head!!!

Ok, today was the wackiest wreck I ever went to. Here's the story:

I was told to take a pop fence down to the bottom of a run and close off a part of it. I grab my 40 feet of fence and head on down the trail called Schoolmarm. Such a nice sweet sounding name for a ski trail. I mean come on, what could happen on Schoolmarm.

Well.......As I ski down a guy waves to me and I stop. "What's up", I say. He tells me his brother, a snowboarder, fell and hurt his shoulder and he's in a lot of pain. I toss the fence that I'm carrying and begin getting a medical history and event history. Patrollers usually do this while still in their skis and just a bit away from the patient. Gotta think about your safety first.

So I find out he injured his shoulder and that's it. I radio up to PHQ that I came across an injured person and I need rig (sled) to take him to the medical center. At this point I go to get out of my skis but I still ask him more questions. As I get one ski off I notice out of my left eye that a young boy on a snowboard is coming right at my patient like a bolt of lightening. Before I could say anything, the little boy hits my guy square in the head. He not only hits him in the head but rides over the top of his head too. The kid lands falling about 20 feet from my guy. I was shocked.

Now my patient is screaming really loud. Not only does he have a serious shoulder injury but now he has a a huge laceration to the top of his head that makes him look like he's wearing a toupee. I yell at the kid that he needs to stay right there and I then see his dad and tell him to go to his son and don't leave. I then go to my patient who is screaming bloody murder and check his head. It was so bloody and the cut so huge that I couldn't believe my eyes. The guy's freaking out because of all the blood but I tell him that it's nothing that head injuries bleed a lot.

By now the second patroller shows up and I get her to get info on the boy and the dad. We treat all collisions like car wrecks. I tell my patient that I just want to get him down to a doc so I'm just going to bandage his head and not do anything with his shoulder. I get him to self splint his shoulder while I and his brother get him into the rig. At this point I ski him to the clinic fast.

When I last saw my patient he was getting his head shaved, x-rays and about 60-70 stitches. The father of the boy couldn't believe that we were getting his info and just kept saying, hey my boy was trying to stop. I saw the whole thing and that boy was out of control and I would say if he didn't hit my patient he would have hit some trees and that would have been a huge mess.

So that's just an average day at dear old Keystone. Well, tomorrow is another day and I'll try to find another wreck that beats that one.

Gulp!!!

Yeow...I'm bushed!!!

I'm so tired. I've been working crazy hard trying to finish this 16 page level 2 patroller check off list that needs to be completed by February 1st. If I have a chance, tomorrow I'll take a photo of that 16 page packet of B.S.

Today was the Avalanche beacon test. All patrollers at Keystone have to find 2 beacons in 4 minutes. We have 4 of these test each season and we have to pass the test to maintain our pay status. I found my 2 beacons in 2 min 32 sec. I'll take it!!

"Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune."

-Walt Whitman-

Sweet Powder!!!!

I got this photo from another patroller who took it. It's of two clients with keystones cat ski operation. This is one of the reasons I wanted to work at Keystone. The cat skiing is run totally by ski patrol. Soon I'll be able to work one day a week on the cats.

This photo is of Erickson Bowl last Thursday January 12th. I've had the pleasure of sweeping the bowl and the snow is as buttery as it looks in this photo.

To all the wanderers out there......

"Not all those who wander are lost."

-- J.R.R. Tolkien

To me, this say's it all.

Busy day in the clinic??????

Ok, these guy's work hard but I made them pose like they were taking a nap. I told them i was going to use the photo to bribe them for free Band-Aides. (you would only laugh at that if you were a med guy). That's Tracy (Nurse) and Brandon (EMT) and Ann (X-Rays) from Keystone Medical Center.

Yesterday, as part of rookie training, I had to do a 6 hr shift in the Keystone Medical Clinic (KMC). This is where we bring the injured skiers we pick up off the mountain. KMC is right next to the slope, so we just ski them right down the ramp and onto a gurney (SP??).

It was good training and lots of fun. I got to be in with the Doc's while they did their thing.

The best wreck of the day was a young kid about 20 yr old. He turned to avoid another skier and fell popping off his ski. In doing this he fell on his ski edge slicing a laceration around the knee about 6 in long and 4 in wide. You could see everything, muscle, tendons and even a little bone. We kept making him bend his knee so we could see the internal movements of everything. He didn't mind, he was a punk and kept asking us to check to make sure he didn't cut off his 3rd leg.

Now I have 3 days off. Tonight I work in the mountaineering shop teching skis. Hmmmm, maybe I'll get some photo's.

Christmas in January????

Yeah, that's right!!

We had our Christmas party last night at the Snake River Saloon. Oh man, was it a blow out. Of course I forgot my camera, so no party pic's.

It was a fun time and yes, I got really drunk. Someone drove me home with my car but I'm not sure who. I'll find out today.

Today on patrol I work in the clinic. I'll let you know how that is and maybe I'll even have photo's.

yummmmmm!!!!!

What the heck is this.....It's the lunch of champions. Ok, maybe not. It's the lunch I had today because I was in a ski and toboggan clinic to become a stage 3 patroller. When you say, stage 3 patroller, you have to say it with a very deep voice.

Anyway, I usually bring my lunch but today the patroller teaching the clinic loves to hear himself speak so much that he turned what should have been a 2 hour clinic into a 5 hour clinic.

Not a big deal, it just gave me an excuse to chow on some yummy fries. Not that I ever need an excuse.

Smartwool Races....

So....This week is the Smartwool Races. As far as I can tell, they are just races that are for the disabled, 11-18 and older non-pros. All I know is, they were boring. Not much action. Funny, when you've seen European races, with their 100,00 people coming out to watch, it makes the US races seem like ghost towns. Oh well, maybe we just like to do and not watch.

They sent me and Megan out to be the 2nd station on the course. We should have only been there for 20 min. But we ended up there for an hour in 4 degree weather. Yikes, it was cold.

We made the best of it. I took pictures of her posing on one of our Rig's. The Rig is what she is sitting on and it's the sled we take injured people down the mountain in. She's a sweetie. The whole time she just sang and danced to stay warm.

She about flipped when she found out I was the same age as her mother, who she called while we were hangiing there.

Huck it Megan ....HUCK IT!!!!

So, after hanging out at the race not doing a thing for an hour, Megan and I went skiing. She showed me her boyfriends favorite place. His name is Matt Jansen and these are the Jansen Rocks.

Nice billowy puffs of powder. That was fun skiing!

Damn......

I just found out I broke the screen on my camera. I think it still works but I can't use any of the menu options.

The above photo's are just test shots from in my house and on the deck outside. Not a bad view of Breckenridge, ehhh???

Life is good in the mountains.

Well, it appears the camera is still working and it'll do till I find another cheap one. This is why I bought it for $69.00 at Target.

The Morning Commute to work.

We have to be clocked in by 7:20am to make it to morning meeting by 8:00am on top of the mountain at PHQ.

This isn't a bad commute. Most people sit in traffic for hours in the big city. We just have bad weather like on this day. But bad weather to us means powder skiing all day.

Morning meeting.

Just your typical morning meeting at Keystone Patrol. This is when you get assigned to a peak and what your opening duties are.

There's actually just a lot of joking around. The director and the Asst. Director sit on the end and TRY to control the madness.

This is Mitch......Mitch has a grievence.

I think he's mad because he's dispatch on that day. We call dispatch The Box. No one like being in The Box.

Ahhhhh.....A few days off!! Where's the ibuprofen??

I do work tonight at my ski tech job. It's a great job to do after patrol. All I do is get in the back and drill holes, turn screws, wax skis and listen to music.

Today I'll trade the stock market and then go for a pre-work skate ski.

The market has been very weird this past year. It didn't close all that strong. My short term (couple of days) and intermediate term (couple of weeks) indicators are saying two different things. As of 12/30/05 short term said up and up strong which we are getting now but intermediate term is saying down. But now the intermediate one is neutral. At this point I'll trade like we are going to hit the highs for last year but we are in for some correction. We shall see!!

Man....I'm sore!!! Where's the ibuprofen??

The Goggles of Grievance.

Had to get a picture of "The Goggles of Grievance".

Anytime you have a group of people with huge egos that meet every morning, you're bound to have those huge egos complain and complain a lot.

Well, at Keystone we have a solution. If you have a complaint during the morning meeting you have to wear "The Goggles of Grievance".

Strange.......The complaints have seemed to slow these days.

Happy New Year.

So, what is it like the day after new years eve at Keystone Ski Patrol?? Well, a whole lot of very quiet, very hung over patrollers.

There are 6 patrollers that live together in a house in Keystone...They call it The Real World Keystone House. Well, they had a huge New Year's Eve party and everyone was there but me. It's too bad because I could have had some great pictures. There were some great stories.

The best story is, during the day after the party with everyone back at work there were 2 patrollers who were especially hung over and could hardly do their job. Well, one of the paramedics on staff said, how 'bout an IV. I thought he was kidding till I walked into one of the offices and saw both these patrollers hooked up to IV's. It was such a sight and I can't believe I forgot to get a picture.

I'm sure I'll have plenty of chances to get a photo because there will be plenty more parties.

This picture is of one of the patrollers doing a headstand afterward because she felt so good.

Yeah Loz, it's all rubbed in.....

This is Loz. She's an exchange patroller from Australia. Keystone has a great exchange program with New Zealand and Australia.

On this morning Loz was putting on sun screen and asked me if it was all rubbed in. I said, "yeah Loz, it's all rubbed and I'll take a photo to show you".

What I love about Loz is her wonderful spirit for adventure. She patrols year round. During our summer she patrols in Australia and then exchanges during her summer. She said Chamonix was her favorite.

Also her hair looks like a rug because it's dreaded out with fabric.

What a sweetheart!!

Birthday on Patrol...

Well, yesterday was my birthday. I was dreading this day because, as I said in an earlier post, on your birthday the other patrollers tackle you at the end of the day and put you on a backboard and ski you to the locker room in a toboggan.

But before that happened, in the morning I was skiing down opening one of our trails. Over the radio came a call of a man sliding down River Run on his butt while a woman pink over gray was carrying his skis. So, I called back that I was near and I could check it out. Now at Keystone, there are so many bad skiers that this isn't out of the norm to find. Usually all it is is a taxi to the bottom.

So I skied up asking, "What's up, can I help you?"

The woman is freaking out and the man answers me with slurred words and says, " I can't feel my right side".

Wow....This is when I know something bad is happening. I quickly start asking him questions to find out the extent of his medical. He's 29, healthy, and has never had anything like this happen to him. He's scared, very scared. I get his history, allergies, meds, events. He says he had breakfast at McD's. So I use this to make him laugh. I just keep telling him it has to be the Egg McMuffin he had. He laughs and it calms him down.

At this point I call in the troops. I get on the radio giving my location, patient info, pulse, res, LOC, history and ask for a long board rig and an ER pack and any ALS person on the mountain. I also call for trauma activation (this gets the docs at the clinic ready for my arrival) and I put flights on stand by (this gets the helicopter guy's ready).

At this point other patrollers show up. I get one to put the patient on O's, another to get the rig ready and another to get the back board in place. I knew we need to get him to the clinic quick so he could get clot blocking drugs fast.

I was so proud of my crew, we got him boarded with O's and in the rig (the tobaggan) fast. I skied to the bottom with him and waiting was a Doo to pull me back up the hill to get to the point where I could then ski to the clinic. I skied into the clinic and waiting was the whole staff where they took him and began their work.

I haven't heard how he was but when I last saw him his friends were there and his wife was called and he seemed in good spirits. The clinic was sending him out in a trauma one ambi.

The whole day was crazy busy. For the day I had 1 stroke, 2 knees, 1 wrist, 1 shoulder and 3 taxi's.

All and all it was a good day and what was best is that no one found out it was my birthday and I escaped my back board and rig ride.

Merry Christmas.

Ok, so working on Christmas really sucks but working on Patrol on Christmas ain't bad at all. This is a picture of the Christmas tree we had in PHQ. Everyone had secret santa's. Mine made me cookies. Of course, I shared them with everyone.

The best radio call for the year came that night. A lift guy got on our radio channel about 6pm and screamed into the mic...." Patrol, patrol, someone in the terrain park is shooting rockets at people on the lift!!!!!!"

We head over there and what do we find?? A drunk kid skiing rails while holding a lit roman candle. Gawd, was that funny.

Only on Christmas and only during night ski.

Red Coat Party.....

Well, another great tradition is....The red coat ceremony.

This is when the entire 3 week rookie training is over and we all take the map test. The map test is a 400 question test that each rookie has to take to prove they know the mountain. If a rookie passes it then he or she gets their red coat.

It was a great party with lot's of insane things going on that I couldn't take pictures of....Just kidding.

It was funny, when the Patrol Director gave us all our red coats he said....all right, this is the only time you can wear your red coats in a bar so go out there pick up a girl. The girl in the top photo screamed," YES!!!!". She's gay and she told us all. It was funny, i guess you had to be there.

Full of traditions....

The wonderful thing about Patrol is all the wonderful traditions. One of the best is on your birthday you get tackled and put on a backboard. Then you're skied down in a tobagan and to the locker room where you're stood up with one arm released to drink your beer. And yes, it even happens to women.

These photo's are of Meghan. We all waited for her at the top of the Ruby lift, jumped her and back boarded her. The last I saw of her she was on her 4th beer in the locker room.

Gulp, my birthday is in 5 days!!!!

Chopper training.....

This is all of us getting helicopter evac training. At keystone there are so many bad wrecks (guest getting hurt) that we use helicopters all the time. That's what you get when you have a mountain full of Texans and Denver front rangers hitting trees.

Hero Shots.....

This is an early morning gathering for the Annual Team Photo.

Inside PHQ.

These are just random shots inside PHQ. We have to be dressed and ready in the locker room in order to get on first chair to get to the top PHQ for morning meeting.

K.A.T. Ski.....

This was a real treat. At Keystone we have a program called KAT....Keystone Adventure Tour. What it is is a program where we, the Patrollers, take guest into closed bowl powder skiing using snow cats. We run the program and we are the guides. On this day the Asst. Patrol Director took all us rookies out to Bergman Bowl to do ski cuts and just ski the powder.

As you see, we rookies have on our blue jackets over our red coats. We stay this way till we pass our 3 week rookie training.

My Buds....

These are my buds I was taking my medical course with. We're all rookies but we have fun. I'm on the right, Betsy in the middle and Mark on the left.

PHQ

This is the outside of Patrol Head Quarters. This is at the top of Dercum mountain. Keystone has 3 mountains (Dercum, North Peak and The Outback).

Well.......

It's been almost a month since my last post. I've been very busy with training class and even picking up a second job.

In the beginning I thought the 3 week training class was good but soon changed my mind. It seemed that much we, new patrollers, were learning was just redundant. Many of us went through the pre-season refresher which taught us all the same things we learned with the training class. Oh well, I don't make the rules, I just follow them.

This has been a fun time though. Working on skis is a nice way to make a living.

The following few post will be a series of photos I've taken this past month and this should catch me up.