Just an Earth-Bound Misfit: The Rantings of an Aging, Armed, Pinko Chick

Words of Advice:

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

“The Mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” -- The TOFF *

"Foreign Relations Boil Down to Two Things: Talking With People or Killing Them." -- Unknown

“Speed is a poor substitute for accuracy.” -- Real, no-shit, fortune from a fortune cookie

"If you believe that you are talking to G-d, you can justify anything.” — my Dad

"Colt .45s; putting bad guys in the ground since 1873." -- Unknown

"Stay Strapped or Get Clapped." -- probably not Mr. Rogers

"The Dildo of Karma rarely comes lubed." -- Unknown

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

* "TOFF" = Treasonous Orange Fat Fuck, A/K/A Dolt-45,
A/K/A Commandante (or Cadet) Bone Spurs,
A/K/A El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago, A/K/A the Asset., A/K/A P01135809

Monday, May 18, 2020

Forty Years Ago

Mt. St. Helens blew up.

There was the usual bullshit about government overreach when the state tried to keep people away from the mountain before it blew up.

5 comments:

Ten Bears said...: And I was there 😎; 5/18/2020 1:34 PM
Ward said...: I still have a vial of ash that my grandparents collected when they were visiting relatives not long after the eruption.; 5/18/2020 2:00 PM
LRod said...: Harry S. Truman.

Not the former Prez.

LRod
ZJX, ORD, ZAU retired; 5/19/2020 8:18 AM
Ten Bears said...: Harry R. Truman. He was quite a guy. Thanks for bringing him to mind.

We were flying logs with a Bell 214B "Heavy Huey" off the north slope of Mt Adams, line-of-sight maybe forty miles. We hear this double sonic boom and even though we were already on the run the word came across the radio "anyone not at the LZ in three minutes gets left behind". Actually took about seven minutes to drop the longline and pickup the mechanics before flying up to the LZs to pick us brushrats up, seven minutes I was running (in 'cork' boots, high toppers with a bunch of nails out the bottom, weigh 'bout seven pounds each) hellbent for election down a ridgeline with the mountain off to my right starting to look like fire foam boiling out of a breached hose and jumped over a log a grouse, a male sage hen, was roosting under. He came out from under there like male sage hens do and - gotta' understand hookin' logs to helicopters was a high adrenaline sport, all the moreso just outside the red-zone - scared me out of at least one shade of my natural tan. Enough of plume by then to see which way it was going and we went the other way, dropped down into the Colombia River Gorge and headed west, nose-down attitude, 220 knots close enough to the water to raise a rooster-tail.

Spent two years salvaging logs off the slopes of St Helens. Last day I was there there were wildflowers, Belladonna, and in the wet spots ferns were taking hold. Over the course of the day I encountered a couple of baby marmots, a coyote (pronounce kai-yote) and more than a few birds. When we flew out of there took a turn around what once Spirit Lake. Biggest herd of elk I ever saw.

Both pilots are gone, named a son after one, and a couple of my bros. [raises an empty glass]; 5/19/2020 9:29 AM
w3ski said...: I was there before the blast. Doing contract work for Weyerhauser. We camped near a trail that had a plaque that mentioned this was a dormant Volcano but admitted it could still blow. How prophetic.
I was in Northern Ca. when it went and from the ridgelines, we could see the big brown cloud to the North. Had a friend with a crew in Idaho that was trapped for days by the ash cloud that blew East like a monsoon of ash.
The family and I later drove up the West highway and saw the huge piles of ash that had been dredged from roadside creeks. Impressive.
Here's to Mr. Truman. He had one great life up there.
w3ski; 5/19/2020 10:57 AM