Seasonal Survival, #5, Keeping Your Sanity

Seasonal Survival Guide

©

or How to Live and Eat and Other Mundane Stuff.

Chapter 5.


How do you stay normal/ and or sane in the pressure cooker?  Some folks never figure it out, but those of us that do~~well, we just do.  And trust me, it is a pressure cooker. See, I already wrote about that here.

Lots of us read, and we try to read stuff that isn't completely work related.  There are definitely times when you have to get your head out of your park.  That's the same for any job, any where.

Reading Nevada Barr is like taking a murderous vacation in someone else's park.
 Busman's holiday and all that.

Those of us without the normal life conventions, like TV, radio, and internet access watch a lotta Netflix, or in my case, iTunes TV and movies.  I also carry a pretty huge stack of movies on dvd (yeah, old school) that I occasionally watch.  Mostly I loan them out.  I know, I'm swell.  Now that we've got satellite TV, we try to invite the others over for a dose of the real world every now and then.  The real world actually means we watch the Daily Show. (Jon Daily for President!)

There are the weekly poker games, always a hit.

There are campfires, of the backyard variety (in addition to your evening campfire program).

There are parties:  Halloween, Thanksgiving,

Ranger Dr. D.  We only invited him to Turkey Day, 2010 because he's a retired surgeon.
We figured he could be trusted to carve the bird.
We were more or less correct.

The Mad Crew and Friends, Thanksgiving Dinner, 2011. I already showed ya these.

 Christmas, Talk Like a Pirate Day, parades,

Me and the Divine Ranger Miss M.,  West Yellowstone 4th of July Parade, 2010.  We had a really fun and cool float planned but found out that we couldn't use the company trailer.  Maybe we'll find a flatbed thing this year.
I wanna do the Ranger Pic-a-nic-a Basket Drill Team.

you name it, someone has thought up a reason to have a party.

Which brings us to liquor.

Two bottles of wine being held ransom by hard liquor.  Tough bunch, that.

For some folks, there's lots and lots of it, alcohol that is, to the point where they are falling-down-drunk off duty.  Which makes them, um, not-so-productive to complete-jerks on duty.  Not a good place to be.  Evah.  This seems to be a bigger problem with concessions employees (usually college age kids, who many years ago were referred to as the savages), but it can be a problem for those of us who are alleged professionals.  This, by the by, is one of the reasons grown up adults can pick up seasonal gigs--we're often past this stage in life.  Supervisors appreciate having staff members who show up for work on time and sober.  Just sayin', kids.

We try to amuse ourselves in lots of ways.  Bike riding, hiking, birding, all seem to be part and parcel for most of us, since we often come hard wired for these activities. We are often forced to do these type of menial tasks at work, too.  Sucks being us, don't it?

And in my case, we also have to leave the park every few weeks for grocery runs, too.  That puts us in locations where there are things like fast food and stoplights.  Then we can't wait to get back to the park.  Back home.

Staying sane is tough some days.  For the newbies, the first week or two at a new site will put them into a tail spin.  They will absolutely work 60 hour weeks for a while.  But then, one day it happens.  They get their groove on, and it's clear sailing until fall.  Oh, wait.... that's when many of the younger rangers have to worry about where they'll go after ...  ...  ...  one of these days I'll dive into The Off Season Seasonal and how to survive that.  Maybe.