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.

Seasonal Survival #2, Your Housing

Seasonal Survival Guide

©

or How to Live and Eat and Other Mundane Stuff.

Chapter 2.

What to expect in your living quarters.

Your apartment/dorm room/shared house will have a stove and refrigerator, and a bed for you.   There will be vinyl or industrial strength, bland carpeting on the floor.  You might live in FEMA trailer, or platform tent/shack, or maybe in an old, historic building.  If you do, things will be more, um, rustic.

Camp tenders cabin at THRO.  The  4 of us survived here because we ate most of our meals outside on the covered porch out back.  There's also a public and shared 'office' on the front right.  And the public pay phone (you heard me, pay phone) was directly behind the head of our bed.  We heard lots of stuff we didn't wanna hear.  Now days they put at least 2, sometimes 3, unrelated staffers in there.  A Mission 66 cabin, by the by.

Our room.  We took 2 twin beds and shoved them together for a king bed. THRO.
And yeah, that's the whole room. Our YNP room is a shade smaller.....

Kitchen at TR.  Note the Ranch Oak Chair, and the groovy dinette set.
Both of those will set you back a pretty penny in an antique shop.  Go figure.

Your new digs will likely have some lamps, crappy sofa, kitchen table and chair.  It might have a dresser, your own closet, or a desk.  There might be a glass shower door. There are a few apartments with dishwashers. (None of ours, of course.) Most parks have full beds as standard issue.  We've always asked to have 4 twin beds.  DH and I shove 2 twins together to make a king size, and the boys each get their own.

Don't count on any of this being comfortable or good looking.  There are, however, some exceptions.
NPS must have gotten a really good deal at some time on Ranch Oak furniture.  The sofas are basically uncomfortable and often have Naugahyde covers or scratchy polyester covers.  Other apartments have boring brown/grey plaid sofas, and some have boring teal blue.  Think doctor's office furniture...... You'll need a sheet or blanket to cover them if you're picky.

Our living room and boys bedroom at THRO, ND.  Learn to love this kind of sofa. These were bunks, but neither boy was willing to sleep on the top, so we unbunked them, and had to walk around one to get to the 'office.'

Living room at YNP. 

Boys' room, YNP.

Bathroom, YNP.

Kitchen, YNP.

Back of apartment, YNP, the white trash section in our case.

BONUS!  Ranch Oak table and chairs, YNP.  Absolutely beautiful.  And ours hadn't been refinished, cigarette burned, etc.  Amazing.  If it disappears, I don't know anything about it.

Your place might have a nearby pay laundry (some are even free.  Others have solar dryers.)

Most windows have either venetian blinds or crappy roll up shades. Since I knew where I would be at YNP, I made little curtains to make it feel homier.  So much cheerier.

None of our apartments had air conditioning, but we go north for a reason. Our Acadia and Yellowstone apartments both had ceiling fans.  We purchased a window AC unit to use at Theodore Roosevelt, but only had to run it on really hot days (temp over 90, that is) and then only for a couple of hours in the afternoon.  Evenings always cooled off.  Hooray for 15% humidity.  All of our apartments had heat of some sort. At YNP, I keep a small tub of water in front of the heater because it's so dry.

DISCLAIMER!  Our YNP apartment was remodeled 2 years before we moved in, so it's much nicer than most. There are still lots of places that are just half a step above condemned trailers.  Many, many others are shared houses, efficiency apartments, and dorm rooms, usually with shared bathrooms.  Lots of them were built in 1966, for the 50th anniversary of the Park Service.


You'll need to provide your own:

Pots and pans,
Table ware,

Dishes,
Microwave.

Linens,
Shower curtain,
Bathroom rug/mat.

Books,

More books,

Computer,

Printer,

Surge protectors,
Safe extension cords,

Bike,

Cell phone
 (it will work in some places....)

in addition to expendable stuff like:

Food,

Cleaning supplies,

Clothing,
Toiletries,

Uniforms,

Office supplies
(no taking stuff from the office, you ninny.)

Things that might work:
Bring your computer router/modem on the off chance you can get DSL in your apartment.  Probably not, but maybe. We can't at YNP . We can't even get dial up, nor could we at our other apartments. 

Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES are you allowed to plug your personal computer into the Service's system.  YOU WILL BE FIRED!!!  Not to mention, when your IT department shuts down the system to your office because you thought it would be okay to plug in--"just this once"-- the rest of your crew will tar and feather you for screwing up the system.  Someone from another division did this at Madison 4 years ago, and the rest of of were livid !!!!!!   What a moron to think that even for seconds you could use a government system for your gear!  Ninnies!! 

Your apartment may or may not be wired for a phone, for which you will make a contract with the local phone company.  We have a land line, because one of us is 72 and two of us have special needs.  A working phone is important to us.  We also let all the peeps use ours, and my boss calls our apt when he needs to get timely info to someone on the crew. 

Your place might maybe be wired for a satellite tv dish. Ours is, but again, we bring our own receiver, dish, and tripod, and have an account here in Ohio which we transfer out west.  I'm also gunna give a shout out to DISH network, because they've been very cool with us.  So far so good.   Lots of staff use Netflix for entertainment.  I load up my iTunes with tv shows for the summer, too.

I think there might be places that are wired for cable tv, but  don't know of any for sure.  Ask your supervisor after you've been hired.  And don't be surprised if your supervisor doesn't know what is or isn't in your apartment.  S/he isn't the dorm mother, after all.

And I hear there's a new invention out there called satellite radio....  our friends at the other end of our apartment row used this. 

I know I'm forgetting some stuff, so as I remember, I'll add it. 
EDIT 4/21/12~~ These are comments I've received from other rangers.  They are readable in the comment section, but I'm adding some here also.  

From Gaelyn at Grand Canyon NP:  Thank goodness I haven't shared housing since Mt St Helens, where I started my career. Wasn't bad. A Mission ranch-style with 3-bedrooms, 1-bath and huge kitchen with 2 refrigerators. We had the same furniture you've shown here and it was retired from Lukes AFB to us. Some of the housing at the North Rim that our staff gets is a tiny cabin, one-room with a bath. Less floor space than I have. They have no phone service available and cells don't work well unless you're standing on the rim. And then there's a few FEMA trailers. But we don't have as large a staff as YELL. This is why I live in a RV.  http://geogypsy.blogspot.com/

From Nina at Grant Village in YNP:  There is good cell phone service at Grant (Verizon) so I bring my laptop and aircard and am good to go.
I didn't know our kitchen table and chairs are Ranch Oak. Sweet!
We had fairly new mattresses last year, which was nice. Blinds needed a good talking to, tho.
The apt is actually not bad, and rent is reasonable. Wish there were a better stove, tho - I think it's the same one I had in my college apt in the early 70s.

Check out my early blog posts (May-Sept 2010) about getting to and living conditions in Katmai NP, AK. Crazy!  http://www.watchingforrocks.com/

From Charlene:  Ya should've seen my tent cabin in Yosemite. It had a fridge with a padlock, and two bear boxes. A wood fired stove, cold running water (you had to boil water or go to the bathrooms--a hike through the forest--to wash your dishes). The picnic table was definitely not ranch oak, though it might've been redwood (they seem to like redwood for picnic tables). It didn't have too many splinters. The "windows" opened; in other words, we rolled up the canvas. It was awesome--a Great Grey Owl (very rare in California) used to perch outside the door and hoo the night away. Oh, and there was a pay phone at the entrance station...no such thing as TV reception or cable.

Whatever happened to roughing it during a summer seasonal tour? ;-)


Next installment, how to get your crap from place to place.

Seasonal Survival Guide, Chapter 1.

So I've ranted about how intense seasonal rangering is.  So to make our lives easier, here's the first installment of my

Seasonal Survival Guide

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©

or How to Live and Eat and Other Mundane Stuff.

Chapter 1.
So You Wanna Be a Ranger.

Get used to it.  Being a seasonal, that is. If you want to be an NPS Ranger/Researcher/ etc., you'll be a seasonal for several seasons.  We all bitch about this, but no one has any solutions.  The fact of the matter is that visitors go to parks mostly in the summer.  Our ranks of staff grow hugely in the summer, leaving only core staff for the winters. I have two unsolicited pieces of advice for getting a perm gig:

A.)  Join the Coast Guard (or other branch of the military) and serve our country this way for 4 years.  Work hard.  Earn your ranks. Learn how government works.  Continue studying in your field.   Get your 5 point bump as a veteran for the hiring process.  One way or the other, it will take you at least 4 years to get perm status, so you might as well spend those 4 years being paid, earning GI Bill stuff, and serving your country.  Seems like a no brainer to me.  You might even prefer the military life!

      







Why, Ranger Anna, do you suggest the Coast Guard?  You get to be on ships--mostly.  And every Coastie I know is really fun and smart.  You'll work the east or west coasts, the Fabulous Great Lakes, Alaska, or Hawaii, too bad for you. (There are some stations in non-watery places.)  You'll pick up drug runners.  You'll rescue folks.  You'll protect the environment.  You'll protect us.  Do it.

B.) When you get those seasonal gigs, be willing to serve in the urban parks.  St. Louis, New York, San Fran, Cleveland, Philly, Boston, etc..

Independence Hall, Philly

Theodore Roosevelt Birth Place, NYC

Koren War Monument, D.C.

DD at the Lincoln Memorial, D.C.

The White House.  I'd love a gig here.  Someday, if it's ever just me, this is where I'll apply. D.C.

DH and me on the Mall, from the Capitol. D.C.

DD at the Viet Nam Memorial. D.C.

Boys at Jefferson Expansion, St. Louis for the Return of the Corps of Discovery.  FTD is a
L & C geek.

C.  The third way to a possible perm gig is to think about taking a 'desk' job... bookkeeping, clerking, VUA (Visitor Use Assistant, the kind folks who handle money at the gates, among other duties), maintenance, etc..  There are lots of ways into perm status~~your first few gigs might not be the job of your dreams, but you're in the Service.  I know lots of folks who started this way--as one of my fav Chief Rangers put it, he started 'in the box' doing fee collection, which is under the Law Enforcement Division.  Think about getting your boots in the door.... And thanks Ranger Gaelyn for the reminder on this one!

The Box at THRO. This is the old one.  The new one has way fewer mice.

D. Two seasons, two parks.  Lots and lots of seasonals work a winter season in one park, and a summer season in another.  If you read my other rant about us calling a season a year, you'll know that this really is like 2 years worth of stuff crammed into 12 months.  If one of your parks is big enough you might be able to work for two different divisions in one year, and not go over the ubiquitous 1090 hours/year issue.  For example, one of the coolest rangers I know works Interp in the winter, and in the box in the summer.  She ends up with about 6 or 7 weeks off per year, which isn't great, but it's do-able.  The down side to the 2/2 seasons issue is insurance.  The Association of National Park Rangers offers a lower cost insurance for seasonals, and it's certainly worth looking into.
The hardest part about these gigs are that you'll likely need to find your own housing.  And getting an apartment in a major city for 4 months?  You see one of the problems.  Be flexible and have a plan.... like finding trailer, or at least a pick up truck with a cap, and plan on living in that.

This might work.

This makes more sense, though.  If you can find one cheap, snap it up.  Or call me, we're in the market.

Your next vehicle if you're going to be a seasonal.  Truck and cap. Start looking for one now.

How your housing might feel.......

Next installment. . .   What to expect for living conditions. Stay tuned to your televisiony sets.

P.S.  Ranger peeps, send me your suggestions for seasonal survival... I'll add it into future posts.  Send pics of you being a seasonal doing something funny.  Or of your living quarters. Or maybe meaningful.  Or arresting someone. Or maybe connecting your visitors to the resource, you know, rangery stuff.

Rangering Intensely

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INTENSE and INTENSIVE

Intensive

Part of speech:  Adjective

Definition: Forceful, severe, passionate

Synonyms:  Acute, agonizing, all-consuming, ardent, biting, bitter, burning, close, concentrated, consuming, cutting, deep, diligent, eager, earnest, energetic, exaggerated, exceptional, excessive, exquisite, extraordinary, extreme, fanatical, fervent, fervid, fierce, forcible, full, great, hard, harsh, heightened, impassioned, intensified, intensive, keen, marked, piercing, powerful, profound, protracted, pungent, sharp, shrill, stinging, strained, strong, supreme, undue, vehement, violent, vivid, zealous. 

Notes: emotions are intense while sustained application or attention is intensive, intense arrives from within and intensive come from outside, (it is imposed or assumed)

Antonyms:  calm, dull, low-key, mild moderate.*

Amphitheater at Theodore Roosevelt NP (South Unit), Medora, North Dakota.

I've tried to explain to folks about the reason I say I've worked for 6 years with the National Park Service.  In actuality, I have 26 months with them.  I've tried saying I have 6 seasons, but for most folks that doesn't really register--sounds like a long gig, like a hunting season. (I have a friend who writes that in 12 years she's worked 19 seasons~~true that.)

Telling a hilarious story on the Historic Islands Boat tour at Acadia, 2005. That's not our Hinkley in the background. Sigh.

Yesterday, I decided to do the math:

I've worked 26 months for NPS.
Therefore, I've worked 104 weeks.
I've averaged 3 programs per day.
I work 5 days per week.
Therefore, I've presented 15 programs per week.

Therefore, I've presented 1,560 programs.
That's a hella lotta programs.

If you just look at my time at Yellowstone, it ups the average:
I've worked at YNP  for 60 weeks.
I've averaged 4 programs a day there, for 20 programs per week.
Therefore, I've presented 1,200 programs just at YNP alone.

I did a remarkably unscientific check of the programs presented through our local park district.  By extrapolating the stats, I can say with complete honesty that I've given more programs during my  "seasons" than my counterparts here give in a year. 

Another factor we look at is visitor contacts. This includes anybody I speak with regarding park stuff while I'm on duty.  I know for a plain and simple fact that my 4 months worth of visitor contacts is waaaaay more than any one here in my home park records in a 12 month period, but I've crunched the numbers anywho. At THRO, we had half a million visitors each year, most of them in the summer, and a very high percentage of those folks came through the Visitor Center.  Acadia's visitor numbers are much higher, but I only had to work the desk for a total of 5 hours per week (thank goodness), but did at least 2 hikes every day, along with roving in between hikes, thus lowering my own visitor contact numbers.  But the sheer volume of visitors at YNP (including 2 of my 4 summers that had record-breaking attendance), really gooses my visitor contact numbers through the roof.  Okay, so by my calculations, I've personally spoken with over

35,000 people 

At bear jams, and

elk jams. I loved that these gals using the motorized chairs were able to see the elk without having to be in a car.

in 104 weeks. Oh, heck, that's only 336 and a half people a week, or 5,833 people per summer.  (Mind you this number doesn't include people who attended programs~~that's an additional number).  Last summer our wild "Wildlife Ranger," who roved all day long, calculated that he spoke with over 10,000 people last summer alone.  Yep, his assessment was spot on:  he's a one-man, moving Visitor Center.  And mind you, my 35,000 number averages in Acadia, where my numbers were much lower.  If we were to take just my YNP numbers it really, seriously jacks my numbers up.  Just imagine what the numbers are for folks at Old Faithful National Park.....  hee hee hee.

Now factor in the living conditions . . . in my case making arrangements for here at home and boys' schools, traveling 1700 miles twice a year, hauling a small cargo trailer and 1 to 2 teenagers and/or husband . . . packing for said trips, pretty much by myself . . . then living in a very nice but tiny 644 sq. foot apartment, yeah with all 4 of us . . . learning about an ever-changing environment each spring . . .  and the addition of learning and figuring out the personalities of 10 to 12 new peeps in my duty station, and associated places like OF, YA, the campground, and the Chamber . . .

Now figure out how much money I end up with.  Start with my base pay, subtract taxes, housing, extra utilities, and travel, and ta-daa, I get a $3000 "profit."  That's the frosting on the cake.  Yum.

 

Neighbors are kinda pushy.....

So to make another short story long . . .

Working in such an environment, we cram way more into those 4 months than most folks cram into a year.  

Yep, it's very forceful, severe, passionate, acute, agonizing, all-consuming, ardent, biting, bitter, burning, close, concentrated, consuming, cutting, deep, diligent, eager, earnest, energetic, exaggerated, exceptional, excessive, exquisite, extraordinary, extreme, fanatical, fervent, fervid, fierce, forcible, full, great, hard, harsh, heightened, impassioned, intensified, intensive, keen, marked, piercing, powerful, profound, protracted, pungent, sharp, shrill, stinging, strained, strong, supreme, undue, vehement, violent, vivid, and zealous.*

*Thanks to thesaurus.com for their help.

Random Thoughts, October Style

Being back in Ohio means my mind simply isn't engaged enough. When I'm working out west, I barely have time for an original thought, much less totally useless thoughts. So here's this month's quick thoughts--though not the totally useless ones. I'll post those later.

1. Congrats to Raptor Ranger Lora of Acadia! She's pulled a perm job with FWS in CA, doing bird things! She's a great ranger and NPS will miss her! Another case of another agency getting really good staff from us.

2. Meringue is fun to make. But I should have timed this batch for a day that didn't rain and rain and rain! The humidity really does make a difference.

3. Oak Openings is one of the most beautiful places in the world in Autumn. I'll try to get some pics posted, but they don't do justice to the scene. It's as if we become part of the colors somehow. Even today, with rain and gray, gray skies, the trees are breathtaking. This is what I miss when I'm out west. In YNP, we talk about the beautiful aspens turning yellow. That ain't nuthin' folks! And New Englanders boast about their neck of the woods. Nope, again, the show there doesn't even come close the the show here. Y'all come visit.

4. Why, you ask, am I making meringues? Well, if Shannon doesn't need/want them for her wedding reception, I'll use them for Turkey Day and Christmas celebrations. They freeze wonderfully. And homemade ones can't be beat (no pun intended). I made coffee liqueur and amaretto ones this time around.

5. I'm back to around 50% thinking about opening our home for the Whitehouse Library Christmas Tour. If we can find 2 more houses closer to town, that would be better. We have 4 beautiful homes already.

6. I actually finally bought a book about autism. This is an exercise in telling myself that I've been right all along in how I've managed our lives for the past 18 years. And as it is with any child, the next 40 years are the scary ones. . .

7. Also bought new Nevada Barr book. This one is her third book that doesn't have Ranger Anna Pigeon in it. The first one was a "Gothic frontier western lesbian romance." Not a huge audience for that, as she points out. The other was a non-fiction work about her budding interest in religion, a very nice journey. DH is gone right now, so I can stay up all night and read the new book. Should be pretty scary-- and tonight really is a dark and stormy night. . . .

Old School Rangers

Thank goodness for old school rangers. We had our monthly luncheon today with retirees from DH's Park District. It's nice to share some of the old stories, but most importantly, we all see the need to make changes in order to serve now. Since the moron who was the last director of the district finally left (YEA!) the new director has recognized that institutional memory is a good thing. He knows that we can't go back to the old ways, but understands that there are many, many parts of the old ways that are good and should be re-incorporated into the goals of the district today.

So lift one for the old guys and gals, and wish success to new rangers. Cheers!