Campfyre Stories

Trying desperately to get ready for my trip to Washington DC.  I’ll be gone for a week and insanely busy the whole time.  I think I’m also still recovering from Falcon Ridge and I’m also trying to prepare for my birthday, which is getting closer a lot faster than I’d like.

Here’s the schedule:

8/15-8/21 Washington DC and all related goings-on (I’ll try to blog, but no promises)
8/22 Cable people come to turn the internet on in my apartment (2 years without computer-based internet…  Daisy is a mighty fine substitute)
8/23 Tropic Thunder with Spawn and Princess
8/25 Back to mundane work
8/26 American Teen with Princess
8/29 Mom’s birthday
8/31 my birthday and party
9/1 Labor day and little brother’s birthday

Meanwhile, people are trying to get me to make plans for October!  And February!  And April!  Oh hells no.  I’m just trying to get through the month of August right now.  I can’t even think about trying to get out to Boston to visit Girl and see The Dark Knight in IMAX.  I can’t even think about Spawn’s birthday (9/24) and what I’m going to get him…  the bar is really high right now.

And I just keep thinking about how someday…  somewhen…  I’ll be able to sleep.  Or even just to rest.  Yeah, I’m looking forward to THAT day.

I spent most of the weekend getting ready for my trip to Washington DC.  Trying to get the house kicked into shape, getting the laundry together so that I can pack, setting up the new computer and all kinds of assorted housework.

I think, in the past couple of nights, I’ve totaled some 10-12 hours of sleep.

I overslept this morning and wound up RUNNING to the bus stop, shouting "Wait!  Wait for me!" and barely making the  bus.  I found out that my regular driver in on vacation, so we have the crappy driver who is rude, almost always running late and insists on certain rules that don’t actually exist outside of his head.  Of course, he couldn’t be on shift during the week I’m gone, it has to be the week where I have so much other stuff to do that this just makes it all that much more annoying.

I’m coming to realize that no matter what I’ve got planned, if I’m going out of town, there’s always a trial that I have to go through before I leave.  At least I do get to leave…  and it makes being away from my regular routine that much more pleasant.

But I still have a ton of things I *have* to do, a bunch of things I’d like to do before I go and very little time to do it all…  I also still need to find a way to fit sleep into the equation.  I’m not really sure how any of that is going to happen, but I’ll do the best I can…

Convince Spawn to hang out at home long enough to sign for my many packages
Turn the jungle into a backyard
Set up firepit
Buy chairs for party.  Heh.
Birthday presents for 8 million people
Back to school shopping for Spawn
Attempt to catch up on Movie Night, despite missing two weeks this month
Clean out the back room
Make room on desk for new computer
THROW THINGS AWAY
Help Spawn plan (and later prepare) a meal for his girlfriend when she comes to visit
Go to DC for work
Send postcards to 80 million people
Deal with birthday week
Throw a party/barbeque

Just looking at that list makes me tired.

Have you ever been in a crisis situation?  Like an actual situation where people are in danger or hurt and you, among others, need to keep it together?

How did you do?

You know, after coming back from Falcon Ridge, I read a number of accounts of the major storm we weathered on Sunday.  It wasn’t until days later that it was labeled a "mini-tornado" (mini because there was no touchdown of a funnel).  I honestly believe that not knowing what was happening and not having that "Oh my gods, it’s a TORNADO" thought looming over us was a big part of what kept people from panicking.

As I stated before, there were no major injuries.  Some people lost some things, but considering the number of people there, it really wasn’t much.  In fact, people stayed really together and focused while it was going on.  Which is not to say that things didn’t get pretty hairy out there for some people, but sometimes you have to put your fears on hold and come back to them when the situation is already resolved.

People keep talking about what "should have" been done, or what "should be" done in the future.  Things like sirens that will alert people to emergency situations or larger security patrols.  The more I think about it, the worse an idea it seems to me.  Again, I think that part of the reason that people didn’t panic was because we didn’t know we should be.  We didn’t know what was going on.  We didn’t have time to think about what we should do.

Some people immediately drove offsite, which isn’t the smartest thing to do in that weather.  Some people wouldn’t or couldn’t get to shelter, needing to prevent their gear from causing damage to other people/things, to find members of their party who were lost or to help "save the world".  Sirens blaring in that situation wouldn’t help anyone at all.  All it would do is cause people to freak out and no longer be calm while still not offering any advice on what to actually do.

To me, with the exception of emergency vehicles sirens sound like:  Panic!  Panic!  Panic!  Few, if any, of them actually offer viable information that can be used.  In fact, if I’m in my house (for example) and I hear a siren blaring, I am most likely going to STEP OUTSIDE MY APARTMENT to find out what’s going on.  I’m pretty sure that the sirens indicate that people should behave in exactly the opposite way to that, but since the noises have never been explained to me (and still occur from time to time), I don’t know what the appropriate response really is.

But if I’m IN an emergency situation, a crisis situation, I know what to do.  Not to be able to plan ahead, but I’m able to assess the situation and fill whatever needs present themselves.  Sirens will distract me, make me wonder what the hell is going on and cause me to panic, at least a little bit.

So what do you think?  Have you been in a crisis situation?  How did you handle it?  How do you react to sirens or other indicators of emergencies?  Do you think that people are more or less likely to handle a crisis well without actually knowing what’s going on?

I am coming to believe that Unix is not something you learn, but something you ARE.  No, no one actually said this to me, but in an attempt to follow the oh-so specific instructions of "In your free time, start learning Unix", that’s really all I’ve learned.

I’ve tapped my sources and asked around for a place to start.  Give me a link to a basics guide, I’ve asked, and no one can seem to do this.  They want to help and show willing, but when it comes to actual documentation or sources, it’s all…  "Well, what exactly do they want you to do?"

The problem is that what they want is "In your free time, start learning Unix."

It’s like to make me cry.  I don’t understand it and I have no idea where to go to get an explanation other than "want me to stand there and tell you what to do?"  Well, yeah, I do.  If it will help.  And to top it all off, I left my "For Dummies" book at home.

I can’t remember feeling more stupid.

I am not Unix.  At all.

So we left the festival with relief rather than reluctance, though Spawn was upset to not get the email addresses of his friends.  We took main roads and avoided the detours and debris in the road.

We were about starving, having not been able to get lunch before everything went to chaos, so we stopped, grubby and gross, at Denny’s and had a nice meal.  Went home and enjoyed the things we usually take for granted.  Pooping in a toilet that flushes, showering for as long as we wanted/needed, not having to worry about the stability of our shelter…  Then we each passed out for a few hours.

I found out on Wednesday that the storm we experienced had actually been a tornado that didn’t touch down.  From the official post:

This was a mini tornado that hit us Sunday, it never touched down. We had been tracking this storm, labeled F5 on NEXRAD radar on my laptop in the Communications trailer. Was moderately severe, very compact and moving rapidly. It was past us & thought we were OK. Storm track animation showed it was moving away.

Than there was a sudden rotation and it came back with 70 MPH winds, 3 inches of rain and up to golf ball size hail. There was no time for a warning like the ones passed on earlier, it happened so fast.

We could not believe the same storm that had passed on the radar was now in front of us again, was on us before we could even get on the radio. I got one call in to mainstage and one to security base. Hail started WHILE I was making these calls on my cell, radio communication was totally OUT.

Tornado formation is very unpredictable. We just did not think anything like that was possible, indeed 4 of us looking right at the radar were puzzled at what we were looking at for several precious seconds.

So that’s what we weathered, none of us knowing it.

I emailed a couple of friends who were still there during the storm tornado and they told me their stories.  It’s interesting to me, I’ve heard many stories across the internet, but, so far, few from anyone who was in the same location as I was.  I’d really like to hear that story from another perspective.

But I have heard some very frightening things, as well as a lot of really heartening things.

So Spawn and I got home and safe and slowly moved back to reality.  I took Monday off of work and kept the car for a few extra days, so we went out, saw a movie, did some shopping and paid someone else to do the nasty festival laundry.

And that, my dears, ends my saga of Falcon Ridge 2008.  Happy 20th anniversary!  It was certainly a weekend to remember, on so many levels.

Oh, Sunday…  how can I even begin to tell your story?

I slept LATE and then slowly broke down the camp.  I couldn’t find Spawn right away and was told that he had gone to breakfast MUCH earlier, but I wanted to find him so he could pack all his gear and I could get the car offsite, as severe rain was expected and I wanted to be able to leave, ever.

I did find Spawn and he s-l-o-w-l-y packed up his gear and tent and all and I parked the car in Day Parking.  5 minutes after I parked, the sky opened right up.  I felt like, both coming and going, I had really good timing.  Getting in in time and getting out in time, both.

Spawn had a shift to work at 2, which meant that he was going to miss the ONE BAND I wanted him to see, so I decided to head down to the Merch Tent and just buy a CD for him to listen to.  I wasn’t scheduled to work that day (because of Martin Sexton the night before), but had to convince my crew that I was really there as a customer.

Immediately, though, they needed me to organize or answer questions or run information or cover someone for a few minutes, so, right away, I was put to work despite my "I’m here as a customer" protests.  As I was trying to determine which CD to buy, the bug was put in my ear that we were expecting to lose power and, if that happened, we would lose the security cameras, so had to watch the exits.

And then came the maelstrom.

This is my story:

We were FLOODED with people, and we recruited the tallest people we could find to get the last of the tarps up around the perimeter.  As a result, as the storm went on, I had no idea what was going on outside, only what was happening in OUR tent.  The winds were so high that the tent poles started to come out and people ran to the sidelines to hold the tent up so it wouldn’t collapse.  Other people were standing on tables using their umbrellas or bags to push against the roof and get the water off.

Many people (our crew included) were freaking out about the power being on.  Given the credit card machines, cash registers, security camera and all peripherals and the electricity, we were EXTREMELY live.  I immediately set to organizing.  My crew chief was in the middle of trying to make a deposit when the storm hit, so she was holding several thousands of dollars in cash, which she kept putting down and then freaking out and picking up again.  The other crew chief in the tent had a radio, which I told her to use to tell the Site Crew we were coming down and to CUT OUR POWER.  Site Crew radioed back that they couldn’t get to our tent right away because they needed to deal with the Family Tent and Activities for Kids.  Well, YEAH, of course they should do that, but we couldn’t see what was happening outside.  They cut all the festival power shortly after that.  Never before have I been in a situation where people cheered when the power went OUT, but we were all pretty happy about it in that moment.

All of a sudden, we started to feel a river running through the tent and (though I didn’t know why at the time) it was cold.  The river turned into a pond and the water level rose to about 6" in the tent.  Everyone in our area stayed calm.  There were no small children and everyone kept their head.  At some point, someone started singing "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore", which relieved some tension, but apparently the only verse that anyone knew was the first one…  so we sang that a couple of times.

Someone from Site Crew came in and explained to us that they were evacuating the festival.  "The safest place for you to be is in your car, not moving."  I saw Spawn at the other side of the tent and immediately, shifted mental gears into "I am a mother.  I have to take care of my kid."  I took off after him, knowing that if I didn’t catch him then, I might not find him…  and he didn’t know where the car was.

I found him in the rain in bare feet, wearing shorts and a t-shirt, soaked through, and wrapped in a wet towel.  I took him to the car, but he stopped on the way to tell my brother and mom that my niece was safe, where she was and who she was with.  Once in the car, I gave him a dry towel, turned the car on and jacked up the heat.  Spawn did not get hypothermia.  Many other people did.  However, there were no major injuries.

We sat out the storm, then sat out the traffic.  Despite not having a chance to say our goodbyes (Spawn had to call his festival romance to say goodbye, but I believe they’ll see each other again), we headed out as soon as the traffic was clear enough for us to go.  What an ending!

Spawn’s story:

Spawn and his friend (both Teen Crew) were in the Volunteer tent when it (the tent) started to come down and they evacuated. The two of them wound up with my niece (4 years old), who had run up to them the moment she saw them.  My brother (Chaos) was valiantly trying to keep the tent  from falling with a large number of other people.

They hazarded the hail and wind and rain and found a group of people without a car. They formed a "Penguin Huddle" around  my niece to keep her safe and warm while the women explained the scientific reasons that hail forms. It worked amazingly well to keep the teens calm and together and, hey, they learned something interesting!

Spawn’s friend,  carrying my niece, fell in the mud and started to lose it a little (and no wonder in that situation!), so Spawn picked her up and braced her, supporting her as they carried my niece to safety/shelter.

Spawn convinced a group of people in a van to take the girls in with them and he went off to (in order of priority) find Chaos and tell him that his daughter was safe and where she was; find his grandmother and tell her *everyone* was safe; find me because he knew his mom would take care of him.

He was stopped on his way by a volunteer on a golf cart who was concerned that he might have hypothermia, so he was taken to the med tent, where he was given a towel to wrap up in (which we later discovered says "Angelica", to our amusement).  He had too many people to find and tell what was going on, though, so he didn’t stay there, opting instead to venture out to hunt down his family so we would all know where everyone was.

Even after he found me and I was taking him to the car to warm up and avoid hypothermia (which he did avoid), he ran off to tell Chaos and Mom where everyone was and that they were safe. I was really impressed to see these young teens really step up and take responsibility, especially when they found themselves in charge of a scared and crying 4 year old.

Mom’s story: http://blog.cavandkav.com/falcon-ridge-folk-fest-2008/

Stories on Live Journal:  http://community.livejournal.com/falconridge/111066.html

Video of the storm itself:  http://youtube.com/watch?v=QjGjqmQhiTk&feature=related  (That’s the volunteer tent, where Spawn, et al, were evacuated from, coming down in the background).

Video of the aftermath:  http://youtube.com/watch?v=J5PKSXi8tpM&feature=related  and  http://youtube.com/watch?v=QD-J0xP6qbg&feature=related

So, yeah, if nothing else, it was a memorable Falcon Ridge.

Heh.  Saturday.

We signed up for alternating Opening/Closing shifts so I slept in.  I had the whole morning to myself and decided to attend a workshop on making wire-wrapped stone jewelry.  I wound up with a gorgeous and unusual pendant of Ocean Jasper from Madagascar.  It was fun and easy and I’ll probably never do it again.  Heh.

One of the women who also took the same workshop, it turns out, has a strange thing in common with me - a pepper allergy.  The weirdest part about pepper allergy (mine AND hers) is that it’s anything with the word pepper.  So even though Bell Peppers and Black Pepper and Cayenne Pepper are not at all related, they’re all encompassed…  It was very validating to meet someone with the same unusual and often-suspected condition as I have.

After the workshop, I went on shift to chaos her and there.  Someone, it turned out, needed to stay (very) late so that Martin Sexton could sell his swag for a half-hour after his performance, which was scheduled to end at 12:20.  I volunteered to do it on the condition that I’d get Sunday off completely.  I wouldn’t find out whether or not this was the case until I came back to help close up shop, but I figured it would probably happen.

When I went to dinner, I ran into a friend on a different crew.  He and I have been festival friends for quite a few years now.  We’d had little change to catch up this time around, so we made a point to get a few minutes in.  I had dinner with a new friend (and crew mate) of mine, who is totally fabulous and I invited her to my campsite for a beer before she went on shift.

We shared some of my favorite beer and dolled up with glowsticks.  My niece pronounced it a "beer and glowsticks party", but then told us that they were having a better party "over there" when the 70’s music started to drift over from a neighboring camp.

Meanwhile…  in the tent that one of Spawn’s friends was staying in there were 4 teenagers piled on top of each other.  Spawn, the 14y/o girl camping with us, and a brother and sister that Spawn had befriended.  They were just hanging out being lazy, lying on top of each other cuddling.  First the sister left, then the brother left, and when he did, I noticed that he zipped up the tent door.  When he came back for a forgotten object, he scratched gently on the door and opened the zipper just enough to get his forgotten thing.

It was then I suspected that Spawn was having a festival romance and, probably, his first (and second and third…) real kiss.  Heh.

But you don’t go from first kiss to needing condoms from the med tent, so I didn’t worry.  They’re good kids, they’re smart kids and they’re young.  This puppy love is something that they need to have without my becoming overly concerned.

That said, all MY friends are teasing the hell out of me.  But I keep checking, and they keep confirming that, no, they don’t believe he’s irresponsible or that he’ll follow in my (stupid) footsteps.  They’re just being assholes about it.  I can live with it.  Better they tease me than tease HIM.

So, anyway, my friend and I parted ways and I went off to kill the last 2 hours before breaking down the Merch Tent and to start my Martin Sexton shift.  I KNEW, even before it was confirmed, that I would be working this "shift".  All day long they had been announcing that we would be staying open…  all day long they had been announcing that Martin Sexton would be doing a signing after his performance. 

I may never forgive that man.

We finished selling close to 1:30am, when the sky OPENED UP and it poured buckets, essentially trapping me and my crew chief in the Merch Tent until close to 3am.  I tied plastic bags on my feet and snagged a lost (cheap) rain poncho that had been left in the Merch Tent.   Then I carefully made my way through the slick (because it was all smoothed) mud and back to the car.  At 3am.  Yeah.

But I was amped from all the excitement and, so, wrote my low-tech blog entry on paper and listened to the cheers and howls of appreciation for spectacular lighting and the lull in the rain that was probably believed to be cessation.  Heh.  Suckers.

It finally stopped raining on Thursday evening and the mud was (mostly) dry by Friday afternoon.  The Teen Crew did excellent work smoothing out the mud and it was quite amusing to watch the process.  They started letting cars in (for the first time since Wednesday!) around 10am, but Mom decided to not bring her car in, in case we needed to leave for any reason.

Spawn had settled in almost fully and I saw little of him.  When I did see him, he was generally with a posse and had a wonderful story to tell.  After this particular adventure, I wish he blogged.

Spirits were high all around once the sun came out.

My back couldn’t take the air mattress + tent, so I took to sleeping on the backseat of the (little) rental car.  It wasn’t ideal, but it was a better alternative than anything else.  OF COURSE they actually gave me a *little* car this time around…  probably had they not, I wouldn’t have had the back problems, or at least not to that extent.

People were really in love with my hair (BAM!).  Strangers and friends alike were complimenting (or commenting on) the color.  They also kept asking me if I’d lost weight, which I haven’t.  It kind of makes me wonder if that’s a default compliment for fat girls or if I actually do look thinner, or maybe it’s just been a year.  Heh.  I’m taking it as "You look good" and it’s nice to hear.  But a little weird.

While hanging out in the Kids’ tent with mom, I saw a man who had a butterfly perched on his finger.  Apparently, it had landed on him and didn’t want to leave.  I guess he was the bug whisperer and his girlfriend told me that she’s started calling him that since this sort of thing happens ALL THE TIME.  He wanted to show the butterfly to the kids, so he wandered around the tent, showing everyone and then headed back off into the festival, butterfly still hanging out on his finger.  Strange things always abound to be seen and/or experienced.

Spawn appeared to have put together a harem and was pretty well supplied with girls most times.  He actually got into the festival state of mind pretty quickly and once that happened, the complaints and harassment stopped entirely.  I actually had to hunt him down to check in or when I wanted to buy him something or to get him to do whatever it was that needed to be done.  I don’t mind at all.  I’m just glad to see him having a really good time for possibly the first time.   He has really come into his own this past year.

Every time I’d move from one place to another, I’d find people I know and we’d stop for a conversation of varying length, depending on the who.  A five minute walk generally takes about a half-hour when you factor in the random encounters.

It’s a music festival, but to me, the music is just background.  Working in the Merchandise tent, I encounter a lot of performers who need to check in merchandise or want to see/fix their displays, but I’m not a folkie.  I don’t know who very many of these people are and I don’t treat them like stars, because I don’t necessarily know who they are.  I’m friendly and kind and as helpful as I can be, but I see people who become rather reverent with some of them, and I’ve found that very few people really want that kind of treatment.  I think it’s good for all of us that, to me, they’re just people…  and even with the performer badge, I won’t get all excited about meeting whoever.  They’re just cool people.

Friday night I went to spend time at Camp Fudgie.  I usually do this on Saturday nights, but for some reason this year, I broke tradition.  One of their neighbors had a wonderful fire pit, so we sat around the fire drinking champagne and talking until around 3am.  Then I went to the car and PASSED OUT.

More rain and lots of it.  Drip, drip, drip and back pain was what I woke up to that first morning, so I lay on the air mattress for about 45 minutes listening to my niece babble on about whatever random things she had to say.  Save for the pain, it was a pretty decent way to start the morning.

My brothers had bagged the whole camping thing Wednesday night and stayed in a motel.  However, they failed to realize that you have to check out of the hotel when you’re done, so Chaos asked if I would ride with him to Great Barrington so he could check out (and there was talk, at this point, of my getting a room for me, Mom and the kids for Thursday night.

We headed out to the mucky, muddy day parking area and climbed into Chaos’ ‘89 Dodge Ram.  I think we made it about 50′ before realizing we were not going to make it out of the parking area.  We had to push the truck and, really, thank gods someone decided to help because that truck is MASSIVE and I was the one pushing it…

No one was getting in or out.  The mud, as opposed to the rain, was permeating.  It was on everyone and in everything and meant that vendors couldn’t get in to set up; that the sanitation truck couldn’t clean out the porta potties (erk..)  One of the funniest things I saw over the whole festival was a giant blue school bus with the words "Powered By Veggie Oil" painted across the back being towed by a tractor through the glop.  I really need to start bringing a camera to these things.

I started busting ass around 10 or 11 in the morning, as usual.  Other people tend to have the physical setup under control, but there’s always a lot of running around that needs to be done.  Considering the slippery, sucking, crazy mud, I wasn’t so much *running*, per se, as skating through the mud trying to find people and fix problems.  A friend and I had both been promoted, her to being in charge of "things", me to being in charge of "people".  Heh.  I’m the "people person".

And I know PEOPLE.  I realized that my standard way of getting questions answered or problems solved or people found is to just go around asking everyone who might have an answer or an idea until I find the right person to talk to.  It kinda doesn’t matter what the question even is…

So I did a lot of work, a little shopping, saw an old friend who moved away and I now reliably see every year at Falcon Ridge, but used to see almost every day.  It’s always a lot of fun to see unexpected, but unsurprising people.

Spawn took some time getting into the swing of things.  Being on the Teen Crew definitely gave him an edge in terms of meeting people and making new friends, but he has a tendency to harass me when he’s bored or lonely.  He did find a few friends to pal around with and there was a 14 y/o girl camping in our little village (the niece of one of my mom’s friends).  He spent most of Thursday evening asking if anyone had seen her and going off in search of her or any of his other friends.  I found myself hoping that he would get to a point where I wouldn’t see much of him.  I knew that the less I saw of him at the festival, the better a time he would be having.

But there was mud, there was music, there was merriment and the festival was ON.