Sunday, October 2, 2011

Weird stuff

It's really dark when I get to work now. Plus it was pissing rain this morning. I unlocked the boat, started the engines to head across the river. When I was about 50 yards out, the boat started twisting weirdly. I look up, and there's a BIG tree stuck on the low water line:

It probably drifted down sometime overnight and got wrapped up in the line. I crunched into it, stopped, backed up, crunched into it again, and repeated. The 2nd or 3rd time, I broke enough branches with the ferry that it broke free and drifted downstream. What a mess first thing in the morning. I remember the more experienced ferry operators mentioning that you really had to watch out for trees at the BV, but jeez man! That's intense. It was sort of freaky to deal with. I was worried about breaking the line, but really, I guess it's sturdier than I expected.

So I finally get the boat open and start setting up for my work week, unpacking my food and knitting, and reading the log book to see if anything interesting happened on my coworker's 3 days on the boat. And holy crap. There was an entry for yesterday that said basically, "Sherriff's office recovered a dead body approximately 70 yards downstream on the west side. 4:30 pm." Wait...WHAT? And yeah, that's what happened. There was an article in the Oregonian. Poor guy. Really sad. I guess he was a local. I didn't really talk to many of the local regulars today, but I'm going to ask someone who'll come by tomorrow morning if she knew the guy. I also feel bad for my coworker for probably seeing the guy drift past the boat. Turns my stomach.

Other than that, I guess, it was a pretty regular day. It rained almost all day. I really got to see how pokey and cold and wet it's going to be if I'm working this job all winter. I'm considering getting flannel lined jeans. I bought a fantastic fleece jacket this weekend. Still, it was wet, no way around it.

I've got a job interview on thursday for a local job in town that I really want. I'm well qualified, and know the department really well. Fingers crossed. I don't want to be working the ferry in the dead of winter.

1 comment:

  1. We'll miss the ferry stories if you get another job, but a nice cozy office does sound better than winter on the ferry.

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