Golfin' on the job

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday on travel. The Region 1 and 6 BAER coordinators invited me to attend a BAER team leader training and present on the BARC product. I flew in to Boise on Tuesday morning, rented a car, and made the 2.5 hr. drive up to La Grande, OR. We held our meeting at the La Grande Fire Center / local airport. I counted about 48 people in attendance.

The meeting went well and my presentation was well received. The product I create from remotely-sensed imagery saves countless hours for BAER teams and makes their jobs much easier when things work out. They were all very receptive and thankful for the support we provide at RSAC.

My meetings got over around 4:30pm, afterwhich I made the 5 or 6 mile drive back to the hotel, checked in, changed my clothes, grabbed a bite to eat, and headed east toward Union, OR. I went to Buffalo Peak Golf Course, a nice little links-style course nestled in the corner of the valley. The views were nice and the weather perfect. I rented clubs and walked nine holes and may have lost all the golf balls I had. Luckily, I found others and was able to finish my round.

I made it back to work yesterday a little after lunch and started preparations to leave for a week, this time on vacation in Oceanside, CA. We have two other people here in the office who will be filling in for me while I'm gone. Neither of them are involved in the BAER program, so there is a bit of anxiety on my part that things will go well for them. It doesn't help that in the last few days, Region 3 (AZ and NM) had 54 fires start due to lightning. Things could get ugly...