I am back in Florida, having spent the last 90 days in Washington State drying cherries with helicopters. It’s nice to be back in my own house, sleeping in my own bed, eating my own food and getting back on my usual (ahem) routines. More about that later…
It was a relatively uneventful season…except for one crash that happened on a training flight before I got there. The ship was a write-off but the pilots were okay. The new-hire, an older guy is faking a back injury so he won’t have to fly anymore, I guess. Had I done a better job of researching him, I probably wouldn’t have hired him. But we were really hard-up for pilots this year, and so I took a chance. Next year will probably be worse as there is a real shortage of qualified helicopter pilots out there.
Other than that, we had a pretty good year, flying-wise. No records were set but the boss seemed happy.
The deal the company makes with pilots is this: Housing and food is provided in addition to a daily pay rate. We don’t specify how much food we’ll provide, but I assure prospective employees that nobody ever goes hungry at our outfit. The boss loves to eat, and he really likes it when we all eat together as a group. So he takes us out a lot.
At the beginning of the season the boss and I go down to Costco in Wenatchee and load up on food for the crew houses that the pilots can prepare themselves. In addition, we all go out to Taco Tuesday, and of course Steak Night at The Club Sports Bar in Okanogan, which we love. Friday or Saturday nights will see us having pizza at The Bakery in Pateros. I usually cook a big meal once or twice a week, and we’ll do a cookout/barbecue as well. Then there are the random breakfasts and lunches at Smallwoods (which we also love). As I said, no one goes hungry.
Every morning I would meet the boss at 0700 for coffee and to discuss what we wanted to accomplish that day. Invariably, he would proffer a piece of pie (apple, naturally – they don’t make pies from the cherries they grow around Brewster). Coffee and pie for breakfast?! Not what anyone would call a good and healthy meal. But it would be impolite and disrespectful to refuse. So I did not. I did, however, decline the two big scoops of vanilla ice cream which the boss usually added to his own pie.
In the beginning, the boss would get eight slices out of a normal store-bought pie. That morphed into four slices. It got ridiculous. (But if you’ve ever eaten pie from Cyrus O’Leary in Spokane, you’d understand our indulgence. They are AWESOME!)
One upshot of all this overeating was that I ballooned up to 210 pounds. I look and feel awful. It’s going to take some serious dieting and exercise to get back down to 180 pounds…if I even can at my age.
Another effect of our crazy diets in Washington is more…well…awkward to talk about. It’s a delicate matter. I spoke with the other pilots about this and they all concurred. To be blunt: Our poop schedules got all screwed-up. We were all pooping like crazy! Much more often than usual.
I am fortunate that here in Florida, I eat pretty healthy and don’t eat a whole lot. My diet is such that I burn off most of the food I eat during the day…if you know what I mean. I try to keep my total caloric intake down below 1,800, and preferably below 1,500 if I can. This means that there is not a lot of, um, byproduct. Once in the morning, and I’m good for the next 24-hours.
But up in Washington…I didn’t count, but we all must’ve been taking in 3,000 or 4,000 calories a day, maybe more. Just breakfast at Smallwoods alone could account for most of that! Portion control? Hah! Plus, none of us were exercising all that much. Consequently, we all had to adjust to having our days interrupted by inconvenient visits to the bathroom more often than usual. (I know, I know...first-world problems, eh?)
But as I said, now I am back at home and eating more sensibly. Yes, I can already tell the difference. It’s a giant relief - in more ways than one.
I didn’t really want to go up to Washington this summer, and I don’t want to go back next summer but I think I’m going to have to. (It’s a long story.) Next summer will make a total of ten years that I’ve been going up to Brewster. So we shall see. This year was a lot of fun – we had a really great crew. It makes it hard to quit. But ten years of doing anything is enough, no?
Who Am I?
- Bob Barbanes:
- A nobody; a nitwit; a pilot; a motorcyclist; a raconteur; a lover...of life - who loves to laugh, who tries to not take myself (or anything) too seriously...just a normal guy who knows his place in the universe by being in touch with my spiritual side. What more is there?
4 comments:
Your cherry pie comment got me to thinking. What kind of cherries are you drying off? Sweet or tart? Growing up on the farm, we always had a tart cherry tree growing so I always love eating a tart cherry pie which means I can't stand eating a cherry pie made from sweet cherries. Even now, I have a tart cherry tree in my yard which is still growing and hasn't produced enough cherries for a pie yet even after four years which explains why I planted another tart cherry in my backyard to speed up cherry production.
Ed, the cherries that are grown in Washington State are the big, sweet ones - more like little plums than the little tart cherries you get in a pie or milkshake. Some local people do use those big cherries to make pies, but I don't find them that appealing.
Funny fruit, the cherry. Compare it to the apple. Not only can you eat an apple right off the tree, but there are other things you can make with an apple: Juice/cider, applesauce, baby food, pies(oh yeah!), wine...and probably a couple I've forgotten.
But the sweet cherry...well, you can't do much with it but just eat it. Coke doesn't use these cherries in their Cherry Coke formula, and nobody I know enjoys cherry juice or cherrysauce with their lamb.
Cherries have a very limited lifespan. Once they're picked they have to be packaged and sold before they spoil. When I got home to Florida from Washington I went right to the grocery store to replenish the house. Oddly enough I did not see any cherries for sale. It was a pretty "thin" year for the growers and undoubtedly the supplies have all dwindled.
For the life of me, I'll never understand the popularity of Washington cherries. Me, I'd rather have a plum or an apricot (or a pluot or aprium).
Glad you’re back home and I fully expect we will be reading about your adventures in the northwest again next summer.
Yes Bob, you're probably right. I got into a situation of which I cannot easily extricate myself. I like the job in Washington State, and I like the people I work with. I might not be indispensable, but I've settled into a position with the company that would be hard to fill were I not there. I do the new-pilot hiring and a lot of the training. I've been with the same customer for nine seasons, and the farm manager for that company is comfortable with me and the job I do. So I feel more than a little responsibility to be there.
Two years ago I tried to tell my boss I wouldn't be coming up for the 2018 season. But I felt particularly guilty when he pleaded, "It's just for two months!" Which is true, but they are also prime motorcycle riding months in Florida. "Bring the bike up!" the boss implored, as if that would solve the problem. Well...not so easily done. It's 3,000 miles from here to there. Either I ride it up (which I've done), or I put a trailer hitch on the car and haul it up. Neither is really desirable to be honest. And plus, for the two months I'm up there I don't really have any "hard" days off. It's a "continuous duty" type of job for all of us while we're "on contract" for June and July.
In other words, even when the weather forecast is calling for a zero percent chance of rain, we still have to be available in case a rogue nighttime or afternoon shower forms over the Cascade Mountains and wanders down into the Okanogan River valley. Which sometimes happens. Paradoxically, "zero percent chance of precipitation" does not mean that it won't rain.
So the opportunity to take a day off and go riding is simply not available. We have one job: For the duration of our contracts, we have to be available and responsible to our customers in case it rains.
Another factor is that I always end up sick at the end of the season. I don't know whether it's the dusty, dry environment, or the mold and/or mouse dander in the old quarters I stay in, or both(!), but something causes a bad respiratory problem for me. It manifests itself with a rough, persistent cough and shortness of breath. Thankfully, these symptoms clear up almost immediately once I get back home. The hot, humid Gulf of Mexico climate suits me, I guess.
So it's a conundrum. Instead of staying up there for up to six months, which I've done in the past, now I only go up for a maximum of 60 days. I need a vehicle up there, which means I drive up, which means I tag on an extra week or so at either end, which ends up being about 2.5 months away from home.
Am I whining? Yes, it would appear so.
In the beginning, I started going up to Washington because I had quit my last full-time flying job but still needed to be a helicopter pilot. Nine years later, not so much. Now I need to be home in Florida, taking it easy, driving for Uber when I want, and riding my motorcycle when I need. To me, that would be the perfect life :-)
So yeah, I'll be going back next year.
Post a Comment