After I went over to see Tahoe their Supe sent this out to (damn near all of) the crews:

On May 7th. We had KRS Evans from the Plumas Hotshots give a presentation on snag awareness. It was good you could hear a pindrop. I wrote him a $100.00 Govt. check charged it off to traning. KRS is willing to come to your station his presentation takes about 1.5 hrs. its a strong message it will make you and your cutters more aware. KRS has a van that he drives around, he doesn't ask for anything accept gas money.
Rick

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Rick Cowell
Hotshot Superintendent
Tahoe NF, Downieville RD
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It's been all good so far...I never intended to be the "snag awareness" poster-boy, even after the injury. I guess it started with Ron Marley (Fire Chief / instructor, Shasta College) askin' me to come up and talk to his students (what) 2 years ago or so, after (I think) he read the site. He wanted to raise their awareness of the shit that can happen out there on the line, and made them pick someone to do a reoprt on. When he forst told them about it (I guess) they were like "how the hell?" but by the time they were done they realized people get injured all the time on the line.

As much as I know about the accident itself and the aftermath, from reading the investigation and such, I have no idea what happened to the rest of the crew. I don't know who got to carry out my saw and gear. Nor do I know who cleaned up my zone back at the ranger station where we had camp. Hell I don't even know a lot about what happened to me those first two weeks after the accident. They say I was coherant enough at the ER to tell them name, rank, and serial number, but I remember nothing. I don't really even remember waking up that first time in the ICU, prolly because I had so much morphine in me.
Someday I hope to get and read those records, which I better do soon before they disappear, if they still exist at all. I don't think I'm ready to read them yet, but I guess I better get off my ass and see if I can't get them.

So it may be a little strange talking to the guys tomorro. I dunno how many of the '01 crew are left, but all of the overhead are still there. I dunno if I'll ask them anything about what happened, or not.

In other news, I finakky have managed to get ahold of my claims examiner at OWCP, and she seems to be a fairly nice lady, if a little slow approving things. I need new wheels and bearings and stuff like that for the chair, and decided to call her and ask for the stuff, to be sure i would get reimbursed, rather than just buy it and get in a fight. Well, I talked to her, faxed the list of stuff over, and about two weeks later she called back with the aurhorization(s). While I had her on the line I asked if there's a replacement schedule or somesuch, and she said no. So I guess that can work to my advantage, as long as I don't abuse it.
I asked her if / when I need something if I can just give a call and ask, and she said yes, that's the thing to do. So sounds like I may have (finally, after almost 3 years of fighting) broken the code of "how to get the equipment I need".

There's other news too- I was measured for the new powerchair a few days ago. It's a Blast 850, and at this point who knows when it will get here, but the measurements were the last thing we had to do. It's authorized and everything, so (I suspect) in about a month I'll get a call from the med supply place with the "come get it" news.

I also got my new cusion today- A while back I did a pressure map "thingy" where you sit on a pressure sensative sensor and several different cusions, to find the best one. Seems my Jay2 wasn't working all that well any more, and a Roho would be better. So we ordered one, and suprise suprise today it arrived.
The only problem is that Francis really likes chewing on rubber, and he's got some sharp assed teeth, so we've been having "training" sessions. I've got some bitter apple "don't chew that" spray from Petco, and I've been dousing the cusion in it. And watching Francis. When he gets close, I grab him and "wash his mouth" with the bitter apple stuff. He hates it, and I hope he'll put together the cusion, the smell of the "sauce", and the really really bad taste. I don't need my hundred dollar ferret putting a million holes in my four hundred dollar cusion, thank you very much.

So I made Mike (Sherman) a toy hose clamp I'm gonna give him tomorro. He's wanted one for quite a while, and I finally got around to making one, mostly because I'm going up there tomorro. Tok me damn near all day to do it, but it's the first one. It's steel, and if / when I go into production with them I hope to make them from aluminum, and anodize them in the crew color. (whatevercrew orders them) With the arrival of summer I hope to get on that and the phone chargers and the toy hose rollers. Along with all the other projects I've been putting off. We'll see if I manage to get anything done or if I just spin my wheels all summer.

Anyway, it's late and time for bed. I hope to write more often here, but I can't say when the next update will be. (like I ever know, as I write when I feel like it, not on some schedule...)