Well it’s 2012 and what a start to the New Year it has been.
After a long and restful holiday break we all returned to sunny California, tired, but ready to get back to work. We were welcomed back in the grandest fashion, a way that only the fabulous California could offer. After our chilly couple of days at home in the east, we returned to sunny skies and 75-degree weather everyday. O California, how lovely you are.
The weather however was not the only exciting part about getting back. We knew that in a few days that the most awesome Rands Crew would be getting a new member, making our team complete. The anticipation was high, and it made the first few days of work very difficult. Not to mention, we were also faced with an incursion like we have never seen before. It seemed to stretch for miles, over hill after hill. There is no other word to describe it besides monstrous. But like the professionals we are, we got to work right away, even without our beloved project leader Mr. Fahey, who was out of the field for various reasons. The five members worked hard and worked with a purpose, knowing that if we wanted to defeat the beast, we would have to be on the top of our game. Day 5 rolled around and it seemed like we had started to tame the beast, but this was the day in which the new member was supposed to arrive. We worked hard knowing that our attention might be focused away for a while, while we got to know our new member. We returned to camp after feeling good about the incursion, and found our beloved Mr. Fahey along with our stupendous new team member, Lauren, waiting for us.
We spent the night getting to know each other, and the next day we got the privilege of showing Lauren around the fabulous Rand Mountain recreation area. We went on an excellent early morning hike with provided great views and landscapes, and then made our way down the notorious Cohen Lake to have a picnic lunch. While there a curious fellow in a green station wagon stopped by to say hello. His name was John and he happened to be the lead technician of the nearby rocket testing facility. We spent some time talking to John and his two loveable dogs, Chewy and Spock (most likely referring to Star Wars and Star Trek). He even showed us some of his rockets and gave us a demonstration on how the rocket fuel burns, creating a very cool light display.
We returned back to work the next day, and gave Lauren a small tutorial on what we do and how we go about doing it. However, we soon realized that our help wasn’t really needed because Lauren was a natural. She caught on right away and did some great work. With the addition of her and Mr. Fahey, our team was complete and the Rands Crew had a renewed faith that we would be able to slay the mighty beast before us. Three days later the beast was tamed. No longer was the incursion visible from anywhere, no longer would any OHV’s be driving over the vast openness that once was, and no longer would the Rands Crew ever be afraid of an incursion again.
The hitch ended on a rather high note and with an epic adventure, leading Ju and Alex to climb a heaping mountain of trash to retrieve our lost toilet seat (don’t ask). Nevertheless, it was a long hitch as usual, but also as usual the Rands Crew succeeded once again and is more than ready to move on to whatever challenges await us in this New Year. Not to mention we are all super excited about Lauren, which there is no doubt will make an excellent addition to our team.
Happy New Years, and see you soon,
Rands
