I Do What I Can

So today I went to Catra, and it was cold. Really, really cold. Mostly because it opened up and poured around 1:00pm, and had just been overcast and breezy all morning. Yeah, morning. We were there by 9am, I was out the door at 7:45am. Had to go wait at the Ambulance Core Building while they staged the rig and stuff. Why'd I do it that way and not go right over? Well A) I might have been able to help at the building, and B) if I go over with them, I can park for free for being with the crew.

So we went over around 8:30am, and all was well. Got the tent set up, pulled out the chairs and medical equipment, and sat down to watch the start of the race. Well, they did. I pulled out the Mamiya and found a place by the track. About... oh.... ten feet from where the racers would be? x'D

Lemme tell ya, last year I got panning by sheer accident. This year I couldn't get anything. The camera lagged, and the digital back lagged, and I couldn't sync it well enough. So no panning for me. I did get a really nice group shot though thanks to the 35mm lens I borrowed.

Good thing I didn't absolutely have to have the action shots. ^^;

I was more useful at the Med Tent anyways. And it gave me a good excuse to get away from this Masshole (oh he was one before you get angry) who was going on about how funny the accidents were, and how that's what he came to watch, and he lived to get hurt, blah blah blah. He was laughing about how one kid (yeah, little kids ran Saturday) got run over yesterday! NOT FUNNY. His Mom agreed with me that it wasn't cool to laugh at, and he shut up when I told him I was with EMS (Emergency Medical Services). I mean, yeah, accidents can be interesting, but people getting hurt isn't funny unless they're laughing too.

So I ditched him by saying I needed to check in at the Med Tent. Didn't truly have to, but his nonsense was just... he wanted to be a know-it-all tough guy, and I was having none of it. He wanted to show me a good spot for pictures, and unfortunately they weren't running that part of the track this year (it's an 8 mile trail over boulders, stumps, logs, and through swamps basically), so until we noticed that I had to listen to him try to preach NY State law to me. Which is crap, because I think I know the laws of my state. Such an ass.

We did have one kid get pretty seriously injured today as well. Compound fracture to the femur, and he had to be carted out of the woods. 3 miles back in he was. Thank god for four-wheelers, though Kelly and Diana and Dave (the EMTs who went back since there were two injuries, but one wasn't as serious) all said they wouldn't ride them again with the sweepers (guys who ride the track to make sure things are all clear and to find the injured and those in need of help). But it got the guy out, and then the ambulance took him out to the road where a chopper was called in to assist and take him to the hospital. If I could have made it out in time, that would have been an awesome Photo J shot, but there wasn't time to do that. And I was busy at the Med Tent helping with patient care reports and getting supplies for the EMTs.

Next year Dad says he will have the trailer fixed and we're bringing our four-wheeler up to use to carry EMTs. And that will probably be my job, to ferry EMTs and patients in and out of the woods. Over stumps, and logs, and boulders, and through swamps. xD I'm not even kidding, these trails are insane.

So all in all I didn't get any good action shots from the day, but I did make myself feel morally good by helping out other people. I can't do much since I don't have the training (yet), but I do what I can. And taking care of the menial tasks frees up the EMTs to do what they know best. I do plan on taking the EMT course or getting the Red Cross first aid training soon though.

However... my legs are screaming. Hiking in the woods with a camera is bad. Running around on uneven terrain to help medics is bad. But it does my heart good.

Later today I managed to snag both my in-home family and my pet+owner. So I just need to finish my design pieces and shoot in the CS and I'm all done shooting. I'll just have to retouch and print, which doesn't take too awful long; provided the computer cooperates.

THREE DAYS TO GO! O_O;;