The Summer Jobs I Could Have Had

When there is a wildfire, one of the techniques used to fight the fire is to squeeze the fire--attack it from both sides. A smokejumper parachutes onto the other side of the wildfire, the side that's already been burned, and fights the fire from the backside. Bet you weren't expecting that Mr. Raging Inferno. A smokejumper has to parachute into the blaze with all of his essentials, food, water, camping gear, on top of all his firefighting gear, because smokejumpers live days, sometimes even more than a week, in the charred wilderness, spending every minute they aren't fighting the fire trying to survive. That sounds like my kind of a job.

I'd like to work on a boat. I could do a coastal sailing boat or a fishing trawler. Sleeping under the deck, or above, on nice nights, listening to the slapping of the water on the side of the boat. I lived on a sailboat for a week once, as part of a marine biology program that I did summer after my sophomore year of high school. I absolutely loved it. When we got the sails full, and really started cruising using no kind of ancillary fuel, that felt great. We could even tack into oncoming wind. So, yeah, I could live and work on a boat like that. But I think I would also like to work on one of those big industrial ships that make journeys across the ocean. Planes go too fast, I want to enjoy my trip across the ocean, and see every last, identical drop of water. There's just something exhilirating when you find yourself out on the open water, and you look around, and you can't see anything but water all the way around you.

Me driving a boat.

I wanted to be a window washer for a while. It sounds like a great gig actually. Most high-rise window washers are self-employed, and make decent amounts of dough. Because for some reason it's a job that not many people want. I don't understand that. I mean the actual job, the washing the window part, is really easy. I've been an amateur window washer for my mother for years now, and I think I could go pro. Especially if I got fancy window washing equipment. And you get to see cities in a way that not many people get to. Who cares if the UK thinks window washing is one of the most dangerous jobs out there? They drive on the wrong side of the road, what do they know?

I hear construction in Alaska is a pretty booming industry. Especially in the summer, when it isn't too cold to snow. I could put up with Seward's Folly for a nice view, and decent pay.

Next summer I might be working at Schloß-Wartin, a mere 15 Km from Poland, helping the professor there run his house. He's in the process of historically renovating his 450 year old house, and his mansion also has an attached "garden." I say "garden," because that's the closest word that describes the orchard/field/flower, vegetable, and other plant filled couple dozen acres behind the house. Maybe by the time I get back there he'll have a spatula, and Bryan, Nimit, and I won't have to grill our wurst with sticks:

I've had a hankering to go back to Philmont and work as a ranger, if I could. I really enjoyed the 12 days I spent backpacking there, and the idea of getting paid to backpack through the wilderness sounds almost unfair to my would-be employers. I wouldn't mind being stationed in the back country and living in a rustic cabin, maybe teaching people to shoot black powder rifles, or lead them through abandoned coal mines. And I'd finally have an excuse to learn how to play the fiddle. Well, maybe just the harmonica.