time to fill your prescription

the forecast calls for bright sunny skies and a high of 76 today, but when i stepped outside this morning i would have sworn, by the look of it, that we were in for a storm. then my other senses kicked in: i could smell and taste smoke, and i remembered that we've hit the season of prescribed burns.

Right now, about 20 miles north of town, the forest service is burning 3800 acres of gambel oak and douglas fir. dozens of fire jumpers from all over the intermountain world (montana, idaho, washington and oregon) are here helping to keep the fire in control while the Bureau of Indian Affairs uses their "helitorch" helicopter to drop a gelatinous form of petroleum into the forests to advance the blaze in the prescribed direction.

something about this freaks me out. maybe it's that it seems so familiar and analogous to the routines of the pharmaceutical companies (let's find a symptom that might, in certain instances, result in severe physical disorder and come up with a "treatment" that eliminates/reduces its immediate physical manifestation and then convince everyone that they need it and at the same time ignore the other underlying invisible factors that might really be the source of the problem that are just too big and too inopportune to make money/employ lots of people). or maybe i'm just freaked out that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has a piece of equipment called the Helitorch in a region called Purgatory. hmmm. well, i guess i'll go put my gas mask on so i can go plant my garden which will eventually be watered with petroleum laden snow melt. yeehaw.