bonfires and midnight shifts
Dec. 25th, 2005 02:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smileswhfI went out with a couple of friends to see the xmas eve bonfires tonight. On the stretch of the mississippi between new orleans and baton rouge, the tradition is to build bonfires to help papa noel find his way over river and bayou to the cajun children. My cohorts and I, displaced city folk all, made the trek south on our search to find out.
The bonfires were quaint. They are actually pretty small -- most of them are pyramids made out of willow trees that are about 10' high although there were a couple of other shapes. Folks just walk along the top of the levee and go from one fire to the next. Down at the street level, there were some houses with stereos setup and some small parties going. And there was one vendor tent selling hot cocoa and funnel cake, which is very like navajo fry bread. None of it is very impressive until you start walking north and the road curves to let you see that the fires go on for miles. I had expected more of a party, kind of a mardi gras warm up or something. Instead it was very small town, with the kids rolling down the grass on the side of the levee. One of the people I was with just loves all that small town stuff. She was beaming the whole time. I was less enthused. I got caught yawning and was rather bored.
I am on shift at work tonight from midnight to 8am. It's a science monitor shift, something that I am completely unqualified for. Luckily, things are quiet. The instrument has been in science mode and taking data for 12 hours and it seems very likely that we might stay in science mode until I leave. When it's taking data, there really isn't much to do but try and stay awake. Harry is the operator on shift tonight and it's just the two of us sitting here. He is watching Last of the Mohicans on his laptop and I'm telling him tales of watching that movie during spring break on the hoopa reservation. I had a friend in law school whose family was a medicine family on the res.
The bonfires were quaint. They are actually pretty small -- most of them are pyramids made out of willow trees that are about 10' high although there were a couple of other shapes. Folks just walk along the top of the levee and go from one fire to the next. Down at the street level, there were some houses with stereos setup and some small parties going. And there was one vendor tent selling hot cocoa and funnel cake, which is very like navajo fry bread. None of it is very impressive until you start walking north and the road curves to let you see that the fires go on for miles. I had expected more of a party, kind of a mardi gras warm up or something. Instead it was very small town, with the kids rolling down the grass on the side of the levee. One of the people I was with just loves all that small town stuff. She was beaming the whole time. I was less enthused. I got caught yawning and was rather bored.
I am on shift at work tonight from midnight to 8am. It's a science monitor shift, something that I am completely unqualified for. Luckily, things are quiet. The instrument has been in science mode and taking data for 12 hours and it seems very likely that we might stay in science mode until I leave. When it's taking data, there really isn't much to do but try and stay awake. Harry is the operator on shift tonight and it's just the two of us sitting here. He is watching Last of the Mohicans on his laptop and I'm telling him tales of watching that movie during spring break on the hoopa reservation. I had a friend in law school whose family was a medicine family on the res.
