BM2K8 Playa ROM 1 Playa ROM 2 Playa ROM 3
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Burning Man 2008 - Playa ROM, p. 2
| Saturday 5 July 2008 | | |
After midnight the "day shift" wanders away and the grave people get into full swing. Here's our burn barrel complaint department, in operation. Inspiried designs, I think. I need one of these for my front garden.
The temperature drops below 70° F (21° C) and the sweatshirts and Ranger jackets come out. Not zipped up, but donned.
Speaking of Ranger jackets, Ranger Safety Phil wanted his decorated with some gunshot holes. Always happy to oblige, I peppered his jacket from side to side with .40SW rounds. Near the end of the second magazine, I decided to see just how accurate I could be. Taking double the time, making sure to be surprised by the firing, I put a round right through the pocket label from about 25 feet.
Here's a close-up of the damage. Can you tell I'm pretty pleased? I'm not sure I could put a second one there.
Here's Safety Phil, modeling the jacket post-treatment. It looks better in person.
A panorama of our gun range. We had about five or six folks firing at a time, with everything from small .22 pistols to H&K long rifles. Rather than delegating the task, we all were Range Safety Officers at the same time. Chaotic, but really, really safe.
Ranger Fuzzy, and his .357, held the right flank of the line. Fuzzy also put a few rounds through Safety Phil's jacket. The difference in exit hole size is really amazing to see. Ouch.
Ranger Teksage came prepared with quite the variety of weapons, inculding this AK-47 variant. The amount of spray is most interesting to see, compared with the other, more deliberate hardware we had on the line.
Here's yours truly with two H&Ks: the USP Compact .40SW on my hip, and the long gun on my shoulder. It was a comfortable weapon to fire, but I felt out of place not being in the prone position, with some sandbags. Ahhhh, that Army training.
As adequete as I am with bangstix, Ranger Crizzly is proof that practice makes perfect. He can put a round through whatever I hit, with both a handgun and long gun. Here he's hitting targets on the high ridge, about 600 yards away.
Ranger Tahoe joined us, firing (IIRC) my USP Compact. Her hat is suspiciously clean, and doesn't have enough flair :-)
Yes, those are goats you see in our main lecture area. Ranger Farmer brought two of them up. They're friendly, no trouble at all, and somehow really make the scene come alive; very old city souk.
A vital part of the Ranger infrastructure, for helping both kind citizens and malcontents, the tow truck becomes the center of attention. Here's how, and what not to do, and some tales from the dusty side.
The lecture portion of training done, scenarios start. Here Rangers Fuzzy and Lefty act out (and I do mean "act out", with drama and humor) a married couple fighting over their missing child. The alphas are confronted with drama, possible domestic violence, and confusing information. It's the funniest thing I've seen in years. Only after keeping the alphas engaged for a while does it slip out that the kid is in their 40s.
The spectacular acting continues. Here's Ranger Genius making life difficult by screaming "we need help over here" everytime the radio gets keyed. The loud and rambling tale of too many special brownies offered by a stranger and ingested with gusto by their group keeps us all in stitches. Man, if every day on the playa was this much fun!
Ranger Borderline, the third of the trio, runs around the arriving alphas, taking of his clothes and getting in their way. "Pink," he shouts good-naturedly, "I smell pink. Isn't it a tasty color? Do you smell pink?" Then, not being enough of a challenge, he starts his best Hunter Thompson imitation by repeatedly screaming "BATS!" and continuing to be a nuisance.
Rangers Wicked, Longshot, Crow, Jinx [checking phone], and Feline have a conference under the shade structure.
Junior Ranger Little Painless watches as Ranger Crizzly hydrates a goat. No jokes, you!
On the firing line, I'm blasting away. I like this photo for the casing caught flying mid-air. My posture, not so much.
Ranger LongPig is up next. I think this is a larger caliber pistol with a .22 conversion kit. It was cool to see, and very inexpensive to shoot. None for the H&Ks though.
Rangers Tahoe and Lefty groove on the beautiful sunset, brought to us courtesy of the airborne particulate from the fires raging north and south. Too brief, but beautiful.
Rangers Santa Cruz, Lefty, Tahoe, Feline, and Vichy Lobo soak in Trego Trench. The water was hotter than in years past, as LongPig had warned us, but once the sun goes down hot water is exactly what's needed. Sipping cooling beverages and good conversation helps too.
I tossed my waterproof camera over and someone takes a photo of me. A joy, as I often wind up leaving events without any photographic evidence to share.
The return home was eventful, getting disoriented on the playa. The clouds raced in as were heading across, blocking out the moon (our marker) and the stars. The bisquik playa surface made it easy to drive out of true. But we made it back in short order, continued with the libations and conversations, and fell asleep under the stars.
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