morgbin - Tumblr blog

morgbin · 7 months ago

Text

Monday 10/7 (Inspection Day)

On Sunday night around 8pm, we got an email from Mom explaining how the logistics on inspection day were going to work. Everything was as I expected but it was good to get it explicitly written out. The busses were gonna leave from Gerlach and the Ranch at the usual time, roll call at 8:30, and the inspection starts at 9. We should pack a lunch, but the "Purple People Feeder" would be out with a "special surprise." There were 10 Team Captains that Mom selected who would be leading each inspection team. And we could hope to be done by about 1pm.

On Monday morning, King Louie lamented that "everything had been packed up already" which meant there was no printer to print out the role call sheet, and we did it with the stacks of time cards instead. He got to the end without having called my name (plus several others) and I shout-whispered "Say Diesel!!!" which he did, and I shouted "DEEZ NUTS" - which put the kibosh on that one and he told the rest of the folks whose names hadn't been called to come over to Mom and have her write our names down. It turned out to be mostly the people who were out there as volunteers. I was surprised at the number of other people who had been out there the whole season as volunteers as well.

DA had some people hold up the map like usual and he plus some others gave us a pep talk.

When you walk the circle, you're going to find stuff. That doesn't mean you didn't do your job. Your job was to get 75% of the stuff, and the big stuff that would fail us.

the closure order ended a week ago. People have been camping out here. If you find some big stuff - like we found a BBQ grill this morning in an area y'all definitely walked through earlier - just call DA on the radio. We won't be judged on that sort of thing.

We're only judged on the surface area of the moop we find. If we find something deeply buried, take a picture of it before pulling it out of the ground. if we find a wadded up ball of paper, don't un-wad it.

Rocks don't count, *unless* they're bigger than 2" across

Don't stress too much about extra playa left on stuff. The BLM will run everything though a strainer later and then take pictures against a green screen and use pixel analysis to determine the actual percentage of moop left behind.

In addition to the 120 random points that we're judged on, there are 6 "points of interest" which are measured and tracked every year, for...vague statistical purposes. Those points are: The Temple, The Man, HEAT, The DPW Depot, USS, and Shoreline (also referred to as the JOC)

Today, we are all representatives of burning man. This might be the only contact that any of these BLM agents/volunteers ever have with Burning Man. Do a good job representing the org. If the BLM person you're with is a geology nerd, let them tell you all about the Black Rock Desert. If they're a No Nonsense Guy, then meet their business attitude and Get It Done. If they're curious about the event, share your best stories.

One verbal quirk I haven't observed before: When someone started saying something slightly inaccurate, DA butted in by saying "Exit. Can I double hands that?"

Then, the 10 previously selected Team Captains lined up, and there was a scramble for the rest of us to join a crew. Our crew ended up with one too many people and an awkward moment soliciting a volunteer to join a different group. But once all the teams had the right number of people (7, including the team captain), we all got into DPW fleet vehicles and headed out to do our inspections. Our crew of 8 immediately hopped in the nicest truck and some of us got into the bed of the truck, the rest of the crews did the same. Then our group was told no, we needed to switch vehicles so we ended up in one without a bed and I climbed in and out of the hatchback all day and sat in the trunk.

We received a map with all 120 points labeled, plus a list of 13 points that we were to survey There are 4 zones: Open Playa, City Grid, Walk-In Camping, and Other, labeled with initials and numbers like: OP-01, CG-001, WIC-01, O-01. We were assigned an area near 8:00&K, with some Other points and some City Grid points.

This is the map from 2023, this year's was similar.

We arrived at the first point and met up with our BLM representative, driving her own vehicle. She appeared to be a woman in her mid 20s, with a not-exactly-a-pixie-cut and wearing work pants. She introduced herself as Brandy. She said she was a "Hydro Intern" this summer and was only told she'd need to do this task sometime last week. We stood around in awkward silence as she fumbled to get the stake hammered into the ground, then she pulled the rope taut and walked in a brisk circle. There were a couple pieces of moop on the ground that we put into the ziplock bag, handed to Brandy, and then Brandy and Muppet had a conversation to decide which point to go to next. We got in the car and followed Brandy as she drove past the point they had decided to a different point that we were also assigned. As everyone in the car was saying "what is she doing?" "where's she going" etc, I thought it might be a good idea to ask pronouns during the next inspection point. We stopped the car, got out, and met Brandy at the point. She produced the ziplock bag labeled with the point that we had meant to go to, realized her mistake, and went back to the car to get the correct bag. Once we were set up along the taut string, someone suggested that we go a bit slower this time. Brandy agreed but gave the string to one of us and said she would just watch and have one of us set the pace. As far as I understand it, the BLM representative is meant to hold the string to set the pace as a way for the BLM to ensure the inspection is done thoroughly. it felt a little transgressive and exciting that she had abdicated this responsibility, but I think the inspection was done *more* thoroughly because of it - the rest of us had all participated in the test team inspections throughout Resto, and walked much more slowly than Brandy did on her first go-round.

during this test point, I tried to engage Brandy in some conversation. I asked her about her internship (walking through muddy streams and cataloging species of grasses) and her plans after the internship (dunno, will go wherever the wind blows). After we finished the circle and most of the group had walked away I asked "what are your pronouns, by the way," and the response was seeming puzzlement and "she, her, whatever." so, my previous read was just wishful thinking, alas.

At one of the points we did, we found a tent stake stuck so deep that we needed to call DA to come get it out with tools, but other than that they were all *really* clean. We asked Brandy to tell us water facts, and Shouting regailed us with whale facts, and for our final test point we decided we should subject Brandy to some meltdown music. So everyone queued up The Spark (that Irish kids song that went viral on tiktok this summer) and pressed play on our phones at the same time. We all had different crossfade settings on Spotify though, so by the third repeat we were wildly out of sync.

We had to hand off three of our points to another team that was chugging along a lot faster than we were, but then after we were done, we all headed to center camp for lunch.

The purple people feeder was indeed out there for lunch, but instead of tacos like usual, it was chili dogs (chili dog song). We all joked about how messy of a food it was to serve on inspection day, and sang along to the chili dog song and compared notes. It seemed like every team had a similar experience to us - no obviously failing spots, *maybe* one borderline spot. The mood was high. We did timesheets. One guy started a bizarre ritual he called "sink the Barbie" which was kinda like bobbing for apples but with Barbie dolls, chanting, and cult vibes.

The team leads had a huddle with DA where I presume they compared notes on the test points. although the official word won't come for months, it was clear by this point that we had passed without question.

after an hour or so of cheerful chatting, eating, and silliness, we got on our buses and headed back to town.

I packed up my stuff into the two 27 gallon totes I had, and loaded up my car. it was about 1:00 p.m., and I was hoping to leave gurlock before sunset. I sat outside the saloon and waited for Riley and Willoh. they had been talking about getting a tattoo from me - they wanted now written on their wrist where their watch would go. While I was setting up, a couple more people said they wanted a tattoo which I was super down for. I was running really low on alcohol swabs at this point though so I told Be Nasty that if she found me a bottle of isopropyl alcohol I would do hers, and thankfully she did!

After I did a few pokes on Riley, they seemed up for doing the rest themselves, and Willoh was already keen on doing theirs theirself. So I was able to do two more, including my favorite stick n poke job I've done so far on Be Nasty.

Since I was still around when the dining hall opened, I had one last meal there, then did my last stick n poke on Deadliest Threesome before heading out.

I made it to the Motel 6 in Klamath Falls and stayed the night, then got up in the morning and did the rest of the drive home listening to my Meltdown song playlist and trying to memorize Weird Al's "Albuquerque."

0 notes

morgbin · 9 months ago

Text

Wednesday 10/2 (Day 17)

Before heading out to Shoreline, since I had missed breakfast, I stopped at Bruno's and actually bought food there for once. Swiss mushroom burger, and it was great. Then I drove out to Shoreline and knocked on all of the office doors, but Mom wasn't around, so I waited around a bit till someone with a radio showed up and I asked him to radio for Mom.

A couple minutes later, one of the oscillators pulled up and deposited two passengers before heading out. The folks he dropped off were walking the lines earlier but needed to bow out - the guy had gotten a tattoo yesterday "from Olaf, on the Ranch." he pointed at one of the fleet vehicles and asked if I thought he could use it to jump his car. I said I wasn't sure but if he had cables I could help out - which he did, and I did.

Then King Louie showed up to drive me out to the line. I apologized for being late and he said he was glad I came out anyway instead of taking the whole day off; we need every able-bodied person we can get, and he's been watching me and I seem more able than average. Which was nice to hear from an authority figure. Though, the compliment might only be because I always laugh at his jokes during roll call 😄

He dropped me off on Knots' line and the rest of the workday was uneventful. We picked up moop, took our afternoon break, picked up more moop, took morale break, picked up more moop, and then got on the busses to go back to Shoreline.

At dinner, I was talking about my top surgery, and showed some people the surgery video my surgeon posted on Snapchat. Gypsy Fire was absolutely enthralled, and I sent the link around to some folks. After dinner I joined a small group in one of the Estates trailers watching a movie, then bedtime!

Thursday 10/3 (Day 18)

Thursday morning I finally made a roll-call response that worked out correctly:

King Louie: Diesel?

Me: I'm a Duke out here looking for my -

King Louie: Dutchie?

And folks laughed.

The rest of the day was Normal. Pick up moop. Listen to weird music. Pick up moop. Throw dirt clods at eachother. Pick up moop. Sit in the shade. Pick up moop. Compare our coolest finds. Pick up moop. Get on the busses. Pick up moop. Chat with the person next to you. Pick up moop.

After the workday, shower, dinner, my lil crew went to the Saloon to play Frick Frack Blackjack. Amber, one of the bartenders, hosts it. she showed up to the saloon with a bag full of knickknacks frick frack. each hand, you and the dealer negotiate for what you're putting up and what you're playing for. then it's a regular hand of blackjack. I only played one hand and I lost three pins that we're pretty cool objectively but I didn't particularly care for.

I also spent time in the bar talking to Shouting and Deadliest Threesome - this really rad couple who also mostly walks Knots' line. they told me some stories about working gate and Deadliest lent me a knife so I could join the long tradition of vandalizing the bar top with my playa name.

I learned 3 things about Gate worth sharing:

1. basically what we already know: make sure the truck is packed in such a way that there is a path to the back. it doesn't have to be a path on the floor or anything, just enough space along the top of everything that someone can monkey in and clamber over everything to search for stowaways. Gate searches are vibes-based, so they go faster if your friendly and open and offer a cold NA beverage. it's also a nice tradition to offer something as a donation to the black hole bar

2. Shouting gave an example of what she says when asking people about contraband. "is there anything else I should know about? stowaways, Astro turf, weapons, fireworks, beer to give away, gremlins...?" he said he tries to strike a balance between making people feel at ease with jokes and intimidating them into telling the truth.

3. All the fireworks that they confiscate and "dispose of properly "? in this context, dispose of means set them off at the gate parade.

The other activity at the bar tonight was a stitching bitch posted by permission granted. many people pass through to stitch some patches onto their clothes. permission granted also taught me how to make "yarn" out of plastic bags, enabling more of my trash wording behavior. I told her my girlfriends would be mad at her (joking) and she said she's not sorry.

Friday 10/4 (Day 19)

Today during the morning meeting we got an inspirational speech about how tough the .002% moop standard we're held to is. It included the line "companies are allowed more rat shit in their canned goods than we are moop on the playa."

At 11:15 I got a ride back to Shoreline from Honor so that I could be in a place with wifi to do a video interview. A full time job opened up at Teen Feed that fits my skills and interests, and I'm really excited about the position. I did the interview from my car because the wind was too high. I feel like it went well, and it went over by 20 minutes which seems like a good sign.

When I was done, the rest of the resto crew had returned to Shoreline to "free range moop" the area. Shoreline is the base for DPW immediately pre- and post- event. During the event, it's called "JOC" and is the place where law enforcement sets up. The moop there was primarily wood chips, and also lots of droplets of what felt like foam - probably spray insulation from the temporary trailers.

At around 2:30, DA called us all over and said the visibility was too bad to continue for the day. The high winds kick up a bunch of dust and make it difficult to see beyond a few feet in front of you. This is dangerous when you've got over a hundred workers to account for. We don't want to leave anyone out on the playa. Tomorrow is the last day of work before the inspection, and DA told us to take the time to rest. Starchild jumped in and said "There's this phenomenon which happens sometimes, where, when we get time off, paradoxically fewer people show up to work the next day" and asked us to please not let that happen this time.

I wanted to get cake mix and candles at the Empire store, so after getting back to Gerlach I made the rounds and offered to get things for anyone else who wanted stuff that isn't available in Gerlach. I ended up with a shopping list that I needed to write down: rolling papers, ice cream, vitamins, nitrous, "a goddamn vegetable", a vape, and of course the cake and candles I went for. This wasn't the first errand of this kind I made. Empire is only about 10 minutes away from Gerlach by car, but less than half of the folks staying in Gerlach have access to a car, it seems. It's different on the Ranch, where people are staying in mostly their own trailers/RVs.

Which brings me to my evening plans! Right after dinner, a few of us headed out to Fly Ranch (not the same as The Ranch, I'm getting there) for the "staff soak." There's a hot spring at Fly Ranch, which is usually open for staff use 7pm - 9pm on Wednesdays and Sundays during the season. This week the Wednesday one was moved to Friday instead, because it's "Friends and Family Weekend" at Fly Ranch. No one ever explained to us what that actually meant, but functionally what it meant for us was that there were a bunch more people at the soak than usual, and they were energetic and clean and talking about their big boy jobs and the vibes were, uh, off. But the water was hot and the stars were beautiful and it was still a really nice time.

But then our lil squad left and headed for The Ranch. If you drive ~10 min past the entrance for the Fly Ranch hot spring, there's another entrance to a property that folks call The Ranch. Sorry for all of the buildup; It's basically just a trailer yard. During pre- and post- season, if you have your own RV, that's where you park it. They have their own common house, commissary, and bar. It's also the home of the Burning Man Trailers (BMTs). If you are a DPW Manager without your own RV you're likely to be assigned one of these. Couples, also, often get placed in them. This year was apparently abnormal, as over half of the resto workforce was staying at The Ranch instead of in Gerlach.

As for my evening - it was nice & uneventful. Made pasta, ate candy, played "10 Drunk Cigarettes" on repeat, and gossiped.

Saturday 10/5 (Day 20)

I was late again, on my last day. I woke up at 11:30 and checked my phone - it had updated overnight.

I threw some granola bars in my backpack and drove straight out to Shoreline. Mom was still in her office and radioed for someone to come get me and take me out to the lines.

As it was the last day, our goal was to finish at least a first pass of everywhere. this meant we spent most of the time on the outskirts of the city, between the end of the city grid and the border of the trash fence.

We were visited again by cyber truck guy. I learned his handle: EWU Crew. This time he tried to get as close to us as possible. At some point he was even driving 50 ft in front of us, in the areas we were about to walk through. Our rangers and medics did a pretty good job of driving along beside him and blocking sightlines. People were pretty agitated about it, but managed to keep it together and not create any dramatic conflict. I'll keep my eyes out on the guy's channel, but I don’t think he got any good footage so there might not be anything to post.

After morale, we usually only walk one block. But this time, we kept rolling up to the end of the block but right before we got there the busses and fluffer trucks would start up and pull forward to the next marker. This was okay - everyone knew that it was our last opportunity to sweep the playa before inspection day on Monday. We ran over time by about a half hour and ended up back on the busses around 5.

The rest of the night was a delight. I used that cake mix from earlier and mixed in some peanut butter & chocolate chips to make a cake for Riley’s birthday. I thought she was turning 25 so I had to do some candle surgery to make it say 24 instead.

I gave several stick n pokes at the saloon.

We snuck into the covid trailer at The Estates and pushed the beds together to make one giant bed for wrestling matches. I was handily beaten once by a chick who participates regularly in a Queer fight night in Oakland, and my other match ended in a stalemate.

As it goes in this sort of environment, I made really intense friendships and it was bittersweet to be celebrating the last night together. not everyone was staying for the inspection on Monday, so we knew it was the last hurrah.

Sunday 10/6 (Day 21)

We were woken up by a knock from housing and an exhausted “you’re not supposed to be in here”

The rest of the day felt like the last day of summer camp. Lots of goodbyes. Some stick-n-pokes. Some other activities. A beautiful sunset. I wrote some, but I’m going to save that for another time and place. I went to bed by midnight, prepped and ready for the BLM inspection Monday morning.

0 notes

morgbin · 9 months ago

Text

Tuesday 10/1 (Day 16)

I stayed up way too late last night playing Stardew Valley on my phone so I had a hard time waking up. By the time I got out of the Copper Pit it was 7:55 and there was no way I was gonna get food and also make the bus, so I decided to drive myself. This had a positive knock-on effect as well: I've observed that I have significantly better days on the lines when I am sober, and the choice to drive out to Shoreline myself enforced that behavior.

Sidenote: I've told many people about this observation, and I am a little bit baffled by the response. They will be supportive of self-knowledge, obviously, and then say something like "Myself, I've been sober every day. I can't imagine being on drugs out here in the sun" when I've literally seen them hitting their weed vape, accepting the joints that get passed around, and having a beer at morale. I guess they are, as the saying goes, California Sober.

Today marked the second day in a row that my roll-call response flopped. For most of resto, the person right after me has been Dutchie. On Monday, after King Louie called "Diesel" I said "I like to jump rope, especially double-" and King Louie said "...Dorkmagic?" So, today I answered with, "Tell me something your mom calls you and then the name of a card game you like" and King Louie then called out "Dutchie?" 🤦‍♂️

I walked on Knots' line again today. We spent most of the day split up again into Knots & Starchild on one side of the city and Cool Whip & Pirhana on the other. I like this configuration. It seems to go faster to get two lines lined up & spaced out properly than it is to get all four.

Sometime after the first fluff break, Shouting found a lollipop on playa (open, partially consumed), and jokingly offered it to everyone. As we know, the only thing I crave more than sugar is attention, so I grabbed it and immediately started sucking on it, to the satisfying shocked looks of everyone around. Disappointingly, it was chocolate - the *worst* lollipop flavor - and there wasn't even a Tootsie roll in the center. When Shouting told Knots what happened, her response was "of course he would." Affectionate teasing from authority figures is one of the best kinds of attention so by that point my day was already made.

The drama of the day was the appearance of a lost pelican on playa.

This evening was so pleasant. A small group of us drove out to the Black Rock Hot Springs for someone's birthday, made mac & cheese and laid out under the stars. Sadly the hot spring was too hot to tolerate, but the adventure was worth it nonetheless. We drove straight across playa from Shoreline to the hot springs. Previously I had only ever driven 10mph max on playa. It was so cool to be ripping 55 as the sun was setting. And mildly nerve-wracking to be doing the same on the way back but in pitch blackness. I was thrilled to be the one driving, so glad that my choice of car continues to prove useful.

When we got back to Gerlach, a few of us stayed up a bit longer cuddling and talking shit about people who annoy us - one of my favorite hobbies.

Then I stayed up waaaaaaayyyyy too late flipping back and forth between my attempt to write a cover letter on my phone and YouTube shorts. Some habits ya can't break, i guess.

0 notes

morgbin · 9 months ago

Text

Tuesday 10/1 (Day 16)

The drama of the day was the appearance of a lost pelican on playa.

When we got back to Gerlach, a few of us stayed up a bit longer cuddling and talking shit about people who annoy us - one of my favorite hobbies.

Then I stayed up waaaaaaayyyyy too late flipping back and forth between my attempt to write a cover letter on my phone and YouTube shorts. Some habits ya can't break, i guess.

0 notes

morgbin · 9 months ago

Text

Monday 9/30 (Day 15)

I was wrong! I did find out what the result of the sheriffs talking to the cyber truck guy was! A no trespassing order that lasts 6 months on "Bob", the lead guy of the blogging contingent. He was actually in violation of the event closure order - only missed it by a few hours since it ended at midnight on Saturday.

So the guy is not allowed in Black Rock City. And today DA at morning meeting told us that Pershing county gave us a phone number told us to call if the guy shows back up again. They asked us for volunteer witness statements, which can also cover last year.

Leeway also addressed it at the meeting and said basically: if they come back, they're looking for a confrontation. Call the rangers and pretend they're not there. Be as boring as possible so they have as little as possible to post on their shitty blog. If you feel unsafe, react as you would in any unsafe situation: get away from them. But otherwise just do your job and try to be boring.

This morning on the lines was a little fucking much. The porto truck was driving really close to the oscillator truck and too many people on the line also had their own speakers out, so it was just a complete cacophony. I put in my earplugs and headphones and finished the audiobook I was reading and then started Dune (because 2 Perfect had been listening to it last week and really liked it, and I've never actually given it a shot).

The afternoon was better though. Knots' oscillator (who is *actually* named Lil Caprisun and who I have been calling Juicebox this whole time because I overheard what I did not realize at the time was a joke) was playing some hyperpop jams again. Plus, we did an area along Esplanade that hadn't yet been covered and I found some really cool shit.

At morale, Dan Berry brought out an ice cream bar. He had a half dozen flavors and tons of toppings. After morale Caprisun was playing millennial-core pop punk and the whole line got very into it.

Dinner was meatloaf, which I fuckin love. And I spent my evening working on computer stuff in the saloon till they kicked me out at 11:45. Onwards to tomorrow!

0 notes

morgbin · 9 months ago

Text

Saturday 9/28 (Day 13)

Today is Family Day! There are a half dozen kids joining us on the line today. I haven't interacted with them at all yet though because today I volunteered to join Job Security on the Test Team.

This team spends their days doing mock inspections mimicking what the BLM will do on the actual inspection day. We have a crew of 5 for the mock inspections whereas for the actual one it's 7 of us plus one BLM Ranger.

For our mock inspections today, we're trying to hit 5 spots at each of the 5 points of the city. We pick a spot, then mark it in Fulcrum, the app Resto uses to track all of the moop in the city. We have a 38 ft string tied to a lagbolt. Pound it into the ground, and we line up along the string. The person on the outer edge holds the string and sets the pace by walking heel to toe in a circle. everyone picks up every single piece of moop we see as we walk slowly behind the string. everything we collect goes into a Ziploc bag. if there's less than 3.8 square inches of stuff on the surface of the playa, then the test passes. for the actual inspection, we test 100 points, and we need to pass 98 of them.

The morning was chill, we moved at a pretty good pace.

At lunch, DA calls us all over to address a cyber truck who had been circling around all day. Apparently this guy had been around last year as well. He asked us to just ignore them, to stop mooning them, and make sure to cover our faces with scarves etc if we didn't want to be identified in the guy's video. Someone pointed out that if we play Disney music, the guy can't use the audio and monetize it, so, fittingly for family day, it also became Disney Day.

I met a few folks who had driven out from SF just to volunteer for the day with us. They had great energy and it was a boost to morale to be around people who weren't quite as crusty as the rest of us.

After lunch, I headed back out with the test team and we got a few more points done. At some point, a couple of sherrif cars came out and talked to the cyber truck guy for a half hour. I don't know what the conclusion of the whole thing was and probably won't ever find out. But lemme know if you see a video from some guy hating on burning man in a couple weeks.

During Morale we signed time cards. Then did a couple more points and our day was done!

Tonight was the annual Talent Show. This is a tradition DA started over a decade ago. It was hosted at the Saloon. It was a real joy to watch. There were a bunch of really talented folks singing and playing instruments, poetry, fire dancing, and a little art gallery set up as well. Of course there were also some goofy skits and in-jokes, a good time all around.

The show ended a bit after 1, but the saloon stayed open the rest of the night and into the mid-afternoon Sunday. I went to bed around 7am and then slept till dinner on Sunday, a solid choice.

Sunday 9/29 (Day 14)

After dinner, a group of us headed out to Fly Ranch to take a dip in the hot spring there. The stars were gorgeous, you could see the milky way. Obviously pictures cannot do it justice.

Now I'm back in Gerlach. I'm gonna shower, maybe play Catan, and try and find some folks for stick n pokes. Tomorrow is another workday. Only 6 more days to go before the end of Resto!

0 notes

morgbin · 9 months ago

Text

Friday 9/27 (Day 12)

Yesterday I was asked "what's to stop anyone from just skipping work any day they don't feel like coming?" and today has proved the answer is "absolutely nothing."

I got up at 7:45, which means I had to miss both breakfast *and* making lunch - so I grabbed a protein shake and a packet of dry ramen to eat on the bus and hoped the fluffers had enough snack bars to get me through lunch. I got on the bus and ... there was *one* other person on. We waited till 8:05 and still, the bus is less than half full. Last night at the bar was "Al Night Long", an Al Yankovich themed party, and people went all out. A little too all out, it seems.

At morning meeting, DA says we're gonna change plans and only cover one block today: F to G. We're gonna start at 6:00 and half of the crew will go clockwise and the other half counter clockwise, and we'll meet back up at 12:00 (address) at the end of the day. This is because of how few people we are today. He stresses how important attendance is, and encourages us to lightly peer pressure our friends who are back at their bunks sleeping off the hangover.

Consider this the continuation of yesterday's post - since today was a pretty typical day.

I decide to join Knots' line, which turns out to be a great choice. It's Knots and Starchild on our side of the city, and the vibes are excellent. from the first "Death March" until our first fluff break, we've got "Born A Worm" on repeat and everyone is singing along in high spirits. After that, the oscillator is playing weirdass songs but thankfully nothing too annoying on loop. Our first fluff break is around 11am. When we get to the end of the block, instead of driving away from us and towards the next block (to keep us facing the right direction), the fluffer trucks throw open their back doors and pull out their coolers full of water/Gatorade and the buckets of snacks. We have about 15 minutes to sit in the shade of the fluffer truck, chat, hydrate, smoke cigarettes, and snack.

After that it's back to the lines for another hour and a bit, before lunch break. Today we're told to get back on the busses and the two groups meet up at center camp for lunch. Dan Berry has brought out his taco truck and I get in line for some fresh tacos. This always seems to happen on the days I forget my lunch, thankfully!!

Unfortunately though, partway through lunch, the most assholish fluffer starts playing the whistle stop song on loop. This is something I haven't touched on here yet and I ...don't have the energy to go into it right now, but, suffice to say that there's a culture here of playing annoying songs on repeat until someone has a "meltdown" and they think it's fucking hilarious and I am Not A Fan.

Actually, tbh they don't even stop after the fucking meltdown, so fuck this and fuck them and especially fuck Tiny.

ANYWAY they were playing this stupid fucking song on repeat at lunch so I put in my earplugs and headphones and had an antisocial 30 minute lunch.

sidenote: the oscillator running on Knots' line, Juicebox, is a perfectly normal human about all this. They were playing a sensible-to-play-on-repeat electronic song while we were walking on the line. When it came time for a break, I asked "could we get some variety for the break?" they nodded and then switched to a playlist. And that was the entire interaction and no one was a dick about it. AS IT SHOULD BE.

Anyway, after lunch we get driven back to the part of the city we were walking previously. The afternoon is a little rougher sun-wise, so it goes a bit slower. This is a video I took of the process, as you can see it's pretty tedious but satisfying.

We get another 15 minute fluff break around 2:30, and thennnn ~3:30 is the most beloved tradition: Morale!

For Morale, all of the fluffer trucks and busses group up together just like for lunch and situate themselves to provide maximum shade. The fluffers put coolers out on the ground and everyone is free to grab their own beers. These are all still donations from Collexedus, so it's a motly assortment.

On Saturdays, Morale is also when timecards are signed. Morale lasts about half an hour, and then we go back to the lines for one more block before we get back onto the busses to make our way back to Shoreline.

At Shoreline, we sort our moop into recycling, trash, batteries, and metal scrap.

Then we get back on the busses yet again and head out to Gerlach/the Ranch.

That was Friday! I had a great evening hanging out with some cool folks and went to bed 👍👍

0 notes

morgbin · 9 months ago

Text

Thursday 9/26 (Day 11)

Well! it is Thursday. My second Thursday here. Yesterday was our first day off since the rain. I had such a big plans. I was going to party on Tuesday night with everybody at the bar, then wake up on Wednesday morning and do stick n pokes, then drive out to the Walmart in Fernley and pick up some miscellanee. but my body had different plans for me! around 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday night I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. I was coughing up phlegm, sneezing, definitely sick with a cold. I turned off my morning alarm, and my body decided I was going to sleep until 6:30pm on Wednesday. I walked to the dining hall for dinner, then right back into bed. today ( Thursday ) was almost exactly the same. when my 7am alarm went off, I turned it off and decided today was another sleep all day situation. it was definitely the right call - I woke up at 1:30 p.m. feeling much much better. I had an email from the volunteer coordinator asking if I was okay since I wasn't at roll call this morning. I replied to that, plus messages from my family and girlfriends who hadn't heard from me in 2 days. I folded my laundry which had been sitting on my bed in a pile since Monday night, drank a bunch of water, and around 3pm decided I felt about normal and headed out to Fernley for that Walmart run. I don't remember what it was I wanted, but I'm sure I'll figure it out in the hour and a half it takes to drive out there.

this landscape is so gorgeous. Miles and miles of rolling hills of golden scrub brush, surrounded on all sides by weather worn mountains. occasional small herds of donkeys - I just saw one mounting another lol.

I'm going to try to catch up on the several days of notes that I've taken about this whole experience since I've got the afternoon free.

All right, first off, let's orient y'all to the various locations I'll be mentioning. there's two places where people are living while they're out here. I live in the city of Gerlach, and the other place people are living is "The Ranch." this is not fly ranch, it's a different place. I haven't been out there yet, so I don't exactly know what it's like, but that's where you're sent if you have your own RV. in Gerlach, there's a couple of people who own or rent property, but the majority of us are staying either in The Estates ( basically a trailer yard with mobile homes that bunk about eight people each, but they're only half full right now ) or in the Copper Pit ( a bunkhouse with 10 bunk beds, i.e. 20 places to sleep, that is also only about half full right now). The Copper Pit has four bathrooms with modern new-construction type fixtures. A shower, a sink, a toilet. there's a kitchen, with three modern high efficiency washer dryer combos, a sink, a stove/oven, and lots of counter and cabinet space. There's also a little hangout space with an L-shaped couch, a broken TV on the floor, and a piece of plywood on top of some 5gal buckets to serve as a table. I've been told this is quite the step up from last year. Each of the trailers in the estates has its own kitchen and bathroom, and some of them have laundry machines as well.

here's a list of all of the buildings I've observed in the town of Gerlach that aren't private residences:

the post office, open from 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

Joe's bar.

The Miner's Club - they sell coffee and smoothies and pastries as well as sunglasses, vapes, books, truck stop ephemera. there's also a thrift store / junk store in the back that I haven't been in yet.

The sheriff's office, which looks just like somebody's house with a hand-painted sign out front that says the sheriff's office.

The saloon, which I'll get more into later.

Bruno's motel.

Bruno's country club. Bruno's country club is a restaurant and bar. if you go around back, there's a hall in the back of Bruno's that serves as the commissary for burning Man people. it's open from 6am - 8am for breakfast and 6pm - 8pm for dinner. when you walk in, Auntie No No greets you by name and adds a tally for your meal in her little notebook. it looks like it's divided out by NVO vs DPW, so I guess theres some amount of internal department chargebacks that happen. sometimes it's Frog instead of Auntie No No. and sometimes breakfast is 10:00 to noon instead (as it was yesterday, since Resto had their day off). Lacey is a local who works in the kitchen at Bruno's as well as at the Miner's Club sometimes.

The Saloon

the saloon is the heart of the social scene for burning Man in Gerlach. you walk in and see the bar. to your left is a booth and on the wall behind the booth is electric candles and photos of former DPW who have passed away. to your right is a refrigerator with a wild assortment of drinks. water bottles and bubbly water, some beers, and whatever miscellaneous alcoholic canned beverages were left at the gate by participants during "collexadus". just beyond the fridge there's a aluminum can crusher mounted to the wall, and beneath it is a bucket full of crushed aluminum cans. a little farther back is a full bar. The bartop is carved with names of people who've sat there, and it's also covered in stickers. on the back wall is a giant assortment of various liquors, with all sorts of novelty signs and artworks up top. there's usually one or two bartenders each night. out in front of you is a pool table. there's a chalkboard on the wall next the pool cues where you can write your name to sign up to play the next game. there's another booth in the back that some people sit at.

If you make a hard left just past the DPW booth and pass through a curtain, you enter the computer lab. there's some couches, some bookshelves full of everything from modern fiction, local history, self-help sobriety, '80s national geographics, weird ass burner fiction... there's four computers that are set up so anyone can use them to check their email (or in my case, do research for their tabletop RPG).

if you go back into the bar and then straight through towards the back, you pass through another curtain and enter a multi-purpose room. there's four long wooden tables with long wooden benches that get rearranged into various configurations. to the left, there's two plastic tables set up covered in art supplies. there's some paintings in progress, and many finished ones leaning up against the walls. there's also a board game library which doesn't seem to get much use. in the back right corner is a stage. on my first night there, we had a Seattle-based country punk band that was touring and gave us a heck of a show. this is also where the INFAMOUS talent show takes place. in the back left corner is the swap station. there's some clothing racks full of burner type clothes, and a table of toiletries and sunscreen etc that are all free for the taking. this is a combination of things that were collected during Collexedus, things that were picked up during Trash Train, and things that folks working Early Resto had dropped off on their last couple of days before leaving. All the way in the way back are two bathrooms. they clearly used to say men's and women's, but those signs have been covered up with "urinal" "all gender" "toilet" "just pick one" "use whatever you want, just KNOCK first" and all sorts of stickers and graffiti condemning transphobia. there's also a couple of posters about harm reduction, safe drug use, narcan use, etc.

in between the art space and the swag swap station is another hallway. to the left is a pantry full of canned goods and dry pasta and all sorts of stuff that nobody really wants anymore, but was given to us during Collexadus. I found a bag of dry tortellini which I have been snacking on. I keep offering it to other people but nobody seems to want any, don't know why, it's truly excellent. straight forward is another room, with a big comfy couch and a large TV. someone's always watching something - I've seen JoJo's bizarre adventure, fifth element, mad Max, and many different anime that I did not recognize. if you go straight out from here, there's an exit to the outdoor parking lot. if you turn to the right, there's two kitchens that are free for the using. to be honest I haven't spent any time there because why would I cook when there's a commissary. but there are some people who like to make things in the evening and share with folks at the bar.

That's the saloon. excuse me if I do not edit this portion, I've been speech to texting it as I'm driving and I think I went into too much detail and I will bore myself to death if I have to read it again. as always though, if you have any questions, let me know and I'm happy to elucidate.

now that I've given the lay of the land, let me explain what a day on the lines looks like.

at 6:30 a.m. I start hearing other people's phone alarms go off. 7:40 and I'm one of the last ones leaving the copper pit. I grab my backpack and moop bucket and walk down to Bruno's for breakfast. Auntie No No asks if I'll be packing a lunch that day, I say yes, and she marks down two tallies for me. I hit the breakfast line, making sure to grab a couple extra pieces of bacon. there's usually a tray of something in sandwich-form which I'll take if I'm running later than usual. There's also always a vegan option.

Next up is sandwich-making. There's an array of breads, including a gluten-free loaf. Lotsa squeeze bottles of mayo and mustard, lunch meats, lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. Then some fold-top baggies to put the sandwich in, followed by a couple boxes of various chips and other bagged snacks. You can grab a paper bag to put it all in, or do like I do and put it in your own Tupperware.

Then the dining hall clear out real fast as everyone makes their way over to the saloon parking lot where there are two school busses idling. A contingent of folks finishes up their morning cigarette and/or blunt and we all get on the busses. There's just about enough seats for everyone to have their own but a couple of us have to put our bags in our laps and share seats.

The first couple of days, this was a silent ride. But by now, it is rowdy and spirited. If Woody is on the bus, he's playing that meme song "do I look like I know what a JPEG is? I just want a picture of a goddang hot dog" on repeat. and if Tomas is on, it's "Fake ID". if somehow, they're both on the other bus, then someone might start a sing-along of "99 chili dogs on the bus" or similar. No matter what it is, someone's havin the time of their lives, and someone else is yellin at them to stop.

20 or so minutes later, the bus pulls off of the highway onto the 12 mile access road. The buses drive on the playa to Shoreline. we all get off the bus and sit around putting on sunscreen and the like while everybody gets organized. there's one gal who walks around with four miniature teacups on a plate and offers tea to folks. this is the time when you can also go up to any of the special team leads (highway cleanup, test team, special forces) and express interest in joining their team for the day. a couple minutes later, King Louie yells at all of us to tighten up and starts calling out roll call. at first, this seems to me like a ridiculous waste of time. each individual name of the 150 or so is called out one by one and either says "here", "present", or something snarky. but now I really like it. it's all done by Playa names, not government names. and they're always in alphabetical order, so that lets you have some pretty good setups for snark. there are the people who always answer with a bit of propaganda that they want everyone else to know, like the lady who always responds "harm reduction saves lives", or me, I've taken to saying what the UV index is that day. but the best ones are the ones that play off of the name that comes after them.

King Louie: Howdy?

Howdy: how nice, how rad

King Louie: How cool?

King Louie: Rain?

Rain: somewhere over the

King Louie: Rainbow?

once roll call is done, those of us who are getting paid are officially on the clock. King Louie tells us to turn around, and behind us is Dark Angel, with two assistants holding up a giant print out of the event map. on the first day, it was just black and white. but now, every area that we've walked over has got some little red dots on it representing places we found lag bolts, rebar, or particularly big moop, along with other places shaded yellow for areas that had a lot of little bits we had to pick up.

DA gives us a rundown of how the day is going to look. we can usually do about 1/2 of a revolution around the city per day, give or take. we started on the first day walking clockwise the blocks from G to K starting at 2:00. halfway through day three, we moved on to Esplanade to C (Esplanade to A was split into two blocks). since I was out sick today and was on special forces on Tuesday, I'm not sure where we are now.

after DA talks, there's a couple announcements (sign up for the talent show, starchild usually tells us we're bad at picking up moop, reminder of the boil advisory from 9/26 to 9/29) and then after the call and response of "leave no trace" three times we get on the buses.

this is the point at which you figure out who's line you're going to be on that day. The bus drivers stay consistent day over day assigned to each of the four line bosses. each line boss has their own vibe. they have their fluffer truck driver, their own oscillator, and their own scribe. The oscillator has a speaker ratchet strapped to the roof of their car, pointing at the line. The fluffer truck is the one playing music during breaks though. after a couple of days, the people on each line starts to be consistent as well. so each of these four lines develops their own distinct culture, in jokes, and vibe. this is honestly a genius little addition to the whole experience of doing resto. developing a group identity helps people feel included, and the fact that the four lines have such different vibes means you almost certainly find a place you fit in. also, the lines are arranged on a spectrum from clean-cut to white-guy-dreads, and alternating silly serious silly serious. that means if you want to be on one of the fun lines, but you're off the bus slower than everybody else, you end up at the border between the fun line and the serious line, and if the fun line is too big that day, you get pushed over into the serious line. I'm going to explain my interpretation of the line differences. I'm curious to hear from other folks out here if they agree, and also I'm curious if my own interpretation changes over the next 10 days then I'm out here.

on one end, you have Starchild. Starchild's line is always the first one to line up after they get off the bus or finish their brakes or finish lunch. while Starchild is waiting for the other lines to line up properly, he's doing push-ups and air squats. he yells at his own line to " watch your spacing ", but doesn't call specific names or specific directions. Starchild has the best fluffer of them all. four separate Gatorade containers with different beverages in them. The best snacks. White cheddar Cheez-Its. and a bucket full of candy. I think she might even buy her own snacks fresh, not relying on just what we have from colexadus. I don't remember the music that the oscillator was playing - I was only on his line my first day.

next to starchild is Knots, short for Good with Knots. she is a trans woman with a she/they patch on her hat who uses her full chest resonance to project a deep booming voice. She's notorious for making new folks think she's angry with them. her oscillator usually starts the day off with a full album of something good - Charlie XCX, Chappel Roan, something like that. then it devolves into hyper pop remixes off of SoundCloud which are, I have to say, incredible. this line is where all of the queer people gravitate to. if you have been to Burning Man, you can imagine the demographics of this line. it's about 25% trans women, 50% non-binary weirdos, 25% cis(?) men(?) and me, the one trans guy.

Next to Knots' line is Piranha's, my true love. She carries a mug full of coffee and points at us in her flowing kimono, calls everyone by name and tells us to go right or left until the line is perfectly spaced. Her oscillator plays excellent rock and country, and never plays meltdown songs. The people who gravitate here seem to be the ones who are fairly serious about the job we're here to do, but...in a chill way.

The last line is Cool Whip's. This line is the one where every dead head with dreadlocks goes. it's the line where you go if you think being an asshole to eachother is funny. The oscillator plays shit just to be obnoxious. The best scribe is there - JR (Jupiter Rising) - and Cool Whip is great, but those are the only redeeming qualities. I'm glad there's a line for these people because while it's definitely not my line, they seem to enjoy it.

OKAY. So you've chosen your line, gotten on the bus, and the bus is driving you out to the place you're gonna start your day. it's around 9am or so. The bus stops. You leave your lunch on the bus and you all get out, and we spend about 10 minutes herding cats till we are all lined up with approximately equal numbers on each line, equally spaced out. If you're one of the last people to get off of cool whip's bus, you get sent down to the end bordering Piranha's line. You see the line bosses counting numbers and talking on the radio, and sometimes they point and say something like "everyone to the right of Retox, you're on Piranha's line today"

Once the line bosses have decided that everyone's equally spaced out and everything, they yell something (Cool Whip yells "blowjob", Knots yells "Death March), and we start walking forward slowly.

In the interest of getting to sleep and also getting a post out, I'm gonna stop here for now, but ....

TO BE CONTINUED.

0 notes

morgbin · 9 months ago

Text

Saturday (Day 6)

Day 3 of actual work and the schedule is already challenging me. I didn't make it up in time to go to the commissary before the busses left, so I grabbed some leftover tasty bites for lunch (thanks headshot!) and a protein shake for breakfast and got on the school bus out to the playa.

Today, I worked on the Special Forces crew. When we're walking the lines and find a "hot spot," instead of spending a bunch of time cleaning it up and making the other 3 lines wait for us, we put down a traffic cone and keep moving. Special Forces is the team that drives behind and "kills cones." At our morning briefing Muscle Tits - the Special Forces lead - announced that you could talk to her if you wanted to be on that crew, and that she would try to rotate through everyone who is interested.

Special Forces works in pairs, so I was assigned to ride with Mr. Dice. The pickup truck we get into is...in bad shape. It does _have_ both its doors, which is better than half of the fleet. But to get in, you have to reach through the window and muscle the inside handle with so much force that it breaks off sometimes and you gotta re-bolt it.

Our day consists of:

1. drive to the next come

2. Pick up as much moop as you can see

3. do a spiral sweep around the cone

4. Kill the cone

5. repeat

Sometimes another Special Forces truck would drive past us and join us if we needed help. Sometimes there's be 3 or 4 cones in an area and all 6 Special Forces trucks would come over and swarm the area. Very rarely, like for a burn scar, Muscle Tits would make the call and say the area needs a "scrape." The area gets marked in the app and later a bulldozer comes by to scrape off the top layer of playa.

Most of the moop we saw today was nothing special: staples, bits of plastic, screws, buried toilet paper. But we had 4 notable things:

Astroturf - this shit SUCKS. tiny fibers embedded in the playa. We spent 30 min or so working on it before Mr. Dice got fed up and said we're leaving the cone and coming back to it another day.

Styrofoam beads: scrape & shovel & hope the wind blows away anything you missed

Broken glass: one area full of safety glass, and another clearly broken beer bottle. Neither seemed to have been mooped *at all* previously. Like...someone just broke a mirror and then just...*left* it there. 🙄

Lag bolts/rebar/tent stakes: most lag bolts the oscillator can just pull out with vice grips. But special forces gets called in if it's worse than that. then the tactic becomes: attach a chain to the lag bolt and a truck, then drive away.

Other random bits from the day

- One area we spent a *lot* of time in was a certain art car camp. While mooping, I got to hear stories about how the camp had been a problem since they first arrived on playa, putting shift pods and water cubes in the road, reusing re-entry wristbands, among other things

- Muscle Tits asked us to keep reflective cones separate from non-reflective, because the reflective ones are used by gate. And every year when she arrives on playa, they have to spend a ton of time sorting cones because resto doesn't put them away separated.

- I volunteered to help run the talent show. Apparently this is a big deal and we were told at the beginning of the day that usually first years organize it. We had our first meeting right after the workday about it.

- We had a little patch ceremony during the morning meeting. Everyone sang Pomp and Circumstance while Dark Angel tapped us on each shoulder and chest saying some appropriately solemn phrase i can't remember, followed by "can I get a leave no trace?" and then the newbie who was just tapped says "leave no trace!"

- Someone mentioned that DA was in a GQ article, so during lunch, one guy grabbed a megaphone and started reading it aloud. People mostly ignored him but it was a pretty good bit regardless

- After dinner I went back to the Saloon and it was karaoke night! There were a couple karaoke classics, some songs I didn't recognize but the singer seemed super into, and quite a bit of Weird Shit. The last song of the night was Weird Al's Albuquerque and the whole bar got suuuper into it. I sang Fuck You Bitch, and the crowd was also super into it

- i didn't eat my tasty bites lunch. Instead, we were very generously visited by a taco truck manned by folks from in town.

0 notes

morgbin · 9 months ago

Text

Thursday (Day 4)

No updates for a few days because we've just been waiting for the playa to dry out enough. But today, work has finally begun!

Outside the Black Rock Saloon we piled into two school buses. At 8am sharp we departed and drove to Shoreline - a little base station on the playa, accessed from the 12 mile entrance.

There, we pick up moop sticks and moop buckets (empty water containers which we cut a hole into and tie a string to). Some people have brought their own 5gal bucket or a container from a previous year, decorated with stickers.

Next, roll call. A guy with a clipboard calls all ~150 names one by one. Lots of fun playa names, my favorite so far is "Post Malort". Most people reply with something goofy related to their playa name.

Then we get a rundown of how the whole 3 weeks is gonna work from Dark Angel and intros from a buncha other folks - which I might summarize better later. At this point we're also told that because of the rain, the BLM inspiration is pushed back from Thurs, Oct 4 to Mon, Oct 7, and our work schedule is adjusted accordingly. Instead of getting this Sunday off as planned, we're gonna work for 6 days straight before taking a rest day on Wednesday.

Once that wraps up around 9:30, we self sort into 4 roughly equal lines and get back onto 4 school busses, which then drive out to 2:00 & K. There are rebar stakes in the ground at the end of every road and at the intersections, but otherwise the playa is completely empty. We prepare to walk 4 blocks at a time, along the city clockwise. We line up along 2:00, extending from K to J. Each block is being covered by one of the 4 teams, led by one of the 4 line bosses.

Then...we walk. And pick up moop. Every one or two blocks, we stop and align ourselves along the road and adjust our spacing before continuing again. We have two 15 minute water breaks before a half hour lunch. Then back to work, and two more breaks in the afternoon. We made it to 5:45 (address) before wrapping up at 4:30 (time) and taking the busses back to shoreline. We dump our moop into the dumpster, separate out the larger pieces of metal to be recycled, and get back in the busses to Gerlach.

I played Rummy with some guys in my bunkhouse and went to bed around 10:30. I'm finishing this on the bus out to the playa on Saturday morning, which seems to be the only time I have the focus to do this and I'm not actively hanging out with people. I've got a buncha notes that I will turn into more posts eventually. Lmk if you have any questions!

0 notes

morgbin · 9 months ago

Text

Day 1

Day 1 down and I have nothing really to report. I am *antsy* to start work. It was drizzling all day, which, if you're familiar with BRC you will know, is not good for playa conditions. we've known since Saturday that resto would be cancelled today, so everyone partied pretty hard last night and slept in. After waking up, my day has just been...hanging around and chatting.

Sadly, tomorrow will be more of the same. We found out around 5 that it's gonna be wet again tomorrow. There's been talk of hitting up the hot springs tomorrow. We'll see.

0 notes

morgbin · 9 months ago

Text

well. day 0 down and...

I've arrived during "shitshow weekend." it's the busiest and crowdiest That it's probably going to be while I'm here. It amounts to the changing of the guard - many of the crew who were here for strike leave, and are replaced by us fresh faced and eager resto volunteers/contactors.

Its 1am and I'm falling asleep, so I'll try to capture some things quick before I pass out.

I met a lovely gal from Portland, I think we're gonna get along well

I'm staying in a bunkhouse. It's rows and rows of bunk beds, with plywood walls set up every once in a while.

Everyone got fucking *smashed* tonight. I hope it's just because we have tomorrow off and it isn't the norm.

The drinks at the Black Rock Saloon are free. There's also a walk-in pantry absolutely FULL of ramen and other snacks.

A rock band played at the Black Rock Saloon, they're on tour from Seattle

Everyone is really happy and excited to be here. They're also very friendly, as is to be expected.

0 notes

morgbin · 9 months ago

Text

On the day I leave for the playa, we get an email saying that it's going to rain on Monday and work is cancelled for the day. I consider staying in Seattle one day longer, but ultimately decide against it.

Here's some photos and thoughts from the drive down.

My coffee came with a free banana

I stayed the night in Klamath Falls. I left the motel 6 at 11:05 to seek breakfast and explore Klamath falls a little bit. It's the kind of small town where everything is closed on Sundays. The streets are quiet for a Sunday morning, making me think it's also the kind of town where everyone is at church on Sunday.

I ask Zella to find me the weirdest cafe in Klamath Falls and she says she'll oblige but to be warned that it won't be very weird. She suggests A Leap of Taste, a sandwich & coffee shop that allegedly benefits a local youth program.

When I walk in, I see every single person who's only passing through town to go to Crater lake: puffy vests, name brand fleeces, and knit beanies abound. I feel at home among these people and the mismatched hardwood furniture. I order the SeaBee Latte ("it's a regular latte but with local honey and a pinch of sea salt"), and The Pastrami Brecky Sando.

The serve-yourself water cups are made of metal.

While waiting, I look around. There's a large map of the world with pins in it. Obviously the West Coast is packed densely, but I'm surprised by how many other countries are represented as well. Crater Lake appears to be a popular destination for Europeans, and there are pins in most major cities in South America and Africa as well.

The bulletin board by the bathrooms has, along with the usual moving services and photography business cards, advertisements for a "full spectrum doula & herbalist" and a "Trauma-Responsive Holistic Healing Institute" called Sacred Sol.

The brecky sando is great, as is the latte.

0 notes

morgbin · 9 months ago

Text

before the day I'm supposed to leave for Resto, I know this much:

I'm supposed to arrive on Sunday, September 15th, and I'm currently approved to stay through October 2nd

I'll be working as a volunteer. some, (I suspect most) of the rest of the crew working those dates is getting paid $15 an hour. I'm not sure why I'm not getting paid; I suspect it's because I first applied to only work one week, or maybe because I applied relatively late.

I'm part of the second & final phase of Resto. abandoned bikes, large debris, and the like will have been picked up already. The trash fence is removed.

What I've read in the JRS over the years. that most of the job is staring at the ground and picking up trash. What it means to "walk the line". how the BLM inspection works.

that I'll be given a place to stay, and meals will be provided

I've made a bunch of assumptions so I can pack and plan, but I don't feel remotely prepared.

on the day I'm supposed to leave, however, I get an email that answers most of my questions. I learn:

I'll be living in shared housing in Gerlach, not on playa. I should bring twin sheets and a blanket. I should pack light because space is cramped.

The shared housing has a kitchen, common room, and even a washer & dryer.

our planned working hours are 8:30 to 4:30, Monday through Saturday. but that can vary based on whether and playa conditions.

we have to be on the bus in Gerlach by 8:00 a.m. to ride to the playa

I need to arrive in Gerlach Saturday the 14th or Sunday the 15th, between 8am - 6pm, the hours that the burning Man office is open

there's an "annual pool tournament" and a "notorious talent show"

The commissary is in the back of Bruno's and serves breakfast from 6 - 8 am and dinner from 6 - 8 pm. lunch is self-prepared sandwiches that we make at the commissary and bring with us.

The Black Rock saloon is the Resto team hang out headquarters. there's internet and some computers available. The bar is open from after work till midnight every (ish) night

There's some sort of public transit system between Gerlach, fly ranch, and shoreline, that runs hourly in the evenings

some common sense packing tips: bring a backpack, a water container, layers for cold mornings and hot afternoons

that apparently burners need to be told to be respectful to the gerlock residence keep all our bits covered while in town. (this one seems obvious to me, but it was in the email so I guess it's been a problem in the past)

before arriving, this is what I expect:

-The drive down alone from Seattle to Gerlach will suck , but there wasn't any other way to get to Gerlach, and it will be useful to have a car while I'm there.

The work will suck a little bit. staring at the ground will be tough on my eyes. My neck will hurt from looking down. My back and knees will get tired of stooping down to pick things up. The work will be repetitive and boring.

despite this, I'll really enjoy it. I expect there to be good camaraderie within the crew. inside jokes, goofing off, work songs, the days will be mostly fun. Even the not fun bits will be enjoyable to me. I usually find moop sweeps to be relaxing and meditative

I'll be physically uncomfortable most of the work day- sunburnt, too hot, dusty, dry skin, cracking cuticles.

but this won't be nearly as bad as it is during burning Man, because I have access to a shower daily and get to sleep in an actual bed

My worries:

If I share a room with someone else, my gender might be a problem for them

There might be a division between volunteers and paid staff, and I'll end up on the volunteer side despite being part of the crew that stays the whole time

I might be lonely. people might be unfriendly or standoffish or I might be on the outside of already established group dynamics. if that's the case I might get bored as well. I didn't bring much in the way of entertainment except for my phone.

My hopes:

The schedule that I adapt to here - being ready to go and on the bus between 7:30 and 8:00 - will stick after I get home, and propel the rest of my leave of absence

I'll meet a lot of interesting people with a lot of varied life experience. talking to them will be interesting. talking to them will give me inspiration for my next career move.

I will have time to sketch and to make other art, by myself or with others

I'll find some really interesting moop that I can do stuff with later

that I'll follow through on my plan to spend some of the time organizing my phone. turning off notifications, deleting apps that are distracting, setting appropriate time limits, etc. use it as a digital detox but also plan for how to be intentional with my phone usage once I returned to Seattle

The tension and anxiety that I built up over the past year or two will subside a little. The go with the flow, chill Morgan, unbothered, happy version of me will emerge a little

I'll do some writing. I'll keep up with this blog. lots of people expressed interest in what Resto is like for me, so I want to share that experience.

that I develop a connection with a girl and we spend some amount of time together, and have sex

If that doesn't happen, I find another bi guy and we hook up

I develop a familiarity with the org, or DPW, and learn from someone about what it's like to work DPW. I find a way to get more involved with the org in a way that suits me and is different from any of the ways the rest of Sunrise Diner folks have been involved in the past

I get along with people. that I'm proud of the way that I show up. that I'm kind and generous and fun and chill

I learn some interesting or juicy org gossip. I learn more about how the event runs behind the scenes

it doesn't rain too much

everyone treats me like a guy without making a thing out of it at all

That I'm able to look back on the experience positively in the future

That on the last day that I'm in Gerlach, my feelings are closer to "sad it's ending" than "relieved it's finally over"

0 notes