Fire in the Hole

The green Forest Service Truck rumbled again into the forest with Uncle Carl riding shotgun. Ralph behind Kadizzle, and Jerry working on a crossword puzzle.  During the trip to the top of the mountain Kadizzle asked Uncle Carl how people applied for the job he and the rest of the gang had. Uncle Carl said to get the job you have to be broke and stupid.  Kadizzled wondered if you had to take a test to prove you were stupid. “Yes, you do” answered Uncle Carl,  “ We had to help Ralph with the stupid test so he could pass”.   When we got out at a wonderful camp site in the mountains the crew was ready to use the pressure washer and clean the out house.  The call rang out to start the pressure washer. “Fire in the hole” Jerry yelled and Uncle Carl started the pressure washer.  Kadizzle loved to hear the command “Fire in the hole”.  It was the traditional way to warn miners a blast was about to go off.  As usual Jerry was the machine gunner on the pressure washer.  A big danger for the machine gunner in an out house cleaning job is splash back.  Ralph, who Jerry describes as “The stupidist old man I have ever met”,  tries to avoid being trained on the machine gun.  Ralph’s ploy is to ask to get out of the truck to pick up litter as we pull into a camp ground.  It usually works and poor old Jerry had to run the machine gun.  In the past few days we have had to burn up some time so we did not get back too early. The answer is windshield time.  We drive backroads on the most circuitous route possible.  As Kadizzle explained to Jerry, if we were going to Europe, we would take the Pacific Route.