Running a satellite truck can be stressful, but the physical work is less than when I’m running and gunning with a camera on my shoulder.  There’s a lot of climbing in and out of the truck and my concentration has to be more focused, but a day in the SAT truck is mostly a less tiring day for me.

So what happens when the desk asks me to stay and work the early morning shift?

I’m rested and eager to see more of the fire, so I tell them, “Sure.”

That’s how I ended up camping out in the SAT truck for a few hours in Wrightwood last week.

My last Thursday uplink was about 11:00pm.  After the other crews packed up and headed for home, I drove around to get the lay of the land.  That was hampered a bit by law enforcement who were determined to keep the general population (and us media types) out of harm’s way.

All it really did was force me to drive around more as I found unguarded roads to the areas I wanted to scout.

Around 2am I parked the truck for a while, but the (completely irrational) fear of the fire suddenly overtaking my parking spot and the (small) chance a bear was just waiting for me to open my door so it could then maul me, were both possibilities that kept me somewhat alert and on guard–

. . .zzzzzzzzz. . .

My first Friday morning uplink window was open around 5AM.

I travelled to one of the spots I’d scouted earlier, popped the dish and set up for the live shot.

The morning crew was on the way and the station wanted them on the air as soon as possible.

We were lucky in that the spot I’d chosen was on the main road into Wrightwood and it was a good location to get a look at the still burning fire.

People stopped to watch the smoldering hillside and that gave us the opportunity to interview a couple of residents.

Heh-heh, I do love curbside service.

My morning was pretty uneventful.  We did live shots for the 5am and 6am shows and then waited a bit while the station decided what to do with me.

Heck, I was all in for another shift.  My body hadn’t quite taken enough punishment from the lack of sleep and I was a bit giddy and giggly by 8:00am.

Maybe that helped the station decide to call it a wrap on my shift.  They instructed me to make sure the morning crew had everything they needed and then to head on back to the lot.

Being the glutton for punishment that I am, I asked if they might rather have the SAT truck out at the other fire near Cabazon (where I was headed originally the previous day).

The station declined my offer and told me to just be safe on my drive back.

(sigh) Well, at least I got a bit of overtime out of the deal.

I made it back and didn’t really feel the lack of sleep catching up to me until I crawled into bed around 11:30am.  It was supposed to just be a quick nap, but I woke up after 5pm when my lovely wife came home.  Still a little groggy, but I was on my time.

Woo-hoo!  Let the weekend begin!

. . .zzzzzzzzzz. . .

Woo-hoo!  Okay, let’s try this one more time.