Survival

She hasn’t eaten more than small berries, wild onions and dirt covered mushrooms in 28 days. But she does have a log structure which she built with a fireplace that coaxes smoke out of her living space and a bed that is made from pine straw. I’m not sure how much weight she’s lost, all contestants on the tv survival show called Alone have dropped more than a few. Her biggest chance to survive, as long as she’s not eaten by a grizzly bear in the process, is to figure out how to fish.

I think of my sister Lisa, the constant fisher. In 28 days, she would have constructed a small boat and have dialed in a continuous supply of rainbow trout. She would have built a smoker, dried them with the wild onions. She would have prepared enough fish to tie her over for the winter, to keep her going well into next spring.

But the woman on the show fails: her handmade fish baskets always washes up on the shore. Her gill nets get tangled up in the rocks. And she seems clueless on casting out a line or creating fishing lures that have any chance of success. Her only win is when an eagle drops a dead fish on the beach.

There’s no surprise when her body weight drops so low she can hardly think. She punches the emergency button and the rescue team quickly arrives to retrieve her.

Here in Oregon, I find myself playing my own version of this show. It’s heading to a 104 degrees in Bend today. I have gone through all the normal steps to keep my house cool; opening all the doors and windows in the morning y monitoring the exact time when they all need to be shut because the outside temps get too hot.

My emergency button is the blasting air conditioning on the top floor of my house. We installed it about ten years ago and hardly use it. It always feels like cheating, but it sure can save the day in the dead of summer.

So far I have lasted through 5 days of roasting temps without the air conditioning. I laugh at my hardship, after all, the mornings are simply wonderful. I’m on my bike at six am, trying to finish up by ten.

It’s amazing to feel the difference in the temps. The other day, my hands were numb from the cold at the start. An hour later, total perfection. And by 11, I thought I was on a Death March to get back to the car. I suppose I could have jumped in the river to cool off, to turn my lips to blue, but I just couldn’t talk myself into it.

Today, the real drama begins. Big fires in California are currently blazing through acres of thick trees. And the last few days lightening strikes have created a band of small fires, both south and north of where I live. Already I can see a haze taking over the skies.

The drama: Will I survive the next few weeks of not pushing the button to turn on that air conditioner? The one that can filter out the smokey air? The one that can cool off a roasting house without leaving the windows open?

I’m thankful for my own version of the survival show even though it doesn’t come with a half million dollars in prize money. I’m sure I would never win the real survival show. I would never get past sharing my space with a grizzly bear. And I’m sure I would never catch enough fish. Not like my sister Lisa who would be reeling them in!

I laugh and think of her strategy to deal with the bear; surely she would catch enough fish to keep her local bear happy.

I imagine her and the bear … during the cold winter months, she would convince the bear to slumber in her cabin. And then the sad moment when the game is over and the boat arrives to tell her she is the winner of the half million dollars. She would leave her sleeping friend with the extra salmon.

But she would be the winner all for the simple reason; my sister can reel them in.