Christina Moore
Write about what you know said the philosopher. Ergo… social commentary, innovation + technology, communities, going to war, spend years on inner-city ambulances, moving to Alaska, buying a forest, running an EMS agency in rural New England, travel, design software...
Now the knees are shot, but I am not. Fingers to keys, and a microphone close at hand, let’s tell a story or three.
Green Mountains
My husband and I live in the Green Mountains of southern Vermont just miles from the Massachusetts' border. If you find yourself on a narrow dirt road in these hills, then you are two left turns from our place.
Storm Petrel LLC
I founded Storm Petrel LLC years ago. Since then, it grew into a healthy software development firm. When my community got hit my Hurricane Irene in 2011, I aided towns and organizations with financial and regulatory affairs. We were ill-prepared for the millions of grant funds provided by FEMA. That took me to New York City to help with Hurricane Sandy. By 2013, Storm Petrel release a grants management software application written in Oracle. That system, Tempest-GEMS, managed over $5B and 400,000 documents for the Government of Puerto Rico following the hurricanes Irma and Maria. I had the honor of supporting the people of the islands and living in San Juan for 9 months. We formed software and a business model from the ashes of natural disasters.
Adventuring
Whilst my adventuring has slowed a bit. I am no longer ripping telemark turns down glaciated and snow-covered Alaskan mountains at stupid speeds, we did enjoy a week on the Lancaster Canal in England during the spring of 2019. A self-driving hire boat that got passed by many walkers, all runners, and anyone pedaling a bicycle.
Story Telling
Blog entries, short stories, podcasts, and novels are my means of telling stories: From “once upon a time”, to “Chapter 2”, I enjoy clicking words together. I continue to strive to finish stories that encourage a chuckle, a thought, and surprise.
If ever asked for the difference between a sea story and a fairy tale, the answer is: Nothing really. One starts: No shit, there I was. And the other starts: Once Upon a time. In fairness, the fairy tale likely wanders closer to the truth. I learned to sail on the Charles River in Cambridge, Mass. Took my first job on a ship at 16, then again in my twenties, then again in my thirties. That third one took me to the Gulf of Alaska and the North Pacific in the winter. Pretty darn stupid move on my part.
Iraq
Maybe freezing my anatomy off was not enough. Fat and forty-two, I deployed to Iraq for a year as a civilian member of the U.S. Army’s Fourth Infantry Division.
EMS Agency Chief
Upon my return from Iraq, I started a non-profit rescue service in rural Vermont. I went back to school to earn my EMT (second time), then my paramedic. Then became a critical-care paramedic. I worked as a paid professional and an unpaid volunteer in this hills. In 2017, I left the volunteer fire company and let my medical certificates/licenses expire.
Continued
Some snowy winter I will stitch together the quilt from uniform parts, patches, logos cut from shirts, and various t-shirts. I have no interest in starting because someone would expect me to finish. That’s not a quilt I really want to finish.
May there always be an open corner of the quilt for the next adventure, and a place to publish the story.