Frank the Tank

Fire seems to be the only thing that ever brings me to Nevada.  I travelled there for the first time with my job as an 18 year-old wildland firefighter on a hotshot crew based out of Arizona.  The trip repeated itself with each passing fire season until my departure from that line of work in late 2003.  

After a hiatus, fire again brought me back to Nevada this weekend, returning for the wedding of my old friend and fellow firefighter Frank Machler.  In the years since I lived with him in Great Falls, Montana (which, ironically, is neither great nor does it have any falls) Frank has gone on to accept work outside of Carson City, Nevada and, in a move that will undoubtedly strike fear into the hearts of evolutionists everywhere, met his bride-to-be and tied the knot over the weekend.

Frank, for those that don't have the distinct honor of knowing him, is one of the most fiercely positive people that I know and a real privilege to have as a friend.  In spite of some significant personal tragedy in recent years, his approach to life has always been upbeat and honest.  So it came as no surprise when Frank took a suddenly sincere tone after the wedding to tell me that Cassandra, his bride, is one in a million.  I answered him with a joke, telling Frank that there are billions of people in the world so one-in-a million might not be that complimentary.  Ok.  One in ten million, he says.  Still, there's 6.7 billion people on the planet, I say, trying to keep the joke moving.  "I gotta tell you, I wouldn't have too much faith in humanity if there weren't more out there like her," Frank replies.

I gotta say that Cassandra's got herself a one-in-ten-million, too.

Best of luck to you both.

The groom and his brother, Air Force Sergeant Seth Machler, changing after the reception in the Genoa, Nevada firehouse.  Seth, Frank's younger brother, put me up in his apartment for several weeks, sight unseen, when I moved to Washington, DC in 2006.  "Any friend of my brother's is a friend of mine," I recall him saying on the telephone.  

The wedding party following the ceremony.  

Frank and Cassandra