Touch Football

I certainly have a cold, but it is stuck in my throat and head. I guess this is commonly called a head cold. I did my best to self-medicate mostly by drinking tea and taking vitamin C. The tea wasn’t the best idea, especially during the evening. I drank four large glasses of tea; two were green tea, and two were orange and cinnamon tea. The tea did seem to help as my voice had gotten a little better; however, I paid dearly for drinking the tea at night. I’m not sure how much actual sleep I received last night because I was up and down every 20 minutes. I was able to flush my system, but the flush most certainly disrupted my chance of sleep.

Prior to falling asleep, I was able to finish The Sky is Falling by Sidney Sheldon. I think I have read other books by this author, but I cannot recall the names, nor do I remember if I enjoyed them or not. I wasn’t exactly enamored with the book and the story. It had many possible sidelights, but none of them were explored. The story culminated in only two pages, and this was misguided in my opinion. The best part of the book was that it read very quickly, and it did not drag on. Otherwise, I was disappointed. All the books I read cannot be good ones. My mother did send me this because she thought I would like it. The storyline had all the things I like, but overall, it fell flat. This is bound to happen, and I will read the good with the bad.

Since I had so much tea in me last night, I stopped counting after the 10th time I got us. Getting up during the night here is so much better than in Jamestown. There is a community bathroom/shower room, and I have to go outside very briefly to get to it. I pass other rooms to get there, and last night my neighbor was snoring so loud I thought the walls were going to cave in! This is the first time I have heard him snore, so it may have been an aberration. He, too, had a visit yesterday and was probably exhausted from it. Also, knowing how he eats, he was probably very full from the visit as well. Whatever the case, he was very loud. This didn’t keep me up—it was the tea.

My usual wakeup time of 5:00 a.m. came around, and I didn’t even have a debate with myself regarding whether or not I should stay in bed. I got out of bed and started my early-morning routine. Today, being a Monday, it was a new day. I went outside and embarked on an, at least, 90-minute run. I need to alternate my runs with the hill and the flat surface. Today, I ran more on the flat surface than on the hill. I ran for 96 minutes, and as I ran, I felt so much better. It is fairly amazing how my head cold seemed to dissipate as I ran. I do believe in sweating out a cold as long as it is above the neck. My cold is above the neck, and I did get a good sweat this morning. The surfaces I run on here are so much better than the horrible asphalt I ran on in Jamestown. The dirt here is so much for forgiving, and I don’t have any of the aches or pains I had running on the asphalt. The very good run ended, and it was back to my room.

Mondays are also inspection days, and my friend/roommate has taken it upon himself to prepare our room for the inspection. The only things I have to do are making my bed and wipe down the top of my locker. My friend swept, dusted, and mopped the floor. The inspections are a bit particular as the C/O’s want the beds made a certain way. They also want all the scuffmarks off the floor. All areas must be dusted and the lockers locked along with all the trash taken out of the trash can. My friend ensured the room was in tiptop shaped. In fact, since I come back from exercising each day with little time to spare before breakfast, my friend does most of the daily sweeping and mopping. I have to tell him to stop and remove the broom from his hand in order for me to do this. My friend is a very good roommate is always looking out for our best.

The room was clean, and I did my duties. It was now time for breakfast. The last serving of breakfast fluctuates everyday and all depends on how many people attend breakfast. This morning, one of our neighbors said they were closing the door to the dining hall. This turned out to be bogus because, after hurrying to the dining hall, we had plenty of time before the door was closed. Breakfast was more of the same; hot cereal (today it was oatmeal) and potatoes. I treated myself this morning with the high-protein granola in the oatmeal. This is a very good accompaniment to the oatmeal, and I am finally closing in on finishing one of the bags of granola. There wasn’t my PB&J on the lunch menu today, and it appears Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are all lunchmeat days. The cook did offer to fill an empty jar with peanut butter for me, but I still have to jars of peanut butter I have yet to open. I won’t have any problem getting peanut butter for lunch even of days like today when it is not served. I still had a PB&J sandwich left over from Saturday’s lunch. My friend gives me his on PB&J days, and he gets my meat. This does work out very well, and there is no way I will starve here.

After breakfast, it was back to the room where I would get my boots on since they were not allowed in the dining hall. The floor in the dining hall scuffs easily, and we can only wear soft-soled shoes in there. I was “booted and suited” for my workday and workweek. Mondays start the cycle all over again. My CamelBak was full, and I was ready to go to work. The work call arrived at the usual time of 8:30 a.m., and we boarded the bus after the C/O checked us out with roll call. We were on the bus and received our assignment for the day. We were headed for a nearby lake (Diamond Valley Lake) to do more weed whacking. Apparently, the lake is leaking in a few different areas, and the Parks Department wants a better visual on the leaks. Our task was to cut down the vegetation in the leak area.

The road to the lake was not very long (only 45 minutes), and an interesting event occurred on the ride. This was that no one smoked in the bus. I guess the supply of tobacco is scarce because, for the first time since I arrived, the bus remained smoke free for the entire ride. I certainly enjoyed this, and I would be naïve to believe this would last. I did overhear a few crew members talk about obtaining tobacco this evening. I hope they don’t because I would rather have a smoke-free bus ride as opposed to a smoke-infested ride. I’m no sure what is going to happen, so I just enjoyed this morning. Also, there is a radio on the bus, and in order to keep all the crew members satisfied, the radio stations are alternated every day. Today was 70’s and 80’s rock day, and tomorrow will be hip-hop day. I enjoyed the 70’s and 80’s rock day, myself, but half of the crew enjoys hi-hop day. This method is very fair, and I respect the decisions. I had two things going for me this morning; no smoking on the bus and good music on the radio. I looked out the window as we drove and put my mind at ease. Another week was under way, and I am slowly progressing to my release date in February of next year. More importantly, I am progressing towards the visit with my family next month.

We arrived at the site where we would weed whack the vegetation. We were armed with two bladed weed whackers, two chainsaws, two stringed weed whackers, and several pitchforks. My task was to man the pitchfork. I don’t believe I have ever held, or let alone used, a pitchfork before today. I didn’t even know what the purpose of a pitchfork was until today. I have seen “Green Acres” with Eddie Albert holding one and always thought it had something to do with hay. Today, the pitchfork was used to clean the cut vegetation from the leak area. The vegetation was thick, and the pitchfork came in handy. The terrain was very steep as well, but with 14 guys working together, the vegetation was cut in no time. My friend manned the bladed wee whacker and did a remarkable job. This is a heavy piece of equipment, and he was slinging it all around. I followed behind him with the pitchfork and cleared a path. Once again, I got filthy from the cut vegetation, and it wouldn’t be a day on the grade without getting dirty. We cut everything by lunchtime and had lunch at this site. I got out my PB&J sandwich and the leftover cinnamon roll along with an apple. Lunch is one hour, and we had plenty of time to throw the football around. We couldn’t have a game because we were going to another site after lunch to cut more vegetation.

Lunch was over, and we entered the bus so we could get to our next destination. Fifteen minutes later, we were at another part of the lake and cutting. This area was nowhere near as thick as the previous area. Instead of the pitchfork, I got to use one of the stringed weed whackers. It seems I don’t get along with this piece of equipment because the string never cooperates. I used it for two minutes, and the automatic string feeder got jammed. I was watching the two crew mates who used the same weed whackers earlier, and they didn’t have any problems. Now I used it, and two minutes later, it was jammed. It has got to be me! Anyhow, I found the jam, but this time, everything was cut, and w were finished. We still had an hour before we could head back to camp, so the captain when to an open dirt area and had everyone relax. This is the MO for fire season. The key is to finish the projects by lunchtime or very shortly thereafter and then relax just in case a fire call occurs. I was wondering if the new captain would adhere to the policy, and everyone on the crew was happy when he did.

My crew members got out the football, and the drafted me to play with them. I couldn’t turn them down this time and decided to take on one of the guys. We played a game of 4-on-4 touch football. The last time I played touch football was with my brother-in-law, niece, and nephew five years ago around Christmastime in New Jersey. I somehow threw out my back during this game, and I was fat on my back for Christmas. I did have this in the back of my mind as we started to play. Thankfully, I did not throw out my back, nor did I injure myself. Actually, I did fairly well for the second oldest player. In fact, my team won the game, and my teammates voted me MVP. I think this was a bit too much because I did have several catches and caught a touchdown pass, but I wasn’t the MPV (Most Valuable Player). I think my crew members were surprised by how well I did. I was also surprised! I keep to myself, and I am quest, and I believe my crew members view me as a “nerd”, so when I didn’t play like a nerd, they were surprised. I did have fun, and it was a good to bond with crew members. By the way, my friend did not participate because the last he did he was sore for three days! It was a good day on the grade, and it was time to head back to camp.

We arrived back in camp, and we were checked back in by the C/O. At this point, the late-afternoon routine occurred as I picked up my clean clothes, showered, dressed, dropped off my dirty clothes, and went to dinner. We only had a few minutes to relax before dinner, and my head cold seemed to be the same as this morning. I really is all in my voice, and I sound horrible. I sound like I am going through puberty with my voice changing.

It was now dinnertime, and I went with my friend/roommate. The main menu item was Salisbury steak, and the bean portion was less than usual. Other than this, dinner was uneventful, and it was back to my room where I would write until the mail call was announced. Prior to mail call, there is a pill call where the C/O’s give out medication for all sorts of ailments. I took advantage of this getting sore-throat lozenges and cold medicine. There are both over-the-counter medications, and I believe the lozenges were Cepacol, and I don’t know what the cold medicine was. I took one lozenge and the cold pills. Hopefully, these will alleviate my head cold, and I won’t need anymore. It is good to know that I can receive cold medications without any hassles. It was easy to obtain, and once again, the differences between here and Jamestown continue.

I received two letters from two dear friends, and after receiving these, I returned to my room. I wrote and talked with out company. The visitors continue, and it really doesn’t matter what my roommate or me are doing. The visitors enter our room no what. Tonight, my friend/roommate was tired, but we kept getting visitors. Finally, the visitors subsided, and my friend was able to get to sleep. I finished up with my writing and went to sleep myself hoping for a less up-and-down evening.