Deja vu, Almost!

Sleeping on top of a mattress does have its advantages over sleeping on the ground, but I do know I can pretty much sleep anywhere; that is, of course, depending on the definition of sleep since I seem to have the same quality of sleep whether I am on a mattress or on the ground. Last night, I slept on a mattress for the first time in a week, and the sleep was much the same as it has been for the past years. It certainly was good to be back in my room, especially realizing a week has passed so quickly. As I lay down, I thought having a few more of these one-week excursions wouldn’t be a bad idea. Once every few weeks would make the next 7-1/2 months go by that much quicker; however, for now, I am focused in on tomorrow’s visit with my family. It has worked out very well, and if for some reason my crew gets called out to a fire, I do not have to join them because my visit takes precedence over anything else. There are many faults with the prison system; however, when it comes to the family visits, they have gotten it right, and I am forever thankful.

Over the past week, I didn’t do my exercise other than hiking the two days we worked on the fire line, and my legs were asking my brain what was going on. I have been on a very good roll over the past 9 months with my exercising, and having one week down really isn’t so bad. One of my crew mates had asked me if I would have a difficult time getting back into exercising since I had the week off. I told him I would not because I enjoy it. While I was in the county jail for 30 days last year, I didn’t do much “official” exercising. It wasn’t until I got to the reception center that I started the sweat-inducing workouts which have carried all the way through. I had no doubt that upon my return to camp I would be outside the following morning resuming my exercise program. This morning, I got up at 5:00 a.m. and started my Friday exercise regimen just like all the other Fridays I have been in camp. I set out to run, and this is what I did.

The run was over, and it was time to shower, dress, and go to breakfast. All of these were accomplished without any incident. Then it was time to boot up for work. I was wondering if our fire captain would be on duty today since he worked through his days off. I remember hearing someone say the fire captains are required to take 24 hours off when they return from a fire. This doesn’t apply to us since we aren’t professional firefighters, so we were required to go out on the grade. While I was filling up my CamelBak, I noticed the fire captains proceed to the bus area. I did not see my fire captain, which meant he would be off today and subsequently could give the crew the day off. This was not certain because we could always get a relief fire captain. I was sort of hoping for a day off because I had a great deal of writing to do. I did take pen and paper with me but lacked the motivation to write while I was away. I have no excuse, and I know I can recapture the past week when I commence writing.

I approached the bus area, and sure enough, our captain was absent. There was a relief captain, but he was not standing next to my bus. This was looking good for a day off. The check-in procedure started, and my crew’s line was skipped, which is another tell-tale sign of having a day off. All the crews where checked in except for mine, and the C/O made her way over. She gave us the good news of being laid-in (day off) for the day. I really cannot believe how everything continues to work out for the very best. I needed the day off, and lo and behold I got the day off. I returned to my room where I picked up my writing materials and started to write. I spent most of the day writing and reading a little more of “Love Monkey.” It was a very good day, and it passed soon enough.

All of a sudden, it was dinnertime, and I wondered where the day had gone. I went to dinner for the beans and dinner roll along with the salad. I had plenty to eat all day as I was snacking on fruit and cereal bars. With dinner over, I would have to wait for the mail call.

Oops, I almost forgot the highlight of my day. Since I was in camp all day, I had the opportunity to call my wife at lunchtime. I was able to reach her, and she told me the saga of her airplane trip out here. My poor wife has had some unfortunate travels over the years such as the time she waited all day at LAX to depart while she was with our two children. This time, her flight out here was cancelled on Wednesday. Thankfully, the airline notified her in advance so she didn’t have to trek out to the airport in order to find out. Apparently, there were some very strong thunderstorms on the east coast, and getting to Atlanta was a big problem. The airline (Delta) told her that they could have two people in my wife’s party fly out on one plane while the other person would be on a different plane. This would have been fine if my wife wasn’t traveling with a 9- and 6-year-old. To make a long story short, my wife and children didn’t depart on Wednesday, they departed on Thursday. The positive to this is that the airline bumped back the return trip one day; so essentially, they will be in southern California for the same number of days. My wife and children did depart all together on Thursday morning, but their airplane was three hours late. Couple this with a three-hour layover in Salt Lake City, they had a very long day. They awoke at 3:30 am. Eastern Time and didn’t arrive into southern California until 3:00 p.m. Pacific time. However, everyone arrived safe and sound. They were all set for the visit tomorrow, and everyone was excited, especially me.

The mail call arrived, and I received an envelope from my mom filled with writing paper and articles on the fire I had just been on. This was fairly amazing because, when I departed last week, I gave her the wrong information, yet this article was about the area where I fought the wildfires. I was also able to retrieve some other mail. Being away for a week does have its drawbacks, but at least I know I will be busy writing in the days to come. I had enough of writing for the day, so I remained outside fort the rest of the night. As I was watching the sunset, I realized I was just doing the same thing last week. It was like déjà vu, and true to déjà vu, the fire alarm went off again just like last week. As the fire alarm went off, the announcement was made that crew two (my crew) and four get ready to go out of county. This was an exact replay of last Friday night; however, there was one notable exception; since I was getting so close to my family visit, I did not have to join my crew members.

After the announcement was made, I calmly approached the office window and informed the C/O’s on duty that I would be staying behind due to my family visit. One of the C/O’s who is very new started to joke with me and asked if I was sure I wanted to say behind because I was giving up “all that money.” I realized he was joking, and my response was, “Hmm, let me see. I make $1 an hour, and the state takes out 55 cents for restitution so I really make 45 cents an hour, or see my wife and children for the first time in a year? As difficult a decision as this may be, I think I will, in fact, stay behind!” We both laughed, and I was officially exempt from going on the fire. This is truly amazing how everything has come together for this visit. I’m not sure how or why, but I am grateful.

I spent the rest of the evening watching my crew members scurry around getting ready for their 6- to 7-hour bus ride (again) to the Fresno area. I had a great big smile watching them, and each one of them wished me the best on my family visit. I have been blessed with an exceptional crew, and these are a great bunch of guys. I told them thanks and said, “Be safe.” Just like last week, the bus was loaded and rolled out in the dark of night. Hopefully, our fire captain got enough rest today so he won’t have a repeat of his dozing off at the wheel like last week. As they departed, I returned to my room, and it was eerily quiet. I share the dorm with all 15 of my crew mates, and now they are gone. The dorm consists of 12 rooms, two men to a room, for a total of 24 people. Now, 15 of these 24 are gone, and the remaining eight are down the hall from me. This is like having my own dorm. The dorms are relatively quiet when everyone is here, but now it is spooky quiet. This may take some getting used to because I have shared a room/dorm/bunk for the better part of a year, and now I am essentially by myself. I’m not sure when my crew will return, but eventually they will, and the alone-time will be gone. It was strange turning out my light tonight and not seeing or hearing another person.