New Career As An In-Camper

Sleeping off the ground does indeed have its merit. It felt good to have some separation from Mother Earth and I did sleep very well. Along with being able to sleep in an actual bed, I was also looking forward to exercising. I did my best to get in some hiking over the past 9 days to provide some type of exercise, but it was not a good replacement for my regular exercise program. Since I no longer have to go our of the camp on fires, I can get into a good rhythm with my exercise program and today was a great start. It was wonderful to run this morning and with the higher than usual humidity, I got a very good sweat going. While I was running down the steep portion of the little hill, I turned my ankle on a rock. This was the third time in the past week. Today I was wearing my running shoes – not hiking boots which are low cut and don’t provide much ankle support like my hiking boots. I turned my ankle as far as I could without breaking it, but remarkably I was able to run off any discomfort. I do take these signs seriously which is why I do my best to be careful. I am not the most flexible person in the world but judging by what happened to my ankles, I do have very strong muscles supporting them. I was able to finish my run without incident. The early morning workouts were surely missed and now I won’t miss one since I will be in camp for the next 6 months.

Today was the start of my new career as a bathroom porter which changed my daily routine. I no longer have to be “booted and suited”. I do wear my boots while cleaning the bathroom because the only other alternative I have are my running shoes and wearing doesn’t make much sense. Everything went smoothly this morning and I still had to venture up to the bus area to off load my fire equipment. I had to return all of the fire gear and also had to endure the tradition of having a bucket (Gatorade bucket) of ice water dumped on me as a going away present from the crew. Anytime a person departs from a crew, the bucket of ice water is dumped on them and I was fully expecting it this morning. There was a point where I thought this would not happen because the 2 CO’s on duty are sticklers for the rules. However; one of crew mates waited for the opportune time and did dump the water on me. I was distracted by another crew member and was caught by surprise. The ice water felt good because the temperature was already approaching 90 degrees at 8:30 am. This was all in good fun and I got a good laugh. The CO on duty didn’t find any humor in this and later told me I needed to stop the “horseplay.” I wasn’t going to engage him in a discussion and said “Okay” as I walked back to my dorm to change my wet shirt.

I felt strange leaving the guys on my crew but I was already replaced with a new arrival. I enjoyed the brief 3 month stay as an inmate/firefighter and liked everyone on my crew. Coming in camp made complete sense for me and is the right thing to do. The crew will go on very well without me. I gained some good experience and met some very good people, but it was time for me to move on. The departing bathroom porter was there to train me and this would be his last day. There wasn’t much training to do since I have already worked with him a few times. I do have a helper who I know very well. He will be with me for the next month as he paroles on September 30th. After that I don’t know if anyone else will help out but the position is designed for only one person. I welcome any assistance, but if I don’t have any that will be fine.
Now that I am a bathroom porter, the tenor of these blogs will no doubt become very boring much like the time I spent working in the kitchen at the reception center. I don’t intend on boring anyone with the details of cleaning the two bathrooms as my life becomes very routine. This will be much the same Monday thru Friday which is wake up, exercise, etc. What I will write about is anyone’s guess because these days will be the same. Oddly, I am embracing the sameness. As the outgoing bathroom porter told me, my time will be very level as opposed to the ups and downs of being a firefighter. I will use this time in a constructive manner as I have used the past 13 ½ months. Time will continue to race by and March 2, 2008 will be here very soon.

I finished cleaning the bathroom and believe it or not I actually broke a good sweat. This was most likely due to the very warm temperatures and high humidity. Whatever the case I needed a shower. At noon there is a check-in and at 1:00 pm there is another check-in. Also during this hour the telephones are turned on and if need be I can place telephone calls at this time. I didn’t need to do that today so I just ate lunch. I was given soy baloney and did enjoy the sandwich I made with it. The rest of the afternoon I wrote and wrote and wrote some more. I chronicled the last week on the fire and before I knew it, it was time for the 4:15 check-in. The day had gone by very quickly and so will the remaining 184 days.

I wrote up until dinner and afterward Io remained outside talking with two friends at the table. Now I have much more time during the day. This can be construed as a negative; however, this time is what I make of it. The Serenity Prayer states:

“God Grant me the SERENITY to ACCEPT the things I CANNOT change, the COURAGE to change the things I can, and the WISDOM to know the difference.”

When I was on the fire crew, I accepted the fact that I was at the mercy of others and made the best use of my time. Now I do have a job to do and I will clean those bathrooms to the best of ability. I am somewhat still at the mercy of others but to a lesser extent and I am gaining back a little more of my time. The next 6 months will be enjoyable and I will be with my family very soon.