Back in Denver ... oh my ...

Good grief, I'm not even doing that much and I still let a week go by between posts ...

Okay, anyway ...

On Monday of last week, we didn't work and instead spent a good chunk of the day cleaning the bunkhouse and packing up. We also hung the swing, finally! It took us long enough. On Tuesday, we returned to Denver and settled in. On Wednesday, the majority of us turned in our line gear so it could be issued to the new wildfire teams; Joanna, Scott, John and Chris kept their stuff because they were going to the field day for the new teams. A bunch of us crossed paths with some of the Class VX wildfire people over those few days. They're really cool kids, very nice and eager to learn. I was talking to one and answering the questions he had about the fires I had been on.

Unfortunately, the new class might be in for a bit of a rude awakening. I heard that on their field day, they only had two water bottles and their fire shelters in their packs, and they dug a straight line that was on flat ground. Our field day pretty much felt like the real thing. We dug up, across and down a slope and then re-dug part of the line because they wanted the prescribed burn area to be larger. Our fire shelter deployment drill was a bit more intense too, from the sounds of it. But they'll get the hang of it when they start their season.

So there's a 2500 acre fire in Santa Barbara. I'm chomping at the bit, but there's nothing I can really do -- I have no gear.

I went for a run last Thursday and ended up with a sore throat from the cold air. That turned into a headache, mild nausea, chills, hot sweats, and body aches. So I spent the whole weekend feeling like I had the flu, and without much of an appetite. On Monday, things got a bit better except that I noticed my gums felt a little sensitive and it hurt to eat a little. I ate yogurt for breakfast, and had soup for lunch and dinner. Sheesh. On Tuesday, they were noticeably swollen. On Wednesday, I managed to eat something that required chewing. They seem to be feeling better each day, still a little sensitive. I am just falling apart, honestly.

This week has been pretty low key regarding our schedule. We cleaned a truck last week and the other two were cleaned by some Class XV kids who needed some "extra instruction," so we didn't have to take care of the vehicle this week. We had a community meeting on Monday, and the rest of the day to work on our debrief. Jamie McCleary actually called me on Monday, she's in charge of organizing our travel (among other things) to and from the campus for the program. Apparently the travel agency they use couldn't book a train for the government rate so I'll be flying home instead. We had off on Tuesday for Veterans Day. On Wednesday we had another meeting to discuss our education award. We presented our debrief yesterday morning and turned our portfolio in, which was the biggest thing we had to do. Last evening, Blake and I worked on our team's quilt square for the "Memory Mural." The team decided they'd like to make it a version of our "Message Boar," a message board that Blake started with Earth 4 to post interesting facts, and other funny jokes that the team shared. The rest of us adopted it when our teams were combined. So we put the squares for E 4 and 5 next to each other and made a replica of the "Message Boar," but with new facts and categories. I'll try to get a picture of it, along with a picture of the original board from the bunkhouse.

So here it is. My last weekend in AmeriCorps. It was snowing earlier in the morning, it seems to have settled at the moment. A lot of people are really ready to be done and head home or move on to what's next for them. I think it's just being back in Denver. I know if we were up in Ned, even if we were chipping, we still wouldn't necessarily want to be done yet. But here we are.