Greetings

Welcome to my little corner of the inter-webs! I just wanted to take this space to warn you that my posts will rarely be up to date. Due to the spontaneity of natural disasters and the unpredictability of when AmeriCorps' services will be requested I will be digitizing my journal entries whenever we return to St. Louis. Oh, and most of the pictures you see here were taken by myself. If ever I do use someone else's material I make a point to give them due credit though! That said, come, leave comments and be merry! I hope you enjoy your stay!

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Taum Sauk - 1/27

It seems I have lived long enough to become a villain.  We were shopping for supplies when a woman turned, saw me, and then jumped back with a silent scream frozen to her face.  I’m exaggerating, but only slightly; the silent scream was more like an inaudible gasp.  I don’t blame her.  The coat I was wearing had holes burned by stray embers, tears from chainsaw and bramble, and stains from the various projects I’ve done this year.  Combined with my lingering walk and the hood drawn over my head, I think I could pass as a secret character in an awesome RPG on a good day and a murderous fiend on a bad.  Today was the latter I suppose.

This is not to say that I had a bad day.  Shortly after freaking the woman out a young girl walked up to my intimidating person, smiled, and said hello.  She was an adorable 4(ish) year old.  You ever hear that dogs and children can tell one’s true character?  Well, I took comfort in that as I’ve been in a funk lately.  Ask anyone living in the Doah, I sat on the couch for about 9 hours drowning myself in the radiated light of my laptop.  I think I’m just concerned as to whether or not I’m conditioned enough to finish my term in AmeriCorps.  The 2 to 4 days we get to recover depending on the length of the project helps, but each week I go into the office a bit sorer.  Perhaps my dread of what each week may bring intensifies the actual ordeal.  If so, I need to find a way to refocus on the present and dealing with situations as they arise.

This week my team has been sent to Taum Sauk to help build fire line.  Oddly we are not allowed to fell snags (dead trees)… That doesn’t make much sense as they pose the biggest risk when fires do occur.  We’ll do what we can though!  I’m not as big of a fan of the cold as I used to be, which will make these next couple of days tough, but with all the hiking we have in store I’m not so much worried about staying warm as I am staying dry.


Oi, I’m out of it.  Going to call it a night all.  Just want you all to know we made it to our housing safely and we’re set to start doing good things tomorrow.  Good night!





My photos.


No comments:

Post a Comment