The incessant tug of the pool has become more than I can bear. So I jumped back in. After a completely restless night, I got out of bed at 0430 (that's 4:30am) and got ready for practice. Having not slept at all, I was still very much wide awake, as strange as it sounds. I came to realize it's not so much the swim practices I miss, it's the competitions on the weekends, and being able to say "I'm a swimmer". I miss being able to eat whenever and whatever, although I can't say that will return to me with all these pracices unfortunately.
So this morning during the first set, my arms hung off my body feeling as if they were attached by rusty hinges that ached and creaked. My biceps tightened up like lead weights and moved just as easily. It was all I could do to just keep afloat. My bedtime is in half an hour (8:30) so that I can get up that early again. Here we go.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Ever had one of those days?
I want to vomit:
not due to nausea
but rather a burning need
to express my distaste for, and purge,
all that I've absorbed today.
All this outside negativity
pollutes my soul
like the storm drain downstream
of the projects in central Detroit
in the middle of a downpour.
not due to nausea
but rather a burning need
to express my distaste for, and purge,
all that I've absorbed today.
All this outside negativity
pollutes my soul
like the storm drain downstream
of the projects in central Detroit
in the middle of a downpour.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Poison oak
Aaarrghhh!! It itches! It burns! For those of you who have never been inflicted with this deadly condition, you're missing out. I just got off prednisone for my last case of it, only to jump right in a new patch. Lets review the myths and legends surrounding this amazing plant that can so easily ruin your life.
Some of you might say "well why don't you wear long sleeves and pants and gloves, and you won't get it". Ha! I laugh at the absurdity of it. My friends, it is not the plant itself that gives you a rash. It's the oils that it secretes. Oils. Can oil go through your clothing to come into contact with your skin? Yes it can. Can oil mix with sweat and follow it's path down some very inconvenient places as it drips and attempts to run off your body? Why yes, yes it can.
"Well then", you might ask, "why don't you avoid it, don't you know what it looks like?" Yes, of course I do. My third eye can sense it from a mile away. I can spot it in a brush full of fakes and imposters. But folks, it's one of the drawbacks of my job. Just like superman has kryptonite, we wildland firefighters have poison oak. We work in it, we live in it, we sleep in it. Good stuff. For those who don't know what it looks like, here it is.
Of course there's also poison ivy and sumac, but if you live in those areas, you can do a search. Wonderfully enough, we also have a flower in these parts that was just discovered to have the same "urushol" oils that these other plants have. Very pretty flower, dire consequences for touching it. What's even more amazing is what poison oak looks like during the winter. 
It's a bunch of upright sticks. Looking at an entire hillside of it makes it very obvious. But just one or two poking out of another kind of brush is hard to spot. So avoiding it is out of the question... at least in this job.
Since it can't be avoided, lets go ahead and look at what can happen when you do come into contact with it.
Pretty, huh? Does it itch? Why yes it itches. It's incredibly overwhelming, I can't even describe it.
So once you get the rash, what do you do about it? Take benedryl? Calamine lotion? Apparently not. Sure, you can try. I've found the only thing that helps is a hefty dose of prednisone, which warns against such side effects as decreased immune function, loss of bone density, loss of hair, and other awesome things. But sometimes it's worth the risk. Some people swear by putting nail polish remover or gasoline on the offending parts. I've found that after scratching my skin all to hell, applying Nair and waiting for it to burn through the rash has often transformed the rash into a chemical burn, which, believe it or not, is moderate relief. Large amounts of benedryl is great at night when you're kept awake scratching. The calamine lotion will only transfer to under your fingernails when several minutes later, you're scratching again.
As long as you've properly washed off all the urushiol oils, scratching wont spread it. So please don't pester the poor soul who's inflicted with it. Matter of fact, lets look at some proper poison oak/ivy etiquette for those of you who've never had it. From the website: http://www.knoledge.org/oak/
ETIQUETTE
Because Poison Oak is one of the worst afflictions mankind must suffer, there must be rules of etiquette for dealing with it.
IF YOU HAVE NEVER HAD POISON OAK:
You may not joke about it.
You cannot say, "Don't you know what it looks like?"
You may not offer your advice on how to treat it.
You must show nothing but sympathy, and if it is feigned it must seem genuine.
Absolutely no smirking!
You are not allowed to insinuate that the person who has Poison Oak deserved it, or is afflicted due to incompetence on their part.
IF YOU ARE IMMUNE:
All the above rules apply to you.
You may never boast of your immunity, and especially never touch poison oak to demonstrate your immunity. I heard of a man who ate a poison oak leaf to show off. This is a justifiable motive for homicide.
If you cannot follow the above guidelines, please kill yourself now.
IF YOU HAVE HAD POISON OAK:
You must show sympathy, and tell anecdotes about how bad you had it.
You may joke and laugh, as long as you make it known that you feel very deep sorrow at the affliction.
Feel free to imply that all immune people should be exterminated off the face of the earth
Some of you might say "well why don't you wear long sleeves and pants and gloves, and you won't get it". Ha! I laugh at the absurdity of it. My friends, it is not the plant itself that gives you a rash. It's the oils that it secretes. Oils. Can oil go through your clothing to come into contact with your skin? Yes it can. Can oil mix with sweat and follow it's path down some very inconvenient places as it drips and attempts to run off your body? Why yes, yes it can.
"Well then", you might ask, "why don't you avoid it, don't you know what it looks like?" Yes, of course I do. My third eye can sense it from a mile away. I can spot it in a brush full of fakes and imposters. But folks, it's one of the drawbacks of my job. Just like superman has kryptonite, we wildland firefighters have poison oak. We work in it, we live in it, we sleep in it. Good stuff. For those who don't know what it looks like, here it is.
Of course there's also poison ivy and sumac, but if you live in those areas, you can do a search. Wonderfully enough, we also have a flower in these parts that was just discovered to have the same "urushol" oils that these other plants have. Very pretty flower, dire consequences for touching it. What's even more amazing is what poison oak looks like during the winter. 
It's a bunch of upright sticks. Looking at an entire hillside of it makes it very obvious. But just one or two poking out of another kind of brush is hard to spot. So avoiding it is out of the question... at least in this job.Since it can't be avoided, lets go ahead and look at what can happen when you do come into contact with it.
Pretty, huh? Does it itch? Why yes it itches. It's incredibly overwhelming, I can't even describe it.So once you get the rash, what do you do about it? Take benedryl? Calamine lotion? Apparently not. Sure, you can try. I've found the only thing that helps is a hefty dose of prednisone, which warns against such side effects as decreased immune function, loss of bone density, loss of hair, and other awesome things. But sometimes it's worth the risk. Some people swear by putting nail polish remover or gasoline on the offending parts. I've found that after scratching my skin all to hell, applying Nair and waiting for it to burn through the rash has often transformed the rash into a chemical burn, which, believe it or not, is moderate relief. Large amounts of benedryl is great at night when you're kept awake scratching. The calamine lotion will only transfer to under your fingernails when several minutes later, you're scratching again.
As long as you've properly washed off all the urushiol oils, scratching wont spread it. So please don't pester the poor soul who's inflicted with it. Matter of fact, lets look at some proper poison oak/ivy etiquette for those of you who've never had it. From the website: http://www.knoledge.org/oak/
ETIQUETTE
Because Poison Oak is one of the worst afflictions mankind must suffer, there must be rules of etiquette for dealing with it.
IF YOU HAVE NEVER HAD POISON OAK:
You may not joke about it.
You cannot say, "Don't you know what it looks like?"
You may not offer your advice on how to treat it.
You must show nothing but sympathy, and if it is feigned it must seem genuine.
Absolutely no smirking!
You are not allowed to insinuate that the person who has Poison Oak deserved it, or is afflicted due to incompetence on their part.
IF YOU ARE IMMUNE:
All the above rules apply to you.
You may never boast of your immunity, and especially never touch poison oak to demonstrate your immunity. I heard of a man who ate a poison oak leaf to show off. This is a justifiable motive for homicide.
If you cannot follow the above guidelines, please kill yourself now.
IF YOU HAVE HAD POISON OAK:
You must show sympathy, and tell anecdotes about how bad you had it.
You may joke and laugh, as long as you make it known that you feel very deep sorrow at the affliction.
Feel free to imply that all immune people should be exterminated off the face of the earth
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Stacking Sticks
Halfway to work today, I considered calling in sick. I’ve been feeling burned out lately, and now suddenly I felt like I was coming down with a cold. Plus it was cold outside. Just what I needed. Not to mention I was running late.
Today we were building burn piles, or “stacking sticks”. Unfortunately, stacking sticks involved digging around in poison oak vines. I was thrilled to say the least. We’d gather branches and logs and place them in a pile over a thick sheet of brown paper to help it burn. Then we would scrape line around it, down to mineral soil, to keep the burning piles from spreading to the rest of the forest.
Lunchtime came around soon enough, and we were allowed an hour. Meaning a half hour to eat and a half hour to nap. I slept sitting up in the back seat of our pick-up truck. I kept waking myself up with my own snoring. It was miserable. Then we were up and moving again. It reminded me of days out on fires where we would work for hours on end, then lay down in the dirt for a quick nap. Getting up and straight into working again is always the hardest part. My mind is always still in a fog and my body stays asleep for the next 5 minutes, screaming at me to stop moving. Sleep inertia I think it’s called. The body is not meant to accelerate from sleep to hiking up the side of the mountain with 25lbs of gear and a tool, chasing after a fire or a bunch of sticks.
What’s even better is getting home and having to take care of my oak-infested body and clothes. I strip off the worst of it and lay it in the middle of my bedroom floor to be dealt with later. I have to take a shower in cold water with special poison oak soap. The cold water is to keep my pores from opening and absorbing the oils in places that haven’t come into contact with it yet. After a couple scrubs like that, I get to heat up the water a little. After getting fully scrubbed down, I deal with my clothes. Gloves on, I take everything out of my pockets and throw them into the washing machine. My boots get scrubbed with saddle soap and re-oiled. My watch either gets hand-washed or thrown in the washing machine. After touching everything again, I have to wash my hands and arms all over again. The clothes get run through the washer twice, then when they’re transferred to the dryer, the washing machine gets another wash run through, without any clothes in it in order to keep the next set of clothes from getting the oak oils on them. The process is repeated whenever I get any significant contact with poison oak.
I’m absolutely exhausted and it’s only 7:40pm. I think bedtime is in 20 minutes. That may be the longest I can last.
Today we were building burn piles, or “stacking sticks”. Unfortunately, stacking sticks involved digging around in poison oak vines. I was thrilled to say the least. We’d gather branches and logs and place them in a pile over a thick sheet of brown paper to help it burn. Then we would scrape line around it, down to mineral soil, to keep the burning piles from spreading to the rest of the forest.
Lunchtime came around soon enough, and we were allowed an hour. Meaning a half hour to eat and a half hour to nap. I slept sitting up in the back seat of our pick-up truck. I kept waking myself up with my own snoring. It was miserable. Then we were up and moving again. It reminded me of days out on fires where we would work for hours on end, then lay down in the dirt for a quick nap. Getting up and straight into working again is always the hardest part. My mind is always still in a fog and my body stays asleep for the next 5 minutes, screaming at me to stop moving. Sleep inertia I think it’s called. The body is not meant to accelerate from sleep to hiking up the side of the mountain with 25lbs of gear and a tool, chasing after a fire or a bunch of sticks.
What’s even better is getting home and having to take care of my oak-infested body and clothes. I strip off the worst of it and lay it in the middle of my bedroom floor to be dealt with later. I have to take a shower in cold water with special poison oak soap. The cold water is to keep my pores from opening and absorbing the oils in places that haven’t come into contact with it yet. After a couple scrubs like that, I get to heat up the water a little. After getting fully scrubbed down, I deal with my clothes. Gloves on, I take everything out of my pockets and throw them into the washing machine. My boots get scrubbed with saddle soap and re-oiled. My watch either gets hand-washed or thrown in the washing machine. After touching everything again, I have to wash my hands and arms all over again. The clothes get run through the washer twice, then when they’re transferred to the dryer, the washing machine gets another wash run through, without any clothes in it in order to keep the next set of clothes from getting the oak oils on them. The process is repeated whenever I get any significant contact with poison oak.
I’m absolutely exhausted and it’s only 7:40pm. I think bedtime is in 20 minutes. That may be the longest I can last.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)