I was going to post about our latest buggy happenings, then started thinking about how well I'm already failing at training for another marathon, then I decided to just update all of you on what's been going on with my life.
I have poison oak in my butt crack, which is insanely unfortunate. A month or so ago we went to the Shasta National Forest up by Shasta Lake, where we all contracted the worst poison oak ever. 10 of us got shots of cortico-steroids, one of us ended up with 5 shots. Anyway, we all agreed that Shasta Lake has the worst strain of oak known to man. It is horrendous and none of us wanted to ever step foot in that area again.
A couple days ago we got called to a new fire....out by Shasta Lake. Of all places. It was heading towards the old fire which is both fortunate and unfortunate. Fortunate because when it hits the old fire, it will stop. Unfortunate because we all knew what was in store for us in that area. All night we cut through bushes and poison oak, worked through until 9am the next day, got a hotel, showered, slept and went back to the fire the following day. We all knew we had oak, but some of it takes awhile to show up.
Let me explain a few things.
1. We all know what it looks like. We are unable to avoid it because we have to do our jobs. We do not get to choose not to be in it.
2. We are all wearing long sleeves, long pants, boots, and in some cases, gloves. Clothes do not protect you from oak regardless of what people say.
3. When you sweat, it picks up the oils from the poison oak plant and deposits it where ever the sweat rolls to and concentrates it where sweat accumulates. Like your waistband. Or your butt crack.
4. When you take off your boots and socks, the bottom hem of your pants that have oak on them will now rub against your feet and you will now have oak on your feet. You will not realize this until you are back to work wearing boots and wool socks and the top of your foot itches.
5. You cannot touch your face at anytime while in contact with "the oak" for any reason, such as rubbing your eyes, picking your nose, etc. And you absolutely cannot blow your nose or wipe the sweat off your brow with a sleeve covered in oak. This last rule I did better at this time, which is why I have a limited amount on my face and my eyes are not swelling shut like last time.
6. If you have never had poison oak, you have absolutely no idea how awful it is and therefore are not allowed to laugh or say things like: don't scratch it, it can't be that bad, suck it up, etc.
So anyway, I'm covered in oak. And it itches.
So today we drove up to Medford about an hour away to bring our buggies in for repairs. Mainly my buggy, which is B-ride. It got dropped off at the mechanic, and we piled into two pick-up trucks and followed A-ride home. About 5 miles from the station, A-ride quit. I pretty sure I blogged about this, but A-ride breaking down in Wyoming was the reason why we spent 3 extra days stranded in Cheyenne. Maybe I didn't blog about that. Anyway, it'll be in the book. So now we have no buggies, and only two pick-up trucks for 18 people.
The government buys vehicles from the lowest bidder. So if Cummings says it can build us a crew haul for $20,000 but International says it can build us one for $10,000 (I'm just throwing out random numbers here, they cost way more than that), the government gives the bid to International. But Cummings argues: they can do that because they're building a shitty vehicle that will break down and need to be towed every 300 miles! Government says: who cares? We aren't driving them! Lowly, underpaid firefighters are. So we buy the shitty vehicle that breaks down every 300 miles and leaves us stranded in places like Cheyenne and Klamath River.
I have also agreed to run another marathon with Debbie at the end of January. I'm cutting it close as far as training time is concerned, but not overly close. This last weekend I was supposed to do my first long run of 6 miles, which isn't much at all, but I was at a fire. So this morning I decided to get up early and run it. Mind you, I just got back from said fire. After taking 2 benedryl and being deprived of sleep for several days, running this morning turned into drinking coffee and staring at my bed. I didn't get back into bed if that counts for anything. But I didn't run either.
I decided I would run after work.
Well, with all the moving vehicles around, I didn't eat until a little late, which caused my stomach to get all acidic and burning, which was only made worse by a large amount of pizza consumed. If I don't eat something every couple of hours, my stomach starts to eat itself. I waited too long, and then once I did eat, I ate all the wrong things. There was no way I was going to run if I was still feeling like this by the time we got back to the station. Two 150mg doses of Zantac later (double the max dose) I was still dying in the back seat of the truck and A-ride was parked on the side of a curvy river road, unable to start back up. No run for me.
I've decided to skip my 6 miler, head back to the gym tomorrow morning, do weights and a 3 miler and then shoot for a 7 miler this weekend. For now I'm going to pour a second glass of wine and take an oatmeal bath, 2 benedryl and go to bed. Tomorrow is another day.
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