The Two Weeks

So sorry for my lack of posts for the last two weeks (or thereabouts). It's been a very taxing time. I guess I'll start from the top...

When last we met, our hero was teetering off a cliff after narrowly defeating the infamous Professor Insano-- I mean I was just getting done with my last infamous rounds of training in CTI. We had one more service day, this time designated to the Folsom Zoo, and then induction.

Serving at the zoo was sort of a way of living out a childhood dream. Somewhere in between wanting to be a minister, a comedian, and a paleontologist, I really wanted to be a zoo keeper (specializing in dolphin training). Unfortunately there were very few dolphins at this zoo-- it was a fairly small one, about the size of the Columbian Park Zoo in Lafayette, IN. The place was actually a sanctuary and rehabilitation center primarily for abandoned pets-- this varied from tigers to black-tailed deer, red foxes, and black bears. If I can ever get wireless going on my computer, I might share a few pictures. We worked mostly around the bear cages, filling in holes that they had dug up and eroded areas around their bath area. Besides that, I got my first usage of a reciprocal saw and driving a 4x2 gator around. I think I grew an extra patch of chest hair with all the manly energy that comes with doing stuff like that.

Induction was fairly uneventful. We heard a few speeches, we read a few lines, and we were out of there. This was good for me, because it allowed me to prepare for my weekend events-- visiting Colin in Oakland. I got there Friday night but was still beat from the previous day's manual labor and pre-induction festivities. For a lot of people, that was the big goodbye. About half the teams left Saturday morning for Louisiana or Texas.

It was good to see Colin, but much of the visit wasn't noteworthy (not that it wasn't fun, Colin). It rained almost all weekend, so much of the time was just watching episodes of Entourage, walking around Fruitdale in Oakland and enjoying Salvadorian papusas (cheezy pancakes), and falling asleep at a house party where we both didn't know many people. We never made it into San Francisco, but it probably would have been a bad idea with as crappy as it had been. A bunch of my Ameri-friends spent a very miserable weekend there. Sunday was the highlight because the rain finally stopped. By-the-way, it almost never rains here. According to Colin this was the first time since he's been here (April) that it has; we sure picked the weekend. Sunday we spent biking around Alameda, a neat little island on the bay which is a suburb of Oakland. There's a long beach/greenway along the bay that we were able to partake in a little frisbee tossing before I had to head out. It was really good to see Colin before I head out, and hopefully we'll have another few weekends before he gets back home in the spring.

After the weekend we got back to work on a local project in Sacramento for the time being. We worked with a community near Arco Arena, CA on a rebuild project for a playground. Evidently, the community had built a wooden playground almost 20 years ago called Ft. Natomas, and in 2005 it had been set on fire by an arsonist. That had been rebuilt in the same spot, but two years later a vagrant squatting at the newly built Ft. Natomas started a fire to keep warm and that one burned down too. This was to be the second and hopefully final rebuild-- this time out of fire resistant plastic and in a new more secure location. This was really rewarding because the people that we worked with were reeking with gratitude. We got to see the project from a bunch of holes in the ground to having most of the decking put on. Unfortunately we had to cut out Friday for our briefing, but we saw the mostly finished product this morning. It's quite a sight. It's pretty cool to be able to take ownership for your 'section', too. I helped set and plumb the main 18 ft. poles on the main entrance. Again, I hope to have some pictures soon.

So now we are about to head to Compton. We've been delayed by a faulty right turn signal on our van, but it should be back from the dealership any second now. Wish me happy travels.