I just got back from the first DPW Work Weekend of the 2008 season.

I keep telling people I won't be DPW-ing this year because I'm going to Bali, but I have been convinced otherwise. It's one thing for my peers to tell me to do it, but it's another thing when the "supervisors" have a word with me. That's what happened, so, I'm coming back [same deal as last year, work until i have to prep for school]. Not like it took too much to convince me. :)

So, back to the Work Weekend...It was freakin COLD. The temperature dropped to 30 degrees on Saturday night...I was about to freeze in my car, in my 10 degree sleeping bag. I also had to pee so bad in the middle of the night and ended up peeing in a cup left over from when I ate a Subway sandwich. That was more information than you probably wanted, but that's okay.

There was a quaint dusting of snow in the morning but it quickly melted. By the time I left at noon (from the office, the story will come...) it was snowing a little. It snowed while I was driving, too, but not too much. Look at the pictures I posted, there was snow on the mountains around the Ranch. I don't think I got sunburnt as much as I got cold wind burnt. Either way, my face still hurts. Not too much though.

I saw fox, logan, padawan, starchild, insane, zair ian, garth, quinn, D.A., playground, lexi, and a couple other people I've met before. I met a whole mess of new awesome people, and I'm excited to hang out with them more.

For the Work Weekend, I got to work with fox, Perky (first time DPW), Zack (first time DPW), and wheels (first time burner). I volunteered to work at the office, which I thought meant paperwork and easy stuff. Boy, was I wrong.

In the past 60 or more years the office building has been around, the basement has not been cleaned out. There was flooding this year, as in other years, but this time, the pump was not working. They are afraid that the office basement will rot out, so they needed the basement to be completely cleared out. Sound easy? It wasn't.

There were shelves, old stuff dating from the 1940s to today, dirt, wood, metal, and all other random pieces of junk. It took 2 truckloads and a whole huge trailer full of junk to clean it out. Doesn't sound so bad yet, does it? Take into account that the water has been soaking all the junk down there for months, maybe even years. Things started decomposing, and smelling rotten. Mold was growing, and things were really really slimy. I think there was even poopy water down there.

We went shovel full by shovel full, bucket by bucket, up the freakin basement stairs, out the door, into the trucks. It could have taken 2 or 3 days easy, but we got it done right quick. One day. We got treats for doin it, but man, was that a gross job. I wore a respirator down in the basement since I'm allergic to mold, and that was the least of my worries down there. :)

Anyway.
It was a great first Work Weekend for this season!

I can't wait to get back there. Memorial Day weekend, probably.