sejgirl

Monday, October 12, 2009

Sand Storm

Sand storms are an odd experience. For one, the sky changes to a shade of red/orange that makes me think the apocalypse is coming. Then the winds pick up and sand not only blinds you, but absolutely blasts your skin. The plus side is that it does exfoliate.

Chow

I’ve often questioned the nutritional value of food that has a longer life expectancy than I do. However, this is the reality for me for the next several months. When we are not mobile, we are served in a cafeteria, just like any other cafeteria-with one exception, it’s still that same non-perishable food, but prepared in mass quantities.

Despite this, I looked forward to several things each day. My milk which says it really is milk, but expires April 2010, and canned fruit.
My most interesting meal was spaghetti and meat balls. I thought I was getting mashed potatoes on my tray until the server plopped a big helping of tomato sauce on it. Sure enough, upon closer inspection, the thick pulverized white substance had elements that looked as if it had once been spaghetti noodles.

The next day, they were serving mashed potatoes and gravy. It was unique, as it was literally gravy mixed into the mashed potatoes giving it the color and texture of canned cat food. What really caught me by surprise was the taste. It tasted exactly like cheap canned catfood. Not that I actually have tasted canned catfood, but I’ve opened enough cans to get the idea. This stuff really brought me back to my childhood because it smelled like Alley Cat canned catfood that we would occasionally by from Buy For Le$$ for our herd of cats. It smelled more like the red can if I recall correctly- Red was beef, blue was chicken, and green was sea food. I had no life as a child.

Dessert was often hit or miss. It really just depended how dried out it was. One day, I was eating a brownie, and my plastic fork broke on it.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Until June


A picture from our last day together until we meet next June.

And the countdown begins...

Friday, October 09, 2009

Desert Work



A little of what we did in the desert. We started from nothing. A lot more went into this, but the highlight was our 16x32 structure.



The first wall up


The sun setting a on very long day


We build this 16x32 structure in less than 24 hours-including shingles.






Return from the Mojave



I've decided I don't like sand. This may prove to be a minor issue in the next few months, but I am sure I will learn to deal with it.

So, I spent the last month in the desert and am trying to figure out why anyone would purposely move out there. It started out blazing hot. Wearing a 32lb vest everywhere made for even more fun in the sun. I was drinking gallons of water a day and was pretty sure I was going to have a heat stroke any time I wondered into a port-a-john. This, fortunately, was rare as I would usually sweat out everything I put in. Actually, desert survival tip 132 I learned this month-in the desert you literally dry out from the inside out. You can feel it.

Then, the first day of October there was a sand storm and after that, it was in the 40s every night and I was freezing! There may have been some poor planning on my part since I didn't bring much in the way of warming layers. And somehow, I ended up sleeping outside on the three coldest nights out there.

And of course, some pictures:


The shower had three working shower heads.


No haircuts in the bathroom


Hydration chart


Home sweet home