Sunshine, Downtime and Townside

The sun is shining in Washington in February. Crazy I know.

For the past few days it has been sunny and warm outside, a gift to us for our hard work. We have spent the week clearing brush and trees behind buildings around camp, as well as along the roads. Work has been extremely physically demanding, amounting to 8 hours of strenuous physical labor including splitting firewood, bucking logs with chainsaws, clearing brush with chainsaws, axes and loppers, felling trees and loading it onto the truck for removal. On top of that every night we have an hour of physical training that usually involves running around 3.5 miles up a hill in the dark. In comparison to where we all were when we became a team in October we are hardened athletes, fit in all senses of the word.

We've also had a lot of fun on our off time. Watching movies, going in to town to watch a movie, and going to Seattle... to watch a movie... Now that I think about it, it's mostly been watching movies...

Actually that's not true, last weekend a group of us went to Seattle and had quite an adventure. We took the ferry into town and met a nice crazy guy that showed us how to get to downtown Seattle. He told us all about how everyone on Vashon Island was on heroin and cocaine and that there was "a huge party" at someone's house and if we wanted to go to just "ask around" and we could go if we were "chill enough". When we got to Seattle we went to the Flagship REI and perused their goods for a bit. Most of us have headlamps now because of how dark it gets while moving between cabins and lodges and the like. Then Ron, Ben and I went on a journey for food, and wandered for a good 20 blocks before we found somewhere to eat. After that we went to H&M and purchased some fancy clothes. We also went to the Pike Place Market and wandered about looking at all the shops. Then a homeless man cursed us to hell, and we got back on the bus to go home. The lady on the bus told two of our team mates Warith and Finley that they should have 8 children because they would be beautiful and that they could sell their embryos at any price. She then proceeded to tell us about how she purchased her son (who was mentally handicapped) in embryo form knowing "there was something a little bit wrong with him". She was quite a bizarre lady, as was her adult son, dressed as a girl scout that sat next to me. We rode the ferry back, all in all a good day.

Next time on the adventures of Joey in the corps:

Island swimming

Zombies!

The Others...

-J

Vash-on-island

I write this post from my island home located deep within the Puget Sound. It rains daily, it's damp always, but the view of the water and adjacent islands looks like something out of a Monet painting.

There are times in life where a person must decide to do silly and unnecessary things. This is one of those times.

I have decided to attempt to spend the entire two months on the rainy, 40-50 degree island in a tent in the woods. Of course, I will continue to work and socialize with my team on a daily basis, and really will only sleep and read at the tent, but it's a start. This is a good opportunity for me to live one of my desires (or at lease live part of it). I want to live with nothing so I may appreciate everything. Perhaps this time in the woods will help me appreciate a warm, soft bed and consistent heat.

Today we used chainsaws to cut down a fair amount of shrubs and trees to hold off nature from overrunning the camp. Tomorrow much of the same. The day before we were given a tour of the camp and also the nearby town.

This is HIPPIE ISLAND. Everyone's a hippie and there are more books on "gemstone healing" than there are grains of sand on the beach. Everything is small and quaint and the people are all old hippies that I expect grow a lot of drugs in their backyards.

There aren't any chain stores that I'm aware of; the community is vehemently opposed to big business and any kind of non-weirdness on the island. In fact, they're so "pro-strange" that the island's slogan (which can be purchased in various forms) is "Keep Vashon Weird".

I don't think the project sponsors here are ready for our kind of intensity. They seem very relaxed and laid back, and our "out-produce everyone" philosophy seems to be a bit out of order with their own style. Hopefully we can come to a happy middle ground and get a lot of work done (and maybe chill out a bit more too).

Until next time, stay awesome everyone. Also COMMENT OR I'LL DISOWN YOU! Comments are the only way I judge whether or not people value my life, which is the only way I judge how much to value my own. If you get my drift. Low comments = possible death.

Do you really want that on your conscience?

-J