Yesterday Chris and I volunteered at the Olympic Torch Relay Event here in the city. Chris was a parking attendant, and spent his 7 hour shift walking up and down a street that was blocked off, making sure no one was parking there. Pretty boring - but it IS worth mentioning that the torch came right up that street and Chris got a good look at the frozen person carrying it up to main stage.
I was stationed at the Ice and Fire Carnival, which is something that goes on every year here in Regina, but this year the location had been moved so that they could be part of the Olympic Torch Relay and attract some more crowds. Here I am at my post - I had to guard this snow sculpture from menacing public and keep all the little ones from climbing on it and wrecking it ; )
For 7 hours. I was frozen to the bone. The weekend forecast looked pretty nice earlier in the week, but by the time Saturday rolled around, I think it only got up to about -15 C, with a pretty nasty wind kicking up shortly after noon. Thankfully there were other volunteers to spell you off if you needed a break, so I had a couple of nice 15 minute thaws inside, and MANY cups of hot chocolate. We were also provided with hand warmers (those neat little packs full of chemicals that give off heat), so I put two in each mitten and 1 in each boot! Not that they did much good. Even after the thermal underwear, yoga pants, jeans, knee socks, thermal socks, boots, tank top, long sleeved shirt, fleece jacket, winter coat, scarf, toque, hood....I was an icicle.
About a half hour before my shift ended, free pizza arrived in the volunteer tent, so I finished up my frozen day with a couple of pieces of ham and pineapple. I was a bit sad that the torch wouldn't be arriving for another hour so I was going to miss it, but I was anxious to get home anyways. Luckily, the route I took driving home (trying to avoid blocked roads) afforded me a nice view of the procession as I was stopped at a light! I got a good look at the torch and the rest of the festivities as it traveled down Victoria Avenue. I also got a peek at the fireworks show from my bedroom window later on! (Hee hee, not very exciting, but Chris and everyone else who saw them dow at the site said they were fantastic!)
But I was POOPED. My whole body felt like it was falling apart. I never knew just standing in the cold could get to you like that, but it certainly did! My legs and hip joints were sore from treading through deep snow all day, my shoulders and neck seized up and were immobile from tensing up from the cold, and my poor toes seemed as if they'd never be warm again!
But a nice hot bath and an episode of MacGyver in bed before sleep fixed me right up.
1 comment:
Wow. What drives us to volunteer? And have you ever noticed that we work harder, and complain less, about things we volunteer for then if we were getting paid to do them? Weird.
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