December 30, 2004

December 30, 2004

C.A.R.E. Centre

DAY 195

 

Today was cloudy and warm, with intermittent drizzle.

Today was our first day of work at the Escapees C.A.R.E. Centre. My first assignment was to help another WorkCamper / Volunteer, Doug Cameron from California, load up some very heavy refuse and haul it to the dump. Apparently most of the WorkCampers / Volunteers are older than me, and either unable or unwilling to do heavy lifting. We hauled a dishwasher, a couple of water heaters, a large, heavy pump, and a truckload of other junk to the municipal dump. Joanne spent the morning socializing with Arley, an elderly blind man. She chatted with him in the dining room for awhile, then walked him back to his rig, and visited with him there for the rest of the morning.

Joanne went back to our trailer for lunch. I had lunch in the C.A.R.E. dining room. After lunch, we both spent most of the afternoon filling out paper work, and reading everything in the orientation binder. It's a collection of policies, procedures, guidelines, etc..

Late in the afternoon there was a small birthday party in the dining room for one of the participants. Rodney Elam was there. It was the first time we had seen Rodney today. Rodney is the 86 year old man that we met when we first walked by the C.A.R.E. Centre shortly after we arrived at Rainbow's End. We had made a commitment to him to help him with his dog, Ginger, who was temporarily in a nearby kennel. After the birthday cake and ice cream, we loaded Rodney into our truck, and drove him over to the kennel to pick up Ginger. The old man and his old dog have been apart for 2 weeks. What a happy reunion ! Happy man ! Happy, happy dog !

We ended the afternoon taking Bo for a long walk around the C.A.R.E. grounds, where we met many dogs and their owners. We didn't walk far, but we were out there for a long time, chatting with dog owners, while Bo romped with new friends. Before supper, I lied down on the bed to read a magazine, but quickly fell asleep. I guess it was a long, hard first day of work.

DSK