Picking up from last time –
No matter what we did, we consistently all got water splashed on us all the time. I can only imagine what it’s like for any poor souls who ever have to do this in cold weather (ouch!).
It was a very hot day in Los Angeles (yes, on Thanksgiving – that’s LA). So, our stops were even more slammed than we were expecting.
And since everyone was so parched, no one seemed upset if any of the cups were a bit fuller than they probably should’ve been. *High five!*
(Also, can we just mention, maybe there should be a specific “race cup” that has a line marked to where it should be filled… Or, I don’t know. I think there are a lot of innovative things we could do with race cups (making them easier to hand off, and such). So, let’s think about working on that!)
Anyway, eventually everyone went past us, and it was time to clean up.
The captains of the stop told us to dump all the water. The other volunteers and I were a little stressed about dumping so much good water in the middle of the street (in the middle of a drought in California). So, we started pouring all unused water from cups back into the jugs so we could at least go pour the water in the surrounding plants, even if open/unsealed water jugs couldn’t be given anywhere for human consumption.
Our impatient crew leaders didn’t care about trying to save any water, and they told us to just dump the tables. All the tables got dumped, and there was tons of water in the street…
Then the van to come pick up the supplies didn’t come for at least another 45 minutes. So, as far as I could tell, we did have time to be a little more judicious with how we got rid of the water. However, there may have been a permit issue or something that made it so we needed to get out of the street… And none of the nearby trees looked like they were in any danger of dying anytime soon due to lack of water or anything. And who am I to question the people in charge? So, you know, it’s all good…
While we were waiting for the van, the guy in charge of the water station asked me if I was a vegetarian (as we were talking about Thanksgiving dinner). I said, “actually yeah, I have been for a few months. Why?”
He said I seemed like a vegetarian. I’m not totally sure what that means. I’m unsure if I even like it. (Who am I becoming?!) But I thought it was funny that someone who was so against going vegetarian is now getting told, “you seem like a vegetarian.” Ah, life.
Eventually the van came, we loaded it up, and took everything back to the big recycle bins.
Then I walked home in the burning, burning heat. But at least I’d gotten wet all morning!