Sitka or Bust: Commute The World

Last night I got the great idea of waking up my frozen feet by sleeping with hand warmers. I knew they would fall off if I just slept with them on my feet so I put them inside socks and wore them. Now for my brain to even fix the problem of them falling off I consider that a small win. My feet did not feel any warmth with the heaters against them, but I figured they were just heating up, so why waste precious sleep time? Besides, my survival kit consisted of hot chocolate mix, hand warmers, gum and ginger chews. I could only use what I had and as useful as hot chocolate is to warm up toes I didn’t have a mug to dip them in.

As my father likes to say, I woke up to the smell of bacon and my toes were covered in huge blisters. I guess I should have read the parts of the packaging where it said things like: “Burn hazard. Do not use while sleeping. On those who cannot feel heat or who have nerve damage.” This is why reading directions is useful and can even keep you from hurting yourself. I don’t even care if you’ve used the product before. I’d used them plenty, and sadly, I’d also read the back because that is an odd compulsion of mine.

Well, too late to do anything but smear on some burn paste my roommate just happened to have and shove those tootsies gingerly into a pair of boots. My shift started in 12 minutes. It was to be our last 16 hour day and everyone was working with a renewed vigor.