soapbox.

If you don't want to read a serious rant, skip today's post...because I am about to lay it down!

I realize a work a lot. I've written about it multiple times and how I struggle to find the balance between work and home things and my personal life. I know there are a lot of nights when I am out at work and Chad is home without me, fending for himself for dinner and getting things done around the house. But this week has been a whole different story and is grating heavily on my emotions. I have worked a lot this week but it has been a fairly normal load for me. I had daily regular work and worked Tuesday and Thursday nights for meetings. I was lucky enough to take all day Wednesday off to hang out with my sister which was a MUCH needed break. Chad, on the other hand, has worked some serious hours this week. His week started when we got back to Chattanooga on Sunday with a call out to a fire about the time we got in bed. He pretty much worked sun-up to sun-down Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and most of Thursday (meaning he left home before the sun and got home around midnight. Literally.) He was on overtime by Wednesday.

He finally got a day off today and worked around the house all morning. He cut down trees and hauled them off. He is hot, tired, and a week of terrible sleeping hours and hard physical work (not to mention all the smoke he inhales all week at work) has worn on him. I was seriously looking forward to a 3-day weekend of hanging out around the house and running some errands and I have been praying that would actually happen and fires would stay at bay. No Luck. He just got called out - literally 20  minutes after I got home this afternoon.

So here is my SOAPBOX (you probably just read something similiar on my FB page...but it limits your status words and boy did I have more to say.):

Here's to all the Idiots...
To the people who were raised poorly, trained terribly, and don't care about others,
To the people who throw cigarette butts out their car windows onto drought stricken land,
To the people who don't know how to properly put out a campfire so it doesn't catch acres of precious woodlands on fire (the Girl Scouts have a FREE class for that - I will teach it myself.),
To the supremely selfish and classy folks who think arson is an appropriate solution to their problems or that it should be used to cover another crime,
To the uneducated and somehow unaware public that doesn't realize we haven't had rain in over a month and a half and that you need a permit to burn your trash or brush - which won't be issued because of nationwide drought conditions,
I salute you.
Carrying my garden hose and my watering can and wearing my Smokey the Bear ballcap,
I salute you.

Because you, my friend, are the people that put the people I LOVE in danger because they have to come clean up YOUR mess. Because of you, my husband and his coworkers inhale more fire smoke than could ever be considered healthy. And you carelessly remove any chance I might have of spending some quality time with my hardworking, dedicated, wonderful husband. Why do they do this? Because it is their job - their barely-pays-the-bills-and-yet-they-are-still-dedicated-job. They do it to protect YOUR houses and YOUR land from burning up. They do it to protect YOUR crops from burning up. They do it to protect the land YOU want to hunt on and ride your stupid ATV's on.

I'm not sorry for saying this.

Edited later to add: Chad just called and said it was raining where he was on the fire. I know that prayers are always answered and sometimes how and where we least expect it. God is good. But I'm still mad.