The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

This weekend was planned to be a big fundraising blitz outside of Walmart. I had a lot of success doing it last year, so I went back for more.....just not with the same results. My walking buddy Cecelia was going to do it with me, so we chose a SuperWalmart in Salem, NH (equal distance for both of us to get to) and each planned to set up at one of the entrances. Figured we could double our money by reaching every Walmart shopper. Although the theory was true, the clientele wasn't exactly up for donating. I haven't seen that kind of chain-smoking by so many people since the 80's! Not to mention most of them were covered in tattoos and a frighteningly high percentage were missing some teeth. This was clearly "the Ugly" part of the weekend. Not exactly what I was used to from my suburb grocery store and Walmart locations from last year!

After one particularly bad hour when I only received $10 in donations, I decided I wasn't going back there on Sunday. I called the Stop-n-Shop in Plymouth I visited last year and arranged to go there on Sunday instead. Cecelia was still up for visiting Walmart, not to mention the Plymouth location is probably 1 1/2 hours away from her house so not really worth it with the price of gas these days! So she headed to Walmart and I to Stop-n-Shop.

Sunday I was up bright and early and headed to Plymouth. The weather went from overcast and misting rain on my way down to bright sunshine, high humidity and not a cloud in the sky when I reached Plymouth. Instead of wearing the raincoat I had packed, I had to go in and buy sunscreen to make sure I didn't get scorched in the blazing heat b/c there wasn't any shade outside. Instead of chain-smoking, tattoo covered folks not donating, I saw suburban moms and dads toting their green recycling bags into the store in order to save the environment. And they were very generous! This first hour or so was definitely "the Good" part of this experience.

Unfortunately "the Bad" came much too soon. After sitting outside for a very short time I could feel the extreme heat and humidity taking a toll on me. I kept trying to drink water, and even went inside the grocery store on occasion to get a little air conditioning. It wasn't enough as I could tell my body temperature was rising and I developed a splitting headache. Some form of Heat Exhaustion was setting in and then the nasaeu and vomitting started. Later my Mom read about it online and it said not to drink water. Guess my body was just finding a way to get rid of the water!

A really nice teenage boy who worked at the store retrieving the Grocery Carts came over to see if I was OK and even volunteered to call someone for me. I thought if I just got out of the sun and went inside I would feel better. Unfortunately it wasn't that simple. This boy moved all my stuff inside and set me up in there. Not as good for the donations, but at least I didn't feel as if my temperature was at a boiling point. Then the chills started so I had to put on a sweatshirt. Even that didn't help. And I was so weak I couldn't imagine taking my few things to the car or being able to drive a car. Seeing as my parents live close by, I called my Mom and she had to come pick me up. After a few hours of sleep I woke up a normal temperature, although still a little queasy. But today I feel fine. And famished from not eating yesterday! That's how I know I'm back to my old self!

Here are some pics of my set up: