Old Connections

It's a strange thing being back in a place you grew up after an absence of fifteen years. There are so many people I've never kept track of who appear in the bookstore. It's disconcerting to run into them at a time where I am not doing what I want to be doing, what I have trained to do, what I have been doing all those years I have been gone. And yet it is interesting to have glimpses into these lives again. Although I grew up in more or less the same place I went to 4 different schools in very different towns and so some of the people I see I haven't seen in a very long time, since kindergarten or fourth grade.

Today while walking the dogs I ran into my middle school Spanish teacher walking her son to school. I ran into a ex-elementary school classmate who is now a married cowgirl. An old physics teacher of mine, who allowed the class to construct a catapult and aim it at the nearest highway, browsed through our literature section. I had lunch at a fine restaurant that turned out to be owned by an ex-high school classmate. Most startling of all was the local cop who had met me in the Small Alaskan Town At A Cross Roads three years ago at a potluck who remembered both my name and our topic of conversation. Just before closing the door opened and, my mind having already dismissed it as impossible, in walked an ex-high school classmate who I had last seen in Alaska. It is interesting to me to note that there are the people you consciously stay in touch with an see frequently because of it, and there are some people who you don't try to stay in touch with but who seem to pop up in your life over and over again.

Wildfire

All of a sudden there was this wind that sent parked strollers across the street and whipped the flags off the flagpoles. A strange wind for the Rocky Mountains, a wind that was reminiscent of a the Northern Most Ice Free Port City, Alaska where the wind would blow my windows open at night and I would have to brave the cold to go outside and reign them back into their hinges. But this wind is unusual here and one could almost feel the trouble it brewed. From the window I watched the snow whipping off the ridges of the tallest mountain in view. The bookstore seemed to fill up with people who had never been in before and the story trickled back in waves.

Fire. Wildfire. A blaze that quickly grew to 300 acres blown across the river, the highway. The highway, the only route really, in this tight valley, was closed. Again I was transported to Northern Most Ice Free Port City, Alaska where the road would close due to avalanches regularly and we would be cut off entirely - a rising claustrophobia. Amazingly, although the fire burned hard and hot, the houses were mostly saved, the livestock, the people, and pets all were. There was one severe injury from a fisherman who was overtaken by the flames in the river. Now that's a story - who expects to be burned while standing in the middle of a river? The first wildfires of the season blossomed all over the state, earlier then usual. Although the ground is exceedingly wet & snow still lies heavily on the ground in places the trees are dry, not having brought up the sap from their roots, and the dry grasses from fall are quick tinder. The haze of yellow smoke covers the sun so that it is like looking at the moon in daylight. The town where I am living, Town at the Confluence of Two Gold Medal Trout Streams, is suddenly alive with people, the bars are full, there are people pacing back and forth talking worriedly on cell phones, people who can't get home even if they live beyond the fire.

Falling

So today I fell down a flight of stairs, quite literally. My foot came off the top step and suddenly it was like being on the ice sheets on the streets of Farthest North Ice-Free Port, Alaska (ironic, isn't it? Ice-free port but no ice-free streets, but I digress.). And I went down, pretty much on my vertebrae, bumping along trying to stop myself with my thigh and my wrist while, most stupidly, trying not to break the glass items in my hand (note to self: throw them down and let them shatter! They are easier to replace then a back!). Coming at long last to a stop I sat up gingerly and promptly almost blacked out. Head between my knees. Breathe. Etc. Now I have a Frisbee sized bruise on my lower vertebrae & back that fits nicely right where the fabric of my waistline wants to rub and it is swollen and sore and the waistline doesn't help. I have a football sized bruise on my thigh.

Gorgeous red rocks, 2008

And I keep thinking...I've got to learn to stop being such a klutz. This is brought into stark relief by the fact that the Marlboro man fell down a flight of stairs in my sister's house the same day and shattered his ankle and is now in the rehabilitation part of the hospital. You can majorly damage yourself falling down - downs stairs or otherwise.

Desert Mountain Sheep, 2008

I went to lovely the lovely Peach Growing City in the Shadow of a Mesa (I'm taking lessons from Jo(e) on pseudonymous place names) for the weekend to visit with old friends and new and we were going on a lovely red rock desert hike when my new friend gasped and asked "are those bruises?" on my legs. I looked down, and sure enough there were - there always are because I am forever running into things or knocking things down. Luckily I'm only a klutz within man made structures - out in the wilderness I look much more like these desert mountain sheep we saw (pictured), hence my graduate school nickname of "mountain goat". I sure don't feel like one today though.

Don't Bump the Glump

I just had to tell you that Shel Silverstein's first poetry collection has gone back in print (after 3 decades)! It's a gorgeous book with color drawings: Don't Bump the Glump. It's absolutely fabulous. It opens with this:

A WARNING FOR THOSE WHO CHANCE
TO MEET A WILD GLUMP COMING HOME
LATE AT NIGHT, DOWN A DARK STREET,
PAST A GRAVEYARD, ALL ALONE IN A STORM

DON'T BUMP THE GLUMP

Archive Meme

I was tagged by Amanda over at A Lady Scientist for the Archive Meme in which you go back through your old posts and find some favorites. I've much neglected this tag as it occurred right before I went on my unplanned break. But I promised her I would do it so here goes...I must say, I don't feel like I've been blogging long enough to do this and even with my small selection it's hard to choose! I'm going to tag anyone because I'm sure it's made its way around the Internets already.

1. About Family: It seems that the majority of my posts on my family seem to be "In Memoriam". I tend to be circumspect about my family here because they don't know I have a blog and I want to respect their privacy. So that leaves me a few posts to choose from that aren't in memoriam. I guess it will have to be REAL BEACHES which is about my niece on a visit with her grandmother (my mother) to Alaska.

2. About Friends: I think I have to chose my post IN HOLLAND which is about time spent in a dear friend who lives there. More of my real life friend grace these pages but I think this one sums up the joy of deep friendship.

This photograph of a mountian lion was taken by Mitch Starr, a ranch hand, 11 miles from my parents' house

3. About me, who I am, what I think I'm all about: Hmph. This one is very tough. Because I think different bits of me are represented in different posts. So I guess I'm going to choose IM BAYERN GEHN DIE UHREN ANDERES. Im mostly choosing it because many of you won't have read it but it also meets the topic. It's about how different viewpoints are important, how things are not always straightforward or how we expect, how diversity, whether it be cultural or biological, is of great value.

4. About something I love: For this my dear Disreputables in A CAT AND HER DOG.

5. Just a good post, any post: I think I'll choose my PRIZE CONVERSATIONS WITH TURONS for this one mostly because it's always good for a laugh.

E.O. Wilson or Meeting a Personal Hero

It was my birthday this Saturday but the best present of all happened a bit earlier in the week, when I was working as a bookseller for a conference. There were a lot of big names at the conference, not to mention a few people I had worked with in the past. Although I didn't see or hear much of it I got to chat with many people as they passed through our made-for-the-occasion bookstore. One of those people just so happened to be E.O. Wilson. I'm guessing that many of the scientists reading this will know exactly who he is. But for those of you who don't he is a biologist (primarily an entomologist) who has been an active voice for conservation (he must be about 80 now).

I actually got to see and hear his plenary talk (thanks to my supervisor!) which was set up like a fireside chat. it was a wonderful talk. The most memorable moment for me was when he discussed how important he felt it was that children should be able to explore the natural world on their own terms, that zoos and botanical gardens are great places for children if they get to explore but if they go to see the labels on the specimens and animals it is the worst way for them to experience it. And then he said "I think the largest enemy of the natural world are soccer moms [who over schedule them and do not let children discover for themselves]". This got a lot of laughs from the audience and later a woman started her question by saying "I'm going to overlook your snide remarks about soccer moms...." Wilson replied "Oh, don't! Stay angry and mull on it for awhile". And that is the part of the quote that I savor because isn't it true that too often we are soothing ruffled feathers to the extent that we don't think through whey something makes us angry or if it should make us angry? I hope to use that quote in the future.

Later, after his plenary, E.O. Wilson came down to the bookstore to sign books. He had a huge line. At the very end was me, an armful of books that other people had asked me to have him sign because they had places they had to be (although I must admit that I don't really understand that point in having your book signed if you don't get the opportunity to chat with the author). As I was the last in line we had time to chat and he was very gracious. He talked about how when he flies anywhere he always tries to calculate how far a child would have to walk from any subdivision or housing unit to the nearest thing resembling wilderness. I had a book of my own I wanted signed and we had been chatting for awhile and I had mentioned that I was an -ologist so when I put my book down and said, "and this one is for me" he announced, "ah, well you, you get an ant" and not only did he sign my book but he drew me an ant (he is very well renowned for his work with ants) in it and then a conference organizer snapped a photo of us!

The Marlboro Man

Yesterday we were to be besieged by visitors, a dear friend from my Fairbanks days who is now in Portland flew out so that we could celebrate our birthday together, a day that we share, and my sister and her family were to join us as well in celebration of their wedding anniversary. My friend arrived safely, a joyous, laughing bubble eager to explore and do new things. From my sister however came an odd phone call, another drop in the family worries. Her step-father (we are half sister's, really, through my father, although to us there is no half about it) has been ill for some time. You may have heard me refer to him before, he is an old time Coloradan cowboy and was one of the original Marlboro Men. He had a stroke last fall from which he has hardly recovered and yesterday his doctor called to say that they had found cancer. He is an old man, we just celebrated his 80th birthday, and I wonder if he will not just decide to go back to his Marlboro Man days and re-take up his vices until he submerges and expires. But I doubt my sister will let him. She, and her family, are currently living with him and it is hard to let the people we love go, even when it might be kinder to do so. We shall see her and her family, her husband and my niece & nephew this weekend but they have taken some time to be with Clyde and ease him through the news and I have this odd feeling that the traveling should be reversed - I should be going there. And so I shall, soon, as well as to Ontario where my Oma is still doing poorly, but for now my friend and I shall have a celebratory weekend and take what joy is to be found in friendship and aunt hood and home baked pies.

Until the weekend I find myself, surprisingly at a National Geographic event on the environment, selling books. This is a surprising turn of events and I hope to take advantage of it as there are some very respected names here and a few of people I know. Scientists as well as activists, attempting to present the pitfalls of global climate change and potential solutions to insurance agents and business persons, the people who seem to just be catching on that this may be an issue that will directly affect them. Luckily the talks are piped into the book-room and I hope to get the opportunity to circulate during the breaks. I must continually remind myself not to buy any of the delicious books on science & the environment that arrayed in front of me. So tempting!