March 28, 2012
Woke
up early today, and decided to go ahead and get up. Turned out to be
early enough to wave farewell to the Calhoun crowd. Thanks again to
Jackie for the snow globe and shared hiking experience. I hope you
email to say hi from time to time, and I hope I spelled your name
right. Spent some time looking through images I've taken so far and
preparing some ideas for the school program I'll be doing at Interior
School. Visited there today with ranger Julie to meet the teachers
and work out a schedule. Julie also had Steven (other AiR) and I
help her clean out the kitchen of one of the Calhoun rooms. They had
a plethora of extraneous food items that Julie wanted us to take.
We're planning to have a Viking
style Sigrblot
feast in the quad some night soon. Thanks for that, Calhoun! We'll
try to send you pictures. Spent the rest of the morning feeling lost
and out of focus. Time to transition and buckle down to work. Life
feels very raw and exposed today. Tried to work on the painting I'd
already started, but only got about an hour's work done on it. It's
just not the right fit for today's mood and state of mind. So I
switched gears completely, pulled out a big painting board and
stretched a full sheet. Set it in the sun to dry while I had a
snack/lunch-like meal. Put about two hours in, more or less flinging
the paint down. At least that's what it felt like in comparison to
my customary style of choice. It's quite raw, and reflects where I'm
at today. Not quite finished though, and not quite far along enough
for me to feel good about posting it here. Plus it is late and the
lighting is terrible for photography. Will do when I've slapped a
little more paint on it, maybe tomorrow. I hit a point where I just
couldn't work anymore, so set off to climb the small butte by the
housing area for sunset. The mourning doves and meadow larks filling
the air with their disparate songs. Next I hiked back to another
spot near the quad where I have gone on several night hikes. Ran
into Ed and Steven there, who were holding a deer skull and antlers,
respectively, goofing around. They struck a pose for me.
Got to see others of Ed's skulls, including a Hyrax. Right now I
just got back from the Wagon Wheel with them. We met some other
people from the park there and had a little late dinner. Made some
plans for hikes the rest of this week, and much more fossil talk, of
course. Plus plenty of bad humor all around. Think I might head
back to Sage Creek tomorrow, and bring a park radio along since
there's zero cell service and it's quite remote. I'm curious whether
the bison skeleton is still there, and would enjoy doing more hiking
further out into the hills of that area. Talking under the stars
with some of my neighbors tonight, there are quite a lot of meteors
lately. Then the coyotes started in with their resonating chorus.
Splendid.
 |
| Sunset on Angel Butte. Quad in front. |
 |
| Hail to the deer. Ed (paleontologist) with Steven (photographer). |
 |
| Hiking area behind quad. |