Dave and I were definitely hanging with a different group of people than our usual artsy crowd. There was a woman scientist who specialized in one particular snail, Dr Steve Buskirk who just published a book called Mammals of Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park. Then there was Zack from the Casper Audubon chapter. He could identify a bird just by hearing a few distant notes. Saturday, he was leading a group of gravel crunching amateurs, myself included, when he abruptly stopped,threw down his baseball cap, (he says he can hear better without a hat on ) and pronounced, "Grasshopper Sparrow!" I didn't hear a thing and we never saw it but I believe him! We also took part in a Mist Netting demonstration. One of our catches was a pair of feisty, male Yellow Warblers ( mating season, need I say more). A few of the scientists at the BioBlitz are trained and licensed to bird band. They showed us how to figure out how old the bird was, its sex and how to measure for and apply the tracking band.
These days, the cows like to winter in the coffins so there's literally 3 feet of manure inside. The grounds are also strewn with spent rifle cartridges and rusting carcasses of abandoned machinery. All that money and effort to keep 3 warheads pointed at Russia for less than 4 years! I need to remember that it was the Cold War era and our country was on edge about nuclear war (click this link to see Jim's powerpoint with historical pictures of the missiles). Being 60 (just!) I remember disaster drill training in grade school. We all had to cover our heads and hide under our desks in the event of a nuclear explosion. As if that was going to help. Time to get to work on the LEAP 366 ring for this event. I chose to represent the Bioblitz weekend with some 1/2 price, green yardage I snagged at Meals on Wheels and a silver sunshield which was swag from our Blue Credit Union customer appreciation BBQ (sorry but it's just what I needed). Greens for the grassland prairie and the staff T-shirts. Silver to represent the metallic skin of the Atlas D missile which Jim said was, "dime thin" He also wanted to be represented by the original Guided Missile insignia which was sterling silver. Perfect!
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I spent my sophomore year of college in the Pacific Northwest at Seattle Pacific College. You'll gather by the title of this post that my college days were a long time ago, so you can imagine my delight when Cindy Phillips, my former roommate, contacted me via FaceBook, to say she was coming through Cheyenne on her way home to Washington state.
Cindy was on the last leg of a two month trip in her 10 year old RV she christened, Lucky. Thursday night we had a great time catching up on over 3 decades of news about our lives and a few others from Moyer Hall dormitory, floor number 3 ( Cindy and I got awarded the messiest room on the floor at a year end ceremony). We also discovered something we both love today Zumba! In her quest to see America, Cindy also wanted to return home fit! So, she kept up with her personal trainer via Facetime but also sought out Zumba classes wherever she could find them. Now, this could be the point were I explain what Zumba is except that if you don't know what I am talking about, you've been living under a rock! Cindy found Zumba classes happening at traditional venues like fitness clubs, dance centers and city recreation halls but its the not so "normal" places that provided her with the best stories. In Tallahassee, class was in an African American church were they pushed aside chairs and cranked up the gospel tunes. When the class ended there was time for a prayer and a picture. Moving and grooving to keep that earthly temple in shape. Awesome! Another class was at an insurance office where they pushed aside chairs and desks in the conference room and started dancing ( probably the most fun that happens in that space all week)! Friday morning Cindy got up with Dave and I for our 5:00am Zumba class at our local YMCA. After all these years we were out there making new memories together as we grapevined across the floor to, She Cranks My Tractor! Before she left we agreed that 37+ years is too long to wait to see each other again! |
LEAP 366
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