Choices

if i can't do
what i want to do
then my job is to not
do what i don't want
to do

it's not the same thing
but it's the best i can
do

if i can't have
what i want then
my job is to want
what i've got
and be satisfied
that at least there
is something more
to want

since i can't go
where i need
to go then i must go
where the signs point
though always understanding
parallel movement
isn't lateral

when i can't express
what i really feel
i practice feeling
what i can express
and none of it is equal
i know
but that's why mankind
alone among the animals
learns to cry

—Nikki Giovanni

Good friends

This was the future. Life would get busier and more varied, populated both by beautiful things and unfortunate circumstances. If their friendship demanded exclusivity or solitude, it couldn’t work. If it required that everything go as planned, it would turn brittle, and ultimately it would break. On the other hand, she knew that if they could be flexible and big, if they could encompass change, then they would make it...“Whatever happens, we will find each other. We always will.”

-Ann Brashares, Girls in Pants

Contagion!

This was a really good movie. But almost too close to real for comfort. Its one of the negative sides of living in a world that's so connected. It is definitely sticking with me though, and that's my definition of a good movie. Anyway, worth watching if you get a chance!

National Fossil Day at Glen Canyon

On Saturday we also celebrated National Fossil Day at Glen Canyon for the second time. We had a good turnout as Katie and I provided materials for dinosaur drawings and rubbings and stamp pictures and dinosaur footprint watercolors and clay dinosaurs...

I don't usually get to spend my days working with kids, and really enjoyed being pumped up by their enthusiasm! Their excitement, and wearing their new Junior Paleontologist badges and knowing the answers to all my questions during my therizinosaur talk.

What a great setting for National Fossil Day the visitor center was this year. Last year's milestone of getting a fossil case in was impressive. But this year to be surrounded by amazing artwork and the mounted therizinosaur skeleton and pictures of the Western Interior Seaway and the moving plesiosaur and the Pteranodon outside--surrounded by stories of Glen Canyon's ancient past!

A little more subdued in all ways from last year, it left us free to focus on the kid's joy and parent's curiosity.

One year ago today...

Glen Canyon lost two great rangers--Laurie Axelsen and Brent McGinn. We still think of them often and wish they could be back with us. We are inspired by what they taught us. In their memory I wrote a poem last year.

Harsh landscape

Sun and shadow

New ant hills on smooth riverbanks

Grateful to be alive

Tears leaking out

Beautiful landscape

Photos of wreckage

Haunting

Bright colors

Survived by parents

Tragedy

I can only imagine

Wind-whipped hair

Firm piloting

A good teacher

Winks and barefeet

The helpless feeling of knowing you can never name enough things after them

Friendly people, the prarie and pencils!

Just got back from a trip to South Dakota with Christin. We had a great time--driving our giant Suburban around, stopping randomly for wildlife, soaking in the prairie. We met up with the ferret folks for the 30th anniversary of black-footed ferret rediscovery in Meeteetse, WY. It was fun watching the playful ferrets released into prairie dog holes for their first meal. The group of scientists and land managers who have spent their careers dedicated to bringing these rare mammals back from the brink of extinction. Also got to meet some people who put conversation to practice on their own land and create their own small sanctuaries for native species. Of course I also did drag Christin along as we saw some of the paleontological and geological highlights of Badlands NP, thanks to Matt!

Back to the title of this post. As soon as I stepped off the plane in Rapid City something was different. People were so kind and friendly and deferential. If I was walking too fast (I have a problem with this) and cut someone off, they were the one apologizing to me. It made quite an impression on me. People in the Midwest really are friendlier!! We also had a couple of random conversations with strangers at viewpoints where we would talk for 10 or 15 minutes and they were so impressed we worked for the park service and we were happy they were enjoying their vacation and it was just lovely.

The prairie...I had forgotten how much I love the prairie. My first experience with it was in Nebraska, on my two week trip around the northern part of the state visiting paleontological sites, helping sift for fossils and scan for fossils and grid out and excavate for fossils. The sandhills was totally my favorite part of the trip. The gently rolling hills and softly moving grasses are such a contrast to my harsh yet still beautiful landscape out here. It was nice to visit somewhere a little less intense. It was a nice time of year to visit, too. We saw some great sunsets, light catching on the grasses.

And finally...pencils. It was odd, but it seemed like everywhere we went, instead of just sticker machines and gum ball machines, there were pencil machines. Maybe this is because South Dakotans are much more studious or more wholesome or something. But at Badlands, at restaurants, everywhere you could get pencils. Go Wall Eagles!! =)

Earthquakes

In regards to the two earthquakes today--one near Trinidad, CO (5.3) and the other near Mineral, VA (5.8). Its worth checking out the USGS seismic hazard maps, as both earthquakes occurred where it was predicted earthquakes were likely. (The star shows where today's earthquake occurred.)

Colorado: http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/2011/eq_110823_c0005idz/neic_c0005idz_z.html

Virginia: http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/2011/eq_110823_se082311a/se082311a_z.html

For some more interesting discussion of today's earthquakes, see: http://live.washingtonpost.com/east-coast-earthquake.html?tid=sm_twitter_washingtonpost.

Although the east coast is an old plate boundary, it can still have minor earthquake activity. The New Madrid fault zone near St. Louis, MO is a zone with potentially large earthquakes. According to USGS "The geologic record of pre-1811 earthquakes reveals that the New Madrid seismic zone has repeatedly produced sequences of major earthquakes, including several of magnitude 7 to 8, over the past 4,500 years." The 1811-1812 earthquakes included three earthquakes with a magnitude likely more than 7.

It is good to prepare for how to respond to an earthquake (stop, cover and hold on), even if you live on the east coast. Learn more about earthquake "drills" from the Great Shake Out program, see http://www.shakeout.org/.