North Cascades NP, Washington - July 15, 2006

Well, it looks like I'm going to be spending six months here, instead of three. I was just offered an extension of the position (possibly related to the fact that one of my coworkers disappeared for a week without calling). I'm having a great time here, and the 6-month position pays almost 3 times as much (translation: $100 more a week), so I quickly accepted. The only downsides are that I may have run through all the movies at the library before the 6 months are up, and that it will probably get a lot colder here in November. Considering that I've been cold here some days as it is, in the middle of July, WHILE WEARING A SWEATSHIRT, I'm not sure what winter will be like. We've been going on a few seed-collection excursions to various locales, including one to the San Juan islands on Monday, which was fun. We had to leave at 6 AM to catch the ferry, and didn't get back til 9 PM, but it was really pretty there, and the weather was great.

We got a couple new seasonal workers last week, both local high-schoolers. One, Clyde, is constantly talking about the practical jokes he and his friends pull on each other, a surprising number of which involve fire or incendiary devices ("So then he threw a firecracker at my head, but I ducked, and the next day I paid him back by locking him in a porta-potty and rolling it down a hill, which was really funny, but then later, when I was drunk, he set me on fire...")

There was a big birthday party/potluck near my house last week. I square-danced.