That was Luther's view. The instant you tell anyone about what you saw in the field, it'll make the rangers clamp down on the amount of backcountry activity that's allowed, and we'll be stuck doing office work all day. As it was, security was up so high that the only places we were allowed to go were the sides of roads and Quitobaquito springs. So, we were mucking around in Quitobaquito, up to our waists in water, me without any shoes on, hacking away at the grass and sod to clear some space around the
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shoreline. Just as we were in the middle of annihilating every scrap of life on the edge of the pond, Luther stepped on a rock, looked down, and noticed - the rock was moving. As it turned out, there were three Sonoytan mud turtles burrowed up on shore, right beneath the area we were scouring, to escape from the cold water. Luther called Ami over, she measured the turtles, and we moved to another area of the pond to work. Two days later, we were all set to go again, when the word came in - due to concern about potential threats to turtles, the Quitobaquito work was cancelled, until someone can work out a turtle protocol. "I told you!" Luther shouted "Never... tell anyone... anything!"Oh, well. At least there's still office work, which can be pretty interesting at times. I've managed to get quite a bit done in the office, in the last few weeks. Since last Monday. Since the last back-up of the shared drive. Which is completely invulnerable to catastrophic collapses - right?
Sigh. Well, the work will be faster the second time, I suppose...
On Thursday, I picked up trash alongside the highway, and it was surprisingly fun. I found lots of interesting stuff. Among the finds: 2 toothbrushes, 3 sticks of deoderant, several dozen jugs of water, five clam shells, one backpack, one shotgun, one metal hoop, 2 garbage sacks full of Bud Light cans, one debit card, one platform shoe, one power cord, several broken CD's, one motel key, one bedsheet, a number of car parts, one Mexican police report, and one bicycle seat... plus 22 bags of other assorted trash.
We've been playing lots of card games recently. 'Pit,' especially, has been a huge success.
I bought a muffin and cupcake pan. I have high hopes.
I ran a marathon this morning. Well, actually, it was only a half marathon (13.1 miles), but a good ways of it was uphill (including one brutal 3 mile stretch at the end), so it was a pretty good workout. It was at the Tohono O'odham Nation, and they sang a blessing for us before we started, and had little water/cheering stations every couple miles, complete with music and people wearing giant Charlie Brown heads to wave at us as we passed. I ended out finishing in a little under two hours and fifteen minutes, 20-70 minutes ahead of Kelly, Jackie, and Ami, but 30 minutes behind Ben, whose idea it was to go to this thing. The run was a lot of fun, but the 2 hour car drive back (including 1 hour in the back seat of a pickup, with no legroom) was not.
Owww... Mommy, why won't my legs move...?
'Til next time,
- Nathan
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