Food Run

NOW the cat breathes on me.
I awake to whiskers and worry, as if I were moving so little he was worried I was dead.  As the morning shadows begin, he is obsessed with the changing shapes on the walls.  Lucky us, there are not framed pictures on the wall, but I do fear for the Painted Desert poster above my desk...

So we wake at 5-5:30, depending on how tolerant he is of me.  Literally he has started biting my elbow again.  If he were Lassie, he would be tugging me to the well... just in case someone had fallen in! A good thing about being locked into the park from 7 to 7, is that I don't feel guily dawdling, but somehow, making coffee and arguing with the cat tends to make that hour and a half fly by!  I thought I would drive to the west and get photos of everything I got pix of at sunset, from the other shadow, then escape as the gates open and head into Holbrook to get my supplies.

I am getting depressed about the lack of wildlife.  I spotted frolicking pronghorns the day before, with a car behind me, on a narrow road with no way to pull off.... and when I could ,they had rolled over the hill into the plains. I connected with the raven at Puerco Ruin yesterday and met my family of poodles, but barely a shadow of the bird up by the casita.

Heading out of the park, I saw three lovely cream white horses in front of a mesa by a stream.  They thought they knew me as the female and her baby started yelling at me as I took photos.  They apparently got bored and I tried to snap the family as they went up along the river.   NOT PEFO, but this is all about the experience.

For info, Holbrook Library is not open until noon on Thursday.  I ended up camping in a McDonalds for about an hour and a half updating the blog and getting things up and downloaded. The Safeway is across from the teepees hotel and although I parked by the end that said pharmacy, I forgot to get nose spray... I have been having sinus (not migraine) headaches and taking aspirin daily.  Don't like that.    I seem to be getting nosebleeds from the unrelenting dry. And the emotional ties to the city are still dug in.  

I came here to literally heal. 

 I know the nature most people think of is green, and dense and lush and maybe a little more dangerous (nah, rattlers don't want to deal with us any more than we do them, and scorpions are really happy outdoors this time of year - not too hot, not too cold.) So I am trying to keep this in mind.  The picture frames of beauty that serve as windows are perpetually refreshing.  The silhouette of my kitty in the diagonal made by the window swung open is worth spending hours staring at.  If he doesn't come down to bite me.  So, with shaking hands (IT IS MORE DRY THAN PHOENIX, and I think I am dehydrating!  This could be helping...) I actually managed a very brief nap which did refresh me.

Coming back in, I was setting up at the sign when tourists took my photo!  Missed the "AiR" signage but I look happier! (Footnote from the future... the tree there, or possibly up the road is where I have heard a family of Ravens are making their home..... Project for Friday)

I had a neighbor. 

When I pulled in to my space at about noon, there was a nice shiny (I envy great paint jobs) small SUV in my spot.  I was in no mood to chat, but a little later I heard a bit of noise and saw a park person getting on a bike.  "Hello, person on a bike." I called and tried to run outside to chat..forgetting there is patio wall and he was off and on the road by the time I got there.  After the nap, I met Al.  That was his son on the bike.  Al said he was visiting as  VIP (which is actually our acronym for Volunteer in the Park, but when they can arrange a great little individual dwelling for worker's families, this is VERY IMPORTANT...or was we used to call them PP's Privileged Persons).  He had a German accent and was thrilled his son had arranged the room and he took a train from Williams which was late.  Late being a wonderful time to continue his exploration of La Posada and he raved about the wonderful breakfast!  He said his son had told him he was parking in MY spot.... ha... it is a two car park smooth gravel with bricks to frame the space in the ground.  I felt myself widen and lift as we spoke..  I love people.  I like talking to the visitors.  It is obvious this is my project, not stupendous, overwhelming vistas.  Tooooo much info for humans.

I spend an hour or so looking over my photos and deciding on images and ideas to work on in the PDI or RFM (Painted Desert Inn and Rainbow Forest Museum.  WORTH using the letters and I am remembering them which is comforting.)  After the revelation with Al, I only had the one picture of Matt, enraptured discussing his first-dinosaur, then NOT dinosaur and I wanted to show how much he loves what he does and how important that love is to all of us. I actually ended up working til about 10, then fighting to midnight with the cat.  He now likes jumping on the counter.  Yesterday we emptied the top of the refrigerator.  I almost think the storage closet needs reorganized to accommodate... well... everything that is not tied down.

We Got A Tour.

I paced my self, after the sunrise and remembered to eat my protein bar... and only the protein bar... might have to get some real breakfast in me.....and did NOT end up having a lot of time before we all met at the lab to see the bones and stones and artifacts in the collection.
I do believe it may deserve it's own post, as it was a very informative tour and I am pretty sure I took away some of my own fallacies from all the info I was presented.   Matt Smith... yet another alias like mine.... was the master of the Collections:

HE LOVES HIS WORK!

In the main lab we saw a lot of relocating Paleo-Lab items. On my trip through last year I got to see how the 3D printer and scientists work together to make models, and say, you have one shoulder.... digitally you can flip it and create a model that mirrors it, so your jigsaw puzzle has better pieces. More in the longer post..... Down dark corridors we found skins of animals from within the park bounds (A SPOTTED SKUNK NO LESS)  and pottery that is historical, such as was once on display at the museum and even artifacts from CCC workers. 

Every type of visitor is represented.  He even took us to his LAB-O-RA-TORY.

Amazing machines for counting microscopic petrified scales and all on a budges of about $1000 a year.  PLEASE FOLKS, we depend on the kindness of strangers, so get yourself involved with the National Park Service associations and donate whenever, wherever you can.  The work is done by a handful of professionals, who have been mostly trained through on the job experience.  Something that books and classrooms cannot teach. Careful use of volunteers and the amazing personal involvement of the people who intimately know these creatures  from ancient times is what sets this sort of research apart.  The Dept. of the Interior is in charge of things and they MUST protect one of the largest collections (total) in the world.

I loved that he didn't even start the talk by dumbing it down!  My bits of Latin and good old public school education had me following RIGHT along.  Some of the actual names got jumbled in my head, but I have only remembered (not cheating by looking at tags) about 5 staff... I don't do names.

When I left, I realized the dust and eyefry from taking more photos yesterday PM helped me get the old sinus headache back.  I am feeling ancient.   After a couple of hours I think, in the courtyard by the offices where the wifi is thin but there, I had updated the blog from yesterday and did my little mail etc.  Heading home I thought a short nap... (WHICH I REALLY DID NAP!) and I might take the paints and pencils across the road, quietly, at long shadows, to see the Painted Desert vistas.

Jim's (the other AiR) easel was still up in the observation area, even though he was off for the day.  I AM NOT A LANDSCAPE painter, although painting outside is fine with me, so I took to a trail to see what I might sketch.  Had a great chat with a couple of visitors and decided the rocks were lumpy to sit on the but the view was worth it... on the way back up I realized I WILL NOT be hiking.  Some longer flat walks, ok, but now I KNOW I am not fit enough.  Went back, got the camera, raced back, took it out, snapped 2 shots and promptly ran out of battery.  AAARRRGGGHHH.

So Thing and I (and the headache) decided to eat out.  

I had spaghetti on the patio and he joined me in his travel apartment to watch the sun finish its day.

NICE!  NICE!

(I hear it hit 100 back home.   NICE!!!!)