A rough start...

I've been working for about a month and a half at this point, and I have to say that things have gotten off to a bit of a rough start. There have been a few issues with scheduling, there's been some issues with visitors already, and there's been two times now that my poor left knee has gotten banged up so bad that I was temporarily disabled.

Jack hasn't faired much better, I'm afraid. Limited communication with his crew lead, losing important items (his iPod got knocked into the trash by someone!), and a late start to the backcountry portion of his season. He finally got to go into the backcountry this week - good for him, bummer for me as we get very limited conversation now.

What a pair we make.

Twenty weeks to go until Jack's season comes to an end, and they can't go by fast enough for me. In the meantime, I'm busy. Busy with work, busy with school, busy with keeping house, busy with tending the garden, busy with social activities. At the moment, busy with icing my knee after it got banged up on a rock today at work. And busy reading Tending the Wild - an excellent book - much too fast so that I can write a paper on it by the end of this week. I see lots of potential in reading about Native American land management practices for my senior thesis ideas. I am thinking I will write about the changes in National Park, Forest Service, and other public lands managers' policies to reincorporate Native American cultural practices in their resource policies. My plan is to focus on this area, since I am here, and the Yurok and Tolowa tribes, and possibly the Hupa as well. It's all down the road a ways, but I can see it taking shape as I'm reading this book. It's definitely justifying a lot of the feelings that I had on the topic.

Anyhow, I'm resting tonight, since the doctor told me to take tomorrow off and rest and ice my knee. I'll have all day tomorrow to read the last 30 pages and start writing my paper, plus after work on Saturday and Sunday. For now, I'm updating this, and I'm listening to the audio theater rendition of The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien. Maybe I'll put on a movie in a little bit and go to bed.

Yes, the summer is off to a rough start. Or perhaps the winter is off to a bitter end? After all, summer doesn't really start until Tuesday... ;) Perhaps there's hope for us yet.

Until next time!