Zombie Tracking, or They Pay Me for This

So Wilderness Awareness School go invited - yes, invited - to have a booth at the first annual ZomBcon event at Seattle Center over Halloween weekend. They asked for a speaker to talk about where Seattle residents would go and how they would get out of the city in the event of the Zombie Apocalypse. They were serious. Did we go? You bet we did. Although October was a crazy month if the bookkeeper's office, I got permission to go work the booth on Friday (the day after our annual audit!) and on Saturday. It was a hoot...and while I had expected the event to be dark and scary, I was happily surprised to find that zombies are a lot like us...well, us from Wilderness Awareness School, anyway.

The top photo shows Lindsay and Shondell in front of our "shelter" and our table displays. Jan (or Yawn, as I like to call him), who was in my WARP class in 06/07, and now works as our web guy, had created a cool zombie-themed postcard with info about our survival skills. That's him on the far right of the center photo (with Shondell looking on) demonstrating how to make a bow-drill fire.

The third photo shows Evan, another of my classmates and his zombie friend checking out our booth. Jan and I hadn't seen him since graduation, and were surprised to bump into him there.

We were supposed to have 20 minutes to talk after Max Brooks (author of the Zombie Survival Guide) and a couple of other guys spoke. We got cut to 2 minutes, but Mike was still so amazing that I had people stopping at the booth to learn more about us!

Next post, I'll tell you how the survival skills I learned at WAS kept me from getting my butt kicked by a marine who stopped by our booth! I hope they let me out of the office more often. It was fun.

Not My Usual Thing...

Friday night, biker bar, heavy metal band...never thought I'd lead a post with that combo. A bunch of us from work gathered at Pete's in Carnation to celebrate with a friend who's decided not to do the New York to Washinton commute any longer...Although we only saw Dan a couple of times a year, it's going to seem strange to work here without him. Of course there's still e-mail and FaceBook, which is how we ususally communicate anyway, and I know that his family will appreciate the fact that he's not flying across country for work anymore. So, although I'm more of a George Strait, Gary Allen, David Ball,
Steve Wariner kind of girl, I went along for the party...Pete's is where Wilderness Awareness folks gather in Carnation. The food is good -bacon burger and fries for me, with vegetarian fare for some of the others - and I can drink a rootbeer out of a brown bottle and not look too out of place. We did not know it was Metal Night until we got there...and since we grabbed a couple of tables outside in the courtyard, the music wasn't too annoying...until we got ready to leave...5 minutes inside the bar while I paid for my meal was more than enough for this country girl. Once I can hear again, I'm gonna plug some hard core country into my CD player and apologize to my brain.

Where Does the Time Go???

I can't believe that it's been so long since I've posted anything here...and why can't I make my letters pretty? Yikes, the time gets away when you're having...fun.

Work is a little crazy just now - getting ready for an audit in December, so lots more paperwork for me! Should go well, but just the word "audit" is scary. And I bet the auditor is worried, too. Wilderness Awareness School is not like her usual gig...We are...unique.

The lovely fall weather continues with lots of rain and enough wind to drop a tree across the road just around the corner from my little apartment. When I came to work this morning the road was clear, but lots of debris still on the road. Missouri trees are quite a lot shorter than Washington trees. I never used to worry about getting hit by a tree except during tornado weather.

If the rain keeps coming in from the coast I don't know if I'll go tracking on Saturday. The sandbar may not be accessible. Of course, post flood tracking is really awesome...not that I'm hoping for floods.

I hit 2 King County Library used book sales a couple of weeks ago, so I have lots of good reading material to keep me company if I can't go tracking. With a cup of hot tea and a purring cat on my lap, it's all good!

It Can Stop Snowing Now...

I got out for a walk this morning for the first time in a couple of days...except for a short hike to the Post Office on Christmas Eve, I haven't left my apartment since Monday.
I've heard on the Seattle area newscasts that this is only the 10th white Christmas in this area since 1891...seems like we got ALL the snow that was allotted to us in the past 12 days or so. Looking out my window onto the roof line below, there's easily 12-14 inches of powdery white stuff piled up there.

At first I was excited, because the dog tracking project seemed to take off...but then the neighbors stopped walking their dogs down the street. I've been there...when it's too cold or the snow is just too deep to be fun, the dog walks stay pretty close to the front door. And I've found it to be unsafe to be crawling around in the snow at the edge of the road trying to measure tracks as cars slide by.

I've just called in to Ben Franklin at Monroe, and found that I'm not on the schedule for this weekend! I missed working Sunday because I can't find a safe way to get down to highway 203. As much as I hated to call in, I was afraid to try to make it down the hill to the highway. 25 years of working at a hospital where calling in was not an option makes you want to try no matter how stupid, but I'm glad I've learned this: It's not worth risking your life or your car for a few dollars more in the paycheck at the end of the week. I don't think I could have said that before my Residential Program year....funny how the most important lessons you learn are the ones you don't even realize you were enrolled in.

What a Place to Work!

Monday is an all-day Staff Dirt Time day. I'm required to leave the office, go up to our land, and spend the morning working on - whatever. Not a skill they think I need to learn - just whatever nature skill I feel called to practice. It can be one I'm good at - basket-making, perhaps, or one I struggle with. My choice. How cool is that?

It cracks me up to think of the hospital telling me that I have to take a day off to play, with pay. The entire staff will be there. No one left at the office to answer the phone. No one going to the bank or the post office. Since nature mentoring is such an important part of the job here, they build time into the schedule to practice the skills and to mentor each other. Even those of us with office jobs are expected and encouraged to learn and share the skills of the naturalist.

I will be pulling out my bow-drill kit and working on fire. I haven't tried to get a coal since the Residential Program. I might go over to our new parcel of land and explore for a while, or I might do a bit of flintknapping. I might take a walk in the Enchanted Forest and look for this guy. We saw him Sunday during Tracking Intensive. Perhaps I'll see another coyote.

Since a number of us are interested, we will be carpooling into Seattle in the afternoon to listen to a cougar predation presentation at the University of Washington. I love this job! And I realize how truly blessed I am to be able to say that.

An Early Morning Gift

I stopped at the intersection before stepping out onto the road and looked to the left for traffic, then to the ...wait a minute...what's that? My head swiveled back to the left and there it was! Coyote number 6 was trotting up the hill about a block from my apartment. Given the location, it's likely the same animal as Coyote number 4, and the one who leaves scat on the sidewalks around the wooded area where a dry stream bed wonders down the hill toward Highway 203.

I reached for my camera, but before I could get it out of the bag and turned on, the coyote had disappeared into the blackberry bramble. It stopped to look at me first, and without any apparent fear or distress, it vanished. Cool!

I crossed the street and started to trail it...and found a bit of fresh animal skin that looked a lot like what was left of someone's black cat. Then I realized I'd be late for work if I didn't turn around.

Now, Wilderness Awareness School is one of the few workplaces where you can get away with being late because you were trailing an animal. However, I knew I had payroll and taxes to deal with, so I went on to work. But now that I've seen it I'll be out early with camera ready, and I'll get a picture of it yet.

Yikes!

So as I'm getting ready to leave work, I realize it's been a while since I've checked in...Lots of cool stuff is happening right now, and I don't even have time to tell the best stories...

Not having a phone has really had a negative impact on my keeping up with friends, this blog, and my writing....Not having a phone is a blessing because I'm not spending hours in front of the computer at home. I am releaved not to be getting calls for other people (Jesse, whoever he is didn't let his friends and family know his new number for the entire 14 months I had my last number).

I love not having a phone in the house...and I hate that I end up not checking in with my friends.

Just so you know, I haven't forgotten you...I have some cool pics to share, great stories to tell, and at least one confession to make...and on that note, I'm running out the door!