Tales from the Steppes

2005-12-14

12:50 p.m.
Wednesday, December 14

And spend the long night in honest delight
To drive the cold winter away
- Loreena McKennitt

The last two mornings I have been out early, doing fieldwork. I don't mind the winter and the snow so this is not really a hardship. In fact, I'd rather be out there now than when the mosquitos are out. Sure, the vegetation is hard to find under the snow and I may be missing a few things but experientially. it's pretty nice. I really need to find my glove liners though.

Yesterday morning, I headed into a downcounty site, home to a controversial road project. I did not wear my orange vest because I already had on my heavy winter coat, the one I got while living in Buffalo, and the vest just seemed extraneous. Besides, I was in an urban area - not exactly hunting territory.

As I crested the first hill, I found myself in a group of tents. Hrrrm. Some homeless had made this hill their home. I have no issue with this. If I had to live on only my salary, I might find camping preferable to the sort of housing I could afford. Everyone has to live somewhere and this land is not really being used right now. But still, this was a little creepy. Since the snow was crunchy there was no chance of me creeping around the gathering without alerting them to my presence. So I decided to go in calling out "Good morning. Hello?" I am sure they really appreciated my 7am wake up call but I thought that was better than dealing with potentially off-balance people thinking I was sneaking around, stealing their things. I explained my business and moved on. Needless to say, I found another way to get out of the property.

This mornings trip was less exciting but significantly more annoying. Monday I had gotten a call from an engineer, looking for comments on a plan he had submitted a while ago. I had faxed the comments several weeks ago but refaxed them quickly. Then yesterday, he sent back the changes and called, asking if I could fieldcheck the plan quickly, as he had a submissal deadline today. I couldn't do it yesterday, as I was in meetings all day, but I told hime I would go out first thing this morning and do it. If all was ok, he could still meet his deadline. Hey, I am a nice person. I know he has a new baby and has been busy. I thought I would cut him a break and rearrange my schedule. What a waste of my time! I get out there and he has not shown the stream flowing across and next to the property. Give me a break. The engineer must never have gotten out of his car and then asked for a favor. Very irritating.