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November 2009 
a ridiculous amount of snow and a mountain lion vs aspen
Posted on Jan 19th, 2008
by 
synonym for light
synonym for light
as many of you know, I work for the dispatch center in aspen, colorado. I answer 911 as well as non-emergency phone lines. I send ambulances, fire trucks, police and rescuers to the places where people ask for help. sometimes people need other kinds of help too and they aren't sure who to call, so they call the communications center or 911. sometimes, I just have to laugh to keep from crying. here is what I'm laughing/crying about this week......
a ridiculous amount of snow.
it was a busy, busy day. maybe as much as 3 feet of snow had fallen in the past 48 hours. the plows could not keep up. cars were crashing. electric lines were down. all sorts of mayhem. (I secretly or not so secretly love it when mother nature lets "civilization" know who's really the boss.) there was a lull in calls when this one came in.....
caller: I want to talk about the alley behind my house.
me (after establishing the location of said alley): how can I help you?
caller: well, people keep pushing the snow off of their windshields and roofs of their cars onto the ground and a ridiculous amount of snow is piling up in the alley.
me, trying to stifle my laughter, but not succeding very much: well, that's probably because a ridiculous amount of snow has fallen.....
caller: ugly, angry silence-- the kind that is about to ask to speak to my supervisor.
me, controlling myself finally: I can give you the phone number to the streets dept, but they will probably tell you that they are already doing the best they can.
caller, icily: I want that number!
well-- there you have it. record snow year in ski country-- ought to be dancing in the streets and on the slopes, but-- damnit! a ridiculous amount of snow is piling up in the alley, which incidentally-- is not far enough from the shops or ski mtn to actually need to get into a car. well, bless her anyway. and thanks for the chuckle and the perspective-- there are times when I ought to be dancing in the streets when I'm too fixated on some small annoyance to enjoy the moment. it happens to all of us now and then, doesn't it?
and oh my, mountain lion tracks
caller: I don't know who I need to talk to about this. I live in------- (a very expensive area for a house- probably cost way upwards of millions-- surrounded on all sides by wilderness, forest service land) and my neighbors and I have been seeing mountain lion tracks or signs that one has been around and this one isn't just passing through. we've been seeing signs of it for six weeks now.
me: well, I can give you the number to the division of wildlife, but what they will probably tell you is that your home is in the mountain lion's habitat, not the other way around.
caller, exasperated: i told my neighbors they wouldn't do anything. I don't know why I even called.
me: do you want the phone number?
caller: yes........
well-- what can one do when you pay millions of bucks to live in the middle of the wilderness? get some binoculars and see if you can spot the big, stealthy wild cat? might'nt one rejoice that a mountion lion is thriving in the wilderness? nope..... not today. but-- here's the bright side. I got to say that sentence-- without a speck of malice--- "your home is in the mountain lion's habitat, not the other way around." and..... they probably all have enough $ to move out of that deteriorating neighborhood if they just can't take it anymore. I hope the d.o.w. gave her heck though. :-)
oh yeah-- and there was a moose in the parking lot at the deli in the town of basalt during the lunch rush yesterday. I didn't get to see it, but, well, it caused a little ruckus and neither the animal nor any panicky humans were harmed.
somedays my job ain't so bad. (the photo is actually from my lunch break on the day of the too much snow in the alley call.)
a ridiculous amount of snow.
it was a busy, busy day. maybe as much as 3 feet of snow had fallen in the past 48 hours. the plows could not keep up. cars were crashing. electric lines were down. all sorts of mayhem. (I secretly or not so secretly love it when mother nature lets "civilization" know who's really the boss.) there was a lull in calls when this one came in.....
caller: I want to talk about the alley behind my house.
me (after establishing the location of said alley): how can I help you?
caller: well, people keep pushing the snow off of their windshields and roofs of their cars onto the ground and a ridiculous amount of snow is piling up in the alley.
me, trying to stifle my laughter, but not succeding very much: well, that's probably because a ridiculous amount of snow has fallen.....
caller: ugly, angry silence-- the kind that is about to ask to speak to my supervisor.
me, controlling myself finally: I can give you the phone number to the streets dept, but they will probably tell you that they are already doing the best they can.
caller, icily: I want that number!
well-- there you have it. record snow year in ski country-- ought to be dancing in the streets and on the slopes, but-- damnit! a ridiculous amount of snow is piling up in the alley, which incidentally-- is not far enough from the shops or ski mtn to actually need to get into a car. well, bless her anyway. and thanks for the chuckle and the perspective-- there are times when I ought to be dancing in the streets when I'm too fixated on some small annoyance to enjoy the moment. it happens to all of us now and then, doesn't it?
and oh my, mountain lion tracks
caller: I don't know who I need to talk to about this. I live in------- (a very expensive area for a house- probably cost way upwards of millions-- surrounded on all sides by wilderness, forest service land) and my neighbors and I have been seeing mountain lion tracks or signs that one has been around and this one isn't just passing through. we've been seeing signs of it for six weeks now.
me: well, I can give you the number to the division of wildlife, but what they will probably tell you is that your home is in the mountain lion's habitat, not the other way around.
caller, exasperated: i told my neighbors they wouldn't do anything. I don't know why I even called.
me: do you want the phone number?
caller: yes........
well-- what can one do when you pay millions of bucks to live in the middle of the wilderness? get some binoculars and see if you can spot the big, stealthy wild cat? might'nt one rejoice that a mountion lion is thriving in the wilderness? nope..... not today. but-- here's the bright side. I got to say that sentence-- without a speck of malice--- "your home is in the mountain lion's habitat, not the other way around." and..... they probably all have enough $ to move out of that deteriorating neighborhood if they just can't take it anymore. I hope the d.o.w. gave her heck though. :-)
oh yeah-- and there was a moose in the parking lot at the deli in the town of basalt during the lunch rush yesterday. I didn't get to see it, but, well, it caused a little ruckus and neither the animal nor any panicky humans were harmed.
somedays my job ain't so bad. (the photo is actually from my lunch break on the day of the too much snow in the alley call.)
Access: Public
Oh my.
At one point I had a call center, tech support job and loved baiting people - sorry, hate to admit it, but it's true. I was absolutely perfectly correct at all times, but I really loved to mess with people.
I also have had medical jobs where what I loved the most was when all hell broke loose - not out of a desire for gore and mayhem, but the opposite. When it came down to it, everyone worked in this choreographed dance and no one complained and nothing extraneous was added. It was always very directed and somehow calm. The rest of the time people had disagreements and personal issues and all kinds of irrelevant things. I liked when those went away.
I wish that “your home is in the mountain lion's habitat” would sink in. I don't understand how that can be a surprise to people. But of course it is.
We humans. I just have to laugh. Here in Calgary, if we get 5 cm of snow, at least 150 accidents happen during the morning rush. Either people don't slow down, or they are so intimidated by a few cm of snow that they “white-knuckle” it to work at 30 km below the speed-limit. The combination of impatient “ya-hoos” and nervous “Nellies” makes for one happy time on the roads.
As for wildlife in populated areas, that happens here with coyotes (sometimes bear or deer and the odd moose). The fuss some people make over a few coyotes. You'd think they had sited Godzilla rifling through their garbage, or that a T-Rex had just stomped onto the playground to snatch their kids. I was out on Nosehill with my dog - who would make a lovely breakfast for a group of coyotes. And, in fact, three of them did surround him. He was oblivious and thought they wanted to play. They were going into hunting formation, circling in and getting closer to him. Something told me - howl at them. And, so I did. Not a coyote howl. A primal, goofy - stay away from my pup, human howl. They stopped, looked at me like I was nuts, and continued to stalk my dog. I howled again, and moved in to get my clueless dog out of there. This time they respected me and gave me distance.
I didn't phone the city about them. I just thought, hum? Next time I won't go out on the hill just after dawn when there are few people around. I like the fact there are a few “wild” animals living in this city - besides the people on the road. We humans, we sure are strange creatures for sure. (Great picture, by the way).
Forty years of living in Colorado–and I still miss scenes like your photo there. I haven't seen snow in any form in six years now–and I have no plans of ever returning to Colorado–but sometimes, in my quieter moments, I can still here my homestate callin' me.
Shawn
Shawn -
I tried to leave Colorado for good a few times, but I always miss the color of the sky. I never can stay away, even when I'm having a fantastic time somewhere else. When I get back home, I can't remember why I left. (Except after a month of camping in a small tent in the rain, rain and more cold rain and then some damp and cold and one night of almost freezing in Iceland in the summertime – after that Colorado felt crowded and I longed for that far north unpeopled, cold place even while enjoying my warm bed and the warm embrace of my home and family.)
If you come back I'd love to introduce you to my favorite libraries and wide open places.
I dream of buying as much land as possible in one of the last unspoiled valleys just so no one else will buy it and build on it. But that's just an illusion of control. the mineral rights are nearly impossible to get your hands on and it's those that one really needs to buy in order to keep the land “safe” from the likes of the haliburtons of the world.
Well met, friend. ;-)
-Dawn
rapunzel – I am decidedly contrary at work lately– not in a bite your head off argggh kind of way, but in a playful, toying, baiting kind of way. a wry smile playing around my consciousness while doing the job that I've been doing for 12 years now……… I just decided I'll do it for several more at least— I'm not going to open a yoga studio at least for 4 or 5 more years and maybe not then. something is keeping me at my current work and I don't think it's just the security of the paycheck, though I don't know what it is exactly, but it seems right, except sometimes at 4am when it seems awful and boring. haha.
otter— guess what…. that photo is from my phone, not my “good” camera. didn't have the big camera with me and wanted to photograph the “ridiculous amount of snow piling up” just for the purpose of blogging it. funny, huh? I sure do like that phones that go with us everywhere now also have little cameras for sharing what we see.
my doberman dog hides behind me when he sees wildlife. he is the most helpless, lovable, dopey dog I have ever met. I can't even believe he is descended from wild dogs or that any of his breed were ever effective guard dogs. he can make a lot of noise barking, but I don't think anyone with a spec of past dog experience could ever be intimidated by him. :-)