Elk Zone - 5/29

Our daily skirmishes against the endless hordes of Knapweed and Sericea have brought us to Highway 21 a.k.a. Blood Alley.  The nickname comes from the high number of crashes that occur on the road due to all of the blind turns and hilly terrain.  Needless to say we have to be on an even higher alert than normal… if that is even possible (we’re on the verge of becoming psychics).  Anyways, aside from the danger level climbing ever higher, our task remains: seek and destroy the invasives. 

On a completely different note, I just read an article that was written by Kyle Hilliard titled, “Dreaming of Video Games.”  I would suggest reading the piece if you can find it, but the gist of it is that playing video games empowers your subconscious.  People who play video games tend to have more lucid dreams or dreams where they can control the outcome.  Kyle also noted that this can result in fewer nightmares—or at least, gamers don’t perceive the dreams as nightmares like others would because they can alter the content as they see fit.  The article vaguely reminds me of Inception where the characters can train their minds against invasion.  Anyhow, fascinating stuff; I cannot say how extensive the research has been, but I always love hearing that some people don’t think video games are the bane of our society. 

Good night friends.  Until next time!

Elk Zone - 5/28

Highways D, M, and 106 are now complete and we are 3 miles into B.  Will, our Team Leader, had set a goal for us to reach Ellington this week and we accomplished that when we finished 106.  Now to see whether or not we can meet his second challenge and reach 15 miles…I think we are around 10 right now so the weather will be the determining factor.  All week there has been a 50% chance of thunderstorms and tomorrow the likelihood is supposed to increase.  I’m interested to see what job they have in store for us if we are rained out… guess it will be a surprise!

I am feeling fatigued.  One of my teammates has been feeling similarly so I’m hoping we aren’t coming down with anything.  Before I depart, I just thought I would share with you the 2 speed limits around Ellington: 23 and 29.  Speed traps I’m sure… but really!?  A cop must be pretty desperate if he or she is giving a ticket for going 1 over.  Silly.  Good night all!  I can’t believe it is almost June already.

Elk Zone - 5/27

After a nice and mostly relaxing weekend in Michigan with my family, I’m back in the Elk Zone.  The day went much like the others only this time a change in the wind’s direction resulted in me getting covered in a fine mist of chemical. I made sure to shower when I got back to our housing so I’m hoping I will be all right—no skin irritation, which is a good sign… I think.  Anyways, one unfortunate discovery from the weekend is that I am no longer capable of truly relaxing.  I feel as if I have been conditioned to constantly be doing something and to feel guilty if I’m not.  I admit I am as much to blame as anyone for my current state of being as I have always been hard on myself; now I just need to find a means to change.  Perhaps that change will have to wait another 2 months, but it is one that needs to happen for my sanity’s sake!

In other news, I am on an X-Men kick again.  My family and I went to see the new X-Men movie and I really enjoyed it.  I’d say it may be my favorite X-Men movie yet, although I still need to see The Wolverine.  The Sentinels were much creepier than the ones shown in the animated TV series I used to watch.  Anyhow, I hope you all are doing well.  Talk to you soon!

Elk Zone - 5/22

Sericea!  Sericea everywhere!  There were areas on either side of the highway where the bluffs went up 3 tiers and every level was absolutely covered in the invasive.  It is a very pretty weed admittedly, but after you have been hunting the stuff for a couple of weeks they bring out a sort of hatred you never knew you had.  I just learned today that MoDOT and MDC planted Sericea an age ago to help prevent erosion.  I’m finding a trend here as they did the same thing with Kudzu and other invasives… While the weeds did their job they have turned out to be more harm than good—choking out the native plants and, by so doing, messing with the wildlife.  In the future it would probably be best to investigate these monstrosities a bit further; I have no issue spraying them but once they are established they are nigh impossible to eradicate.  Still, I’m hopeful that we can at least play a part in halting the foe’s advance.

Well all, I’m heading back to Michigan tomorrow to hang out with my family for the first time in a long while.  It is going to be quite the gauntlet as we need to serve for half a day, make a long drive back to the office, then figure out parking for my car at the airport.  As I will need to drive to my project site on Monday having a friend drive me is out of the question (I also don’t know who would be available anyways) so I’m looking at either a cab ride or overnight parking.  I think the latter will do but will see how timing works out.  I’m sure everything will work out.  I just worry about these sorts of things.  Anyways, catch you all next week!

Elk Zone - 5/21

Since when have I become afraid of the wild?  Unkempt land harbors ticks, long grasses hide snakes, it takes a great deal of courage nowadays to wade through the brush whereas when I was a bit younger I ran through them without a second thought.  Is the world really so dangerous or is the media making it out to be more horrible than it really is?  I know much of what we do is hazardous work and I willingly accept the risks… the disease and chemical bits just unnerve me… a lot.  I think the statistics are in my favor for the moment but each passing day I fear chips away at my advantage.  Wish me luck I guess!

Our team took care of 5 more miles today.  It was a very heavily infested area—one that took forever as that Walk 500 Miles song got stuck in my head and wouldn’t leave!  The ticks were also really bad.  All of my teammates found at least 10 upon their person whereas I lucked out with 5.  If ever you find yourself walking into tick territory I would suggest wearing long pants and boots.  Tuck your pants into your socks then tightly secure your sock/pant bundle into the boots.  For good measure I put some bug spray around the opening of the boot along with a quick spray down my pant legs and around my waist (shirt is tucked in) for good measure.  I can’t say this keeps them all away, but this is the second day in a row I’ve had a significantly reduced number of ticks compared to the rest of Team Purple.

 Good night for now all!  One more full day of spraying to go!

Elk Zone - 5/20

My new nickname in the program is Hellraiser.  I will leave it up to your imaginations as to how I earned this one.  I’m enjoying it, it… empowers me in a way.  I have felt more confident since making the name my own.  Twice I have been stopped along the highway and asked what we were doing and, for those of you who are unfamiliar, folks in Missouri do not like Nature Conservation and they HATE chemical.  In both instances I was able to calm the individuals and even get some nods of approval before they went on their way.  I’m wondering if my beard has a part to play…  We shall see soon enough!  The beard has gotten to the point that it is becoming unbearable and as I no longer need the insulation I feel it is time to say farewell. 

Real quick, we got 5 more miles of spraying done today—all by backpack.  I’m going to go watch some Game of Thrones and Firefly.  Everyone here seems to have similar tastes in games and shows as me… maybe I should look into a more science-like pathway.  Later all!

Elk Zone - 5/19

Last night I had this dream that the Emergency Response Team was an elite fighting force.  The Fellows were the generals or masterminds behind our tactics and guided our actions from HQ while the second years served as their eyes, ears, and voice out in the field.  On this particular day the whole team was sent on a suicide mission… and my group was the only one that survived.  Our squad consisted of four first years and a second year, Zoe was one of the first years but I cannot recall the other two.  Anyways, we scrambled to our evac site and set up a perimeter while Chelsea Catalano, our leader, made contact with HQ.  The tension was shattered by a couple of gun shots.  I turned around to locate the threat only to find Chelsea with a remorseful look on her face.  Hesitating for a moment, she turned the barrel of her gun toward me and fired.  I could hear the following shot that doomed Zoe, but I was too crippled by the shock to do anything about it.  After an agonizing couple of minutes everything went black.   

I don’t know how I collected this bit of information, but in my dream the ERT had some means of reincarnating its members.  That’s why the lights are always flickering in the warehouse of a basement we have; the power is being diverted to another chamber.  When we were brought back we had no memory of our previous mission—except this time when I came to I remembered everything.  Chelsea was there and I got the vibe that she was the one who allowed me to retain my thoughts.  For the rest of my dream I was inconsolable.  I was approached and debriefed about our next mission but I was being uncooperative when I actually woke up. 

Fun stuff!  Anyways, we’re back in the Elk Zone this week to continue where we left off.  Today was a little tricky as the nozzle on my sprayer was missing.  This malfunction resulted in the faulty piece of equipment shooting in the 4 directions of the compass.  It was kind of like a water sprinkler kids would love to play in… only, you know, potentially poisonous.  So I spent our shortened day dodging myself while attacking an infestation of Sericea.  I surprisingly came back to our housing without a drop on me.  Now to go enjoy some brinner.  Later all!

Elk Zone - 5/15

Alayna and I were spraying along Highway D when we came across a pair of very yappy dogs.  We thought nothing of it until one of them jumped through the wiring of its fence and charged at us.  I raised my free hand at the dog and yelled, “NO,” and it jumped back—silent.  The two of us stayed this way for a moment as each of us tried to get a read on the other, then we simultaneously eased our stances and it trotted over to us.  I’m not exactly sure what type of canine it was, but it did have the tip of its left ear bent, just like my dog over in Chicago.  She was a very friendly dog, but I think I heard that it is frowned upon for us to play with animals when serving as the tools we use and the places we go could put them at risk.  Well, Alayna acted during my inner conflict and gave her a couple of good scratches and you could tell by her eyes that she loved every second of it.   

Anyways, we called it early due to a thunderstorm that snuck up on us.  Once we returned to our housing we found that the “birders” had moved it.  Now we have a crew of mammal technicians, HERPS (the reptile crew), botanists, birders, and ourselves.  One of the researchers made the remark that I look like someone from North Carolina and that she figured I was from around the Ashville area.  Not a bad guess for someone I just met!  But yeah, things have gotten pretty crazy around here.  Surprisingly most of the groups stick to their clicks, but now that we helped out the mammal and reptile crews we are beginning to mingle a bit.  Tonight, for instance, we sat down and watched an episode of Firefly with a couple of them. 

We’ll see how things go in the weeks to come as I believe everybody is going to be here the next 2 weeks.  I’m excited as I heard a couple of the birders making comments about the gaming systems.  Anyone who likes a good game or Firefly gets pretty high marks in my book.  Night all.  Until next week!

Elk Zone - 5/14

I kind of got lost in the woods today.  I was in charge of traps C12 to C1 and when I made it to the latter I realized I didn’t know what I was supposed to do next.  I looked around and when I didn’t see anyone I decided to follow my ears instead of my eyes.  The voices were coming from up the hill so I headed in that direction.  Not a person in sight.  I listened again and this time the voices were coming from my right, so I adjusted my path accordingly and picked up my pace as they were barely audible.  After a couple of minutes the forest was silent and I realized two things.  First, that the area I now stood in was completely unfamiliar and second, that I had neglected to note any landmarks on the way.  Trying to utilize my resources I picked up my phone to call one of my teammates.  No service.  Instead, I yelled out and waited for a response.  No such luck.  After a brief moment of panic, I settled down and recalled what I could of how I got to where I was.  I started off going up a hill (the same hill I was currently on) and then took various turns to the right.  Logically, if I headed left I should hit the grid. It was a longshot as my colorblindness made locating the flagging difficult, but it was my best chance.  I’d say I trekked back a good 10 minutes, yelling as I did so until I made contact with my crew.  Crisis averted!  I wonder whose or what’s voice I was following… it is like something out of one of those Grimm fairy-tales.  Things to ponder I suppose!

We did one more grid after my little debacle and found three mice!  I found the first one in A5, which was a big deal since yesterday we found nadda.  The other two were found shortly thereafter.  Mandy, our mammal technician, tagged them and got the notes she needed for her report about their general well-being before sending the mice on their way.  It was a good day.  Afterward we returned to our housing and helped her make more bait since a dastardly raccoon was eating most of what we had left out the night before.    

That almost sums up our day!  The last tidbit is that I think I have acquired a fan.  Our crew and another AmeriCorps Team met up for dinner at a local pizza place and I got to conversing with a teen there.  He was extremely interested in our program and the disaster relief aspect of our work.  When it was time for us to go he rushed out and thanked us for all that we do and Andy gave him the web address to our site in case he wanted to look up more information about our program

When we returned to our housing I felt like a hero—more importantly, I felt like what I am doing matters.  Even if we are doing Nature Conservation presently we are constantly on alert and prepared to head out to respond to disasters at a moment’s notice.  I admit I slacked a bit this week unintentionally in terms of packing supplies, but my conversation with the youth has reinvigorated me to stay on my A game.

Good night for now friends.

Elk Zone - 5/13

There was far too much rain for us to go about spraying chemicals; lucky for us some of the researchers we’re housed with needed a hand.  They are studying the effects of logging on small mammals and have set up a number of traps in different forests to catch them for observation.  I’m not exactly sure what they will do once we catch them as today my group went through over 200 traps and didn’t find a single mammal, but we will hopefully find out tomorrow!  Forecasts are saying we have another rainy day in store for us so in all likelihood we will be helping our new friends again.  I just have to say I am excited about all this rain because it has kept away all the ticks and other nagging insects.  To give you an idea of how bad they are here I was outside a grand total of 20 minutes (on a dirt road) and I somehow acquired a carry-on.  Our fellow residents are saying that on a good day they come back with a parasite number in the low teens, sooo you won’t hear me complaining if the weather continues its present course!   

Despite having a shorter day of service I am beat.  We sat down and watched that Guardian movie with the researchers we helped once we got back—it’s the one that involves owls.  That was fun.  They are all very caring and energetic folk.  I think we are going to all get along splendidly.  Talk to you all later!

Elk Zone - 5/12

Another week, another team; this time I am a member of Team Purple and we are being sent to the Elk Zone!  We’re picking up where we had left off last week only instead of combating invasives along Interstate 55 we are doing so near the town of Ellington.  Knapweed and a couple of new threats are creeping in on Peck Ranch and we have been sent over to halt their progress.  The idea is to create a huge ring around the conservation area using the roadways and then buffering the protected area as time permits.  This will require hundreds of miles of effort so it is unlikely we will be finishing this project any time soon, but it is exciting that MDC has recognized our efforts and is utilizing us for this important mission.

Our current location is over 3 hours away from HQ so aside from a couple of meetings with our new contacts we had little time to begin our operations.  As for our housing, it is another research facility similar to the one they had us staying at in Peck Ranch.  No laundry here, but there is internet and even a bit of cell phone service.  Oh, and there is a large collection of Nintendo and Super Nintendo games, an awesome movie selection, and more space—so overall I think we got the better deal! 

Hope you are all doing well, I’m going to call it as we have a crazy early start tomorrow.  Good night!

St. Genevieve - 5/9

There was a fire fight!  I was working on a UTV crew when we were running low on chemical.  So, rather than using the boom sprayers on the back we utilized the gun to more selectively hit our targets.  It was like being thrown into a battalion of storm troopers and having to shoot my way out.  Thanks to some timely warnings from my teammates in the vehicle, I was able to successfully take out all of our opponents without suffering so much as a scratch. 

With a thunderstorm coming out of nowhere we had to high tail it out of there.  The rest of the day consisted of packing out and heading back to St. Louis.  Going to go get cleaned up and see what the weekend has in store.  Later all!

St. Genevieve - 5/8

I am going to have the worst farmer’s tan ever.  Ordinarily we are supposed to be covered from head to toe to protect ourselves from the chemicals, but the heat has been complicating things.  So, some of us have decided to risk some exposure in order to ventilate.  Herbicide scares me, but I figure wearing a T-shirt lowers the chance of me experiencing heat exhaustion and slightly elevates the odds of me getting some blue on me, so it is a fair trade.  My arms are already feeling a bit tender and it has only been 1 day!  Maybe they will put me on another project next week—one where I can go around shirtless.  Wishful thinking, I know.  That goes against all sorts of safety protocols. 

Anyways, we encountered some gigantic infestations of Teasel today!  We depleted our 50 gallon tank on our UTV and then some.  While we didn’t complete a portion of the interstate that we were hoping to, our team has done 14 miles of Teasel eradication along the highway in this week alone—28 if you count both sides of the road separately.  Taking into account the width of the right-of-ways (up to 80 yards), the difficult terrain, and the wildlife we have to mess with (live and dead), I’d say we’re doing pretty well!

I fell asleep on the ride back to Creole Housing and I have not been able to shake the tiredness from my bones since.  Maybe I do need sleep.  Huh.  Well off to bed I go.  Until next time friends!

St. Genevieve - 5/7

I had a nightmare.  I was driving down some back street at night when a figure emerged from the shadows ahead of me.  Without any warning the man drew a gun and began firing.  I took the only turn available to me on my left.  Immediately after turning I was forced to take another—this one bringing me to a wall of concrete rubble.  I looked behind me to see where my assailant was… and then I woke up.

This dream terrified me.  I want so badly to leave my mark on this world and if I have to make an early exit, I want to do so heroically.  Nothing epic about being shot down in an alley… It’s just… our lives are short enough as it is.  Who or what would have the audacity to rob someone of that brief shimmer in time—that chance to leave a lasting legacy?  Gah, now I’m feeling even more rushed to try and make it through my bucket list, which has 65 objectives (and counting).  A lot of it requires money as there are very few means to get around these days without it, but maybe I will find a couple of loopholes down the way.  I do like looking for secret passages of sorts. 

Moving right along to the AmeriCorps portion of this entry, Chelsea thought the same thing I did yesterday about chemical usage so we toned it down.  We ended up needing to mix a little extra at lunch, but we used up all of the chemical on things that needed spraying!  Felt a little better about that.  I also saw my first water snake on this journey while fording a river.  It swam up and took a good look at me before scurrying off.  Guess I don’t smell that good or something.

Well that about wraps up my day; more spraying, better accuracy, and lots of walking along the highway.  Oh, and uh, I may be sun burned.  Good night all!

St. Genevieve - 5/6

The miles we are currently on are very sparse in terms of Teasel and Knapweed.  Truth be told it has been a week since I saw any Knapweed—but that could be attributed to the fact that I am not that great at identifying it.  Teasel, on the other hand, I have started to call Nirnroot because, like the plant in the Elder Scrolls games, it is rare and it will often times be found near a water source.  This is not to say it is only found near water as we have found it covering entire hillsides, but in the past couple of days that is primarily where the menace has been found. 

Lili and I hiked about 3 miles before lunch and only found 3 Nirnroots in that stretch.  After our meal, we switched up the groups and I joined Will on the UTV.  I was able to point out 2 patches of the invasives for him to spray before we hit the half hour mark after our intended stopping time.  From what I hear the weeds will pick back up around Appleton, but until then I think we will need to decrease the amount of herbicide we are concocting since our contacts want it all sprayed out of the UTV by the day’s end.  Chemicals aren’t cheap! It would be best that we spray them on the threat rather than spray it all over as a preventative measure—but that’s just me thinking aloud.

Oh, another thing, it is HOT in Missouri! We are supposed to wear long shirts, pants, boots, gloves… basically our PPE when spraying chemical is to be completely covered up.  I don’t know how they do it overseas.  I felt like an oven.  I resorted to cheating a bit and rolling the sleeves up on my jacket.  Hopefully the sprinkles of chemical that drifted upon my person won’t have any lingering effects—unless those effects are super powers, then please by all means. 

Bed time!  I just finished watching our host’s puppy.  Daisy snuck over here when she was putting a load in the laundry and stayed with us for dinner.  I tried contacting Donna next door but knocking, door bell ringing, and even calling proved ineffective, so, I just played with the dog.  It’s never a bad time for a little pet therapy.  Anyways, I will catch you all later.  

St. Genevieve - 5/5

Lili stole Chelsea’s thunder today.  It is Chelsea’s Birthday, but Lili is now the talk of the town because she left a note at the restaurant we celebrated at, the Anvil.  In this note she broke the news to the waitress that the cheese they served her was, in fact, American and not Cheddar.  Lili did add that the service was very nice, so it wasn’t just criticism, and signed her name to be polite.  Later when we were heading home from the Sand Bar where we toasted Chelsea on her name day, a car stopped ahead of us and shouted something that took us a couple of moments to comprehend.  They said, “The Brick House’s Cheddar is real cheese.”  The Brick House is the other restaurant in town we considered going to and, according to a sign, was the first brick house erected west of the Mississippi.  So yeah, within the course of a couple hours most of the town heard about Lili’s note and can pick us out in a crowd.  Hopefully this doesn’t prove poorly for us on future St. Genevieve excursions!

In terms of service, we just took a course in safety involving UTV’s and off road vehicles.  It was an online course so nothing spiffy, but I think it makes the MDC folks a little more comfortable after a couple of rough weeks.  Good news is that we have a new UTV (new as in I haven’t used this one yet)…bad news is the one we were using last week needs to be checked out because the front right tire suspension was acting funny.  So, we’re still at 1 vehicle, but hopefully another one will be ready for action again soon.  Regardless, it is back to highway work tomorrow!

Good night all and a big Happy Birthday to you Chelsea Catalano!

A throw wayyy back to when we did Quest.

St. Genevieve - 5/1

Average snake sightings a day?  3!  Today Sean and I saw 4—2 milk snakes, a rat snake, and a copperhead.  I’m becoming more and more paranoid walking through the brush, like, at any minute a wild creature will appear and I’m not talking about an adorable pokemon.  The hills are riddled with holes and every time the wind blows the tall grass makes a hissing sound.  I think infrared goggles should become part of our PPE… although I don’t know if they will work on snakes… cold-blooded abnormalities that they are.  I guess we will just have to continue being cautious!

We got a couple more miles done today, but I’m beginning to fear that our method is not the most efficient.  Everyone isn’t clear on the spraying protocol when it comes to how much and where our boundaries are, including me.  I kind of blame the constant fluctuation of team members on that, but that is always going to be an issue so we’re going to need to find a solution for groups to come.

Anyways, to celebrate a hard week’s work we went out onto the banks of the Mississippi River.  On our way we passed a decrepit building that looks like something you would find in the Fallout video game series.  There were the remains of a gas pump and several parking lot lights that have long since lost their illumination.  The structures near the lot had shattered windows, litter covering the floors and graffiti murals on most of the walls.  In short, the place has seen better days.  Upon arriving at our destination we got a fire going on the shore and just sat around and talked for hours.  It’s moments like these that I cherish in this program—a little calm in a sea of chaos.  What a lovely night.

Good night for now friends.

St. Genevieve - 4/30

I may be Legolas’s equivalent in the realm of chemical application.  While the rest of my team averages 2 to 3 refills a day for their backpack sprayers I never have to reload.  I sprayed constantly today, determined to exhaust the pack but to no avail.  The only reason I ended up getting more chemical was because the UTV stopped by and the crew wanted me to have a sprayer with a larger capacity… They were unaware of the enchantment placed upon it, but I parted with Teasel’s Bane (I may have named it…) with only a moderate amount of fuss.

We knocked out a couple more miles today and I volunteered to join the fight on foot so somebody else could experience some variety here in St. Genevieve.  There were a TON of snakes.  One of them was 5 to 6 feet long.  Another one that I nearly stepped on was shaking its tail violently.  All of the poisonous snakes in this region have a diamond or leaner head with narrow eyes, but this one had a rounder head with eyes to match so we knew it was just an imitator.  Lili insists that somebody is going to suffer a snake’s wrath before this project is through—here’s hoping that’s not the case!

Well our chef tenderizing the meat disappeared so I better swoop in and rescue our dinner that consists of braughts, burgers, and a fruit salad.  I am not familiar with cooking any of these… so here goes nothing!  Later all!

St. Genevieve - 4/29

It looks like my team won’t be called out on disaster so long as things proceed as expected for the remainder of the week.  Due to a relatively calm winter there are a lot of people just itching to volunteer so unless the disaster is catastrophic it is unlikely that we will be needed.  Still, we have two other groups on standby in the event that they need a little assistance.

As for us, Team Green, we continued our assault on the Teasel and Knapweed that are invading Missouri’s right-of-ways.  Will and I manned the UTV and we had two other teams take backpack sprayers to cover more ground.  Honestly with all of the water ways and bluffs it would have been more efficient for us all to go on foot—except for one field.  I think we had to make 3 passes to get everything in there.  Everyone did well though and we made it to the next exit before we got word that rain was headed in our direction.

On our journey home we saw a flipped semi right where we had been working the day before.  I’m not sure how many people see it as such, but working the highways is an extremely dangerous job.  The lips of the road are usually small and the land beyond that often times is unforgiving.  Bluffs, ravines, hills—if a driver was distracted or sleepy there is very little room for error on both our parts to avoid a calamity.  We were lucky this time, but the accident does make me wonder if our task is one that AmeriCorps should be doing.

Anyways, we’re back at the Creole House.  I am pretty exhausted and laying down anywhere sounds like a good idea.  An early good night to you all!

St. Genevieve - 4/28

This week is going to be interesting.  In the event that we stick around St. Genevieve Wes only wants Will and I to drive the UTV.  Don’t get me wrong, I love working the vehicle, I just feel bad because everyone else is backpack spraying.  If Wes sticks to his guns maybe we can switch out the gunner so everyone will get a break from the packs.  But yes, there is also a chance we will get called out on disaster to Mississippi or Alabama.  Several states have been ravaged by tornadoes and some are being hit as we speak (Arkansas is a big one).  We do not have access to the internet here, but through a couple of phone calls we know one of our teams was called back to the office and that we are on standby.  While I hope nobody has been seriously hurt, I kind of want the call as I would love a little experience in the disaster field: it was a key factor in my joining the Emergency Response Team.  We may even get the call later tonight…hmm, I suppose it would be wise to get some sleep just in case.  Good night all; I hope you’re all safe.