Starting tomorrow is my last work week at Tonto. This time next week I will be moved into the apartment - for reals. I am both jubilant and just slightly nervous, since (at the moment) I'm not sure if I will have a follow-up job. The interview at the Science Center seemed to go well, but apparently they have a much more in depth hiring process than I expected, so I'm still waiting to see if I've been deemed worthy of a second interview.
Other than that, things have been business as usual. I have one more tour left to give. Yesterday Shawn and I went to hike up Piestewa Peak - one of the many mountains in many municipal parks in Phoenix. It's no Katahdin or anything, but it's the first mountain I've really hiked up in awhile and the first one in the unrelenting desert sun. Luckily we were smart enough to start earlier in the day - before the thermometer hit 100 degrees - so it wasn't too bad. Plus, I saw a chuckwalla!
Now it's off to work I go. Happy Earth Day!
You know how it never rains in southern California? Well the same goes for Arizona. Well, sometimes it rains, like when it monsoons in late summer. But don't bother to check the 10 day forecast any other time. I'll save you the trouble - it's sunny, with a possible chance of wind. And I love it.
And the best part about this neverending solar landscape - a readily available source of clean energy? Psh, no. Behold the watch tan:
I now have less than three weeks of work left out at good old Tonto. My official last day of work is April 27. Really, I am now just counting down every day until then. This job has been great, and I'm definitely glad to have had it (hopefully it will give a big boost to my resume). But now that Shawn is here and I've got other plans to look forward to, I just want to get on with it. My days spent in Phoenix have been awesome, not only because of all the fun I have with Shawn, but because I get a little preview of a whole future of fun with him. Decorating the apartment, exploring the city, riding bikes, taking trips, eating pizza, watching movies... just sitting on the (future) couch, watching (future) TV and being boring! Having an apartment - and a life - together, period! It's everything we've been waiting for ever since we finished the Trail, and now it's soooo close! Every time I'm in Phoenix I'm at home, but I always have to spend a lame 5-day weekend out at the park until my job is done. I'm ready to move on.
In the meantime, however, I'm still working/living at the park, and a few things have transpired since my last post on this increasingly neglected blog. Firstly, after my inaugural trip to my new soon-to-be home, I was treated to a little change-up in the daily Tonto routine. Jenny, the biotech person on the park's resources team, was going out to find some old survey plots in the park. I assume they were to be resurveyed at some point....for what, I don't know. Honestly, I didn't know too much about what was going on at all. I just knew that I got to go tramping off the beaten path and I didn't have to spend all day sitting at the visitors' center. We scrambled up some pretty steep ridgelines around the Upper Cliffs and found only one of the two plots. I didn't actually do a whole lot besides tag along and occasionally hold a measuring tape, but Jenny gave me a brief lesson in using a compass and a GPS - something I'd eventually like to learn more about - so that was nice. I'm supposed to spend another day helping Jenny out soon. I have no idea what it will involve.
The next few days were business as usual until Monday - my big tour debut. I spent whatever time I could recramming books of information into my brain, pouring over photos of wildflowers, trying to develop some kind of cohesiveness. I finally came to the conclusion that I would have to wing it, just like most other things in my life. And I think it turned out for the best. Everyone made it there and back alive, anyway. The group was a bunch of senior citizens from Mesa (probably from an RV park) who hike together, so it was nice to have one unified group. They were very nice and understanding, since they were my guinea pig tour. But I think I did do a pretty good job relaying everything I've learned in the past two months (which is quite a lot, I must say). Most of all, it was just nice to get the whole thing over with - pop my tour guide cherry, so to speak. Now I feel much more comfortable about future tours, the few that I will have.
In other news, the Lower Cliffs were closed for awhile due to the many many many bees that live up there. Africanized "killer" bees, that is. There are at least four hives in the nooks and crannies surrounding the cave, and it took a little while to get them all sprayed. There were a few extra boring days spent entirely at the visitors' center, since my shifts at the Cliffs were more or less cancelled. Now the bees seem to have been taken care of, or mellowed down at least, so things are back to usual. Besides bees, I've seen one more diamondback (that makes 5) and another gopher snake, and also my first giant, horrifying centipede. I'm talking about six inches long, with at least 40 legs, perched in the corner right about the VC entrance. I shudder at the thought of ever finding one of those in my trailer. There have also been a few scorpion sightings (which I'm not quite as worried about) and a couple of gila monsters, which I have yet to see for myself. Hopefully one will pop his head out in the next three weeks. Also, next week I have an interview for a job at the Arizona Science Center, in downtown Phoenix. From what I can tell, it's basically the same job I have now, except in a big science museum instead of ancient Indian ruins. Keeps your fingers crossed!
That's about all I can think of for now. Like I said, I'm just biding my time in the trailer, starting to gear myself up for my awesome relocation. I don't know what I'll do when I don't have anymore calendar countdowns to occupy me...
