April 24, 2003

• Seasonal Signs

  
  

  Days are long, long, long and getting longer fast:  about sixteen hours now, leaving no doubt that hibernation time is over.  More light and more warmth are welcome.  The rapid change is somewhat disorienting for me, because I’m more attuned to sky and earth than to clock and calendar.

  
  

  The first mosquito hatch, the big bombers that move slowly and don’t make noise, is out.  Even if they manage to dip a snorkel in me, they don’t sting much and don’t leave welts.  Their presence is mostly just fair warning that the quick hardbodies with the mean whine and nasty bite are coming soon.  I often lose sleep while trying to hide under the covers from any of that hatch that gets in the house.  Arrggh!  I just don’t want to think about that right now.

  
  

  The climbing season on Denali (AKA Mount McKinley) has gotten an early start.  Yesterday, I heard that there were ten climbers on the mountain.  Two of them went missing last weekend, presumed gone down with an avalanche.  The search for the two Canadians was called off today.  They might have been found immediately, and might even have been rescued, but for a serious lapse in judgment on their part.  They had emergency locator beacons.  They left them in base camp.  Now the mountain has two more sets of bones.

  • 6:03 pm
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