Power of Nature, Right Outside the Door

Look at this pretty kitty. This mountain lion was caught in Willmar, Minnesota. This is a frame from the video of a cougar which led to the capture of the animal on February 1, 2006. Most people didn’t believe the reported cat was anything more than a figment of people’s imagination before the video.

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What happens when the United States federal government has to deal with mysterious cryptid cat sightings in the midst of a national park, in an area where these large felids are not officially verified? And the eyewitnesses include park employees? They issue a press release, of course, as per the following, to attempt to explain the situation to a wondering public:

Mammoth Cave National Park Superintendent Patrick Reed announced on June 7, 2006, that reports of cougar sightings within the park have increased in the past nine months. Three reports have been received since September 2005.
“Right now, we don’t have a lot of information,” said Reed. “These are only sightings. We have not recovered any hard evidence of a cougar in the park. The existence of a cougar in Mammoth Cave National Park would be unusual because we are hundreds of miles from where cougars are known to exist. However, for the safety of our visitors, employees, and park neighbors, we’d like to make them aware of the sightings.”
Park staff are in consultation with state and federal officials regarding the likelihood of a native cougar (Puma concolor, also known as mountain lion, puma, panther and catamount) immigrating into the area, or the possibility of a non-native animal being illegally released here. In addition, park staff are attempting to confirm these sightings by obtaining credible field evidence - photo, scat, hair, tracks, or an animal killed by a cougar. Presently, cougar populations can be found in southern Florida, from the Rocky Mountains west to the Pacific coast, the Dakotas, Missouri, and south Texas. Male cougars appear to be expanding their range eastward towards the Mississippi River. A single male cougar’s home range can be from 125 square miles to 175 square miles - Mammoth Cave National Park is 80 square miles.
Park staff are also compiling a list of safety tips based on those used in National Park Service areas where cougars are present:
Always hike, backpack, and camp with a companion. Be aware of your surroundings.
If you see a cougar, make eye contact and stand your ground. Make yourself appear large by shouting and waving your arms. Do not bend over or crouch down. Back away slowly - never run from a cougar; this may trigger their instinct to chase. Fight back aggressively if attacked.
Supervise children closely. Don’t allow them to run ahead or lag behind.
“There have been isolated reports of cougars in the park since the 1960s,” added Reed. “The frequency of the recent cougar sightings, and the fact that some of the reports came from our own staff, has raised our level of attention. If there is a cougar using the park, the level of risk to humans is likely to be very low. Mammoth Cave National Park is a natural place - it is not tame. Be aware and respectful of all the park inhabitants - butterfly or tick, wildflower or poison ivy, raccoon or possibly a cougar.”
(News release courtesy of The National Park Service.)

Big news - graduate school starts next week, and I need a workstudy job. I'm going today to map the path for my bike, and to check the bus routes back. All in a day's work.

So my path to school looks like this (granted, this is from the local elementary school to the university) and it runs about 16 miles.

Its a hefty run. I'm packing a Myoplex recovery shake and a Detour to keep me fueled for the ride. I'll hopefully be doing this 8-5 Monday through Friday to do my workstudy and my classes at the university.

Just to be safe, I've got the bus route mapped out, too.

Happy trails!

Mago

The Plot Thickens....

Yay! I finally scraped up enough cash to do two things - get my contacts replaced, and get new rubber and tubes for my bike. This is really important for me because I've been wanting to upgrade from disposable to that new 30-day-wear contacts - I'd heard about them about a decade ago - supposedly, their made of ultrathin polyurethane and allow oxygen diffusion across them and into the epithelial layers of the eye. THis is important, because apparently there are cells there that interact directly with oxygen in the atmosphere, and they die and infect your eye when you keep your contacts in too long. Gross, right? Tell me about it, I had to suffer through this some years ago, as a sophomore in college, when the stress of an all-night job, plus full-time school, led me to nap a few hours here, a few hours there, and never taking my lenses out. Well, two weeks later, my eyes got red and hurt like glass - and I went to the opthamalogist. Guess what he said?

"No contacts for three weeks."

Well, he forgot to mention photophobia as part of it, and the fact that an early class (8 am) meant I was driving into the sunrise every bleeding Monday/Wednesday/Friday. Even with shades, my eyes watered.

So I keep my contacts out at least one day a week, normally Sunday, and wear them the rest of the week.

And the rubber and tubing - I have some old Araya rims, so I have no idea what kind of valves fit, and what is the best option for me. They are 27 x 1.25 and when I blew my inner tube, I found out that the tubes inside were 700 x whatever the appropriate measurement is - and I do know from reading at www.bikeforums.net that the two are NOT compatible - but apparently the person who put the tubes in did not. This would explain why the bike was only inflated to 50 psi when I got it - the blowout happened when I inflated back to 90 psi - I imagine I would have blown it out while inflating if I had put the psi up to 125 like a good roadie....

And I'm still out of a job. Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm not being a bum (yeah, right) but my sub job is paying me like nothing, since they never call, and I've been on hiatus for 2 weeks, and my paycheck from when I did work hasn't shown up yet. So, I'm functionally unemployed, although not officially unemployed. However, the good Lord has provided - I sold a futon for $200, and that was enough to get the kids some Christmas presents, and my dad, who pressured me to lose my other futon and said he would compensate by getting me wooden bunk beds for my two oldest girls, is coming through this week. Matresses and all.


However, the bookstore I donate all my used books to said they might be hiring - that would be swell - as I can bike to it without crossing any major highways. If they'll give me a day job, I'll be pleased as pie, and interact with the kitties (it doubles as a cat sanctuary, so there's a billion and one cats there any given day). The place is called Nine Lives Books and they totally rock! I took our old CD collection in, with some real gems like Led Zep and some really old rock, and they gave us $100 for it! Granted, it probably would have been a grand's worth of discs purchased new, but our collection is in the computer and ready to play anytime, and we use the puter as a DJ anyway when we barbecue, so there is no loss there.

15 days before I descend back into the madness that is being a grad student with a family. My favorite professor managed it, but she was doing this with one child, and I have several. Oh, well.

Peace,
Mago