- I grew up in Syracuse, NY – so salt potatoes and halfmoons all the way! None of those black and white imposter cookies … yuck.
- Growing up, I had a paper route with my older sister, and my BFF also had a paper route with her older sister. We had pocketsful of change – and nothing to do but get into trouble. We did a lot of adventuring around town, spending many a day taking the bus out to the mall to hang out and explore. We knew every inch of that mall. We were the original mallrats.
- Yes, I walked miles back and forth to school every day – uphill both ways. Growing up in the snowbelt and walking city streets, you learn very quickly how to navigate freezing rain, slick sidewalks, and the like. It helps you develop a good sense of balance – just try to push me over.
- Growing up in Syracuse, and later on living in Maine for graduate school, I have spent a lot of time in the cold north. I have credibility when I say that nostril-hair freezing weather begins at -4 degrees F. Some may argue -6 degrees, but I insist that they are wrong.
- I was a wildlife ecology undergraduate, and one of my first jobs out of school was studying great-horned owls as part of a toxicology study in Iowa. We would trap owls, put radio “backpacks” on them, and follow them around at night with a big radio telemetry antennae set up on the trucks. Two people would take readings at the same time, but at different locations, so we could “triangulate” to determine the location of the owl. That way, we would have an idea of where the owls spent their time hunting and roosting, determine if they could be exposed to pesticides at our study fields, etc.
- We had one owl, nicknamed “Sweetness” – earning that name because he was particularly testy and had “taloned” several of the other researchers. Don’t mess with Sweetness. Well, one night I was out alone checking traps and caught Sweetness. Typically, you put the owl in a sort of tube sock to restrain it, bring it back to the barn, take a blood sample, then bring it back and release it. You just place them in the passenger seat of the truck and they remain calm. They just lay there – usually. I don’t recall exactly what happened, but as I was driving back on the road, alone in the middle of the night, all of a sudden Sweetness was flying around the cab of the truck. It is somewhat of a blur, but I lived to tell about it.
- I also worked for the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation for a few years. Somebody had found a bear den and notified DEC. Several of us went to the site to tranquilize the bear, so that could mark the bear and get a better idea of black bear habitat use and movements in the area. We get there and find out that she is a large female with three baby cubs. The baby cubs were alert and the momma bear was groggy – hibernating bears aren’t out cold. We usually tranquilize the bear, and then pull them out of the den for processing – taking measurements, marking the bear with ear tags, determining health condition, etc. Unfortunately, the cubs were in the way and we were concerned that we wouldn’t be able to pull the bear out without hurting the cubs. We walked around the area and found a small, back door entrance to the den. Sometimes it pays to be small in stature, as I was the only one that could fit inside to grab the cubs. So, yes, I have been in a bear den, with a groggy momma bear and three baby cubs.
- One time in Indiana, I ran out of fuel as I was driving just over the crest of a bridge. It was in town, so cars weren’t going fast, but it was pretty dangerous because I was in a blind spot and you couldn’t see me until you were on top of me. I wasn’t sure what to do because it was unsafe to get out of the car. One car goes by. A second car (a pickup truck) approaches, and with absolutely no hesitation the truck immediately starts pushing me to gas station down the road. I did not communicate with this person at all – they did this automatically. All I can say is, does this happen all the time there?
- What can I say about Albany? You haven’t lived in Albany until you’ve been towed. Everyone has at least one tow story.
- This last one is not my story, but I love it. Have you ever walked into an elevator and looked at the “gap” where the doors close. You wonder what would happen if you drop your keys down the gap? Apparently, there is a whole slew of things living at the bottom of elevator shafts.
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