Quick update

14 July 2008

Just a quick update about our most recent activities. We had a pretty uneventful couple of days. We were trapping at a higher elevation site (Hirz Mountain) and all we caught were some Peromyscus mice. This was our last trapline for a while, so we'll switch to excavation and sieving for the next few weeks, with perhaps a little bit of targeted trapping- there's a chipmunk I want to catch around the cabin!

What is more eventful than trapping, actually, is the Redding library. The library is a wonderful resource- free wireless, air conditioning, lots of plugs, and Ariel and I spend a lot of our time in Redding here. It's also a great way to observe the local citizens. We are now among the regulars, it seems- every time we come here, we observe the same folks, with slight variations, and I'm sure they notice us. Today, however, the local Redding library dwellers are providing particular amusement. There's the normal guy who sits in a chair near our regular table and appears to stare at us the whole time we are here, with occasional cigarette breaks. There's a new guy sitting behind us with headphones blaring. He did turn them off to call his parole officer to check in, though. There's also the woman wandering around the library talking on her cell phone about her very stressful weekend, and the guy at the elevator door who is impatient at having to wait 2 seconds for the doors to open (the elevator went downstairs just moments before he walked up), and is now punching the button repeatedly and muttering about the wait (it's only one short floor to the main doors). Oh wait, now he's leaving to walk down, and the doors just opened behind him... Lest you get the idea that we think the town of Redding is full of nutjobs, there are of course many entirely normal people in the library, they're just not as fun to observe!