Out in the Field

Just try to guess what this is.
It was what was on Bernie's car yesterday morning.
We were switching cars for the day; he hadn't pulled his into the garage the night before.

Wouldn't you know it...the first heavy frost was there waiting for me for me just when I was trying to get gone to work.
The stuff looked like an inch thick on the car's roof.
Seriously.
Bernie came out and help me with scraping duties, then I was on my way.

At ten I was in a different car, checked out from the motor pool.
A drive down to San Pete county, over two hours below SLC, was on my schedule for the day.

Pretty country...

I first went to an elementary across from this scene.

Visited with the librarian/driver of this mobile unit.
The children flowed into the unit, giving the driver a big smile as they slammed down their books for him to check in, and then scampered to the shelves to select more books to check out.
I don't think I have ever seen such incredible beautiful children in such large numbers before. 
Gunnison Utah: Land of the Beautiful Children.
Who knew.

Then I took a whirlwind tour of local city libraries.
Gunnison's library was housed in their new city hall.

As I told the really cool librarian:

 You do realize that there are many librarians around the country that would be willing to kill you in order to become the librarian of this library?

She laughed and totally got it.  It was a new facility and just gorgeous. A perfectly sized small town library.
The kind of library that almost all librarians dream about managing.
She thanked me for all that us state librarians do help the small town librarians be able to do their jobs.
That made me feel good...although not the least bit less jealous of her job.

She even has art in her library.
Lucky girl.

Another city hall...but this time the library was in an older building next door.

Pretty impressive looking isn't it?

Inside was a colorful "old school" style library.

The children's library collection was downstairs and there was a piano there too.  I bet story time in that room is such fun with music and everything.

Yes...every librarian loves cats. And if there can't be a live library cat, then there will be a representation of a library cat instead.

The next town's library...

Again...pretty impressive and there is a feeling of anticipation when one has to climb stairs to enter the library.

Dang....I wouldn't be there for story time.
I just love a good story time, don't you?

Check it out...the library even has a gas log fireplace for those wishing to curl up and read in front of the fire.

They too had just recently had a library make over.
I like how the "new" still  looked old fashioned.
It was maddening to only be able to visit with each librarian for about ten minutes.
(That was probably for the best since, you know, how much I would love to be a small town librarian and all...)

Each town was about 20-30 miles apart and I swung by scenes like this valley on the drive.

Last stop:  A library due to be rebuilt soon.

It was such a tiny space, and yet it still was appealing.  The librarian and I chatted for about an hour; she had gotten her MLS from North Texas University which was in the same town as Texas Woman's University, where I had acquired mine.
She had gotten her course work "on  line".
Smart girl. 
From what she told me, on line classes and connection with classmates over the Internet sounded like a lot more fun than what I went through: driving an hour each way to sit in a roomful of full of exhausted students with a marginally sane prof  holding us captive in a hot or cold room for a long lecture.
What a difference a decade made in education.

It kind of gave me the spooks when the librarian suggested I return to SLC via one way rather than another...due to it now being dusk and the deer tended to be out crossing the roads and the one road being the record holder for head on collisions and all.
She suggested I try to follow a car if I could so if a deer did leap out...you can fill in the rest of the thought yourself.
I made a note to myself to not ever be driving home at sunset from a rural area ever again.
Even if the sunset made the timing worth it...this time.

From another library...as I was waiting bit.
I join the wall turkey in wishing all my dear friends and family a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Snow shoe time again

The calendar says "Autumn"; our landscape says "Winter".

In some instance the two try to split the difference with scenes like this one.
(Looks like Winter is coming out ahead on this particular compromise).

All last week the weather forecasters were giving me the willies by repeatedly warning us that there would be a sever winter storm, commencing at commute time on Friday.



I was out of my office at 4:30 sharp and the first flakes fell at 6 pm at our house.


Whew!

The snow fell steadily for about three hours, then just dropped a flake or two during the night and into the next morning. I was sort of disappointed as I like to watch snowfall and there isn't much to see once it gets dark outside.



By Saturday afternoon, we had scheduled a massage and decided to go snowshoeing before that special treat.

No human footprints were to be seen up in the canyon, but oh, there had been lots of other kinds of foot traffic.

The temptation to follow the track...to see where the critter was heading...well, why not give into the particular harmless interest?

Wonder how far apart these two path crossing creatures were time wise?



Was there a critter "t-bone" incident, with animal driven tow trucks involved?

Looks like there was a successful lane merge accomplished here...

Then traffic got really heavy at the bridge crossing.

Other critter tracks were much more straightforward and easily understood.

It was a super nice time to be out in the snow...

For creatures of every size!

It is nice when your id badge picture turns out good.