02 July 2008

Another Day at the Office

Just another day at the office, only I got to go outside. I had a 930am appointment but the sky was dark and full of clouds. I decided that walking a mile of stream in the rain wouldn't be fun so I opted to cancel the appointment. As the day continued though, I wanted more and more to go outside. Okay, I have tons to do in the office and I'm so behind on things but I really needed to do my stream stuff for Kristy. As I was stuffing my face with a late lunch today, I decided to head out. It was awesome. These are the moments when I love my job. I took my wildlife coworker out with me and we saw some really cool stuff.

As we got down to the creek, an owl came flying out and scared the tar out of me. As we were standing there talking about the owl, I noticed a bat hanging from a tree branch in broad day light. We stopped and snapped a few pictures. We saw frogs, tad poles, racoon waste, and lots of dragon flies. We saw blue clay and lots of springs coming into the stream. The erosion along the stream bank was sad to see but amazing to think what the power of water can do. It was a mile walk in hot and humid air. While we walked, we heard the thunder in the distance.

While heading back to the truck, the thunder roared in the distance. Up over the hill, we could see the storm coming. It wasn't a moment too soon that we finished up. Within minutes, it was pouring down rain and I couldn't really see the road to drive. As I traveled down the highway slowly with the radio turned on, we heard the weather service mention the two storms in the area and that we should seek shelter. Well, too late now. We had shelter from the stream, and although the truck kept us dry, didn't provide much protection from other storm issues.

Back in town where the storm had already passed, we could see that plenty of water dumped on us (as if we need any more storm damage and flooding). The ditches looked like mini streams running and everything was soaked. Fortunately we were fine and the hail was tiny enough to not cause damage!

2 comments:

Amy said...

What a fun outdoor adventure!

Ashley said...

That last pic of the storm coming in is great. Wish I saw that outside of my window right now!