Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Frozen wasteland

Even though it's winter with subfreezing temps and some snow cover, field work continues. I was in the portion of New Jersey where traffic, tolls, garbage, guard dogs, likely toxic waste, chain link fences with barb wire tops, and unknown hazards abound. So I bundled up and broke out the hand warmers, and off we went. Most of the time was trying to figure out how to get somewhere because of the above hazards, deep uncrossable rivers, and trainlines. We hit an auto terminal obstacle where cars are taken off of trains. We attempted to make contact with the workers to gain access to the area. Apparently it's totally ok to smoke in the outside hallways of buildings there. Lovely! We couldn't get in because the guy we needed was only there in the mornings, but gets to work at 4:30 am if we needed him! Unfortunately, we actually need daylight to do our work.
I tried to tell birdman that this boat was the answer to the deep river crossing problems. But there wasn't a motor, so we passed on that. Nevermind the fact that it just hanging out on land and decrepit.

This frozen lake was a mosaic of shades of light blue and white. Hopefully it's wasn't result of toxic waste.

At one point in the day, we ran into an unexpected surprise. At first glance, I thought I was staring at a black bear stuffed animal. Then I thought it was a dead black cat in circle formation. Then I thought it was a dying black cat in circle formation. It was after subfreezing and not a spot I'd see a cat laying out. I continued to keep my distance but birdman cautiously crept on top of it. It was breathing and we were talking at normal voice...enough for most cats to hear. I thought birdman was going to touch it, but then it finally woke up and ran off in a flash. I guess it was in deep sleep dreaming about mice or something and the typical urban city noise drowned our voices out.

2 comments:

Small Fry Crafts said...

It's nice to see it's still snowy and cold back east...I miss it! Sorry we missed each other this winter!!! Hopefully this summer, I'll be back in July. Hope 2010 is treating you well!

suntawrites said...

Happy 2010! Incredible snow! Stay warm!