Don't blame me if this works - Take II

And Curtis will not be blamed because it does not work.

Last Thursday along about lunch time, as previously mentioned, I was in Cherokee because I was giving Education programs to some of the elementary classes. The refuge workers came to Cherokee to give me (and Curtis) a send-off with a lunch at Pizza Hut.

Thursday morning before I even left for Cherokee, Curtis and I were back out wandering through the wilderness, putting the finishing touches on the camera system. That means we hooked up the batteries to the system (thus giving it two power sources - solar and battery). I was very excited about seeing it work, but I had to get to Cherokee. Curtis promised to fill me in later.

Back at Pizza Hut, most of the refuge workers are grumbling about what a funky bad day most of them had had up to that point. Nothing too terrible - just frustrating. There was a break in conversation. I looked at Curtis. "So......? Did the cameras work?"

I received a very dark look in response. "Don't ask," said one of the maintenance guys, "We told you it was a bad day."

And now he's gone and won't be back until the first week in November (I think). Hopefully that will give him enough time to regain some enthusiasm and/or ideas on where to go from here. I can't help thinking that if I land the ORP job, this project is going to fall on my desk because I've had the most recent work with it - aside from Curtis himself, who is leaving us all behind.

And if it does, I will get the distinct pleasure of shimmying up this tower to mess with the microwave antenna (notice that you cannot actually see the microwave antenna - aside from a blurry form or two near the top):

Can't get a feel for how tall that really is? Try this picture (and please note that I cannot even get the whole thing in my shot. Also - See the antennas? Again - blurry forms):

That's the boss's Tahoe that you see off to the side. The same Tahoe that got me stuck with some fellow Pelican enthusiasts a week or so ago.

But back to the sheer height of that tower that I am sure waves in the wind. I'm not afraid of heights. It's plummeting to my death that I don't like. I'm told that if it comes to climbing that, I will be wearing a harness. Of course, I have to make it up to the top before I clip myself in. So that makes the climb up there a bit exciting, no?

You see, that's the tower that faces the other antennas across Sand Creek Bay. It goes from the camera to the microwave antenna at the bay to the antenna on this tower to a computer here (I think - still not sure on that last part). From there, the computer is somehow hooked up to the tv in the visitor's center to provide a 'direct' (not exactly a word I would use for this setup...) feed of the action on the bay.

We'll see what happens from here. A previous employer once told me he thought I was bad luck, because as soon as I'd start helping him on his project, many, many things would start going wrong. I have my own theories on that, but the important thing to note here is, even though Curtis is not to be blamed, neither is his helper. I know I'm not the Murphy's law of biology.

Just because I've only caught 5 Kangaroo rats in over 2 months, and just because the newly fixed and returned camera equipment still doesn't work does not mean that everything I touch breaks or becomes tainted.

But speaking of - I've picked that cold back up. I can't breathe at all, and no drugs will touch the congestion in my nose. Sleeping has become a problem. Oh, and in the past week, I've sliced open several fingertips with my razor (3 to be exact) and cut the palm of my hand while breaking the coffee pot at the bunkhouse. Oh, and this weekend, I broke one of my friend's parents' drinking glasses.

Sigh - I suppose I'll go pick up the traps from my somewhat failed research experiment.