There is a fantastic collection of books here left behind by previous coworkers. I'm plowing through the memoirs, tickled to find titles that have been in the back of my mind for years and others that so closely fit my interests. The fascinating and heart-wrenching "Educated," a young woman's coming-of-age story and reconciliation of her fundamentalist upbringing with the wider modern world; the acerbically funny "The Sex Lives of Cannibals," an American-abroad take on a tiny Pacific island; "Reading Lolita in Tehran," the passionate, sobering recounting of one professor's struggle to maintain and teach independent thinking under an oppressive government; "Rowing to Latitude," an adventurous couple's ambitious and exhausting self-supported trips along Alaska's coast and the length of its biggest rivers. Lots of food for thought, and inspiration for travel...
When not scrubbing the burger-gristle-encrusted flat-top grill with a charcoal-like brick or individually wrapping sandwich components for pipeline workers and longhaul truckers, my own adventures have tended toward trying to photograph the pinkest and purplest moments of sunsets. Technically, the sun no longer clears the nearby mountains, but the internet tells me "daytime" is about 10:30am - 2:50pm now. And just about all of it appears as sunset.
Also, my friend Abby accompanied me on my first night ski. Her headlamp revealed all kinds of animal tracks, including some hefty moose prints; my headlamp promptly quit about twenty seconds in. I thought the batteries had had plenty of time to recuperate after being submerged in a stream six months ago -- they still work, I just turned the light on! -- but perhaps they've earned a nice quiet retirement.
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