Yellowstone

Last week I visited Yellowstone National Park for the first time. I definitely hope it wasn’t the last.

Of course I’d heard of Yellowstone all my life. Was aware of Old Faithful. Figured it would be fun to see.

But the park’s so much more than that.

It’s a huge expanse of protected land that will never see development, and should never see development. It’s too amazing, too precious, as it is. And that’s something that I, a real estate lawyer, seldom say.

It’s numerous geysers smaller and larger than Old Faithful, some less and others more predictable.

It’s hot springs and boiling pools of water in gorgeous, concentric rings of brilliant colors. It’s naturally formed steps of travertine rock. It’s dragon’s breath puffing from caves and swiftly flowing rivers. It’s mountains covered by lodgepole pines and other trees, with wide, rolling fields below.

It’s large, lumbering bison (not buffalo, BTW, which come mostly from Asia and Africa) who appear to enjoy lumbering along the yellow line in the center of the two-lane roads through the park, ignoring the rules applicable to people to stay yards away from the wildlife.

It’s elk, who also appear frequently in the fields and woods, and along the roads. It’s beavers, who create dams in the rivers and occasionally appear atop them to check out who’s watching.

It’s bears and wolves, animals I only got to see in an educational venue in West Yellowstone. They didn’t appear to me in the wild, unfortunately. But that gives me yet another excuse to return.

Of course Yellowstone inspired me to come up with some story ideas. Don’t know if they’ll ever expand into a book or not, but I most certainly hope so!

Have you ever been to Yellowstone? What’s your favorite memory?

Short Subjects

Yesterday I found out that I will need eye surgery on both my eyes. Fortunately, it is a fairly common surgery, with a fairly safe bet of sailing though it with no problems at all. I found out a couple of years ago that I have glaucoma in both eyes, but the eye drops I’ve been using are not bringing the pressure down enough to stop it from damaging my optic nerve. So they propose to cut tiny "trapdoors" in each eye to release liquid and ease the pressure. The surgery will take place on March 19 and April 2 and I will wear an eye patch for a few days after each procedure. Suitably ornamented with sequins, I assure you.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, a season of repentance, reflection and renewal. I wonder how many people caught up in the wildness of Mardi Gras understand it used to be a last hurrah before the stern period of Lent? I consider myself a Christian, but I’m not going to throw myself into all the stern ways of marking Lent – heck not even half of them. But then I didn’t get to go to Mardi Gras, either. :)

I want to take a long train trip early in the summer of 2010, from Minneapolis to Seattle, then down along the coast, then east to Salt Lake City, where I’ll be the speaker at a an Embroiderers’ Guild of America Convention. If anyone out there knows how to go about organizing such a trip – I’d like to stop along the way and do book signings and also take a couple of days to explore Yellowstone – please contact me. Thank you.