It Just Keeps On Coming...

I just can't seem to escape dealing with crazy situations at the ranger station. Peter says I'm a magnet for them.

Two Saturdays ago I had just gotten home from a long day at the "office" when there was knock at my door. I figured it was one of the other seasonal employees popping by to say hi or give us a message, but instead there was a young man who I did not recognize. He introduced himself and told me he had been fishing at Butterfly Lake when he found an older man in the parking area who seemed to be suffering from dementia. The older man, who I hadn't noticed until this point, walked around from behind my Jeep and said, "I don't know where I am or how I got here." His voice kind of trembled as he said this. He was obviously upset, and with good reason. I would be, too. So I asked him if he knew who he was and where he lived. He remembered the former but not the latter. After explaining the situation to Peter (who joined me later at the ranger station due to the fact that he was taking a shower when the men showed up at my house), I took them both down to the ranger station to see what we could figure out. I listened again to what the younger gentleman told me and got his name and contact information, then I started again to try and get some kind of information from the older man. He honestly could not remember a thing about how he had gotten there or why. Luckily he had his cell phone with him. You don't get service up in the forest, but he had contact information in there. So after speaking with the man who I will refer to as "Bob", we called his ex-wife. She informed me that his brother had picked him up and taken him fishing that day. So our next question was, where was the brother? The ex-wife gave us the make/model/color of the vehicle the brother was driving and I then called our local law enforcement officer (LEO). I've had to call him a few times already this summer and his exact reaction on the phone when I introduced myself was, "*sigh* What is it now?" I laughed because I knew he was mostly joking...mostly. I explained the situation and he told me he would be there in about 45 minutes. So Peter and I (the younger man had left at this point) spent the next hour babysitting this man who was obviously not all there mentally. He had some pretty crazy stories though. He could remember his past pretty well, it was just the present that was full of holes. He told us about how he used to work in TV and radio and used to be incredibly successful (until of course his brain turned into Swiss cheese). He was apparently big into the drug scene back in the 60s (which explains a lot). He did everything from acid and pot to peyote. He also used to hang out a lot in the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco back in its hippie hay-day. He told us lots of colorful stories about the women he had dated in his life, too.

Occasionally, throughout the evening he would stop mid-sentence and say, "Where am I? How did I get here? Am I in trouble? Am I in the mountains?!" We would have to explain again what the situation was, and that he wasn't in trouble and that we were trying to get him help. At one point he put his head in his hands and started to cry. It was really hard to watch and rather heartbreaking. I hope I never lose my mental faculties like that. There was a rather amusing point in the evening when he asked me and Peter if we were "going together". I told him we were married and he promptly shook Peter's hand and congratulated him on having such a pretty wife. That made my night. Although 20 minutes later he asked the same question and congratulated Peter again.

Finally our police officer arrived and started asking "Bob" all kinds of questions. He started checking a briefcase that "Bob" had brought with him looking for any prescription drugs that he might need to take. Instead he found a couple of ounces of marijuana. Peter and I had actually discovered it earlier, and would have informed the LEO about it if he hadn't found it. "Bob" was distraught over being caught with weed, but I highly doubt they would press any charges against a man who probably couldn't even remember buying the drug. Finally "Bob" was taken away back to his home in Salt Lake. It was 9:30 p.m. at this point and Peter and I were exhausted, but for the next few days we couldn't stop laughing about the whole thing.

In other news, I had an injured Great Horned Owl in the basement of the ranger station for a day. Some campers found it and brought it in. It had somehow broken its wing, so we had to look after it for a while until our wildlife officers could come pick it up. It was really cool to see such a beautiful creature up close. I felt bad for the poor thing, though. I'm sure it was in pain. Unfortunately its wing was so badly broken and it had lost a lot of blood, so when the wildlife officers showed up they had to euthanize it. It was depressing, but part of life. At least it's no longer in pain. My coworker was pretty shook up about it, though. She loves animals probably more than I do, and is actually planning on going into zoology or wildlife biology.

My family and Peter's family came up for the 4th of July and we had a really good time hiking and fishing. I didn't get to go because I had to work, but I got to join up with them later for a barbecue and volleyball. It was nice to spend some time with my family and I hope they all had a good time.

I'm sad that's it's July, though. It means my summer is half over. It's going by so fast! I love my job and where I live. I'll be really sad when we move back to Logan, but at least I have school to look forward to. I'm finally getting back after a 6 year hiatus. Woo hoo! It's going to be a lot of work, but I'm looking forward to it.

Well, that's all for now from my neck of the woods *snigger*, and remember kiddies...don't do drugs...or you'll end up like "Bob".