OHHH, My Aching Feet, or The Park Opened Yesterday…

I spent last week in training for 4 days, or in powerpoint hell, whichever way you look at it. A lot of the material we covered was refresher, some was new, but I can’t really say it was interesting. On the last day, Friday, we went out to the entrance station to practice doing transactions and making sure we had all the forms and equipment we needed for opening day. We encountered a mini-blizzard–NOT the ice cream kind, either. Mother Nature decided to bless us with another inch or so of snow. It was quite pretty coming down, but rather cold.

Friday was also dress rehearsal for us. We had to get our uniforms out of storage, brush off the hats, and try on those new boots.  I had bought some insoles for my boots, because the last pair of boots I had needed them to be comfortable. I found out that this new pair doesn’t need them, because my feet STILL hurt from that first day. I took the insoles out that night, and the boots are good to go without them.  The only other little problem I had was that I discovered I had eaten way too much catfish over the winter–I could barely button my pants. What was I thinking???

So you might ask why I go through the boring training, the snow until July, and the too tight pants? Because this is my commute: I walk about a half a mile through aspens and ponderosa pine forest to get to my job. It beats the heck out of 37 miles one way on I-285 any day of the week!