Scorpion 1, Karen 0

It was on her Chaco sandal when she slipped her foot into it to leave her house. Yes, my boss got stung by a scorpion last night; when I encountered her an hour later she had tingling in her face, arms and hands and was not feeling well at all. We have several kinds of scorpions here and only the Bark Scorpion is dangerous, but based on her “more-than-bee-sting” symptoms it could have been one of those. All my superhero powers failed to help her feel better, although I did make an ice bag for her foot with my mere mortal powers and stayed with her to see if the symptoms were getting better or worse. I was poised to take her to the hospital 45 minutes away if need be.

an unknown scorpion from Google images, just to remind you what they look like

Scorpions are not anybody’s favorite part of desert living. Karen had removed one from her house a few days prior, tossing it out the front door, and she surmises it found its way back in under the weatherstripping. Regarding “Live and Let Live:” despite its respectful rangerly approach, when it comes to these arachnids sharing my house, I have mixed feelings. A good solution is catch-in-Tupperware-and-take-to-work-to-show-visitors. They think a live scorpion is Very Cool.

But park rangers ARE superheroes!

Cereal Man and Purple Rain (two of my fellow rangers). Good superheroes craft their own costumes from paperboard, fabric, ice-climbing shoes and thrift-shop unitards.

Living up at the Island in the Sky (Canyonlands NP), isolated from the Real World, park rangers must create their own entertainment. Birthdays are often used as an excuse to invent a good party theme. For Ranger Bobby’s 29th, various and sundry superheroes showed up at his apartment to celebrate.

Lara Croft, Tomb Raider (aka Sharon, law enforcement)

You can see why I thoroughly enjoyed living here for ten weeks, and delight in going back to work twice a week this fall. It’s a fun-loving, creative, wacky bunch of intelligent and interesting people that keep this park going — for visitors and for each other.

Green Lantern and his faithful sidekick (aka Mike and Maile Dog)