Always havin’ Fun!

2011-04-18 13:09:40.000 – Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer

Squirt the Snowman

Growing older does not necessarily mean growing up. Of course, with it comes more responsibility, but it does not mean one can simply shun the responsibilities they had as a child. You must still brush your teeth, do the dishes, and get to school on time, especially if you’re now a teacher. One of my greatest responsibilities I had as a youngster was to have fun and I have never lost my desire to fulfill this. I spent countless hours building forts of all sorts (stone, hay, and tree), biked every dirt or log road I could find, and built jumps on the hill across the street to go off of with my snurfer and eventually snowboard. Of course, a main activity that coupled well with jump building (when the spring snow was wicked sticky) was the creation of the biggest snowman possible (which often turned into a jump). Having worked here on the summit for several years now, it appears this desire is still present in many of our fine winter interns. One may remember back in February of 2009, the creation of our good friend, Rimey. Ali and I had a grand time creating him and as the temperatures dropped, he turned to solid ice, resulting for quite a long tenure on the summit. He was the most traditional of the summit snowfolk, with a carrot as a nose, chocolate chips for eyes and a mouth, and a carrot-cob pipe. Last winter Nick constructed a fine looking fellow, Mr. Snowflake, from a large drift in the front entranceway. He was named in honor of Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley, born in Irasburg, Vermont (my hometown), and who did his research on snowflakes in Jericho, Vermont, a town I spent a couple years living right next to. That brings us to our current frozen fellow on the summit, Squirt. Constructed by Becca, it is no surprise this little feller has washers, bolts, screws, and a ziptie. I must admit I am a little disappointed that the pencils are not carpenter’s pencils, but we can only work with what we have up here! Hopefully temperatures will not get too warm inside the tower and he can hang out to greet us once an hour for observations. He doesn’t say much, but with a smile like that, he doesn’t have to!

Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer