Super size me

2009-05-01 16:36:23.000 – Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist

NULL

I was able to celebrate the coming of May by going for my first hike without crampons since October yesterday before dinner. I had planned on taking the Gulfside Trail to Westside Trail and up the Crawford Path. Unfortunately, as it happens, I have completely forgotten how to hike on rocks! It took me a lot longer than I anticipated to hike about one mile down the trail. For the first time ever, it took me longer to go down than to go up. Instead, I merely hiked down the Gulfside Trail, took a nice refreshing look into the Great Gulf, and saw that clouds were coming in from the south and west. I turned around and made a mad dash to the summit, to arrive only a few minutes late for dinner (which is blasphemous on our shift!).

After dinner we all sat down to a nice movie: Super Size Me. If you have never seen this film, it comes highly recommended by yours truly. Morgan Spurlock eats only McDonald’s food for 30 days and, well, he ends up fairly ill. The reason I’m even mentioning it is because, as an observer, I don’t have too many opportunities to eat fast food. When I’m off the mountain and spending time in the valley, there’s a McDonald’s and a Burger King, but they’re a bit further away than my kitchen. On the mountain we get treated to some of the best home cooking around. Sometimes the crew does get concerned about all the sweets we put into our bodies, between cookies, cakes, and candies. However, after seeing what fast foods can do to you, I’ve come to really appreciate all the time and effort our volunteers put into making food. Nearly everything consumed at the Observatory is made from scratch. So even though we might be eating ten cookies a day, at least we know what went into making those cookies: a bit of flour, baking soda, a tiny bit of salt, sugar, chocolate chips, and hard work.

Thank you to every volunteer who has ever made me a meal. Every meal I eat up here, is one meal I can avoid fast food and a coronary.

Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist