Luca Masters

Environmental Corps (where I work) spent some time there this year clearing out invasive species.

On the first day, before starting work, we were in the parking lot standing around and a lady walked up to us, crying, her nose all bloody. I asked if she needed help and she said ‘Do you have a cigarette?’ Nope. ‘Does anyone have a cigarette?’ Do you need help? ‘I just need a cigarette.’ Then when we didn’t have one, she said to someone on her phone—probably the guy who’d punched her in the face—’I’m just going to go get a cigarette and then I’m coming home.’ And she continued on her way, still crying, with blood still running down her face.

Later—I don’t recall if it was the same day or a day or two after that—a guy in a car there asked what we were doing, and when we told him we were doing invasive species removal, he told us that he had an invasive species in his house: lizards. And they were eating his flesh. Then he drove off, which is a bit scary because he was definitely on drugs at the time.

Anyhoo, we worked our way along the lake shore, clearing out Chinaberry and Waxleaf Ligustrum (Japanese Privet), along with some other stuff, all the way down to the Holly Street Power Plant. We were joined by a coworker from another crew who lived nearby and had taken half the day off. He climbed twenty feet up in a tree just for fun, and then suddenly it got windy and rainy and he climbed the hell down. We ran around trying to get all the cut trees up to the drop spot by the power plant, but lightning and mud eventually prevented us from completely finishing that day.

The following week was spent continuing on to Town Lake Park and clearing more invasives.

It’s tall. This thing is really quite impressive, even when the tower is covered in scaffolding. But to really appreciate it, look at an aerial photograph. Not Google Maps or Google Earth. You need a nice angled shot. It makes the surrounding area look 2D in comparison.

I spent two nights in the Hotel Rappen right next door, so I had a nice view from my room. Plus, the tower made finding my way back to the hotel quite easy. It is, as I said, very tall.

Switzerland really is where they make the watches. I walked around Konstanz for days and saw a couple banks and no watch stores. But the instant you cross over into Kreuzlingen, you find yourself surrounded by banks next door to banks across the street from watch stores.

My brother’s earlier experience was that if you need to buy something on Sunday (when pretty much everything is closed by law in Germany), you go to Switzerland. That, however, turned out to not work so well on the day before Christmas. It’s a nice place, though.