Grizzly and Her Cub Yellowstone

Well, this had been a heck of a darn day I can tell you. We all got up early to celebrate Mother’s Day and woke up to a massive snow storm that has left close to two feet of snow all over the Institute grounds, no electricity and the darned internet was down until just now. We were afraid that we wouldn’t be able to wish all you mothers out there a Happy day. The power just came back on just a few minutes ago so everyone is frantically typing to get the message out before this wet heavy snow takes the lines down again.

We had big plans here at The Institute to celebrate our mothers, of which we have way too many. Some say you can’t have too many mothers but I invite those folks to spend the day cooped up with a bunch of mothers and see if they’re singing the same tune at the end of the day.

The Institute has its own power supply which is a giant 28′ wheel made out of cast iron that looks kinda like a ferris wheel without the chairs. It’s wide enough that six to seven mothers can walk abreast on it, kinda like a bunch of human gerbils, turning it, and producing what power we need. Some of these mothers were a little grumpy when they had to shovel the quarter-mile path down to the power plant to even get to walk the wheel to make electricity, but they eventually made it and soon were in good spirits, walking the wheel, singing songs of motherhood and even rapping a little. Quite the little party down there.

We also didn’t have the internet all day because ours comes in little packets over the telephone line and when the snow gets really heavy it prevents the packets from going up the hill so they can then slide down to our modem. Fortunately some of our mothers were in the Israeli military and with a little coaxing they were able to shinny up the poles and push those pesky packets down the hill to our modem. Those mothers could climb. Thank you mothers.

Thing seem to be back to normal now except for the snow of course but the mothers have all drawn straws to see who will be shoveling through the night in case we have to get out to get more beer. We’ll celebrate Mother’s day next year and hopefully things won’t be so busy for our mothers. I have to go, I see our mothers returning from the power house and shift change is beginning for our midnight shovelers. These moms are going to be hungry so I need to tell them what to fix for supper so they don’t  have to think about that. Happy Mother’s day everyone.