Keep your wits about you in the wilderness.

I have a mild infatuation with keeping tabs on our neighbors across the street - the Haneys. They aren't that interesting, really. More like wholesome. Or something. They own the coffee shop next door (oh so convenient!) and they're always out and about being neighborly.

Yesterday, as Lucy is pawing the door with her usual exuberence at Kevin's arrival home from work (I don't let her loose until Kevin is actually out of the street and in the yard), I see John Haney run across the street to Kevin's truck.

"Any word on your co-worker?" He asks excitedly. John is a detective for the city of Denver. Kevin works for the USFS. Those government officials, well, they just can relate.

I can't hear the rest of the conversation, but I imagine that Kevin explains that he works for the U.S. Forest Service, not the National Park Service. He also probably explains that is he going to be part of the USFS search team to search for the Rocky Mountain National Park ranger that's been missing since Friday.

News of this missing park ranger hits close to home. I get nervous about Kevin working and hiking alone in the wilderness. I know the USFS and the NPS preach the gospel of safety and survival and all that. But still, that masculine/outdoorsman sense of invincibility makes me uneasy. Kevin has it, and I'm sure that missing ranger has it. Guess it comes with the territory.

Lest the tough woodsmen forget, this territory also belongs to mountain lions, bears, snakes, moose, and dangerous rednecks weilding gnomes and bottles of Wild Turkey. Not to mention bad weather, rough terrain, altitude, fire, falling trees, and a whole host of other potential natural or man-made disasters.

All I have to say is Baby, please be careful. I can't help it, it's the mother in me.