Two news stories today, one happy and one considerably less so, but both of which remind us that we must be ever vigilant against the evil Mother Nature.

I’m sure upon hearing about this family being lost I’m not the only person who thought that this June some unlucky Forest Service guy was going to find an RV off in a ditch somewhere with six corpses inside. Nope:

Members of missing Ashland family found alive, authorities say
MEDFORD — Six family members missing in a recreational vehicle since March 4 were found alive today in a remote, snowy section of Southern Oregon, authorities said. Bureau of Land Management workers first found two of the family members, who had decided to walk out of the woods and left the vehicle, sheriff’s deputies said. Later, search and rescue workers in a helicopter made contact with the other four, said Sgt. David Marshall, spokesman for the Douglas County sheriff’s department.
. . .
A snow machine was headed into the area to pick up the four, Marshall said. A press release from the Douglas County sheriff’s office said the area “is not accessible by vehicle. There is a heavy snowpack.” The family of Pete Stivers, 29 and Marlo Hill-Stivers, 31, disappeared while traveling in a 35-foot recreational vehicle from Ashland on March 4 across the mountains to the Oregon coast.

In your face, Nature! A nice victory for the humans, that one. However, today we also learn of a horrific defeat:

Top UW doctor killed by crocodile in Africa
Dr. Richard K. Root, a gifted clinical teacher at the University of Washington Medical School and former chief of medicine at Harborview Medical Center, moved to Botswana earlier this month to help alleviate Africa’s desperate shortage of doctors and nurses. On Sunday, while on a wildlife tour of the Limpopo River with his new wife, Rita O’Boyle, Root was killed when a crocodile pulled him from a dugout canoe. He was 68.
. . .
The couple were visiting a clinic in a remote, northeastern district of Botswana known as Tuli over the weekend and decided to take a river tour. The guides are wary of hippos, Gluckman said, but there had been no reports of crocodile attacks in the area. Root was in the lead dugout with the tour guide when a crocodile leaped out of the river, grabbed the UW physician and disappeared back under the water. Root was not seen again.

Circle of Life my ass. You are a heartless bitch, Mother Nature, and we’ll get you yet.

What a random way to go out. By age 68 any thoughtful person has considered their own mortality, and I’m sure the good doctor was no different. But I really, really doubt the thought had crossed his mind that his end might come like this. In his place, my last thought would be “Are you f’ing kidding me? (I’m pretty sure I would use the actual R-rated language though) This is how I am going to check out? Getting eaten by a goddamn crocodile on the f’ing Limpopo River in f’ing Botswana of all places? Shit. Touche, Mother Nature. Touche.”