Still Kickin'
Sorry. It's been awhile. The old camera died, the old new replacement is sorta good, and the newest replacement for the old new replacement is only slightly better. And I'm busy too.
I cruised off to Oregon for a few days over Spring Break. Food and beer were high on the list of shit to do. Megan and Tony let me crash on the couch.
Cafe Siena: the Mexican Breakfast is the end-all and be-all of breakfasts.
I stole Kobe and spent my 30th birthday at the beach. For once, it was a birthday with sun. Not bad. I didn't think I'd miss the ocean as much as I did.
Good boy.
It was also nice to see some of the old haunts. Kobe and I rolled up Spencer Butte on a sunny day. It's amazing to smell the ocean that far inland.
The trail up. The walk up never disappoints, even when it's clouded over.
Other places, though, had irrevocably changed. Like my house.
The fence is new. Hmm, how are my Japanese Maples doing? And the rhododendrons I nursed back to health? And the lilacs?
Oh my God. They've killed everything. Those fuckers killed everything. The one goddamned thing the house had going for it is overgrown and half-dead. All that work... What kind of lazy shitheads shell out for a pricey fence but don't water the lawn in the dry summer? Those fucks. I hope they get lead poisoning and the plumbing finally goes to hell. At least it's not mine anymore.
Shit hit the fan in April. Travis got married in Denver in May during my finals week. I don't have any pictures, but it was good and fun and small. He's in Ranger School now, which lends perspective to what real stress actually is. But my semester finally ended. I won a bunch of grants--enough to almost fully fund my thesis work. That's really really good news.
I started field work in the Big Hole Valley in May.
The weather started off well, then changed. I've gotten rained out for several days now.
Why not geology in the rain? Well ... it's hard to measure stratigraphy on wet 30-degree slopes that are made of 50/50 swelling clay and rounded cobbles.
But I'm slowly making progress. Normally I dig out my outcrops for a day or two, then go in and measure the stratigraphy.
Digging takes time. It doesn't help when BLOODTHIRSTY HORDES OF MOSQUITOES do their best to find every gap in my DEET coverage.
Maybe faint cross-bedding? Can you see mud drapes? Maaayyybe???
Soon I'll take off for a week with a German undergrad in tow to show him some of the better parts of the West, then it's on to seven straight weeks of field work. I hope the mosquitoes die down a bit while I'm gone.
I cruised off to Oregon for a few days over Spring Break. Food and beer were high on the list of shit to do. Megan and Tony let me crash on the couch.
Cafe Siena: the Mexican Breakfast is the end-all and be-all of breakfasts.I stole Kobe and spent my 30th birthday at the beach. For once, it was a birthday with sun. Not bad. I didn't think I'd miss the ocean as much as I did.
Good boy.It was also nice to see some of the old haunts. Kobe and I rolled up Spencer Butte on a sunny day. It's amazing to smell the ocean that far inland.
The trail up. The walk up never disappoints, even when it's clouded over.Other places, though, had irrevocably changed. Like my house.
The fence is new. Hmm, how are my Japanese Maples doing? And the rhododendrons I nursed back to health? And the lilacs?
Oh my God. They've killed everything. Those fuckers killed everything. The one goddamned thing the house had going for it is overgrown and half-dead. All that work... What kind of lazy shitheads shell out for a pricey fence but don't water the lawn in the dry summer? Those fucks. I hope they get lead poisoning and the plumbing finally goes to hell. At least it's not mine anymore.Shit hit the fan in April. Travis got married in Denver in May during my finals week. I don't have any pictures, but it was good and fun and small. He's in Ranger School now, which lends perspective to what real stress actually is. But my semester finally ended. I won a bunch of grants--enough to almost fully fund my thesis work. That's really really good news.
I started field work in the Big Hole Valley in May.
The weather started off well, then changed. I've gotten rained out for several days now.
Why not geology in the rain? Well ... it's hard to measure stratigraphy on wet 30-degree slopes that are made of 50/50 swelling clay and rounded cobbles.But I'm slowly making progress. Normally I dig out my outcrops for a day or two, then go in and measure the stratigraphy.
Digging takes time. It doesn't help when BLOODTHIRSTY HORDES OF MOSQUITOES do their best to find every gap in my DEET coverage.
Maybe faint cross-bedding? Can you see mud drapes? Maaayyybe???Soon I'll take off for a week with a German undergrad in tow to show him some of the better parts of the West, then it's on to seven straight weeks of field work. I hope the mosquitoes die down a bit while I'm gone.
posted by Waan at 2:19 PM
3 Comments:
I want to come out west and visit. Your photos always make me want to uproot and move westward...
And I can totally see the mud drapes. I mean, seriously...who can't?
-Mandy
I will find you, and kill you, and take your Sierra Nevada hoodie.
Then I become you, right?
To become me, you'd have to eat my soul. So basically my liver.
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