Friday, June 30, 2006
Start filling the ark - I'll get the beetles.
The weather here is incredible... for its horribleness. Let me explain. To do anything with little larvae, you need the leaves to be dry. So, even if there's a brief shower, you have to wait a few hours for it to dry out again to do work. And basically, we don't go 4 hours here without some kind of rain. It's blue sky, torrential rain, blue sky. Mostly cloudy and rainy though, and when it's not, it's humid, the biting flies are out in clouds, and it's terrible. I'm having a really hard time keeping my experiments going under the circumstances, and I've already dropped a few minor experiments just to keep the major ones afloat. My field insectary got torn apart in the hurricane left-over we had, and it's now hanging from a tree, ghetto-style. It's getting disastrous and a bit depressing, alas. I'm just chugging forward and trying to do my best. Haven't taken a day off yet though, and when you work outdoors and 7 days a week, you need every break you can get. We just sort of sleep when it rains. It's pretty miserable.
I hate freaking mother nature. Die, nature, die.
The living conditions are good though. My housemates are totally awesome and we're all good friends now. We started some work outs. The funniest is in the evening when we do our kick backs to work our butts, a la 80s aerobics class. We also share a mutual love of George O'Malley from Grey's Anatomy.
I'm learning lots of nature. I know some of the major song birds from their calls, trees, ferns, etc. I'm also an expert at ignoring the biting flies as they go and just working. I'm a decent off-road driver now, too. I've come to love 4-wheel drive.
I know it sounds dismal, but I like it here at least. We eat well, enjoy each other's company, and enjoy being outdoors every day, for better or for worse.
Even so, I have this persistent nagging feeling that I need to DO more in life. I need to do something big. I need to charge into suffering head-first and do what I can. I absolutely have to. I can't not do that.
Rain stopped, bit of blue sky. Everyone in my house has gone away for the long weekend, including Ryan. I'm going to stay and work though. It just needs to get done, exhaustion or no. I'm excited for Greg's visit in two weeks though. By then I'll need a day off, or a few... haha.
After dinner, I'm going to go beetle collecting. Nothing cheers me up quite like murdering adorable little insects.
I hate freaking mother nature. Die, nature, die.
The living conditions are good though. My housemates are totally awesome and we're all good friends now. We started some work outs. The funniest is in the evening when we do our kick backs to work our butts, a la 80s aerobics class. We also share a mutual love of George O'Malley from Grey's Anatomy.
I'm learning lots of nature. I know some of the major song birds from their calls, trees, ferns, etc. I'm also an expert at ignoring the biting flies as they go and just working. I'm a decent off-road driver now, too. I've come to love 4-wheel drive.
I know it sounds dismal, but I like it here at least. We eat well, enjoy each other's company, and enjoy being outdoors every day, for better or for worse.
Even so, I have this persistent nagging feeling that I need to DO more in life. I need to do something big. I need to charge into suffering head-first and do what I can. I absolutely have to. I can't not do that.
Rain stopped, bit of blue sky. Everyone in my house has gone away for the long weekend, including Ryan. I'm going to stay and work though. It just needs to get done, exhaustion or no. I'm excited for Greg's visit in two weeks though. By then I'll need a day off, or a few... haha.
After dinner, I'm going to go beetle collecting. Nothing cheers me up quite like murdering adorable little insects.
