Look At Me Still Talking When There’s Science To Do
In Grand Rapids… thinking about Barrow (among other things)Archive for July, 2008
Could I BE wearing any more clothes?
I’ve been wearing matching socks for a whole six weeks now. Normally I have more important things to do than make sure that both socks I grab from my jumbly sock drawer are the same color or pattern (though I do try to match height and weight, for reasons of sensory symmetry). In Alaska my dedication to Earnest Science has prevailed, and I wear matching footwear.
The rest of my wardrobe tends to be rather more brightly colorful than that of my companions, as I am outfitted with yellow, periwinkle, and green while the rest of the team wears black, navy, or deep red. The crayon-print pajama pants and star-print hat in particular have earned comments, but my colleagues promise that they are not embarrassed to be seen with me…
In any case, (for me) gearing up for the field is usually a matter of deciding what three or four layers to put on- in order of how big they are and with no particular regard to color combinations. Today was no exception, though it was not the chilly Barrow field I was anticipating, but the less-than-24-hours Aqasuk trip that Jeremy and I were attempting. We were trying to go light on luggage but I was fearful of freakishly cold wind, so I just wore my field gear onto the plane.
Fortunately, Atqasuk was warm and sunny, and the rain on the horizon went around us. So did the caribou, though he was dreadfully curious- we could tell. All our field work was done after we got out to the field at three and before we were back in at nine. It would take five field days of suffering for those chumps at the Barrow site to finish everything-HA.
Oh yeah, and I’m sick. The head-cold variety. It’s not too bad, on account of the fact that I am incredibly tough. Don’t tell the rest of the team that I’m feeling poorly or they will think I’m weak- when really, it was THEY who said, “Oh, Jenny, poor Jenny, don’t you want to stay in from the field today? You look ever so ill. A day off would do you good- and of course we would stay in with you… for safety.”
I won’t let them have the satisfaction!
…and there was much rejoicing.
I really really ought to stop writing posts at the end of pleasant days. My unending admiration for this adventure (along with the overly-positive vocabulary I use to describe it) is liable to make me ill, should I ever re-read anything I’ve written (and of course I do, that’s the whole point!).
That being said, today was probably my third (or fourth?) favorite day of the season so far. Though it was a dreaded growth measure day, we were filled with optimism and good cheer at the beginning of the day due to A.) the GLORIOUS* weather and B.) the magic hour of 5:00 p.m. that was rapidly approaching (to be explained in due course).
BASC, our trusty logistics provider, has seen fit to throw us one curve ball after another lately. We attribute this to their poor money managing rather than any blunder we have committed for which they could secretly (or not so secretly) be punishing us.
To begin with, the beloved blue truck was sneakily removed from our list of assets through a short series of favors that we warily agreed to comply with. (Bob told us to be helpful!) As our access to the truck grew less, so did our goodwill towards BASC, those sneaks! We harbored no ill will toward the Enemy**, however, as their part in the truck fiasco was quite inadvertent. The replacement trucks we were occasionally offered (they were trying to humor us, no doubt) included a run-down number plagued with a gnome stowaway who’d locked himself in- or so we assumed from the incessant banging noises emanating from the glove box region.
We also were required to abandon Dario’s hotel in favor of a hut that is rented by BASC. It does make sense to save over ten thousand dollars a month by placing six of us in the hut instead of in costly hotel rooms, but as a result, we are forced to live with strangers! That is a lie, they’re not strangers at all, they’re Gilda and Sandra from UTEP, both quite harmless and charming girls. You can imagine how pleased Rob and Jeremy are to have four new female roommates***! The hut, though not without its challenges, has several advantages as well, and it should suffice. The chief difference for me is that my Favourite Walk is now a little longer- certainly no harm in that.
In any case, at 5:00pm today the Enemy was long gone from Barrow and the truck was relinquished to us at long last. This reunion was not without its share of mishaps, since, to begin with, the keys were left behind three separate locked doors in the office, but eventually it was quite a happy ending. We celebrated with Thai food and a trip to the point. Jean hadn’t had a chance to go yet, and the clear sky and sun-sink (not setting yet, but almost!) held out for the whole GLORIOUS trip.
*This is an example of “
overly-positive vocabulary.”
**The gentlemen from the BBC were the Enemy, since they were given our truck when theirs failed to work. Who could hate gentlemen from the BBC? They were filming snowy owls for “Frozen Planet,” and EVERYONE loves snowy owls.
***They began immediately on the “No Girls Allowed” sign for their bedroom.
We must remember to send a thank-you rock.
The weary researchers trudged through the edge of town to the turquoise house, mentally bracing themselves for the impact. They had been warned that morning of the imminent arrival of five more persons and fully expected all the chaos that would entail. Should the five terrible strangers somehow not have made it to the little town, the Village Children were sure to be camped out in wait. Either circumstance was sure to be a hindrance to the the dinner the four team members felt they truly deserved. After all, that day’s field work had taken a whopping four-point-five hours, and nothing short of utter comfort would do.
In any case, today was 200 day and yesterday was halfway day, and celebrations were demanded. Last night the team was treated to a lovely instant cheesecake that was NOT designated for sharing, sorry Kids. We managed to fit in some work to placate Bob (our PI), but he is at a hospital in MI with what is hopefully by now his new daughter instead of his very pregnant wife, so he’d hardly have noticed anyway.
Jean and Rob cooked every gosh-darn box of pasta in the entire house in an effort to lull the newcomers into a false sense of security. We rather expected that one of the four people who did indeed show up sometime between noon and five to be named Ben, as we’d been receiving phone calls for “Ben” since the moment we entered the house on Wednesday. Alas, our logic was thwarted, and though I didn’t bother to remember any of the names of these people, none of them were called Ben. A bit sad, really, as he seemed to be missing, perhaps permanently. We’d imagined several scenarios that would account for his absence and his empty orange sleeping bed that has been occupying Bedroom Two this week, and we were slightly anxious that he be found, stranger though he was. (Not to worry, he’s here now and he was never really lost. We saw the tiny plane fly in from Fairbanks and met him and the pilot trying to usurp our truck when we got back. I kind of hate to ruin the suspense, but this story is getting dreadfully dull and I honestly don’t see myself bothering to wrap up the Ben storyline in the next few paragraphs.)
As the dinner hour ended the team used their incredibly efficient dynamic and admirably effortless intuition to signal to each other to make their escape. The most effective bit was when Jeremy said, “We will be leaving in five minutes.” The newcomers, false sense of security established, were washing up the dishes, just like we planned, and we stole out of the house like a team of cat burglars. There is no use keeping up the cat burglar metaphor either, as we did not plan to take any of their things. We didn’t even want to touch any of their things. They probably have cooties.
Seriously though, you can’t imagine the amount of stuff piled in the living room. We can’t even sit on the couches, much less see the TV, much LESS watch one of the five VHS tapes that are the only source of video entertainment.
But never mind that, watching videos hardly counts as a 200 day celebration. Instead we lightened our packs, shed a bit of field gear, and wandered away to enjoy the weather that was much nearer to that which Jeremy promised. The fishing hole proved a fruitless and fishless diversion, so we instead walked along the Meade River.
Jeremy had prepared for just such an occasion by replacing his field notebooks with hammers. The banks of the river were dripping with broken rocks, some of which yielded mildly interesting fossils. Jenny had unwittingly prepared for just such an occasion by nearly emptying her usually full and heavy backpack.
Long story longer, the team celebrated 200 day by bringing 200 rocks back to the house. Maybe 200 pounds or rocks. Certainly 200 fossils, as some rocks helpfully contained more than one leaf picture. Mostly though, they are just rocks. Dozens of rocks. It is doubtful we can get even half of them back to Barrow, much less to Michigan. Finding the fossils was a strange and fast-acting addiction. We hope that we will be cured by tomorrow- both of the addiction and of the sore backs we sustained lugging all that junk back to the house.
Sky blue. Like the sky. With jet fighters and lightning.
In other news, Jeremy and his grandiose schemes continue to disappoint. This time he PROMISED that Atqasuk would be magical, warm and fun… I believe the word he used was “phantasmical”… and it rained all day yesterday. It rained on our luggage, it rained on the truck, it rained on our food boxes, it rained on the airplane, and it rained on the other truck. The trucks entered the rainstorm covered in dust, and my new Earnest Science skills lead me to believe that this is how they ended up covered in mud. The new box of Otter Pops got a little muddy. (We got a hot tip from a rogue Loon Person that The Kids had managed to steal the stockpile we’d flown into town last time, so we had to restock.)
It rained so thoroughly that the internet connection was down. We had to entertain ourselves in other ways. My favorite way was coloring (good thing I had 100 crayons on my person), but my second favorite was beating the rest of the team at a rousing game of Texas Hold ‘Em.
Now we’re off to kick some Biomass butt. Vroooooom! (That’s the sound of the ATV carrying us away… though all four of us AND the point frame are going to be on the same ATV, so vr-oo….ooo…OOOmmm…mmm…… might be a more appropriate onomatopoeic representation.)
