A quiet night, a stack of books, a tuna melt on rye

    It snowed all morning and not even a little stuck.  It looks like I will have to revise my rule.  From now on "and the snow needs to stick" will be tacked on to the end of "if it's cold it needs to snow, and if it doesn't snow it needs to warm up."  Er, I guess the addendum should be tacked in the middle, because it doesn't make much sense at the end. 

    Really this post was just an excuse to use the new icon I made this 10-day. 

Today as we were driving to our site, we passed this cow that did not look good.  It was all gaunt, and lying on the ground while another cow nuzzled it periodically.  Every once in a while it would spaz all its limbs and moo wildly.  It really looked like it was dying, so we went and found the care taker to inform him in case anything could be done. 

At noon, we passed by again.  The cow had flipped over  to the other side and we were all sure it was dead.  Then it waved its tale a little bit.  Finally, at around 2:30 we passed by for the last time.  The cow was  in the exact same position and not moving at all.  I really didn't need to witness this poor animal's last hours. 

In more cheerful news, I found my first point!  It's pretty and red and I have a picture.  I'm told that it is from the woodland period, which would make sense since  they had found another woodland sight nearby earlier in the project.  In fact, this was right at the bottom of the hill from that site.  Anyway,

Now, just hoping the tornadoes stay south of us.  Since I don't relish spending the night in the hotel bathroom with my roommate. 

Dear Buttahatchee River,

Please stop overflowing you banks and causing your tributaries to do the same.  It's February and I need to work outdoors near you.  It is too cold to be wading knee-deep through any water, no matter how nicely named. 

Thanks in Advance,
Me

I found out today that I have to work until Friday, not Wednesday as previously supposed.  Apparently they want us to make up the two days they gave us off for Mardi Gras, despite the fact that at least one of them is built into the schedule as a holiday.  Not. Cool.  So long lovely eight day work week.  And I had better be getting that holiday later.

I this post I will be rocking the info-dump.  Mostly because I want the chance  to show that I am in yet another Georgian city. 

1. Raise you hand if you knew that all the Movie Galleries were not connected to each other.  Apparently you have to sign up at each location separately; however, you can but all of you accounts on a single membership card.  It seems like it would be easier to collate the system, but who am I to say.  As a plus for me, you get a free movie each time you sign up. Also, membership is free so it's really just the hassle of having to spell out my name.  "No, just one 'N' and it's followed by and 'A' not an 'I'."
2. I finally finished the second season of Big Love.  Yeah! Cut-Throat-Bitch playing another cut-throat-bitch.  I'm betting that there will some time in the future be a pilot that I will have to watch because it features Anne Dudek.  Also, Margene cracks me up.  She's always so very happy.  And I'd like a copy of the song that Ronda sings on the television show, if anyone knows were to find a copy. 
   
3. I work in the south partially to avoid having to be outside in below freezing weather for long periods of time.  Why must the afore mentioned weather follow me here.  No additional craziness today, except for yet another hotel to add to the final tally.  Thankfully, we should be staying here for three days, before the final two moves.  I'm certainly seeing the out-of-the-way sites of Georgia!

Now, so, so, ready for bed. 

Well, this has been quite possibly my craziest 10-day ever and we're only four days in:

• I'm in my third hotel.  Moving every day = not fun.
  
• One of our crew has already gone home sick
• We have lost two of the PM's (bosses) we started the week with
• This morning we got the truck stuck in the mud so badly we had to call AAA.

I'm going to be very ready for Mardi Gras by the time I get to go home next Wednesday. 

In other news, I'm currently in the bird-dog capital of the world.  I wasn't aware that the world needed a bird-dog capital, but apparently it does. 

    Georgia is a lot further away from Louisiana than it looks.  I always forget that until I'm in the car; usually around the fourth hour or so it hits me.  We left at 10:00 am central and arrived at 9:00 pm eastern, which gave me time to work on the  Little Devil Pants  for my cousins and listen to Little Women  courtesy of LibriVox.  It will, however, make it slightly more difficult to wake up for work tomorrow. 

    Also, I finished  The Gun Seller, which I enjoyed, but not nearly as much as I was expecting to enjoy it.  It was very funny.  But I felt like I spent the whole novel going "that's funny, I should laugh at that" instead of actually laughing.  I can't decide whether this was a case of me over-hyping the  book to myself before starting based on other people's hype, or whether I just couldn't fully appreciate a spy novel satire because I don't read that many spy novels. 

So, I was out in the woods today, digging my shovel test when an armadillo toddled by.  I don't think I've ever seen a living armadillo before just the squished ones on the side of the road.  They're fairly big. 

Then the thunder and lightning started and the skies opened up.  Woo! rainday.  I will now sit in my nice dry hotel room watching The Namesake, knitting baby devil pants, and reading The Gun Seller.  I'm looking forward to see the chance to see 6/9 as not 6/9 and attempting to figure out why so many people were gung ho for his character. 

Whoo! I finished my first day as a crew chief.  I got to watch over the newbies while APM Trimbled all the area boundaries and features for the map.  Frankly, I'm not sure leaving someone who has never been in charge before in charge of two people who have never surveyed before is the best idea, but it worked out okay.  We covered paseing, compass usage, and dug two 500m transects. 

So the question:  Anybody have a particularly good way to teach the compass, 'cause I have one guy who just doesn't get it.  I really don't want to have to confiscate his GPS system (the car kind) as APM says, but it's not a appropriate substitution for the compass.

So, today was my first day back at work after the holiday break.  It was also my one year anniversary, so I now get 10 days of vacation and 5 sick days.  Yeah!  This time last year I woke up in Monroe, LA and drove to Springhill, LA in time to start work at 9:00.  No one else got there until 5:00 or so because they were all driving in from New Orleans.  Instead of working, I got to spend the day alternating between sitting in the Springhill Public Library and using the pay phone in the Walmart parking lot to check my voice mail because my cell phone didn't work. 

This year, I spent the day assembling office furniture, listening to people berate us about comp-time, time sheets, trimble use, and mapping -- in that order.  I also got to wet-screen soil samples from a shell midden.  I'm not entirely sure which day was better.  Monday I'm off to Cameron Parish with an APM and  two new people. Fun. Fun. Fun. 

In other news, I advertised for a roommate yesterday on craigslist and already have 10 or so replies, so I'm feeling a little better about that situation.

Finally,  I will eventually get around to posting my books read in 2007.  That is if I ever get around to entering the last couple of books.