Lento

Slow day…got up late, took my time with everything…lacked motivation for a while. Got the stuff together, headed over to the lab to put some things in my locker. Stopped by the Bosques office to wish Dr. Chazdon a safe trip home. She said of my project, “I’ve never felt more confident about a student’s project.” That’s pretty cool, although I lack similar confidence.

Sometimes I miss things about home and all this just feels like work, but then I realize where I am and what will come out of this summer and it’s all good again. Until I start collecting data, that’s probably how it’s going to be.

These next few days practicing out in the forest by myself are going to be rough, but worth it. I measured a few trees this morning, did a lot more exploring than measuring. Included another action scene of me taking a data point, something I’ll be doing at least 4,000 times this summer. Started to get really hot out and close to lunch time so went back to the station to clean up. Got my computer and what not to stick in the lab before lunch. Had this rice/beans/chicken/eggs/steak combination with papas fritas, which was pretty good.

After hanging around for a while and drinking coffee went back to the lab to work on the growing to-do list. First, I did a complete “take apart and clean” of the tripod so all the connections would work and stop sticking. Cleaned the rangefinder and calibrated its scope. Packed all that up and played with data for a while.

Still have a few email items to take care of, and planning to get lots of sleep tonight so I can have a full day of practice tomorrow. Each time I go out I feel more confident about resolving the crown of the tree and more comfortable using the rangefinder. Starting Monday, Amanda and I will switch off assisting each other on our projects. I hope to get a solid amount of work done in the two weeks before out assistants arrive.

Shaping up to be a boring weekend, but I’m looking to get started in the GIS lab doing some of the mapping for our plots. Once June comes the pace will accelerate and the summer will zoom by. For now I just feel like easing in and rewarding myself some free time for a successful semester that still seems like yesterday.

Sorry for the lack-luster post, I promise improvement.

BP