Adventures Since My Last Babblefest

I must say, it has been a rather busy time since my last visit here.

The past Monday turned out pretty much as we expected it would; a nasty, rainy day. After a 2 hour delay we went out to give it a go. Spent 3 hours putting up silt fence before calling it quits out there for the day. As an FYI, silt fencing is that short orange barricade/wall you can see in some of the photos. It basically serves to prevent erosion. For our purposes, it keeps the infertile sand we are digging up from creeping any farther into the farmer's fields than it absolutely has to.

Some of us spent the rest of the afternoon helping out with various tasks that could be done in the hotel. For my part, I helped sort, count, and weigh FCR (fire-cracked rock). We're handling FCR differently here than has been done in previous projects I've worked on. It is not being collected and sent back to the lab. Largely because there is just tooooo much of it. The data is being collected, but the artifacts themselves are being left at the site as part of the backfill.

That evening some of got together in Marlon's room for "Mojito Monday." Here is Chris, our crew chief, entertaining us with a bunch of songs I've never heard before. All in all, though, it was a good performance. :)

The guy to the left in the next photo is Marlon, our host for the night (and who makes killer mojitos by the way!). That's Leon to the right.

Marlon comes to us from Nicaragua. How he ended up here in Indiana, I haven't a clue. Anywho, he's a great guy to work with. And talented too. He also played for us Monday. His specialty is Nicaraguan folk songs. Apparently, he has recorded a couple of CDs and has played live in concert and on NPR. After listening to him perform I have to wonder why he doesn't pursue a music career full-time. He's certainly talented enough to do well.

Tuesday was much more productive. And it should have been since we worked from sun-up to sun-down. Dee and I drew up the profiles for the unit we were working on (after first bailing out the 8 inches or so of water that was in the unit). Then we went to work on the next 1x1 in line.

Wednesday was a short day since we all wanted to start the holiday weekend early. Several of us have a long way to drive to get home and didn't want to stay any longer than necessary. We were out of there by noon (local time - which is 1:00pm Real Time). By that point we (being Dee and myself) were well into the new unit. We should have that wrapped up before the next full workday is over.

Thursday was Thanksgiving of course. Spent the day with family having a good time and pigging out as usual. Also used that time together to celebrate my grand-niece Madison's 10th birthday.

Friday and Saturday were spent making the drive back to Fort Wayne and getting caught up on things after having been away for 3 weeks. Then, too, I had to get ready for being away for a while again. Don't expect to be home again until Christmas. Anywho, nothing special to say about all that. Pretty boring stuff. Until late Staurday afternoon anyways.

Thought I'd go out and run a few errands then, only to find out I had a flat tire. Bummer. So, I swapped it out for the spare and went shopping for a new tire. Problem was, it wasn't the tire that was bad; it was the wheel itself. The rim had gotten bent in a couple of places (probably the result of way too many pot holes in our Fort Wayne streets, I'm thinking!) and the tire wouldn't hold air anymore. To complicate the issue it was, by then, too late in the day to buy a new wheel anywhere in town. All the suppliers were closed. So, I had to resign myself to the fact that I'd be driving back to Tell City on my spare. Not something I was too enthused about.

Sunday ...

Opted to leave earlier in the day than I had originally planned in case there were any problems due to my tire situation. (There weren't. I got to Tell City just fine.) But its just as well that I left when I did. This is what my apartment complex looked like as I was leaving ...

While that kind of stuff might be pretty to look at (which it actually is), its another thing to have to drive in it!

[Those last 3 images WERE taken in color. Honestly! That just goes to show you what the weather conditions were like.]

And when are people going to learn that you have to drive differently in Winter conditions than you do in the Summer?! I counted 8 accidents along the highway within the first 50 miles of the trip today. And 4 of them were even before I had gotten out of Fort Wayne. Geez!

Thankfully, conditions improved as I got further south. Heres a shot of Tell City taken from the parking lot of our hotel.

Rain, not snow, and its 10 degrees warmer. Much better. At least for today anyways.

Forecast is calling for a mix of rain & snow all day tomorrow. That may keep us out of the field for a day or two. Not necessarily a bad thing. That would give me the chance to get my tire replaced without eating into my weekend. The sooner I'm fully road-worthy, the better. I have places to go!!! :D