First, I got to recalculate, for the 4th time, a mapping model of the shoal I'm working on. I was beginning to think that it was a lost cause...but in the end it pulled out! We now know an *almost* precise value for the amount of water that's over the shoal at any given moment of the day. Cool!
Secondly, I had the pleasure of assembling a 1977 flowmeter. This deserves a bit of background info--I'm terrible at working, well, things. I've never been particularly gifted at putting things together/ logic/ simple operational skills that some people come by naturally. Give me some math or science concept, and I'll go to town, but simple machines and contraptions can truly get the best of me. Ha. So picture me in the lab, with a musty wooden box with about 50 different pieces of metally/ bolt/ wire/ battery-ish stuff. The only experience I could compare it to is either building circuits in physics 2 lab (not my favorite, as you may guess) or a frustrated father on Christmas morning with a new, complex toy. It turns out that the manual, which reeked, by the way, was basically useless. It had one picture of the device put together, but the parts were minuscule, and it was impossible to tell what went where. I worked with this meter for about 2 1/2 hours. I got pretty frustrated at some points. However, about halfway through, Derick, a grad student in the lab, started playing Phoenix on the stereo. It was perfect at the time. Little things make such a difference! Eventually, I got it more or less working, except that you have to apply approximately 5 pounds of pressure on the battery to make the system work. That's going to be fairly difficult on the boat tomorrow, as I'll also be holding a 2m steel rod in the water, timing some sort of time interval, and counting the rotations of the wheel in the meantime (given that the battery is indeed working.)
So tomorrow, we go out on the boat (given that Dr. Twiss doesn't get sick--he wasn't feeling well! There's a nasty cold going around here.) and try my beloved flowmeter out. But we're also trying several other methods of tracking the water flow and velocity, and let's just say that I'm not crystal clear on how exactly I'm going to transform our measurements into meaningful tracks of the water flow. So I would appreciate your prayers for tomorrow! As I was leaving the lab today, Dr. Twiss was explaining that my project is really more physics and chemisty than anything else. I think my thoughts about that escaped to my face--oops! I'm just hoping that I manage to comprehend everything that I'm responsible for by the end of the summer. Anyhow, it's been anything but boring here.
On a completely unrelated note, a friend took me to the new "Price Chopper" (a grocery store) tonight, and I now have several important things: 1.) pancake supplies to last for quite a while, including butterscotch chips, which are a personal favorite add-in. The Pancake parties will continue! 2.) exciting ingredients to make real food--like casseroles and stuff! Fancy! 3.) most importantly, they had Ben and Jerry's ice cream buy one, get one free. So I have some delicious ice cream to cool down the scorching days. Wait a second...scorching? Maybe I'm fudging a bit on that. No pun intended! (get it? get it? ta hut!)
I hope you are all doing well and I appreciate your prayers!
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