Dang, Tuesday was some real stuff! At last Dr. Connie
Hausman cut us loose for our first solo field investigation. BEHI is the name
of the game. We congregated in our humble shelter to strap into our waist-high
waders, our only protection from the potential pathogen palooza of an urban
watershed. Our task for the day was to complete the extensive index on the
tributaries of Acacia. After a very public strut down Richmond road, our waders
finally met the chilly waters of the hole ten tributary. Our training kicked in
faster than Kevin Harkey can run the hundred meter or Scotty Weinberger can
send a drive down the voluptuous fairway. That’s pretty fast if you didn’t
know. We cruised through the first portion of the trib, noting a surprising
amount of sandy silt and bricks in the thalwag. Unfortunately, the trib and us
were momentarily divorced due to a pesky culvert. We rejoined to find shale as
abundant as flannel shirts at a Fleet Foxes concert in the Masonic
Amphitheatre. We finished that tributary and started the hole fourteen
tributary. We befriended a befuddled deer whose sleeping spot we momentary had
to seize. We could clearly see the deer was getting antsy and we did not want
to deal with the drama, thus we decided to return to the final portion of the
trib the following morning.
Flash flood
to Wednesday! A typo? Maybe! Bet you thought it was going to rain, Dick
Goddard, but it didn’t… much. Today was a day of absolute power productivity.
We completed the BEHI on the final trib and did pebble counts on all of Acacia’s
watery oases. The pebble count is essentially a metric that quantitatively
evaluates the size of the materials present in a riverbed. Thanks moms for
packing delicious lunches to fuel our ambitions. Alex had a lovely salami and
muenster sandwich with America sauce (A little too much meat for the cheese,
but still great!), an uncrustable, and blackberries. Thanks, Janet Stotter! Graham devoured
pankoed chicken, a delectable nectarine, and an assortment of fruit snacks.
Thanks Jane Duff! Mrs. Goldston packed a lovely rock for Chase’s lunch. Anyways
everyone knows moms are the best and erosion is the worst.
Follow Your Dreams,
Graham, Alex, Chase (The Acacia Crew)
I’d like to start off by thanking you guys for the awesome shoutout. It wasn’t necessary, yet you chose to make my day anyway. I nearly shed a tear. Anyways, it sounds like the Acacia Crew is accomplishing quite a bit. I mean, you could’ve left me with that expertly alliterated title and that would have been enough for the day, but you also submitted a skillfully crafted diary entry. Congratulations on your swift ascension in the ranks. The fact that you guys have been given a solo mission signifies that you’re actually working hard and earning the trust of your superiors. If you guys see this comment I would much appreciate it if you could elaborate on what pebble counting entails. Is it a literal reckoning of the tiny rocks or does it fall on the figurative level of pebbles? These are the great mysteries after all!
ReplyDeleteNow, onto the most delicious part of the post. If I didn’t know better, I’d think your central question was “What gustatory sensations can we uncover while acting as if we are working at the metroparks?” Seriously, your mothers possess some DY-NO-MITE culinary skills. I’d wager that Bonnie’s rock was left to sit for six hours in a Miso-Ginger marinade before she pan seared it and served it with a side of minced caramelized pebbles.
Your project sounds like it’s going great and I wish you the best for the remaining days!