Fieldwork is done

I didn't die. (I admit, I was worried about a lot of things - bogging my van down, passing out from the humidity, the neighbor's cranky dog actually coming on to the property)

I parked REALLY far from the sampling area to avoid bogging down. I probably would have been okay driving closer but with no one there to help I didn't want to risk it.

The neighbor's dog was out there in the street, barking at everything that went by. It's never come up onto my colleague's property before, and I don't know for sure if it's a mean dog or not, but I tend to assume all dogs are mean (bad childhood experiences) unless I know for sure otherwise.

The humidity was the worst part. It's VERY humid. Wasn't all that hot yet (though it's going to be hot the rest of the day) but I wound up having to ditch the P-95 mask I usually wear (to try to keep some mold and pollen out of my lungs) because I felt like I couldn't get enough oxygen in through it. I figured having allergy problems tomorrow is preferable to not being able to breathe today.

There were lots of little annoyances. My MO is to label all the sample bags ahead of time, to save having to take off my gloves (I wear gloves, partly to avoid blisters from the sampler, partly for allergy reasons) every time I collect a new sample. But I forgot to do a bag 16, so I had to change my pattern of sampling and then make that bag when I walked back to the van to drop off the first set of samples. And I lost one of the bags I had made somewhere, and had to go back and make another.

And there was a lone carpenter bee hanging around. I don't know how sting-y these are, they don't SEEM very aggressive, but they're big and they're territorial and they're loud. It seems kind of late in the season for a male bee to still be defending a territory (they are the ones who do) so I can only assume this one was the loser-bee who didn't attract a mate. Maybe because he was extra-annoying, like the frat boy of bees. But he did hang around and patrol and buzz at me and I admit I cursed him mildly a few times because when I'm hot and tired and trying to get done the last thing I need is some stupid bee speculating whether my hat is a potential mate.

Towards the end, I started to feel tired and a little weak and shaky. I drank some more water (I carry water with me in the field and keep more in my car) but that helped minimally. I just kept telling myself I had to power through and get it done. (And walking back to my car, the long, long walk, I kept saying, "Every step is a step closer to being able to sit down (in the car), every step is a step closer to getting this stuff back to campus, every step is a step closer to being able to go home and take a shower."

So I got it done. Got the first set of extractions set up, too. Right now I'm at home- I like to shower as soon as coming in from the field (and wash my hair) partly to get rid of pollen but also to try to drive off any ticks or chiggers I might have picked up. (I use a mint-scented shampoo in this case; the scent is strong enough it would probably stun an insect and make it unlatch). No evidence of ticks but I was pretty much totally covered from head to toe, and I had doused myself in lemon eucalyptus (DEET gives me hives).

I COULD go back to campus after lunch and enter data but I might just take the afternoon off. I have to do a little grocery shopping some time (But not locally at the wal-mart, not on a Friday - maybe that's for early tomorrow) and I also have to look for gem tins some time, might try to kitchen store downtown for those.