Almost a tail

 Still working on the gift-chicken. I thought I'd get the tail done tonight and I got CLOSE (there are maybe 8 more rows on the second part, then I attach then with single crochets in the contrast color), but I ran out of steam to work on it:

 I went out today with a colleague and her undergraduate research student to collect my second set of soil, and while I did that they set up a project he is going to do. We're going back out tomorrow to do the other two sites - this was the one with the largest amount of walking, so we assumed it will be the one that takes the longest.

It wasn't easy getting there. I didn't know one of the roads I would take to get out to the highway to get there was closed (apparently a water main break but they often announce those on local news) so I had to make a quick detour, and then once I was out on the main road that leads to the highway, a guy and what I assume was his girlfriend pulled out, right in front of me, from an apartment complex. On, in fact, a "trottinette"* style electric scooter. They were barefoot and helmetless and were dressed in what looked like pajamas. They wove in and out of traffic and I hope they got where they were going safely but I was not happy at having to worry about them and their erratic conduct. 

(*In French, the old-style kick-scooters - where there's a flat panel you stand on, and you hold onto handle bars, and kick your foot on the pavement to go forward - is called "une trottinette." The gasoline scooters, like a Vespa, go by a different name, and I feel like we need to distinguish in English between a Vespa type scooter and what this guy and girl were on - it seems a lot more precarious and less-safe on a common road than a Vespa would be). 

There were a few other less-than-safe drivers. You just learn to look out for people. I do think drivers have got worse since 2020.

 

But yeah, I'm tired after spending three hours out in the sun and the heat digging soil out from underneath trees. I did better this time - I don't feel heat-exhaustion-y and the humidity WAS lower than it was in June. But I'm still tired and will be glad when we're done tomorrow.