a few photos

 Today was long - three classes and a lab. One class I gave an exam and there was a HUGE foulup at print shop which led to me getting yelled at for not being a mind-reader* and had to beg to get the tests actually copied on time

and was told "oh, your wifi must not have been working that day" and I was like "sorry? I sent them in over a computer with  a T1 line?" but it's par for the course to blame the professor for everything that goes wrong. SO I wound up pretty upset for part of the day.

And this evening, it was entirely devoted to grading those exams.

(*IF I WERE? I WOULD HAVE WON THE LOTTERY LONG BEFORE NOW AND WOULD BE LIVING IN A NICE HOUSE SOMEWHERE WHERE IT'S NOT 95 DEGREES IN NEARLY NOVEMBER, AND WHERE I HAVE EASIER ACCESS TO THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY)

Anyway. After I walked out of lab at 3 pm, I decided to first to to the field sampling site for herbaceous vegetation to see just how dead and crispy everything was, to see if it was even worth trying to do that lab (I have another week to decide)

There were clouds. This is something I've not seen for a long time, but they didn't produce rain. Still, it's nice to see them, even if it's still stupid hot and it's been three months since measurable rain

So I drove out there. It is crispy, and part of the site we used to sample is now part of a big disk golf thing (big concrete pads) and I take this to mean I will somehow need to find a NEW place to sample in the next few semesters (If I don't just wind up quitting in disgust before then)

The one identifiable plant (that had flowers) was some kind of aster, probably heath aster

Also, this is how dry it's been: here's the Tiny Canyon

Probably these soils are vertisols, or vertisol-adjacent, and that's why the deep vertical cracks. But it also has been terribly dry here, and the continued hot temperatures are really getting me down.