test(!)

yep, today was a test. kind of a hard one, at that, but we'll see how it went. certainly not terrible, but maybe not as well as i could have hoped.

two days ago was our boat trip out to sandusky bay and back. we dropped anchor at a few points along the way to give us a chance to toss some instruments in the water. we measured water clarity, oxygen content and temperature, and pulled up some water samples as well. one interesting part was to take about a soda can's worth of water and pull it through a small paper filter to strain out the algae. we also got a good view of cedar point from the water.

long day, though. we left a little before 8 and didn't get back until 3. it was actually pretty nice, but after lunch i had a hard time staying awake.


yesterday was a good day. for work i staffed the fish hatchery, which is sort of a small museum/science exhibit that the lab operates for the general public. at first i didn't really like it-- i had already watched some other lab folks talk to the visitors, and my first impression was that i was supposed to give the same general talk... the hatchery dates, how it operated, stuff like that. after a while though, i started to realize that i knew a lot more about the exhibits than i had given myself credit for. once i stopped trying to recite the talk the other staff had given and just chatted with the visitors about aquatic science, i really started to enjoy myself. it was not a bad way to spend the day.


now it's friday, and i'm done with class. i kind of want to row over to the big island (south bass, put-in-bay) and stop at the general store, but dinner's in an hour. probably i'll wait until after i eat, then row over after my food's settled. i don't really want to row back after dark, but i don't think it will come to that.

and tomorrow: fireworks!