congrats!

congrats!
this already seems so long ago.

i like my mid-air jesus pose.

donnelly dome

ok. so i had some spare time and looked up donnelly dome. this is far less impressive than when they pointed to the alaskan range and say, "we're going there".
i didn't see any snow in the donnelly pictures, but the alaskan range seems to be loaded.

whilst in alaska

this is an email i sent to the fam.
i guess i can share it with you too.
i just re-read it and realized how random and how much it lacks a given flow.
deal:

just a little generic email sent to yall due to lack of time:

yo,
i made it to alaska hassle-free which was a total shock cuz i thought no one knew i was coming.
got to the site, set up my tent, went to bed.the next day i helped finish up with setting up camp.
ya know, those big army-like tents. we had them for eating, kitchen, food storage and our lab.

yesterday at the site i got my first find, a scapula (shoulder blade) and two metapodia (foot bones) presumably from a rabbit.
exciting stuff.
it's been raining at set times, early morning, just before noon, then it clears up and gets hot.
you can almost set your watch to it.

the sun never sets here. it kinda gets darker, but the sky never turns remotely black at all.
its very eerie. my face mask for sleeping has been very helpful.

well. i'm in the university of fairbanks right now. we went to the museum and are going to go to dinner soon.

i'm trying to take lots of pictures, but i forget about it when i'm working.
the view is wonderful.
now and then when driving around between fairbanks to delta junction, i get a sense of deja vu.
the oil pipeline, this random bronze dome building, other small stuff.

i guess next weekend we're going to hike up donelley dome.
looks like somewhat of a challenge (think grand tetons) but apparently they say it's not that bad.
another weekend i think we're going to some of the glaciers, so that'll be cool.

i've been to fred meyer's twice since i've been up here. its so huge! might even put costco to shame.

i've taken one shower since i've been here, the other times i just go down to a gravel pit by the excavation site and take a swim. the water is somewhat like lake washington's, but then you dive down about 15 feet and i swear its just below freezing. it zaps the energy right out of you. i felt my legs going numb in the few seconds i was down there.havent found anything too exciting in there, some beer cans, m&m wrapper, other garbage, but i did find a big plastic container, probably something that fit into the back of a truck. about 3'x5'.can't tell if the people i go with think i'm weird. it's mostly girls who go down there and its strictly business, only for bathing purposes. otherwise i don't think they'd touch the water. "it's icky."

haven't shaved yet, maybe i won't get around to it. i don't think any other guy here is.

the professor is really nice and informally offered for me to come up to UAA for at least a masters.maybe i'll look into that.he's interested in peopleing of the americas and also has done some work in tierra del fuego and patagonia (right up my alley). although he's not a pre-clovis fan, which kinda differs from my feelings on the subject, but maybe he's got some facts to back it up. i guess we'll see.

that's all for now.
later
-trav

farewell

later, yall.
i just enjoyed the last good shower i'll have in a month.

if you hear about any bear maulings/rapings in alaska, it's probably just me.
see ya august 6th!

last night

my last day of work til i come back. a whole damn month. woot.
the pool felt more like a family i was leaving than freds.
that place is cold. at least it was this morning. i got sent off with a bitter hurrah. opening. full day. 2 hrs break then back to the grinder for more fun.

when i got there, it was damn-near vacant. one guy. i pay no attention...
around 7 or 8, the guy who teaches all the little kiddies their swim lessons stumbled in piss-ass drunk. falling into walls, barely being able to keep balance.
he comes into pool and starts doing laps right infront of some jr. high girls.
he scares them off. he starts doing the butterfly stroke but horribly sucks at it.
no wonder his kids don't learn it that well from him. he doesn't know the rhythm. it's kinda like doing "the worm", but in the water, you know, dolphin-style. he's limp.

but that's beside the point the point was, that i was laughing my ass off to see his drunk ass parading itself around the pool thinking it was hot shit.
but then i started to feel sorry for the guy.
orphaned. no immediate family. no social life other than the kids that he teaches.

i think if he shaved off his mustache it might help him a bit.
get rid of that pedophile kinda look.
but he ignores the fuck outta me.
i'm not about to be the one to tell him.