One of those days

Today is the day. Tax day was going to be the day, but then it wasn't. It was going to be the day when I started doing my zooplankton tows in hopes of monitoring the production of baby jellyfish. But it rained on tax day. And it has rained on nearly every day since then. In addition to being unpleasant (I melt you know), rain also means that the dock is slippery, which is not the optimal condition for pulling a net by hand. So I had put it off for a full week, and today is the day.

I came to work this morning ready to be all productive and play outside, but first I had to get my field kit together. I went to the supply cabinet and signed out two notebooks for the field this summer. And then I proceeded to label them both upside down. I sighed, covered the upside down labels with tape, redid them correctly, and realized it was going to be that kind of day. Next, I went to the lab to gather my things. Net, check. Filters, check. Buckets, check. Pencils (never pens!), check. Sunscreen, check. I put everything in my car and drove half way to the dock, then remembered that I also need pipettes and jars. I came back, got them, got back in the car, and drove to the dock. Where I remembered that the Oyster Recovery Program has already started restocking for the year and they share our dock. I knew this and should have checked that first, but I didn't. I can't be on the dock while they're using their heavy equipment. They stop for a minute to let me do jellytime, but today, I need a good hour or more, and they are not going to agree to that. Now I'm checking the dock every hour to see if they're done. They eventually will be, and I'll do my thing.

In the mean time, I decided I'd price some things online that I'm going to need for the field season. A word to the wise, when you're using Google to search for a waterproof grease to keep salt from gumming up the works of your flowmeter, be more specific than "silicone lubricant". The results for that one are NOT work appropriate. And while the products advertised probably would do the job quite nicely and more cheaply, I'd much rather fill out the paperwork for a purchase order to the hardware store.