Good? Or Good Enough?

(Glimpse of a rare sunset while at the lab)

I spent last weekend and week back in the lab down south. After comparing notes on the state of our studies with a student I once crashed with, I’ve come up with a new way of thinking about finishing projects. Research is kind of like limits; I mean the math kind (I know, I know, bear with the geeky analogy). When I learned about them, I was told to imagine standing a few feet from the wall. Go half the distance between you and the wall. Then go half the remaining distance. Repeat until you finally – oh, nope, you won’t reach the wall that way.

This project feels a little like that. Hence the concept of Good, or Good Enough. It seems like the most successful researchers are the ones who can identify when a project is good enough, they write it up, and move on. Sounds easy enough, right? But as a project evolves and changes direction, it feels hard to just let it be finished, despite every other part of me that wants it to be done. Everything takes longer than I thought, so then the project must be extra good because it has taken so long, and then Improvement #1 returns something unexpected, and trying one more thing will make the project even better… Devilish logic.

(the science magic in action in the windowless basement lab)

At any rate, the week in the lab went quite well, in fact it was probably the best trip I’ve ever had. Data looked good, my samples were clean, and my pseudo-advisor encouraged me to apply for one of the postdoc fellowships they offer! Yay! That brings the tally of applications/proposals for the fall up to two, and I need to finish off this dataset and paper (I’m starting to sound like a broken record with that goal). And see how much I can get done before fall quarter starts and TA’ing begins again. But having things at the next step to apply for does a lot for helping with the feeling of Good Enough.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

(Sarah shows us how relaxfest is done)

Finally took a REAL vacation. You know, the kind that doesn’t involve so much activity that you need another vacation to recover from the vacation. And the kind that wasn’t attached to a work trip. It was great. Sleeping, walking around seeing things but not too many things, reading books, swimming, thinking about running and mostly not actually going (excuse: too humid. reality: too lazy), watching other people be active (ie, watching the olympics), cooking dinner with friends and catching up, hearing grandparent’s stories, enjoying grandparent happy hour on the back patio.

And just long enough in each place to not get antsy, and just long enough away from home to be happy to be back and ready to be busy again.

Spent the first weekend of vacation in northern Pennsylvania at Sarah’s family cabin on a lake. The weekend was complete with a New York excursion to see Ithaca and its gorges and learn new car games (silos and graveyards, anyone?),

(Dai, Kate and Calla for scale)

(more, beautiful shallow marine shelf rocks, apparently Devonian aged. I saw HCS!)

plenty of lake time with Frisbee diving,

(click on the picture if you want to see Calla and Sarah's game faces...)

(good thing that wasn't on land. Something would have snapped.)

Mid-week I spent with the grandparents in the DC area and enjoyed having time to read the paper, read my books, go for a couple of half-hearted runs in the neighborhood and catching up on the old stories. We also went out to Great Falls on the Potomac and saw the obstacles that prompted the original GW to build canals.

(Grandmama and Granddad check out the falls.)

(Great Falls)(Canal remnants)(Beautiful heirloom tomatoes at the Fairfax farmer's market. Couldn't resist since I was reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracal at the same time and had just gotten through the description of the Virginia farm produce)

The following weekend I spent in Durham, North Carolina with Nate and Chrissy and the newest Williams: Gwyn. She’s cute, she’s “dangerous” and got her parents solidly wrapped around her finger. She’s got a little work to do on the cats, however. I got to help start a Porter brewing at Nate’s work

(Brewer Nate and his machines)

and spend time in thick, green vegetation. Nice change of pace from Brown California in August.

(BIG lily pads in the Duke botanical gardens. Only missing a giant bullfrog)

(VERY old type of metasequoia. Apparently typical from 70 to 15 million years ago. This one was grown from fossil seeds!)

(Chrissy and her dangerous progeny, Gwyn)

Meanwhile, back at headquarters….

(Our asian pears)

While I was away, the garden grew; some parts better than other. The basil and tomatoes look great, and I’m holding out for the day when I can make a tasty pasta meal from homegrown basil and tomatoes and fresh made pasta from the Pasta Lady at the farmer’s market.

(first cherry tomatoes!)

I don’t know how long the basil will hold out, but I keep hoping if I just pluck the ends just before they blossom, I can delay the harvest. Me against nature, a battle I usually lose. The sunflowers out front are a slightly sadder story; the snails have found them, but they seem to be trying to bloom, regardless of not having any leaves anymore.

I won’t mention the peas. I don’t think they get enough sun…..

(the best of the bunch. No kidding. I replanted them in a last ditch effort to give them more sun. We'll see...)

The recently planted cucumbers and kale look promising though. Yay for the long growing season out here! Perfect for the procrastinating gardner.

Since being back, it has been a slow transition back to the research life. Lab work and outside activities have been the primary occupations. Mel and Nadine convinced me to sign up for a metric century in the Santa Cruz Mountains the other weekend. I had two weeks to get ready and Mel kindly lent me her very nice cylcocross bike. Crafty, crafty Mel; she knows the way to get someone addicted. The ride was fantastic, and other than slightly sore bits the next days, I felt remarkably ok. There were a couple of stiff climbs, though and at one point I looked at Mel and told her I was pretty sure I could run up the hill faster than I was pedaling. But beautiful views and A LOT of food made it worth the while.

Last week has been spent finally grading everything from summer field, which was a slow, painstaking and somewhat mind numbing process. I’d rather not look at a strat column again for awhile. But we’re done and it is back to lab work, paper writing and an upcoming vacation to the East.

Summer Camp for "Adults"

The parallels between summer camp and summer field are many; perpetual outdoor living in an isolated setting, grappling with adversity, and of course, plenty of costuming. For years, dress-up day has been a tradition for the last day of mapping, but this group enjoyed a few extra dress-up days, usually related to kitchen duty. The cooks were instrumental in providing a costume closet to go along with themed dinners, but the real pièce de résistance was a magnificent hair extension. Found among the boxes of stuff from last year, the cooks attached it to a pole on the study tent. By itself, it looks like a muskrat. On others, it became a wise guru’s beard, a two-toned mullet, or Genie’s high ponytail.

(Genie Matt granting wishes)

The most elaborate theme dinner was Thanksgiving with the Ferguson’s – UCLA came by for dinner, brought the beer and participated in pudding wrestling. I don’t think that kiddie pool will ever be the same.

(Melatite and K-T boundary as troubled teen and Janis Joplin)

To keep the students from getting burned out on mapping, there are a couple of unrelated field trips thrown in; this year’s theme was mining. Since eastern California and Nevada are hot beds of interesting mineral assemblages (Q: what is a pirate’s favorite metamorphic assemblage? A: Skarn!), there are a lot of abandoned mines and mining towns.

(fractured xenoliths in the skarn outcrop)

So, we looked for minerals, everyone wanted to bring home their own pieces of smoky quartz, garnet and vesuvianite and we checked out Goldpoint, a former mining town that has been bought and is slowly being converted to a tourist destination. Apparently, they just filmed the movie “Blood River” there in case you’re curious.

(obligatory white van caravan in Goldpoint)

(old bugs, old town)

And finally, folks finished up mapping, had a fabulous dress-up day complete with gnomes and many in drag, and they spent 2 days in camp finishing off the maps, cross sections and reports.

(see? gnomes)

(Mel contemplates faults while waiting for someone to write on her Wall)

Overall, this was one of the best TA experiences I’ve ever had, in no small part due to how incredible this group of students was. Fun, friendly, hard-working and smart; can’t ask for much more than that!

(one shot devoted to my favorite sed structure of all time, Hummocky cross stratification!)

Week 1: The Warm-up

(overlooking Hwy 168, astride an ancient reef)

We hit the infamous Poleta Fold belt on June 18th and did our best to conquer daunting regions known as Confusion Canyon, Van Gogh's Ear and the Meat Grinder, just to name a few. We were not alone; UC Santa Barbara and UCLA were out at the same time, which was fun but it certainly created some new and interesting challenges. Try finding a quiet place to visit the little Geologist's room while the hills crawl with students and there are no trees.....

The 1st week was a chance for all of us to get our field goggles back on by measuring and describing the old Cambrian-aged Poleta Formation,

(up they go!)

then mapping it's outcrop pattern in "Little Poleta."

(Corina and Scott find the fold hinge. It's like finding a pot of gold...)

(diligent mappers get back to the outcrop)

Little did they realize how fondly they would look back on Hell Hole once they got to Big Poleta. But, they rose to the challenge, mapped and moved, and earned their first day off.

(victim of hell hole or just another gratuitous dead-animal-in-the-desert shot?)

A chunk of us spent an ambitious day off climbing Laurel Mountain, on the edge of Convict Lake. We were seduced by the description of the climb as a geologist's dream and we weren't disappointed. Laurel Mountain is the top of an incredible exposure of metamorphic rock, similar in age and original lithology (ie, shallow marine shelf rocks) to the ones in the Poleta Fold belt, but MUCH more metamorphosed (check here for more dramatic photos of the face than I have).

(eensy-beensy geologist in blue shirt for scale, near the bottom of the photo)

(still a lot of rock to go)

It took us about 3 hours longer than we expected, and the near-run down the mountain through vegetation covered hillsides to get back to the van left us pooped with shredded shins. I definitely moved a little slower in the field the next day.

(happy at the top)

(pooped at the bottom)

Stayed tuned for week 2....

Haven't melted yet...

But we do worry a little about catching fire. Almost everyday has been hazy, so we've had great sunrises every morning.

Just a quick post; internet is inconvenient, but I'll update the stories and pictures when I get back to Santa Cruz on July 10th.

So far highlights include regular costuming in the Poleta fold belt (the cooks have gotten us off to a good start), in particular the Poleta Genie. Daily swimming in the Owen's River, an epic climb up Laurel Mountain on our last day off, mineral hunting and a visit to a Nevada Ghost town...

Up coming of course is the fourth of July and dress-up day in the field, which ought to be good, considering how much this class enjoys being in costume already!

Floating into summer

To finish off the self-indulgent week and weekend and to officially say goodbye to spring quarter and hello-oo, summer, Rachel took us all rafting on the American River. A raft guide in her former life, she fearlessly corralled 8 of us yammering grad students into a boat and got us all to follow instructions - really, that is quite a feat.... And looking through the pictures, it seems we spent as much time as possible OUT of the boat. Fresh-water swimming is not an easy thing to come by in Santa Cruz, and we were all waxing poetic about the days when it seemed that all we did was swim.

So bring on summer and may you all swim as much as possible.