I always thought nothing was more beautiful than the white, sandy beaches of Hawaii with the sunshine and palm trees.
That is, until this summer. With the bad rep that Washington gets for rain, I didn’t expect the summer to be much different than the rest of the year. Washington is sure proving me wrong.
The summer here is beautiful! Last week I went with Joel and other students working on projects in his lab to Quartermaster Harbor on the boat. They were looking for sea stars on the docks in Dockton on Vashon Island. I was blown away by how beautiful it is everywhere. The best way to get look on the side of the docks without falling in? Lie on your stomach and look over the edge.
But, I digress. As for my project, I may have overestimated the crabs’ ability to climb by quite a bit. (For future reference, these crabs are not able to climb a Plexiglas ramp at about a 35 degree angle.) Thankfully, I now have a new, less steep ramp that is crab-tested to be climbable.
The crab racing is going well. However, I have now realized that for this part of my project I need to collect a lot of water. I think I found out the hard way yesterday that water is actually pretty heavy. I hope my arms will be nice and toned by the end of the summer. Also, I’m not spending so much time in the cold room, making it reek with the distinctive smell of sulfide from the water I use.
P.S. I think my nose has become slightly less sensitive to the rotten egg smell of sulfide.
P.P.S. My boot is leaking again.