quidamling | Wow, almost three months...

Ok, ok, two and a half to be technical. But still, I've been in Alaska a while, and I still really like it here.

Yes. It rains.

A lot.

At least at some point, pretty much every day.

Some of the others whine.

Bring a damn coat. XD

It's a rainforest. What part of RAIN do people not understand? True, it's a temperate rainforest, but I've spent a month in a tropical (read to most people as "real") rainforest and yup, it was pretty much like this.

So no, I'm not getting all mopey with the rain like some of the other co-workers here.

That out of the way, pic spam, I suppose.

I have over 600 pictures... I won't make anyone truly look at that many. ♥

I like harbors. There are... 6 in town.

So this was just at some point in my first few days and I wandered around and took pictures like a gosh darned tourist. *fist shake* But it was still deep in tourist season, so no one cared.

This is at one of the major docks, and by my... "Coordinator"(? She is like a liaison, college RA, boss and secretary all rolled in one.)'s husband, he claims he is not an artist. I think most people disagree.

We're really just nestled in the mountains. I have started just carrying my camera EVERYWHERE. Like, literally even to the grocery store, because this place is so damn pretty.

There was a Russian training ship that came into town. It was ALL anyone could talk about that week. Though, from their end, Sitka used to be the Russian capital of Alaska, so it's more a big deal for the sailors. Either way.

My Sitka uniform: t-shirt, sweatshirt over that, coat, and camera. Woo!

I'm onna boat!

D'awww. Cute little sailors. They were all excited to practice their English. And damn, it was way better than I could have been in Russian.

The old company pickup I am slowly... or not-so-slowly falling in love with. My dad bemoans that one daughter now drives a pickup truck and the other, my sister, now listens to country music. He desperately wants to know where he went wrong.

My first picture of a bald eagle here. I'm told I will get over seeing them. Nope, not happening yet. Though, I also can't get over the sound they make. It's this, high (loud, yes, but really high) twitter thing. It does not sound like something that truly comes from a bird that big.

So my project when I got here was... well, at the moment I have three, but the first to kick in was the Orca Rearticulation Project. AKA, dead whale -> whale skeleton -> museum display. I came in, about a quarter of the way through. Missed the dead whale flesh part, so I thought, and got to help with cleaning up the bones and getting them mounted.

That's putting molded teeth back in the jaw. Well, the project is more intense than we thought, and there have been some pitfalls along the way. But we are getting there.

Hey look, a skull and... some vertebrae. Oops. Some of the bones were "misplaced" and no one was sure if they were left on the beach where they butchered the carcass, or between, or when the bones were hung in sea water to let the microbes eat the grease... either way. We thought we had to replicate a bunch of bones.

We borrowed some orca vertebrae from another skeleton and cast a few.

Difficult, but fun in the end. Unfortunately it was also INORDINATELY expensive.

I finally got to move out of the temporary house and into the one I will be in permanently. Moving when you just moved by airplane, is a breeze.

IDK, just the view of downtown and the volcano from my bedroom. <3

And said minimalist bedroom.

One day, I come into work. And there is a surprise waiting for me!

Yay! Rotting whale flesh! Turned out the "missing" chunks right after butchering the whale ended up in a freezer, forgotten, buried, mistakes were made, yadda yadda yadda. Either way. Found it! So, I had an epic day of making whale soup.

Imagine... boiling down the leftover Thanksgiving turkey. From hell. It took about 8 hours, and let me tell you, the dogs around the neighborhood thought that I was their BESTEST FRIEND in the whole wide world 'cause I smelled AWESOME!

...

No, the puppers were not allowed to eat stewed whale meat.

Hey, kids! Be a scientist! Otherwise you couldn't dream of being this awesome!

AAAAAND what a difference a day makes.

Ran around town with one of my housemates. Doing the tourist thing and loving it.

The National Forest. And the salmon run. Those are pinks, or humpies. See? I've learned something. And this was early in the run, so that's nothing.

Middle Earth much?

The volcano.

And in slightly crooked panorama.

Again, the volcano.

Yeah, I live here. 83

She says it looks like the Twilight movies.

...

I have to take her word on that one.

And no, I am not curious enough to watch it anyway.

In other news, we had an octopus in the building at work. For a day. Sad. He/she was donated by a fisherman, but was too big for us to keep, so we let it go.

And just a sunset from the living room.

And THIS is the height of the salmon run. Same bridge as the other pic. XD

Yes, all those little things are salmon.

Well. I think this is about halfway through my time in Alaska at this point. So I'll stop here.

One final thing. I spend my time surrounded by salmon, living out their lives, breeding and dying. And it's all natural and wonderful.

Then, there was this fish.

This fish!!! Oh, this little fish was the bane of my existence for a month. A month! He is a sailfin sculpin. And Lynn, the aquarium manager collected him just before she was going away for a month starting Aug. 29th and she should be back tomorrow. I would be in charge of ALL of the critters in her absence. She asked if I was up for keeping a baby alive on my first solo time as an aquarist.

"Why, sure!" I say, with 100% of the confidence I don't quite feel. I've done husbandry, off and on for the last 6+ years because I am stubborn and make it part of job duties even when it's not. But I have never been the ONLY one before. And literally, the other people in the aquarium have said flat out, that they don't know what to do for the animals. That was all Lynn. Eep!

My goal: Don't kill ALL the things!

So baby doesn't know that the dead chunks floating down are food. He needs live stuff, Lynn tells me. Makes sense. Check. Each day I collect beach gravel, stick the bucket above the tank and the little sand fleas hop out and into the water. Et voila. Live food. I've done that, I can continue to do that.

Be careful when you clean, he could easily get sucked up or slip down the drain, Lynn tells me. Check. Careful cleaning.

But the best thing she said is that all that matters is that I try. If he doesn't make it, and it happens, as long as I did my best. I'm good.

Lynn leaves, and day one of her absence. I cannot find this damn fish anywhere. I stare, I crane my neck, I noseprint the hell out of that tank. Fretting all day. Nothing. Finally, at 5pm I see his little emo flip over his face fin under a rock. Ok, he's alive. Note to self: don't move the rocks too suddenly when cleaning either and squish him.

Then, I do not see this fish again for a flipping MONTH.

I kid you not. I fed so many sand fleas they were hopping around on the floor. I cleaned, I gingerly lifted rocks. No sign of this little bugger.

Until today. Ha! I drained that damn tank down to about an inch, and he finally materializes like magic. Geez. I scooped him out and took another damn picture just to prove he made it a month.

Little bastard.

Though, that's the same watch glass he's in, so he's not so little anymore. XD

There was other aquarium drama, but that can be picspam: parte the second.