Thunderstorms and Shipwreck Days

Friday, I wasn't able to write because we were in a blackout after a day of rain and lighting! I did spend the morning editing photos, getting dust off in Photoshop for hours. It starts to drive me crazy after a while and I'm not really looking forward to editing at least 14 more. Maybe I should use my materials fund to get my own research intern.. I also took a photo of Alannah with one of her crabs.

I lay in my bed for a while after I got back, reading and watching the rain. It's not often that we get such a loud storm. After the rain cleared a bit, Anna (a new person here, working for Brooke Love) and Umi and I walked down to the lab. We were looking for salamanders crossing the wet road and seeing if Shad was okay in the lab. He was still there working when we headed down the hill at 8pm to find him.

No salamanders, but we did find an amazing sunset. The fog blended the sea, islands and sky into an expansive scene of pink light. Most everyone came down to the lab after us, but for fear of their experiments and incubators being without power. We have a giant walk-in fridge for ocean acidification experiments, which was the biggest worry. Not only was the temperature at risk, but the air pumps that regulate how much carbon dioxide goes to each experiment.

Kasey and Kalia stayed in the lab past 5am, baby sitting the air pumps and flipping fuses on if they overloaded the generator. It was a long night in that creaky creepy building. We did a bit of light painting the the commons, which was a lot of fun and good power-outage activity. Power came back at 4am.

Slowly removing dust from my photos, all morning.

Gorgeous post-lightning sunset.

Saturday, we woke up early to go to Shipwreck Days - a massive community yard sale all along Commercial Avenue. There was so much to see, with a row of booths on each side of the street and one down the middle. There were lots of businesses and churches as well as people from the community. Anna-Mai bought a mixer and two puzzles for the common room, Umi bought an amazing tasseled leather jacket and I bought Global Pursuit (a NatGeo board game).

Umi also spotted an accordion across a booth we were about to leave and sprinted over to look at it. He asked if he could pick it up and began to play. He drew quite a crowd and even got a few dollars - it was nice to hear and Anacortes seems like they'd appreciate a good street musician here and there.We had lunch at Agave, a Mexican restaurant, which was pretty good and I was very full from not wanting to take a box home.

I took a portrait of Anne with her Abalone after we got back, in the Sea Tables room. That place has amazing light. It may have been an accidental double exposure, but I'm not sure. My shutter just didn't stay cocked my first try.

Shad and I later helped her punch out food for her "babies" - small abalone that she is observing the eating habits of. This required making little circles of algae with a metal punch then she weighed them to make sure each one gets about the same amount.

It was a good time and she insisted on buying us ice cream for our help. Really nice of her and I'd be happy to keep helping, even without frozen treats. Anna, Anne, Umi, Shad and I drove downtown, looking at boats for sale as we enjoyed our ice cream. There are cute tug boats for sale and Anne is in love with a pretty little red one.

We started and finished a puzzle, which had all it's pieces - amazing for a 25 cent children's puzzle - and played a game of Masterpiece finally. It was a hoot but I lost horribly. Dang forgeries.

 

This guy sprung up overnight.

Making abalone food.

The San Jauns from a nice hilltop.

After ice cream and looking for our future boats.