fireworks

Keeping with my habit of procrastination, here is my July 4 post. Actually, our local fireworks were delayed until July 5 because of all-day rain on the 4th. So I'm only 3 days late. Plus, I was sick then but now I'm not. So....let's celelbrate!

Where's everybody at?

I coulda been a contender

I've been demoted from fish electrofishing surveys because I'm too slow and uncoordinated to net the fish. Being short does not help, either because the person carrying the fish shockng equipment is typically tall. When you are short, you get a reflective glare from the water that the taller person is not subject to. Maybe I should have thought of that years ago when I was doing my career planning. I was short, slow and uncoordinated then, too.

Probably not the way to do your career planning.....

Maybe I shoulda been a wetland biologist. The plants don't move very fast, and there seems to be a demand for this type of service.

My birthday is comiing up and I'm over 50, so I have reasons to be in a contemplative mood.

The eagle has landed

From Eagle creek reservoir Indinapolis. Apparently, they have been nesting for several years here. I didn't know about it until yesterday. Very majestic birds with impressive talons. We were in kayaks only a few yards away. Fortunately, they didn't mistake us for carp. The red-winged black bird sharing the limb with the eagle didn't seem too worried.

update

Thanks to my loyal readers (both of you). My work situation is at a low point lately. Relationship with my boss is so tense that it is starting to exceed my coping capabilities. Friday morning we had a brief, tense interchange that ended with him leaving the office while extremely angry and me having a mini-breakdown. We haven't spoken since. This morning's staff meeting should be a joy. I am at the stage where I am starting to pack up all my stuff. This is a formidable task because I have accumulated debris from graduate school (both MS and PhD), and almost 11 years of paid employment in 3 different venues.

I remember the lesson I learned in Michigan to not quit before you have another job lined up. It's going to be a challenge.

unfortunately

Unfortunately, it seems that due to my sloth and inattention, I have lost the readers I did have. So now this will be my own journal. Well, it seems like my blogging is in shambles.

Unfortunately, it seems like the biggest shambles is my career. The first thing I should have done differently to facilitate success in the world of aquatic biology was to have accepted a Y chromosome instead of an X. Picking out taller ancestors would have helped, too.

Then I should have started on career path this earlier in life, so I wouldn't have entered the job market in The Middle Ages. The medieval attitude of hiring managers that if you're over 40, you're almost too old to function. You're "over-qualified". (Of course, if you're female and under 40, they don't want you because you might leave to have kids! ) They can't come right out and say all that of course. "We'll let you know" they say. If you're lucky, you get a letter that starts out "Dear Applicant". Usually, you never hear anything at all.

Finally, someone hired me. Everything was great, for awhile. Then, fast forward a few years....

So now, not only am I over forty, I'm over fifty and teetering on the brink of unemployment. Why? Maybe it's the sorry state of the American economy. Maybe it's my sloth and inattention again.

spring flowers-May edition

Columbne

Yellow ragwort, or somethng similar

Miami Mist

Errors of identification are always possible

random photos from Spring Mill state park

I'm home from work on a sick day, so I have nothing to do except upload random pictures

Ask the chicken which way the wind is blowing

The park's name sake

Leave it to Beaver

Turtle I should be able to identify.

Wandered into a tractor show. Gotta love Allis Chalmers orange!

just wondering

Why do gas prices always go up on Tuesday? Am I the only one who has noticed this? There is one gas station on my way home from work that always is the last in the neighborhood to raise prices. Every Tuesday afternoon, it is a mob scene of people trying to fill up. Just plan ahead!