It’ll be a long day

So...how’s it going for everyone? Good? That’s cool, that’s cool. Me? Sitting in the desert for a few hours, that’s all. Not a whole lot to do. I mean, there’s some tumbleweeds over there. Even got a little green on ‘em. Don’t see that too often, nosir. Quite rare, quite rare. It’s on account of the rain, you see. Had some rain last week. That’s what puts the green on them tumbelweeds, gives em a little color, you understand. Normally, o’course, they’re just brown and dry. Not much water, you understand, on account of it being the desert. Mostly just brown tumbleweeds as far as the eye can see. Not today, though. Nope, today we got a touch of green on those puppies. Just a touch, mind. Ain’t like we’re going to get a whole lot of color all over, but just a touch is enough. Yep, get just a little rain out here and you get just a little green. If we got more rain, we’d be more green, but then we wouldn’t be a desert, y’understand. Then we’d be just like anyplace else, if we got enough rain. Green and trees and whatnot. But out here we don’t get much rain. That rain last week is probably all the rain we’ll get for, oh, at least a month. And this time of year is when we get any rain at all. Yep, during the summer it’s just dry as a bone, and all those tumbleweeds are brown and dry all summer long. They have to wait until it gets on into fall and winter, sometimes, before they get a little rain. But that’s when it turns green, you see, when it gets some water. Plants need it to grow, tumbleweeds no different. Ain’t nothing grows without water, not even in the desert. Nosir. Not unless it rains.

I think this place is getting to me.

So I’ve made it successfully out to Barstow (not Baker, as previously reported to some) and have started my two weeks of work. Not a whole lot to report, actually. The collect is unclassified, but they generally frown on tossing about information too freely, even if it isn’t restricted, so if you want to know about it, you can ask me, but I ain’t postin’ it up on no internet site, nosir. AAH! keep it together, Noel. You’re not a hillbilly yet.

The biggest adjustment has been the wake up time. I got up at 4 AM today, though I could have probably slept in a little bit extra. I didn’t want to have too much to do and not enough time to do it. On the plus side, I did get to see a very pretty desert sunrise, and my rigorous plan of making myself go to bed and get up early paid off, it wasn’t that hard to get moving. For the most part, everything on the project is going quite well, yay for that. And most of my days will probably consist of sitting in cars, letting equipment run and pondering the green-ness of tumbleweed. I’ll take boring success over exciting failure, though, given the choice.

Barstow isn’t bad either, considering I was in China Lake last time. Barstow actually has a population. It’s mostly still fast food joints, but at least it’s got a few healthy ones, and even a Wall Mart and a Home Depot if we need supplies and stuff. I’ve picked up a ton of food, all sitting in my room, at the moment. O’course, there’s not a whole lot of time to appreciate the city. The days may be boring but they can be pretty long, too. Nothing absurd, I don’t think, though.

So I’ll just pass the time blogging and writing e-mails to Jessie. Not much else to do, on account of the isolation.

Yup.

-N