Transitions

The last few days have been crazy.  Sunday I came off island with a raggedy-ann poster in my computer.  The three of us have been trying desperately to get the data we need to make our points.  Some luck came our way.  The last caged lobster ate a sea hare, and the other cage with no lobster still had its original 5 sea hares.  Now we write.  But first, John and Dan had to pull out the cages and store them in a safe place.  We will be deploying them again, as soon as we get our feet under us.

Here’s an embedded jpeg of our poster.  John has printed out the 3’X4’ version, and will soon bring it to Venice for our drive to Monterey.

You  can clearly see how damn BUSY this thing is.    Blame it on the alternative hypotheses! 

Every poster I’ve ever done had too much writing, and this one is a prime example.  Dan will be standing up there ready to explain the poster in words to anyone passing by.  

Pretend you are one of them.  Oh, jeez, I'll never see all the posters I want if I stop here! 

Maybe I will stop for a second, though.  The map looks pretty cool (now click on the image and get the close-up; admit it, we've caught you)

Ok.  Fine.  You move on. I don't care.  The behavioral findings in the first 3 figures are still the sexiest damn story I’ve been involved with for a long time.  We are completely stoked.

So in an hour or so, John and Dan will show up, and we’ll drive my Prius up to Monterey, posters in hand!

Day before yesterday, I came off the supply boat at Fisherman's Cove, loaded with champagne and fruit for fruit salad, and  “Jack S. Fogbound”  fixings.  I had invited Gerry Smith, our treasured Diving Officer, and a slew of other staff from the marine lab, over for lunch.  We took pictures, and I toasted everyone.  While the boys put away all the diving stuff and stored the cages, I made fruit salad and Jack S Fogbounds.  The latter is an unbelievable sandwich that was invented by Shirley Brokaw in the early 60s when her husband and two boys (my buddies) owned a 26 foot tugboat with a tiny stove.  You take a small French bread roll,  cut it, smear it with mustard and mayonnaise, a couple of slices of the best salami you can buy, some sharp sharp Canadian cheddar from Trader Joes, some onions, then close it up in a sheet of aluminum foil.  Pop 8 of them into a small oven at 350 degrees until it starts smelling nice (ca 15 min), and then serve to your 8 guests.  If its cold, these sandwiches warm your hands as you unwrap them.  Mmmmmmmm good, they are.

I toasted the staff for all their help, but mainly I toasted Dan and John.  These two guys have been working like madmen for 9 weeks on this project, and earned not a dime.  I am eternally grateful for that.  Twas a rich wonderful campaign.   

Then we kicked them out, went for “one last swim” (a Siwash tradition), and headed home to Alamitos Bay. 

Worked 16 hours on the poster yesterday, and now we leave.  Whew.  Getting too old for this.