Patience is a virtue

These past couple days I have learned why exactly there are so few people who do field manipulation style experiments. It's super unique that Hixon lab does the kind of work that they do and with my rising stress level over the past couple evenings I can understand why. In the past four days since getting my experiment set up I have had six (6!!!!) of my experimental coney groupers die. Some died in the tanks but four of them jumped out the tops and ended up on the floor. It has been more than a little tragic each night when I walk into the lab to do evening feedings and find little crispy coneys. :( All of the fish in a block are supposed to stay alive together and have the same opportunities for food and all be measured at the same times and stuff so they match when it's time for analysis. So it's a major bummer to have random fish disappearing left and right, but there is nothing to do but keep keeping on. Patience is a virtue after all and I guess I will eventually outsmart all of the groupers attempts to destroy themselves. So everyone is getting a lid and maybe my experiment will get back up and running tomorrow!

We took a dry day today which was heavenly news when I sat down at breakfast. I had stayed up far too late working on some data entry and talking with some friends last night. Mark needed to review the grant proposal for the lab and submit an abstract so it gave me a chance to stay dry for a day. These days off always end up being some of our busiest which I find super hilarious, and this morning was no exception. The big NSF grant for the lab is due in a few days so it was time to get serious results to Dr. Hixon about what has been happening in all the feeding trials and stuff. So Mark grabbed a snorkel and checked out all of the experimental tanks while I reviewed all of the data sheets for the past threeish weeks and tried to fill in all the holes from things here and there that hadn't been recorded. When the dives and the days run together it's sorta an adventure to reconstruct weeks. I was able to piece together my life this morning which left me an afternoon of freedom. I laid down for a quick powernap and crashed out hard for like 5 and a half hours. I woke up to Mark knocking on my door asking me if I was planning on eating dinner (I was already like 45 minutes late). It was an awesome sleep and I think I am headed off right now to do the same. I have been awake for like 3 hours... that's plenty of time to deserve crashing out again!

I have tried to be better in the last couple days about taking pictures and I will try to upload some more very soon. We have had big thunderstorms the last few days including ones with lightning strikes hitting adjacent islands. It's pretty awesome to be diving and see the entire sky light up above you. Mark and I were up in the boat the other day talking and resting a little with the sky rumbling right over us. The radio antenna started buzzing (like static buzzing) and I don't think I have ever seen two people change out tanks and get back into the water faster! The storms are super beautiful because they are so gigantic and totally dominate the whole landscape. I got a great picture tonight at sunset when I just happened to press the shutter right as lightning struck. I will try to pull it up to share with you all soon! It's been great to hear from some of you the last few days. I really appreciate all of the emails and messages! It's nice to feel like I am not so far removed from life back in the normal world. Hope to hear from all of you soon! Have a great week!