A Gig on the Cape

I've been meaning to post an update on how returning to work has been going (overall: pretty good)--I have a large draft that I haven't finshed yet. In the meanwhile, here is a quick story on the job I did yesterday.

My former employer has put me right back to work after returning last Monday. I did a field investigation last Tuesday, and I had another one yesterday, down on the Cape. Believe it or not, in all the time I've lived in MA, I've never actually been down to the Cape.

First was the 2.5 hour drive down there, via I-93, Route 3, and Route 6. This was I-93 into Boston during rush hour... stop and go traffic, but I'm guessing that the Big Dig made conditions a little less miserable than before. As a side note: why do people slog through highway traffic every day?? It's not like the presence of traffic is a surprise or anything. I know that I couldn't deal with sitting in this on a daily basis. Ugh.. gotta have those lawns, or good schools, or whatever is appealing out there in SprawlAmerica. Oh well. What was especially disturbing was to see how empty the HOV/carpool lane was: two or more occupants. Holy cow... so all of these schlubs who are driving in the bulk of traffic are driving alone? Remember, When You Ride Alone You Ride with Bin Laden. This seems like a major argument for European-price-level gasoline.


The investigation went pretty well. I lucked out, because it was a gorgeous day for this trip (sunny, high in the 50s). Since the site was right on the beach, I had to take a 15 minute break on the way out to go wading in the ocean:


In case you're wondering, the water was really cold. Note quite freezing temperatures, but I could only take 30 seconds to a minute in the water at a stretch--check out these water temperatures around Cape Cod. It reminds me of those stories about how boaters have an X minute survival window after falling overboard in these waters. Yes, coastal Californians should feel free to gloat right now.

The drive back up was uneventful, except for the fact that I handled three cell phone calls on the hands-free headset on the way. I've gotten used to being an unimportant grad student, who does not need to be reached all that urgently. Yeez... I must be turning important again or something ;).

Anyway, off to work. Biking in to the office today! Woot!