Missing Inside Airconditioning

Sorry i’ve been MIA this week..... for those of you in the Chicago area, you know it’s been hot lately. In the 90’s the last two days with extreme sunshine and extreme humidity. So where was I? Out in the field of course, doing groundwater sampling at an oil refinery- wearing a navy-blue, long-sleeve, long-pants Tyvek suit and a hard hat. oh yeah, not to mention latex gloves. - you know what’s gross? when the outside of your gloves is dry but the inside is soaked because your hands are sweating so much. it wasn’t just that it was hot with a uv index of 4 million, but there was the manual bailing of wells, the lugging around of a generator-style air compressor, not to mention the pungent smells of a refinery (amplified by the severely dense and sticky air). We kept the car (and air conditioning) running all day to occasionally bring the body temperatures back down from boiling. Every time I stepped out of the truck it felt like someone had splashed lava, sorry, liquid-hot-mag-ma, onto my face.

Ah, but such is the life on an extreme-weather geologist. For it seems those are the only times i’m in the field. Although not terribly frequent, it’s good to know I can survive outside in both the volcanic conditions of a Midwest summer (betcha didn’t know Illinois had volcanoes, did ya?) or, as the last 3 winters, the sub-artic blast of an Illinoian glacier (betcha didn’t know Illinois had glaciers either.... er.... nevermind. hee hee.) Don’t forget to throw some rain, sleet, snow, flooding, burning sun, insects, and mud-up-to-your-knees into the mix. .... and you have a summation of life in the field. Anyway, good to be back inside. Although too soon again I’ll be complaining that the air conditioning is too cold in this place. ya just can’t make some people happy. : )