From a field to a park

What a day. Started the morning at the dry bed of the Cosumnes River with bees, tics, and mosquitoes, and ended the day in a mobile home park in West Sacramento. This is going to be quite an interesting summer.

The fieldwork this morning wasn't that bad. It only took a couple of hours to collect the soil samples and data. The bugs were atrocious, and since Rich (the grad student I work for) couldn't remember the code for the gate to get to the river, we had to hike in with all our equipment. I think the hike was a little over a mile. It was really fun in the morning with all of our equipment, and even more fun in the afternoon with all the soil samples we had collected.

Luckily, I got home about 2ish and had time to relax and eat before going to my second job at 4:30. Tonight we canvassed in West Sac. We were all a little skeptical of the place at first, but it turned out to be super successful. In total, we qualified 20 people to receive evaporative coolers, and we didn't even finish canvassing the park. Tonight, I really felt like we helped people. And talking with these people, who are extremely low income, really puts a perspective on life. It definitely makes me appreciate what I have. I have lots of stories about all the interesting people we encounter, but for some reason it doesn't feel right to talk about it on the internet. Although the stories are super funny, I don't want to come across like I am making fun of them. That would be wrong, or at least wrong in most cases. Some people do deserve it. So, if you want to here stories... you'll have to ask. By the end of the summer, I should have a nice collection of crazy people tales to share with the masses.