(no subject)
It raaaaained most of the day today, that kinda slow steady rain that isn't all that hard, really, but which can sneakily soak through *everything* given enough opportunity. Guess where I was this morning? Yeah, out in it. Myself and three of my coworkers were up at Windust Park (right below Lower Monumental Dam, which is the next one up river from Ice Harbor) marking out the location of a new fence they'll be adding to the park within the next few weeks.
And, on top of the rain that did, in fact, manage to soak most of the way through my winter jacket (one of these days, I really need to hit that thing with some waterproofing spray), the GPS unit I was using was being all finicky, so I was out there even longer then would've otherwise been necessary fighting with the software. Also, it took me about a third of the way through the data collection to realize that "hey, you know, this is going to be a line of fence, all neat and tidy. Why the heck am I standing here collecting point features for *every single flag* they are using to mark it when it would take a quarter of the time just to walk the damn length!" (point-feature collection requires standing in place for at least 30 seconds per point to give the GPS enough time to get down to SERIOUS BUSINESS in the accuracy-factor; line-features I just walk along and boom, done) Some days, I really am not the brightest bulb in the lamp fixture.
ANYWAY, after standing in the rain for 45 minutes or so, the four of us went up to one of the itty bitty towns that are kinda sorta nearby because a) we wanted to kill a bit of time, and 2) it has a coffee shop. So, Joyce (co-worker) treated me to a nice tasty chai latte as a going away present.
We got back to the office around 11:00ish, where myself and another fellow employee who is also leaving got an equally tasty (and extra long) BBQ lunch/party thrown in our honor. There was burgers and cake and pretty much everyone in our office (as well as a family member or two, and few leeches from the dam and our maintenance department) attended. Food was very very good and I ate more than I really needed to, but hey, that is what parties are all about after all. ;)
Last two hours involved me working on some last-minute corrections and projects (called it!) and sending out a few emails.
Good times, yo. Even with the rain.
And, on top of the rain that did, in fact, manage to soak most of the way through my winter jacket (one of these days, I really need to hit that thing with some waterproofing spray), the GPS unit I was using was being all finicky, so I was out there even longer then would've otherwise been necessary fighting with the software. Also, it took me about a third of the way through the data collection to realize that "hey, you know, this is going to be a line of fence, all neat and tidy. Why the heck am I standing here collecting point features for *every single flag* they are using to mark it when it would take a quarter of the time just to walk the damn length!" (point-feature collection requires standing in place for at least 30 seconds per point to give the GPS enough time to get down to SERIOUS BUSINESS in the accuracy-factor; line-features I just walk along and boom, done) Some days, I really am not the brightest bulb in the lamp fixture.
ANYWAY, after standing in the rain for 45 minutes or so, the four of us went up to one of the itty bitty towns that are kinda sorta nearby because a) we wanted to kill a bit of time, and 2) it has a coffee shop. So, Joyce (co-worker) treated me to a nice tasty chai latte as a going away present.
We got back to the office around 11:00ish, where myself and another fellow employee who is also leaving got an equally tasty (and extra long) BBQ lunch/party thrown in our honor. There was burgers and cake and pretty much everyone in our office (as well as a family member or two, and few leeches from the dam and our maintenance department) attended. Food was very very good and I ate more than I really needed to, but hey, that is what parties are all about after all. ;)
Last two hours involved me working on some last-minute corrections and projects (called it!) and sending out a few emails.
Good times, yo. Even with the rain.