*This originally was supposed to be a painting of raindrops, but somewhere in the middle of this creation, I realized that perfect raindrops are hard to paint with my limited skills.  Time to go ABSTRACT.

Part of my job involves environmental field sampling.  It is not something that I do too often, which is to my liking.  I don’t particularly enjoy field work.  I don’t mind the being outside part very much. But I was never very good at it and I usually stress out about it weeks in advance of a trip.  I work at primarily one site now, and in the five years that I’ve been working on that site, we went from a network of twenty wells to now nearly sixty.  For perspective, that’s going from roughly four days of sampling to nine or ten.

Since my site is in the middle of nowhere, it gets very muddy anytime it rains.  I watch the weather very closely prior to my departure for a field trip.  My rain dance varies depending on the work we are doing.  When I am groundwater sampling (which you can do in the rain, but have to lug your equipment everyday), I hope for clear and sunny skies.  When I’m doing soil sampling, which is the work I’m scoped to be completing tomorrow, I fervently hope for rain because the drilling rigs can get stuck in mud.  “RAIN!” I yell at the radar that I check incessantly before a trip.

This morning I woke up to the sweet, sweet sight of green and yellow all over the radar.  Toto’s “Africa” popped into my head, and I mentally changed the lyric “I bless the rains down in Africa,” to the town I was traveling to instead.  Rain, I thought joyfully, as I read my project manager’s email saying that the trip might be called off later today.

And now I wait. And wait for the cancellation email to come through.  Mentally, I had already prepared for this trip being called off, given how foreboding the weather forecast is for this week.  But if I actually have to go, I will mourn.  I really dislike mobilizing for field work on a Sunday.  When my father was in the Navy, his sea duty took him away from our family up to six months at a time. So while I’m aware of how whiny I sound about giving up part of my weekend to travel somewhere for work, the fact that it could be much worse doesn’t make me feel much better about it.

I really hope my trip is cancelled, because I have plenty of projects to work on at home.

I finally finished knitting my Knitcrate Newbies Month 1 project.  As you can see, it was completed in very uneven seed stitch and there are holes everywhere.  I am hoping that by blocking it, the holes will magically disappear, but that is probably too optimistic.

I am working on What Delilah Did’s Cindermice Stitch-Along.  And if you’re like, “But wait Jenny, I thought that Stitch-Along happened last year?” then I’d say, “YES, I COMPLETELY PROCRASTINATED AND THE VIDEOS ARE ONLY GOING TO BE UP UNTIL SEPTEMBER AND I STILL HAVE THREE MICE TO MAKE, OH GOD.”

This is the Fairy Godmouse that I am working on right now.

Little Box of Crochet  is probably my favorite subscription box ever – the projects are so beautiful and the owner, Amanda Bloom, is really the most incredible person (if you follow her instagram, you’ll see why).  I am working on the May box still.  It is a Floating Blossom washcloth done in tapestry crochet.  It’s definitely taking me out of my comfort zone, but it’s such an beautiful project and I am learning so much from it.

All I need is that email saying that the trip is off, and I can indulge in these projects.  Otherwise, it’s down to the rental car place and sadly packing up my equipment.

RAIN!

edit:  It’s been officially canceled, thank you universe!