27 June 2002 - 19:46

My first field day in two weeks (two weeks of Raccoon clomping around on crutches with the infected stingray sting). I'm still sick, or at least, I have a cough that won't quit. It seems to be getting a little worse. The past three nights I've woken up in the wee hours of the morning choking on phlegm. I hope tonight breaks that pattern. I'm very tired all the time.

I am glad I went to work, even tired and coughing. I sat on the bus and then I sat on the boat and then I sat on the bus and then I was home. Raccoon and the other interns know that I'm sick, so they essentially gave me the ~easy job (it only comes up when we do playbacks, which is rarely, and we switch off anyway). They're all competant--the other interns have both worked for the dolphin research project before, so they have more experience sighting dolphins (especially Mina, she's amazing. She spots them more than the rest of us combined, I bet). Mina and Raccoon can drive the boat. So I'm pretty content just rounding out four-people-on-the-boat.

I never thought I'd be grateful to go to an easy job because it helps me validate my life, but I felt like that today. Normally... well, normally I prize flexible time, because there are so many exciting things I want or need to do. But now I can't enjoy going out, I don't have the energy to bike or walk to the library, to the beach, around town. My sinuses would never forgive me if I tried to go swimming. There aren't many people around to hang out with--just Junglefreak, and Pairodox & Oregano, but they all have their own work to do. So I've had a little case of the summer doldrums. I did have a few things to Finish Doing...but they were all on my computer, and yesterday it froze up. Wheel turned it off, and when I turned it on a while later, it wouldn't boot MacOS. The "happy-mac" icon just sits on the screen, forever and ever. It boots Linux all right, or it did (there's something wrong with Nautilus now though). Today Wheel got the MacOS setup disk out of storage, and it will boot off that, which gives me a chance to pull my few-but-crucial unbacked up files to Zip Disk, and then it's just a matter of getting them off the Zip Disk to where I can... well, Finish Doing them. Can't figure out what's eating MacOS. May have to reinstall it.

So yeah, having only half a computer was the final straw. I was glad to get out today, even hot and sweaty and hungry and rained on and not actively doing much of anything and away from Wheel. And now I'm going to take a shower and more cough syrup and go to bed.