ka-CH! That's the sound of opening a beer that I didn't pay for after a long, hard day in the field. That's how my day is ending.
I'll tell you about my day from the start, however; a normal boring day on the job, complete with absolutely no trace of fossils.
It started like any normal day, waking up to a free breakfast in my swanky hotel room. If I were a rockstar, this is where I would kick the girl out of my bed. Instead, I turned on my laptop and sent Lee a PM about how great his six pack would look with a thin layer of petroleum jelly on it. Him and I like to muse about what things would look good drizzled on his abs, you see.
As we drove to our sites, we noted the fresh deer road kill had been stripped to the bone by the local pack of wolves, numbering 7 by my count. Their alphas are fucking huge, I'd hate to mess with them. The welcome sight of our gravel road stretched before us after a short drive on the highway. One hitch though- it had fucking rained. Can you say Fish tailing? You don't have to if you can, because I just fucking did.
Well, we tromped through the brush and at about 11AM we had to meet someone at the gravel road. A safety auditor. As you can tell, I'm not only just a person of extreme esteem, modesty and class (I'm taking a dump as I write this by the way) but I'm also very safe.
After a 1.5 hour nap waiting for the late safety auditor to show up, we passed with flying colors. Also, the cute red head from my job was there and was fishing for an invite out on friday night, complete with the flirtacious arm grab. No dice, I'm romancing* my woman that night.
<*Having beers and then likely mating with>
Well, not a big fuckin deal I guess. The guy cited a story about rattlesnakes and how unsafe it was, then I put him in his place by telling him that story is actually about one of my last adventures and that I know how to deal with snakes. That method, of course, is how I treat small children- either a stiff backhand followed by a mandatory lawn mowing from them, or using ration and logic in a meaningful conversation about their faults to the point where they are as confused as they are young and undeveloped.
Back on track, we finally get back to do our last transect. We saw a beaver, he was pretty cool. The highlight was probably when we found Belostomatids, carnivorous hemipterans (= "true bugs") that live in the water eating fish and frogs. There was lots of them, I picked them up with my bare hands. I have pics to prove it, I'll post later tonight if they get sent to me.
On the way back, I fell into a rank fucking swamp. I dunno if you guys know what rotting vegetation smells like, but it smells strikingly similar to shit. The log I was using to hold my weight suddenly gave way, making me fall backwards into the rancid lake. My hand shot out, catching my whole body weight. I then did one handed push ups to show how tough I was...well okay, I would have, but honestly I just wanted to get the fuck out of the swamp. I smelled like shit for the rest of the hike back and car ride.
Also, I just found like 6 hot chicks in this town, all clustered together. I had no idea their range extended this far, for I thought hot chicks tended to avoid redneck strongholds in favor of places that have stores that DM would probably shop at (Ie. Bannana Republic or Lulu Lemon).
What a boring fucking day.
edit:
This is a belostomatid. The ones we found were smaller, alot more numerous and obviously not this one. Just put it up for reference, I'll have pics of me with one later when I can actually upload them. I hate this hotels internet.