Back in Black

I don't know why I've titled this Back in Black. Black has nothing to do with anything I've seen or been apart of in the past month. But I am "BACK". It has actually been a month since I've updated. Thanks to Joe, it was called to my attention. Of course, I haven't forgotten about this blog, but it always gets put off or there's something else of higher priority. Now here I am again, thinking about how long this blog post will be. Now I'm sure many of you want to know how the trip went and pretty much all my responses to people in Bermuda have been quite short.

"How was the cruise?"
"Good. Pretty long, but good. Cold and icy as you imagine."
"Ah, well that's good. Nice to have you back."

That's it. Now, a lot of these people have been on cruises and basically know exactly what goes on, exactly how you feel during week 1, 2, 3, and so on. So I'm going to spare you of the 38 day narrative on my trip in all its glory and break it down into a few categories. Enjoy.

Things that were exciting:
-Departure. Very cool to be on such a massive boat, leaving Artic Islands.
-Artic Wildlife. Seals were very cool to see, Walrus were fat slobs. Bald eagle is the most badass animal around. Besides Sharks. Also I tamed a Wild Horse. I think one of them wanted to get busy too. One of the girls was petting it's nose and all of a sudden I see this lurking, growing monster on the horse. She stopped petting then I noticed the horse suddenly got a lot smaller. That horse is a sick freak, I stayed the hell away from all of them after that nonsense.
-Small boat and sediment traps. Instead of the usual badassness of a hardhat on deck, I get to wear a helmet, sweet vest, buoyant suit, while cruising in the Bering Sea. Legitimate discovery channel shit.

Things that were surprising:
-I can survive without Alcohol for 38days.

Things that were disappointing:
-I didn't have alcohol for 38 days.
-No Polar Bears. Which means, no pictures of Doug on a Polar Bear.

Things that were good:
-Awesome boat.
-Pretty good food.
-Majority freindly, good scientists.
-Being part of a project based on Climate Change and seeing the project as a whole.

Things that were annoying:
-I didn't get to see any fueds between scientists. I was really hoping for some tension.
-Being on a boat 6 week straight does get old. You eventually get tired of a lot of things.

Things that occurred in Bermuda while away:
-My boat's trim motor broke.
-My bike's drive belt snapped. Well, not exactly while I was away, but first few miles riding it, it snapped. I was letting someone ride it while I was gone.
-It is HOT. You can feel the humidity rising. Bringing back those nice memories of lacrosse camps and the amount of sweating at them.
-Water is warmed up. This happens when air temperature rises. The air temperature rises due to the increase in sunlight. The increase in sunlight is due to both the angle and the amount of daytime. Water will actually cool down, during the night, when there is no sun. I've returned a scientist.
-It hasn't rained in about a month. It drizzled for maybe 5 minutes this evening, but that's not rain. Well, it is....but not really. Kind of like how Vin Diseal is an actor.

I'm guessing a lot of you may have broken screens from getting frusterated and yelling "DOUG WHERE ARE FREAKING PICTURES....RAAARRGGGHH." I'm thinking about putting together an album through pixtera, but basically all of you are on Facebook and can see them there. I've got one more album to put up and a few others photos that are not taken by me, obviously seen by the quality of a non-toy camera.

As I've said many, many times, I'd like to get back in the swing of things with at least weekly updates. But, I'm guessing like all of you, we're all pretty busy and it's tough to allocate time to basically talk about myself.

One last note. I've geared myself into getting fit. This came to be from three reasons. One, seeing the Michigan Lacrosse team win a National Championship and everybody is fit/jacked and remembered being that way. Except for the whole jacked part and maybe throw mildly in front of "fit". Either way, I thought I need to be more healthy. Less binge drinking nights at the wind. More responsibility. I am getting lamer by the sentence. The second reason is a friend has started training for a triathalon, while getting a PhD. All I do is drink beer and play soccer. Again, need to be more healthy. The third reason is Bermuda Lacrosse. We have a "tryout" with a few coaches for our National Team in a few weeks. Which as of Sunday, is now considered an Official National Sport in Bermuda...pretty cool. So, we've got a few more of these practices and I want to actually be in good shape, ready to play, get the skills back, and somehow lead by example in fitness and effort. I'd really, really like to make a run at winning the lower tier championship in the World Games.

So far it's been 3 days. I wake up an hour and a half before work. How fucked up is that. I go for a quick run along an ocean trail, followed by a jump and swim in our bay. The swim in the bay is actually neccessary, because my boat's bilge pump motor stopped working and it's always a good thing to check on water level in the bilge. Two things about swimming. Salt water pisses me off; I flail around hopelessly sometimes, trying to see. Thankfully, usually nobody is around or else they'd think there's a sick dolphin in the reach. Second, I can swim maybe 20m before needing to side stroke. Pathetic, I'm basically a shitty buoy. After, I even eat a complete breakfast before heading into work EARLY. How do you like them apples. Because I do...I try to eat one a day.