Beauty

So every year I complain about going to Mississippi, and every year I go anyway and have a fine time. I enjoy the food, I am touched by the warmth, friendliness, and kindness of the people, and I am stunned by the beauty of the scenery. I could live here, except that it's intolerably hot and humid (currently 98F/37C, and 55% humidity).

So this morning I dropped my adviser off at the airport, and then proceeded to the Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge.

Hay bales, grain silos, red barn... what more could you ask for?


Old Robinson Road was very picturesque:


Not to mention Gentry's Store! Now, I wonder if the Gentry family would feel about this photo how I feel about "rustic" photos of my own home.


Another rural mailbox, another farm:


Entrance to the refuge:


Sunlight filtering through the forest.

This looks a lot like photos I take around Fairbanks, but being here is much, much different. The heat, humidity, fecundity... You can smell the richness and dampness of the earth, and the air is filled with all sorts of sounds--birds, insects, frogs. Its definitely an entirely different world. This swamp is positively pulsing with life.

Bluff Lake. That is a tree in the middle of the water.


Cypress swamp. Swamp! I had never seen anything like it.

You can see a water bird heron this page.

It's strange to me that out here in this park, in the wilderness, almost every road is paved. I guess I'm too used to my own neighborhood!


Fishing pier:


Water lilies:




Walkway through the cypress grove:


Isn't it lovely and unique? I've never seen anything like it:





Here is a photo I must post or'egret it:


I'm a tree hugger!


Picturesque fence:

The posts were rough logs.

Checking in with the mother ship

I have this annual meeting at Mississippi State University to touch base with the other research teams all working under the same umbrella organization. Here are the folks from Notre Dame:



This other guy from MSU joined us a bit later:




And I also befriended this guy, who lives in the animation lab:

Joining the polar bear club

There. Was. Ice. In. That. Water.




After our dip, with the other inductees of the day:




I must say, hanging out in the 95 deg F and 60% humidity of Mississippi and posting photos of Barrow is giving me some serious cognitive dissonance.

Mississippi Love

I think I am about to explode. When, after eating this:
,

I informed one of my Mississippian hosts of this fact, he shrugged and pointed me to the cooler in which to find this:


After I finished that, he egged me on until I had another--a butter pecan! Sweet jeebus! Number one state for obesity indeed! You can't judge these folks until you've had their food. If I ate like this all the time, I'd be obese, too!

Oh, and our meeting agenda? Each day's page ends with something like this:


I <3 Mississippi!

The annual pilgrimage

Greetings from Starkville, Mississippi! As a first cultural comment, I'd like to note that the headlines in the Starkville Dispatch--about a local pawn shop's success, the Exciting Booming business of the local airport, and how neighbors have taken care of a tree--look awfully similar to those in the Minor News. :)

Anyway, here are some photos from Barrow. I'll have you know that we joined the Polar Bear Club--dove into the Arctic Sea--when there were chunks of ice floating in the water. Mudder will not approve when she reads this, but it's something I'll never forget. I'll post a photo of my certificate when it arrives via snail-mail.

So first, here we have a Really Great Alaskan Car. Apparently, they occur in Barrow as well as Fairbanks:


Here is Barrow's stand of "palm trees". they are made of driftwood and baleen. That's Mike, my childhood best friend and prom date. Of course, he's since dumped me for Tim.


Beluga whale! A whole pod of them was close to shore.


Blowhole!


A chunk of ice in the sea. We jumped into that water. Hell, yeah! We rock!


And just for contrast, here is Columbus, MS, as the plane was landing:


And here are some photos that my friend Henry got on his visit with the group of high school friends.

Autumn anxiously wondering if she'll get a handout:


Here is a photo that sort of took me aback:


That's the stack of firewood on my porch, with my work gloves, kindling, and the girls' curry comb. I have to admit it does look sort of National Geographic-ish, but it wasn't posed, and it wasn't originally intended to be rustic. It's just my life. :)

Anyway, today I flew into Mississippi, finally showered off the salt from the arctic ocean, and am now eating boiled peanuts from the Piggly Wiggly. Isn't our world just astonishing? It's fantastic!

Slammed

Sorry posting has been/will be light. I submitted my part of two joint papers and am currently writing a third. I also have personal travel with my friends who came to visit from out of state, and business travel, all slammed back to back. Keep a light on for me here!

silicon2tanana contrast

Here is an article in the Minor News about this cool thing called "wi-fi" and how customers are using a "wireless internet connection" to "surf the web." The headline, you'll note, begins "Fairbanks get connected". But I shouldn't mock that one too much, since my hometown rag often has equally atrocious grammatical mistakes. Don't newspapers hire editors any more?