Tales from the Microbial Laboratory

The Cat in the Airstream

~Haiku-the-three-legged and famed tamer-of-pointers~

~~~~~

Yes, the cat is finally in the Airstream.

I've had her in the crumbling house (aka the 'main house') for the past few months (she had the dogs with her during the day, but has been alone at night), since the dogs and I made the giant leap into Airstream living...it's hard to believe that it was two and a half months ago now.  Last night when I got back into Charleston, I grabbed her and brought her to the Airstream - it was cold out and I'm sure she had been lonely while I was gone.  Today I retrieved the Pointer Sisters from prison (aka the kennel) and after they ran and ran and ran and ran (you get the picture) they are in the Airstream, happy to have their cat back with them.  It's funny - the one house rule is YOU CANNOT HARASS THE CAT - and they come *this* close to harassing her when they can, but as of yet, haven't crossed the line.  Plus, this is one unfazed three-legged cat:  she isn't going to let any crazy dogs wreck her day.  No way. 

~off Amicus Road~

~a barn off Amicus Road in Greene County, Virginia~

~~~~~

I'm back in Charleston - to a predicted low tonight of 38 degrees.  That is pure craziness if you ask me - it's just mid-October!  Fortunately the Airstream is warm.  I've got three options for heat:  there is a propane heating system (at least I think it's propane, I haven't dealt with it yet), and then the rooftop Carrier AC unit (the standard Air V model here) that includes a heat pump - but what's keeping me warm right now is an electric 'Vornado' (this one, to be precise) that works like a charm.  I won't keep it on when I sleep (I'll probably rely on the Carrier unit at night) - but for now, it's just about perfect.

~~~~~

While in Virginia, on Saturday afternoon when my father took a nap, I went for a drive.  It wasn't peak color - but it was still beautiful for this coastal South Carolinian.  I decided to take a new route - and I ended up in Amicus (in Greene County, Virginia) and from Amicus Road I found a new (new to me that is) 'mountain', Bingham Mountain, by following Bingham Mountain Road until it intersected Simmons Gap (which was a road familiar to me).  It was a wonderful road, only partially paved in places - and there were some wonderful old farms on both side of the roads.  At one point there was a narrow, one-lane bridge that went over a small creek - I wanted to stop and photograph it, but unfortunately there was an anxious farmer behind me, someone annoyed already at finding me in front of him, driving slowly (akin to the leafpeepers...).  I finally was able to pull over and let him pass me, and then didn't see another car on the road until I arrived back at my Dad's home.  

~~~~~

 

~another view along Amicus Road~

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It was a colorless sky afternoon - low, harmless clouds were moving through, covering the faded peaks of far off mountains.  The most beautiful part of the landscape were the abandoned fields - gold to burnt orange grasses, the deep red of the sumac, touches of greens - colors of the autumn palette.

~~~~~

 

~again, off Amicus Road~
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It was nice to experience a touch of Autumn.  It was also nice to visit my father - to leave him with a freezer full of brocolli-chicken casserole (divided into individual servings), a clean refrigerator, and memories of another successful spaghetti dinner.  We also talked about many difficult subjects, and I think we both handled it well - and approached it with a bit of humor and realism and hopefully, yes hopefully, my father knows that the conversations were only because so many of us care about him.  As I got ready to leave this morning, he made sure I had a few bananas and some grapes and pumpkin bread (a gift from a neighbor) packed for the drive - just as my mother would have done.  My father is an awfully sweet man.

~from Dwell~

A cool 1959 remodeled Airstream from the Dwell blogs.

~an Airstream party~

~a table filled with wild flowers~

~~~~~

Last night there was a gathering at my place - a time to celebrate the lab's new Ph.D.  Each time that a student finishes up in my lab, I throw a party in their honor:  there are few tried and true traditions involved, except that the student gets to choose their beverage of choice.  Usually this is a beer of some kind - and Ben chose a Sonoma County micro-brew - Racer 5.  Here's what they say about it on the Bear Republic Brewing Co. website:

This is a hoppy IPA. Did I say hops? Your brewer is a hop head! This is a full bodied beer using American grains. The goal was to create a base for showing off the unique floral qualities of two Pacific Northwest hops, Columbus and Cascade. Columbus is a new hybrid High Alpha Acid hop used mostly for bittering, but used heavily as an aromatic in this bold brew. Cascade is the balance that ties the malt and bittering hops together. It is a true specialty ale and is our brewer's statement on this style. 2004 L.A. Commercial Brewing Competition, Silver Medal Winner; 2004 World Beer Cup, Silver Medal Winner; 2001 Real Ale Festival, San Diego, Gold Medal Winner; 2001 Real Ale Festival, Chicago, Gold Medal Winner; 1999 Great Amercian Beer Festival, Gold Medal Winner - og 1.070, ABV 7.0%, IBU 69. California State Fair Bronze Medal, 1997 Beerfest Invitational. - og 1.070, ABV 7.0%, IBU 69.

It's a good beer, if you're in to beer.

Now this was the first 'Airstream' party - and so the plan was for it to be outdoors (in the front garden), with a small fire.  Unfortunately it rained - poured - the hour or so before guests were due to arrive, so I was still scrambling a bit to set up tables for food, etc once the rain stopped.  So it was damp, humid - and still air, and a fire was built anyway (because it is October, dammit, and there should be a fire!) and better yet, guests tended the fire with intense dedication - as we all ate chili and jalapeno cornbread and corn chowder and sourdough bread and homemade pumpkin cheesecake and a lemon meringue pie (made from meyer lemons from a friend's front yard) and chocolate angel food cake and a kahlua cake and homemade brownies and freshly boiled cayenne peanuts...and good conversation.

And then late into the night, at half past midnight, just the lab remained (and a few close lab friends) and the new Ph.D. received a few gifts and it was all quite sweet.  At a bit after 1 am everyone had left, the dogs had been freed - and I cleaned up a bit as they ran around.  The Pointer Sisters and Stanley then celebrated in their own special way, sniffing out boiled peanut shells - their late night reward for being so patient.

Now, more to the point...the flowers!  I was obsessed with having vases of flowers, and since my job situation (rather, lack of paycheck situation - since I most definitely have a 'job') has me trying hard to be frugal, I thought 'what could be better than late summer wildflowers?' - so early yesterday morning I traveled a few miles north of my place and collected wild sunflower and ageratum and aster and others, and filled several glass jars and a fired pot with the flowers (shown above, before they were moved around).  But it rained, the flowers got set out late - and then it was dark (except for the fire, a few tiki torches and a few candles).  Silly me - obsessing over those flowers.  But I thought they were beautiful...and doesn't an Airstream party need flowers?

~~~~~

~the Airstream, with flowers~

~~~~~

This afternoon I finished cleaning up - and moved the flowers to the front of the Airstream. With the awning up, a few chairs added - my small table of 'propagatees' put back on their table - well, it almost looks like home.

(Wait, it is home, isn't it?)

A home with a few yummy leftovers and wildflowers and propagatees and brownies!

~~~~~

I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.

Martha Washington

~view from the skyrail to Kuranda~

~~~~~

Tonight I found myself thinking about the rainforest - about the skyrail ride over an Australian rainforest that led to the village of Kuranda that I took a year ago.  Crazy tall trees - miles and miles of trees and vines and exotic sounds.

It hasn't been a great week - not a terrible one - but existing difficulties still linger and grow and are puzzling and seemingly foolish and somewhat unexplainable.  I'm tired.  I remind myself of the difficulties so many people are facing - and in that sense, I don't feel alone.  It's difficult for so many right now.

Tomorrow evening is the gathering for my graduate student who recently defended his dissertation.

I made a big crockpot full of vegetarian chili tonight for tomorrow's gathering - a chili filled with pinto and kidney and northern white beans.  I also made a vegetable stock for the corn-potato chowder - I have a number of friends that are vegetarian, and decided tonight that they deserve choices, and so now they'll have them.  I'm a bit bummed that it is so warm - I was hoping that it would be cooler, so that an outdoor fire would be nice.  No such luck - today might have broke records (it was 87-88 degrees someone told me) - that's definitely not a chili and an outdoor fire kinda temperature...

Tomorrow I'll make the chowder, and let it sit for awhile - and gather flowers for large blue jars that will be on the outdoor tables.  The Airstream awning is up - and I will put lights on the awning.  There's always cleaning to do - but I must say that cleaning an Airstream is quite a bit simpler than cleaning a house.  I need to let the dogs run - the Pointer Sisters need to be exhausted, as they will probably be in their kennels in my still standing, dilapidated 'main house' so that they won't pillage, annoy, and lick the guests until they run for their cars.

Tomorrow will be a busy day, but a fun busy day.  Amidst the challenges, it's always good to remember that you can sit under the live oaks, with a cold beverage and a bowl of chowder - surrounded by friends and colleagues and interesting conversation and celebrate a job well done.

A few large live oaks - for now I'll pretend they're my own little rainforest.

~my brother, the numbass~

~the edge of my experimental fern bed which has turned into less experiment, and more ferns~

~~~~~

I've become a night owl.

Perhaps it's because of stress, perhaps it's because I've had so much writing to do, and I do it best in the late, late evening.  Perhaps it's because since I've moved into the Airstream, I'm outside more in the evening, even after dark, wearing out the Pointer Sisters and Handsome Stanley.  It takes longer, perhaps, for all of us to settle down.  I don't know.  But these days I generally find myself at midnight, wide awake, ready to go - instead of winding down.

On Saturday evening I'm having the first 'gathering' at my place that I've had in a long while - at least before my Mother's lung cancer diagnosis.  It's time, and it's due to my tradition to have a party for each of my students after their doctoral defenses. And since we just had one, then I need to step up to the plate, so to speak.  The plan is for the gathering to be outside, outside of the Airstream, under the live oaks - with a small fire and tiki torches and chairs and a table filled with food and flowers...and a tube of beer and other assorted beverages.

I was thinking tonight about what to do for flowers - I'd like several informal vases of flowers - and I've decided to gather flowers from the roadside out my way - and to fill vases with ageratum and swamp sunflower and wild asters and grasses - I think they could be quite beautiful, and for an unemployed research scientist...quite economical!

(Cross your fingers that the weather is nice, because if it rains, we'll be challenging a world record for how many people you can cram into a 27.5' Airstream). 

~~~~~

On a completely different note, my brother had an epidural today, in order to get a shot of cortisone (or something similar) because of back issues.  When I called him at noon - he was in a wheelchair in the doctors office, waiting for his epideral to wear off.  It was actually quite funny, because he hadn't realized that he was getting the epidural, and so had scheduled patients for the afternoon, which a person who was numb from the waist down could not handle (would you want him to be your dentist at that moment?).

Anyway, I told him he was a 'numbass' for doing that.

Come on now, he's my brother.  I live for these moments.

~~~~~

Oh, I meant to talk about my experimental fern bed - but I'll save that for another time.

~~~~~

Update, 8 October:  Brother's response:  'nice blog!! haha!!'

 

 
 

~a birdhouse~

~an Airstream gift~

~~~~~

On Friday morning, while I was sitting in the Airstream doing microbial stuff (aka working on a manuscript about a lovely group of microorganisms, the Vibrios), a large truck dropped off a package at my front gate.  I hadn't ordered anything lately - so I went to see what was up.

Well, it seems that my friend, my 3Dsound friend, sent me an Airstream gift.  Now how fun is an Airstream birdhouse?  Today I hung it on a low branch of the water oak in the back garden, near where the Airstream is located. 

Now, of course this all got me to thinking about music, and how I think that 3Dsound should do more music reviews here...I miss hearing what he has to say.  Here are some of his previous posts..he recently recommended Bebel Gilberto to me - maybe he has something to say about Kasey Chambers?  I might just need to ask him. 

~new views~

~~~~~

I won't say it isn't strange - having lived in a house on stilts for almost 15 years, with views of the treetops and sky, it's odd to look out the window and see green grass.  I like these new views of my garden - and I like experiencing the light after it's filtered through the trees, instead of before it even reaches them.

It's a time of much change.

Change is often good though, we all know that.  It makes us look at the ordinary a bit differently, and helps us to re-evaluate what is important - and what is not.  Deciding what to move into a 28' structure is an interesting process - over the past year or more, I've been packing my possessions and moving them into a storage unit.  Doing it this way - gradually - has helped me shed my possessions slowly - and as I look around my house I realize how little I've lived with over the past year.  However, it's still more than I can fit into the Airstream - there is still some more shedding to do.  It's gotten easier though.

Today I scheduled to have my landline disconnected in a few days.  That's an easy thing to shed.

Stay tuned.

~~~~~ 

 

Would ya look at that shine?

~~~~~

My friend Susan showed up this morning with tall ladder in hand (taller than mine that is) and a bucket of cleaning supplies.  Don't you just love prepared friends?  This morning we got the outside of the Airstream washed from top to bottom - which included getting out some small trees that had taken root in the space created by the rolled-up awning (where leaves had collected).  Now, as I type this, I am looking out of a clean window - and it is a beautiful day in coastal South Carolina.

There's alot more still to do - but things are looking brighter.

~~~~~   

Live from...a 1973 Airstream Land Yacht

I've made the plunge.

Yesterday morning I woke up to a defunct AC unit.  In late July.  In the southeast. 

Since the Airstream's AC unit works great - I somewhat irratically decided that last night was the night - and I spent my first night in the Airstream.  With three dogs.

Two things of note: 

1. I'm no longer used to living on 'the ground'.
2. It's really weird to hear something walking on your roof.

Needless to say, I didn't sleep well.  But I think I needed to make the jump - and today I have my TV and computer in the Airstream and hooked up to cable and the internet.

So this is my first official post from the Airstream.  It all started here.

Life is an adventure (or so I'd like to think).