Pavement is hard!

Riding to school yesterday, had a little incident. It had been down below freezing at night, but it was about 34 degrees on my way there. I was riding along Blackjack Rd, with a truck right on my ass eager to pass me. I was approaching a turn off the main road, with the truck still right behind me, but getting ready to make his move. I didn't slow down as much for the turn as I usually would, so I was leaned into it pretty hard. Apparently, I hit a small patch of ice (or really slippery pavement) and next thing I know, my wheels went out from under me, and I'm skidding on the pavement. Fortunately, I didn't get run over, but the truck didn't even slow down to see if I was alright. I ripped some holes in my nice jacket, through my shirt, and skinned my elbow some. Also tore a gaping hole in my glove, ripped my leg-warmer skinned my knee, destroyed the bar tape on that side, scuffed the shifter, scraped the buckle on my shoes, etc. Not really a bad crash, but enough to shake me up a bit. I haven't crashed on pavement in a long time. Not as forgiving as grass or dirt.
Anyway, most importantly, the bike survived without a scratch besides the torn tape and scuffed shifter (which is already beat up). And I didn't get run over. So that's good. Just a little sore on my right side now...

And it was relatively new tape too...

By the way, this might be the first glimpse you have had at the cyclocross bike I've had for a while now. It's a 62cm Surly Crosscheck and I love it. It's fantastic. More on that later if you're curious...

Sven Nys is amazing...

I don't know if any of you follow cyclocross, but Sven just kicks ass. He just won his seventh world cup this season, in a race where half the field dropped out due to bad conditions, including his main rival, Bart Wellens. Americans Jonathan Page and Ryan Trebon (2nd and 1st US riders) did well too, coming in 9th and 10th, respectively. What a great sport.
Cyclingnews.com link

Things.

Went for a long walk with Zephyr this morning... here's a picture of her with a stick. :)

Also, my car needs a name, and my friend Anna is going to help me come up with one, but she needs to see it first. So this picture is for her.

Progress

Not a lot going on around here. Since I've been back, I finished up the DIS (directed individual study) geomorphology class I was supposed to have done last semester. Got an A in that, which is nice to have out of the way. I'm continuing to work on my thesis too of course. The maps have been done for a while, and I'm almost done measuring some of the geometric parameters (area, perimeter, etc) so I can get started on the analysis. After that, I guess is when I start writing. Not really looking forward to all that, but I guess it'll get done before too long. Actually, I need to defend by March 29th, so it's really not that far away at all. Yikes.
I'm only taking one class this semester, and it only meets for 3 hours, once a week. But I'm at school all the time, working on stuff. I got stuck teaching the night labs again this semester, so Wednesday and Thursday, I'm here until at least 8 or so. It's not so bad though I guess, just makes for a long day (for Zephyr too). Still working at the bike shop some too, lots of repairs lately, but otherwise the same old place.
I'm going to start looking for jobs soon, which scares the shit out of me. I've put off joining the "real world" long enough, but I guess I can't do it much longer. Unless I go for my Ph.D., which I don't want to do right now, if ever. A friend of mine in California is trying to convince me to move to San Francisco. Jobs out there for sure, but I don't know if I could deal with all the people. I guess it's worth a try. But really, the main draw for me going out there is her, and I think she knows that.
Anyway, that's about it... Lots to do and lots on my mind...

Pictures, in no particular order...

Body-surfing at Sandy Point.

Athena with a keg on Snow Bay.

Me in a small tafoni cave on North Point.

Athena, queen of the tafoni.

Cale and Athena in the second cave I ever surveyed. We resurveyed it, but our original stations from a year ago were still there. Kristen set the station where Cale is perched, and I think that picture's on here somewhere...

Big sea cave near Sandy point. Way too rough to survey.

Lunch Break at the bluff. Me, Leif, Jessica, Julia, Cale.

Snow Bay. The most isolated beach on the island. Hard work, but someone's got to do it.

Rainbow on the first day.

More body-surfing.

Julia and I on New Year's eve.

Sea Cave!

Man, this place is ugly.

Snow bay again.

Jamie, Cale, and Athena skirt some mangrove after swimming across Pigeon Creek.

Tafoni on north point. Athena, Cale, Julia.

New Year's Eve. Those six were all I had. No rum (well, only a little) this time.

Athena and I on New Year's.

Looking out of a tafoni on Cut Cay at Athena and Jamie.

Mike Lace (the carto-slave) and Jamie get hammered by a wave.

San Salvador 2006-2007

Well, another awesome trip to the Bahamas. Probably my best yet in fact...
The usual long dull drive down to Ft. Lauderdale was pretty uneventful, besides Dr. Rodgers' car breaking down at 6am. That got fixed and we made it there late that evening. Spent the night in some hotel, then flew out early in the morning. Got there, relaxed a tiny bit, then went right into caving. Mylroie had invited Mike Lace to come along this trip. Mike's a self proclaimed "carto-slave" and the director of Mike's Institute of Cartographic Studliness. Basically, he's a guy who is a pro at cave mapping. Mylroie wanted to remap Lighthouse cave (the largest and most visited cave on the island) since the original is about 30 years old and lacking detail. So, Mike, Athena and I spent the first 3 or 4 days mapping that. Got to go body-surfing once, and the waves were huge compared to last year when we did it. They were big enough and plunging, so I really got hammered a few times. Good fun though. The rest of the time for field work, we mostly did stuff for Athena since I've got all the data I need. We (Athena and I that is) only got to go snorkeling once, but that one time was pretty good. The barracuda don't bother me at all anymore.
New year's went a lot smoother this year. Unlike last year, I stayed away from rum (for most of the night) and had beer instead. A more expensive way to go, but definitely better for me. Didn't get out and dance much, but I did make some new friends and did a little limbo (very poorly). That night was great. As were all the rest of the nights after that. Didn't go out to the bar every night, but went out walking on the beach and just hanging around outside a lot. It was lovely. I'd say more but it's personal and I'm not sure how things stand anyway. Good times...
Did some neat stuff, saw some neat stuff, did a lot of caving, beach walking, etc. Athena should have enough data now to do her stuff. It looks like she's not going to use all the rock samples we slaved for this summer. Dammit. What a waste of time and energy that has turned out to be. Oh well.
I'll put some pictures up eventually, maybe today, but I'm worn out. We got back to Starkville around 2:30 this morning. I dropped people off and rode my bike home. Home to my now empty apartment. It sucks that Kristen's not there anymore. I guess I'll have to get used to it.
Anywho, I'm back and I'm tired.