Archaeologizing

So much time, so few posts. Readers rejoice at the respite, or maybe instead the memory of Mojourner just dry rots and deflates until they are surprised when they hear the name again.

Yet here I stay. Just been busy learning new places, new people..., and new beurocracies as well. No, not new anything to be truthful, except for me. Peopled and un-peopled places have been around forever, and I'm well-advised to shut up and listen like the newcomer that I am. Ergo few posts.

In the causal category as well: the stepped-on computer, enabler of bombast, booster of ego, egg of amok flocks flying who knows where. Without it, I am taciturn.

So I go to the field, and come back and write about it if there's anything to say. ("And often if you don't," remarks the knowing relative reading this post.) Some of it is even fun, but none of you will ever see these documents. So few people will ever see them that you could probably take them out without even being Bruce Lee. Yeah, even you.

but what was I saying? Oh yeah

[18-minute pause]

Oh yeah, archaeologizing.

So Li and me be re-sponsible for covering a few million acres, so we tend to be in the field often, or swooping in via GIS to peer in the nooks and crannies of our state's diverse geography. I offer as evidence the following photo of Li:

As you can see, Li is a goong-foo master, leaping upon a site and capturing observations in a flash. A few strokes of the brush and the site's very essence plays out on the scroll. Or sometimes on a clipboard, called such because he can fling it with such force that many a villan's cranium has been clipped off just above eyebrows arched by fear.

No, nobody messes with Li, which is why I am so fortunate to travel with the master. He shows me places, he knows the people, and they are glad to see him.

Some day, these experiences may resurface in posts. Many will just dry rot and deflate. Others will surely burst into flames on my cauliflowery cranium walls, as is wont for the unshared reminisce. Too bad.

At least there are some photos: mountain wildflowers and sea creatures, landscapes, and the unpredictable miscellany that accretes to the archaeologist surveying from -12 to 6,200 feet below and above sea level. Because man, do I love digital cameras. As a technological tool for recording, studying, interpreting, and monitoring sites, it's hard to beat. It's a notebook full of thousand-word pages.

Almost as good as pencil and paper. (He poked into his keyboard.)

Good night.