Well, I was going to write a clever post about the ‘joys’ of driving three days to get to the field, but then the completely expected happened.
Today is my first ‘work’ day out of the office. So naturally, the mass spectrometer decided to – um – yeah: stop working right.
The problem is easy to diagnose from afar. Fixing it, on the other hand, not not something I would typically trust one of the graduate students to do. But, I’m going to be gone for three weeks, and people need to work.
The good news is that there is another faculty member working in the lab while I’m away that I do actually trust to attempt the repair. I only wish I would have given him a tutorial before I left.
So tonight, after getting prescriptions filled, groceries, and dinner and finally dragging myself back to this hotel, I wrote a tutorial.
The funny thing is that my typical tutorials include little diagrams I draw on the computer. I don’t have that computer with me, so I picked up some markers and drawing paper and did it the old-fashioned way.
It’s possible I had a little fun, but, you know, it’s all for science.
I’m kinda proud of my goofy drawings. We’ll see tomorrow if they are effective.
While I’m driving, of course. One more day!
Penny Higgins - Storyteller • Artist • Scientist 