Friday, June 12

Friday morning we awoke to a hard rain. Eventually the rain cleared out and the sun warmed things up by afternoon. I put a barrel under the rainspout in front of the house and now it is full. We have over thirty gallons of rain water on hand!

Brenda was again busy on the second floor cleaning and rearranging the bedrooms. Then she worked in the museum and store. She is still under the weather.

I spent most of the day in the shop cleaning and organizing, so I can find something if I need it. Stacking lumber, hooking up bench lights, sorting and arranging tools and more. This will take a while but at least I will know what is there and where it is.

I checked with the geology students later in the day. They were appreciative of being able to use the boat house, particularly with the inclement weather. Many were soaking up the sun and one was in the water. He was having a great time and yelling at the others to join him. Turned out he was the only polar bear in the group. They told me that they got a lot of good data, talking of folding and gps mapping to the centimeter. Here is my explanation of what I was told in layman’s terms.

It’s analogous to an auto accident, where two vehicles collide. In order to reconstruct the accident, investigators measure skid marks, distances, road conditions, weather and any number of factors to determine exactly what happened. Now, think about a HUGE accident, continents colliding on a grandiose scale over millions of years. Like the auto accident, this collision leaves many clues, traces of what happened, geologic strata, rocks folding, striations, upheavals and so forth. It is these clues that the geology students are searching for. By taking precise measurements, looking at the rock formations, determining the types of rocks and minerals and using mathematic formulas and scientific calculations they can determine the forces that created the continents. How long ago did it happen? How much force was exerted? How deep does the fault lie? Why did it happen here? …and many more. That is my best description of their continuing work at Seguin.

About 1600 I spotted the US Navy destroyer on the horizon. It was heading our way after a few days of sea trials. I watched it for about forty-five minutes. It was a grand sight and clear evidence of where at least some of our tax dollars go. It headed back up the Kennebec to Bath Iron Works for final fitment.