I’m leaving this morning for Florida for a couple of days. Unfortunately not to a nice sandy beach or the exotic Everglades — Gainesville is just about in the middle of the north end of the peninsula.
I’m spending two days at the University of Florida at a meeting about databasing plant specimens. I’ve written some programs at Arizona State University (ASU) that help automate the process and have been invited to Gainesville to share learnings with other herbaria.
Gisele thought about coming with me, but there wouldn’t be much for her to do while I was in meetings all day. If it was on the beach, that would be a different story.
Back home Wednesday, but then going down to the university in Tucson on Thursday with Les to discuss another program I’ve written that helps quantify how plants share similar environments — really just a database query that looks for relationships between geographic coordinates of specimens.
Hooking up with Les has been one of the best parts of retirement — getting to work on interesting projects with no stressful timelines or demands. The pay’s not great, though!
I love working with a database. It’s so much fun figuring out how to mine the data.
Have fun in Florida if you can. It might still be warm there but at least you know warm.
Comment by Don — September 30, 2012 @ 11:11 am
It is difficult, even impossible to absorb the truth of all the accomplishments of my five children, all the places you have been and all the things you all ( I have been a Southerner for long enough that I can say “y’all”) have seen and done. It boggles my mind. I’m so proud of all of you.
Comment by Mom — September 30, 2012 @ 11:36 am
Sounds like you are having fun, even if your timing for a visit to Florida isn’t the best.
Comment by Richard — September 30, 2012 @ 12:29 pm
Too bad you aren’t close to Walt Disney World. You could check out Epcot, which I think you would enjoy. Have fun, anyway!
Comment by Donna — October 1, 2012 @ 4:46 pm