The weather balloon site at Meck Island is not collecting data right now because some circuit boards need to be replaced and we are waiting for shipment from Tulsa. The Citation jet from University of North Dakota is essentially grounded and is waiting for a part from the factory. About 45 people are waiting for the box of tee-shirt orders for KWAJEX participants with last names starting with P through Z. You might notice a pattern! In many ways Kwaj looks and functions like a small town back in the States, but the travails of shipping equipment and supplies in — and out — remind us that we're a long way from home. Some of the modern concepts on which we've come to depend just don't apply, like "shipped overnight" and "just-in-time inventory." To top it off, the scheduled flight from Honolulu had to turn back due to engine trouble, so we'll be waiting another day to see what makes it. Sort of reminds me of "The Wells Fargo Wagon" from The Music Man.

Meanwhile, I've almost finished re-working Jeff's data reports and forms to my liking. In particular, I combined his list of names and phone numbers with his fill-in-the-blanks status summary for each day. I'm hoping it will improve the chances that I don't forget to write down information from the various sites or to report back to them.

Keeping accurate records is always important is science, but never more so than on field campaigns. It's very unlikely that a researcher will be able to remember unrecorded details in six months or two years, or even worse, someone else might need the unrecorded detail to properly analyze the data. KWAJEX is trying to set a new standard for actually building the data archive, with associated "metadata" (information about the datasets) in the field. Even though our communications to the outside are pretty limited, we have a full-blown Ethernet running in the facilities here on Kwaj. So, we can go web surfing, but only for project information!

There was another technicolor sunset, which we watched across the lagoon as we closed out the week with an impromptu weiner roast.

George Huffman