Day 21: September 4, 2007 In Salta

  Salta, Argentina
Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Day 21: September 4, 2007 In Salta

I got up at 7:30 and left a message for Claudia that I decided not to go to Jujuy with her. I ate breakfast and started writing. Bernardo returned from his time at home in La Plata. Elena didn't have class until the afternoon so she slept in while I went down to the office. This was the fourth day in a row of very spring-like weather. I submitted my grievance to BC President Van Horn. Since this is the first grievance filed under the new system, we are trying to figure out how it should actually proceed.

I went up to the apartment for lunch and was soon joined by 7 others. I ate out on the balcony, enjoying the view. I had my Chico Bag hanging on my belt (see www.chicobag.com). Bernardo asked me what was in it. I gladly showed it off to everyone. They all agreed it was a good idea because plastic bags are blowing all over Argentina. I had decided earlier that I would give the bag to whomever first asked me what it was, so I gave it to Bernardo.

Lunchtime at the Apartment

I finally started to get serious about my upcoming paleomagnetism course. Since that was not the course I planned to teach, I didn't bring any of my books with me. I googled "paleomagnetism". The fifth site on the list was Bob Butler's excellent 1992 book, Paleomagnetism: Magnetic Domains to Geologic Terranes. It turns out that the publisher decided to leave it out of print, so Butler bought the rights and now offers the entire book online as a free .pdf download. I saw that numerous schools around the US and world were using it. What an incredible service to our science! Now, I can actually have a top quality text to accompany the course. I downloaded the files for inclusion on the course CD.

Another fire flared up in the tall dry grass across the road. The valley seems to get hazier every day as smoke from numerous grass fires. Although this happens every year, it appears to be unusually dry this year.

Estela told me she was about to pick up the girls at the English institute. I hadn't seen where it was so I accompanied her. It is on Deán Funes near Leguizamon. The girls announced that there is no class tomorrow because they are all going to a play in the afternoon. Elena brought her frisbee to school but no one there knew how to throw it.

We returned to the apartment and went next door for dinner. It was only 8:30 so we were a little early. Elena wasn't too hungry so we paid a lot of money for not much consumption on her part. We both had the excellent sorrentinos for our pasta dish.

After dinner, we went down to the office and I put Elena on the internet. I was beat so I went up to the apartment after telling Toyo to kick Elena out at 11:45. I got into bed and fell asleep immediately. I have no idea at what time Elena came in.