My Collection Is All Packed, And Soon We Move!

Yesterday I finished boxing my spirit collection of fish (mostly ethanol). I think it took about 15 boxes, from small (for the last 8 jars) to boxes it takes both arms to pick up and hold (not packed solid with jars, but spread out with packing peanuts between and above them). Since we're allegedly being given keys to our new offices and labs tomorrow I hope to move them all myself in the next week, along with the invert material I inherited from Dick Modlin. Handling the jars gave me a chance to assess their condition which I haven't been able to do as well as I'd like. A few small jars were hopelessly dried, usually holding juvenile Fundulus from New England. One jar had three still-damp rainwater killifish I'd collected on Nantucket ten years ago, so I was able to save them with fresh ethanol. I hope to do better curation in a more amenable new space(!).

Today I went in and rolled up my office rug after vacuuming it so I can put it down before everything is moved in, and also packed up stuff from my file cabinet. This includes purchase records for the teaching labs, my overhead projector-format lecture material for Biology II, and large amounts of photocopied articles from various projects over the last 15 years. I have a surprisingly good reference library for Fundulus diversity, freshwater chemistry, acid rain effects on aquatic organisms, and paleoclimate research especially for Africa. Who knows if I'll use a lot of that again, but over the years I went to so much trouble and expense to collect this material, at 10 cents a page for photocopies, I'm holding on to it all.

And I'm still scheming to get my proposed stippled studfish study in gear.