Better Days

For those who are wondering how I’ve been faring, my various mystery ailments have healed and the past couple of days have been much better. I’ve watched the North Group for 2 days. There’s a whole nother batch of fruiting Spondias trees up on Spondias Lane, so that’s where they’ve been spending their time. I think there is another group up there (perhaps the North-North Group I may have run into a while back); today I am pretty sure I witnessed an intergroup encounter. For a moment, this situation caused me great confusion and made me wonder whether every time I’ve been up on Spondias Lane if I’ve actually been with the mysterious North-North group, which I did not intend to be part of my study. I started looking around for familiar monkey-faces and saw good old Wrinkle Belly, so all was well. Wrinkle Belly’s presence assured me that not only does the North Group go up there, but that I stayed with them during the intergroup encounter. Plus, seeing Wrinkle Belly always gives me a laugh.

I also collected some Madero negro leaves that they dropped while feeding this morning. I changed my plans and came home early to use the Toughness Tester. Much to my extreme relief, my values for these leaves were consistent and totally in line with the published data. So, it does seem that we have found a fix for the problem. It is still possible that there is something else wrong with the electronics box (long story, I can test for that later), but at this point I am going to stop worrying about it and just proceed.

Its been a long day, but I feel like I’m actually doing what I came here to do—which is a good feeling. I still miss Rob and am a bit envious that he is hanging out with our friends and probably watching The Office right now, but I’ll see him again in 11 days and I’m sure I’ll get caught up on The Office at some point. Its almost dinnertime, so I’ll sign off for now. Thanks for reading.