Body of Water

Posted Wed Apr 19, 2006 in Photography

It’s been another long and busy day. The day started in Houston with my morning regimen, in which I read and responded to my email so that my students would have plenty to keep them busy and to keep in touch with my colleagues so that my research projects move forward. After taking care of business, I jumped in the shower, dressed, and went to the lobby to meet my friend and colleague for breakfast.

We chatted about university life and things over breakfast, then walked to his office in the engineering building on the University of Houston campus. Then Xin, one of his graduate students, met us along with another colleague. We sat in the conference room and reviewed one of our research projects. I think we have it pretty well lined out for the summer.

We started on a second research project, one that has me more than a little stymied. It has to do with the movement of gravel- to cobble-sized sediment in the streams of the hill country of Texas. Deposition of these materials offers the state DoT much trouble for maintenance. We’ve been tasked with determining what the hydraulic processes are and how to develop stream crossings to mitigate the heavy maintenance load.

I think we’ve come up with some ideas for computations and laboratory testing that will provide insight into the nature of the problem. We’ve got a couple of field sites we will be monitoring as well. I’m more hopeful now than I was before.

I left Houston about 1600 and headed east for Beaumont. Traffic was heavy but not insane so I made good time. As I approached the Trinity River, I came across a Corps of Engineers facility and decided to stop. The Wallsville Lake Project is marvelous. I spent a half-hour wandering around making images of the refuge. I may have to put up an album of my images. I had fun!

My image is for the Brookston.org photography scavenger hunt. It’s an image of the Wallisville Lake Rookery filtered through the wispy Spanish moss of the water cypress near the shore. It was absolutely beautiful and the cool air blowing off the lake was a welcome respite from the highway heat.

I called in and talked to Wife for a few minutes before re-boarding Shadowfax for the run into Beaumont. It was only about another three-quarters of an hour and I was here. I’m now settled in for the night and am looking forward to another productive day tomorrow.