I picked the foam boat up today by the deck handles for the first time. It’s heavy for a paddleboard, light for a kayak. I didn’t know until I picked it up whether the handles were placed anywhere near the actual balance point but as it turned out, I think it’s going to work. It’s not like there’s any owner’s manual or anything… when it comes to building a boat out of foam found on the beach, I find that I don’t know what I don’t know.

And then there’s the Alaska program for this summer. A skiff to rent, landing craft to line up and super sacks to find somewhere, for cheap or for free. Getting the volunteer list together, putting the supplies aside and getting ready for shipment, insurance set up, Wrangell city manager and transfer station contacted, and so on. All the while knowing that there is unquestionably something that is even now slipping through the cracks, something that won’t be an issue at all, right up until it is. And then the delicate dance will begin in earnest, whenever it all starts to come apart. It will all go together again, I know, I just don’t know how or when.

I’m going to be going through the lab at UPS on Friday, breaking down the new sampling protocol and laying out the step-by-step process I’ll be using to analyze the samples that are going to be collected this summer. I’m sure it will all be second nature at some point but for now, I don’t know much.

It’s all a big leap, really. “Jump and the net will appear,” as they say. I am jumping fairly regularly these days.