Quote of the Day:
"We have ... mold! " - Bonnie on looking at the ringworm cultures

Journal of a Sabbatical

January 27, 1999

theme and variations on Moses' nose and failure to find the lark sparrow

If Moses supposes his toeses is roses, then Moses supposes erroneously... and if we suppose the spot is snot on Moses' nose then we suppose erroneously because snot the spot is not. The spot is not snot. The spot is ringworm. Poor Moses' is exiled to the ringworm room.

We had a high school kid visiting us today, following Bonnie around for "Job Shadowing Day". The idea is she is supposed to find out what a person really does at work in the kind of job she aspires to. The kid got to hear such gems as:

"Larry will be late, one of the ferals hid his glasses."
"Why am I washing packing peanuts?"
"We have ... mold! "

I've heard "the dog ate my homework" but "the cat hid my glasses"?!? Larry is fostering some of the feral cats and one of them apparently knocked his glasses to the floor while he was in the shower and had a field day batting the glasses all around the floor. When Larry got out of the shower, no glasses. When he finally came in, 1 hour and 45 minutes later, he said the glasses were under the refrigerator.

Bonnie burst into the room waving three brown vials of cultures from the "lab" (under Eileen's desk) and proclaimed "We have ... mold! " in a tone somewhere between the College of Cardinals announcing "habemus papam!" and Mission Control saying "We have liftoff." All eyes focus on Bonnie. The job shadowing girl looks wide-eyed. Umm, this is good news. No ringworm in the cultures. Bonnie explains same to the job shadow and we all go back to work. High drama amid the litter boxes, I'll tell ya.

We use these Styrofoam things kinda like packing peanuts in a litter box instead of litter when we have to get a urine sample (you always wondered about that didn't you). They get all clingy from static electricity and stick to the plastic. This does not however adequately explain what they were doing soaking in bleach water in the sink with the dishes when I came in. There were no litter boxes in the sink at the time, only dishes. We don't use those things in dishes. I scooped them out and threw them in the trash can. Nobody answered me on "why am I washing packing peanuts?"

Bob was ready to wash the floor but couldn't find the Odo-Ban. He asked everybody where's the Odo-Ban and no one knows, so he goes in the office and asks Kendra. She comes back out into the main room and asks each person (the ones Bob already asked). We can't possibly have used it up. Would anybody have stolen it? Is there a black market for Odo-Ban? Kendra reorganized the laundry room yesterday and I'm sure that has something to do with the disappearance of the Odo-Ban. Bob makes do with bleach (what else?)

I can't even begin to imagine how this will all appear in the job shadow's report.

The most recent posting of the Massachusetts Rare Bird Alert says the lark sparrow has been seen in Salisbury - but where? The boardwalk? The go-cart track? The post-office? So after a late breakfast/early lunch (I guess that would make it brunch) at Angie's in Newburyport, I went over toe the Salisbury Beach State Park one more time and carefully searched every shrub again. Still no sparrows of any kind. There really is no lark sparrow. Someone is making it up. At least yesterday I saw other fools looking for it. Today, despite the bright blue sky, I was the only one. Better I should look at the seals. Plenty of seals are hauled out on the rocks looking cozy. None of them looks the least bit like a lark sparrow.

It is now 10:02 PM EST and snowing here in North Andover, Massachusetts. It looks so pretty I actually opened the window for a better look (feel and smell). All I want to do is sleep.