Science Monkey

A warm cat. In a box. On the bed. On mom’s pillow. In a sunbeam.

I can’t believe it’s been almost two weeks since I last wrote. I know there’s only a half dozen of you who read this at least semi-regularly, but that’s no reason for me to slack off on writing. I write for me, not for you. Well, for you a little, my lovelies.

At the time I’m writing, it’s mid-Friday morning and I’ve gotten almost no work done yet. I was up a bit too late last night procotoring a biochem exam and woke up several times during the night, so I’m a bit sleep-deprived. There were about 60 kids in my room last night and all of them were done except for one after about an hour and a half. That last one? He took the entire two hours. I’m not really complaining that much — I realize I get paid to be there — but it was a little odd. Then I had to come back to the lab and start a bunch of cultures for today, go home and close up the chickens, run to the movie store and return the movies, then come home to eat dinner. And maybe play a little WoW.

Speaking of the chickens, they seem to be doing well. I’ve been diligent about closing them up at night each night so we haven’t had any problems with that damned raccoon opossum [thanks, Shermi!]. Between reinforcing the lower half and closing them upstairs at night, I think they’re pretty well secured.

Work is going reasonably well right now, which is a pleasant change from the previous few months. I’m starting to get some data back, so perhaps there’s hope for me yet. I have a couple of pup litters due in the next week and am hopeful about getting a bunch of good data out over the next month. Maybe, just maybe, enough to start writing. Maybe.

Speaking of work, I should probably get back to it. Or to it, at any rate. I’ll try to write more soon, including our adventures at the Downtown Arts Festival (we has some arts!) and some book reviews I’ve been meaning to write. Type to you soon.

I have some sad news to report this morning. We lost one of our chickens over the weekend. I found her yesterday morning when I went out to feed them.

On Saturday night, I was playing WoW in my office until about midnight. (Big surprise, right? Emma says I’m disappointingly predictable.) I heard a loud scratching sound outside from the coop and the chickens started squawking, so I ran outside to see what was happening. As I went out, I heard something scramble over a fence on the side of the yard. The girls looked okay but were clearly freaked out. I looked around the yard a little, then went back to bed. Evidently I missed a small hole in the chickenwire of the coop.

We buried Penelope in the back yard, underneath a lovely new plant. I forget at the moment what it is called, but it has these lovely small, purple flowers. A skyflower, maybe? I can’t remember. I fixed the wire and couldn’t find any other obvious holes.

Sunday night was full of anxiety. Clearly the creature would be back, but when? Emma went to bed early and I was back in my office. About 7:55 I heard a noise and raced outside. Both of the girls were downstairs, standing on one side of the coop, squawking loudly. At first glance, I didn’t see anything. Then, there it was! An opossum! In the coop! It was on the bottom, on the opposite side from the girls. I stared at it for a moment, figuring out what to do, then saw the hose. I turned the nozzle to “jet” and blasted the hell out of the opossum. I had to keep herding it on its side of the coop, keeping it away from the girls. After about a minute, I let up and gave the possum a chance to get away (thinking that I’d find its way in, too). It started to scurry underneath the side of the wire, through a tiny hole between the wire and the ground. Once its head was out, I turned the hose on again and kept spraying it for as long as I could while it ran into the woods. I checked on the girls again, then piled a couple of courses of bricks on the side of the coop, blocking off the hole.

I checked on the girls a couple more times before I went to bed, then slept like complete crap, worrying about them. This morning I didn’t want to go out to feed them, for fear of what I might find, particularly when I couldn’t hear them making their usual early-morning-we’re-starving clucks and whines. Happily, both of the girls were fine and started clucking when they saw me with the food bowl. Phew.

Tonight — and from now on — I think we’ll start closing the girls upstairs at night. The ramp between the levels is on a string so we can pull it up, blocking off the only way up. The top section is pretty secure, I think, especially now that I’ve re-stapled the chickenwire around the sides. The bottom is pretty good, but we’ve now seen repeatedly that critters can get through the smallest of openings.

I don’t think we’re going to replace Penelope, at least not anytime soon. Two chickens is still a good number…if we only had the one, I’d be concerned about her being lonely all day. I’ll get pictures of Penelope’s plant (and the previously-promised garden pictures) up in the next few days.

Happy day-after-Halloween, my friends! Emma and I had a few trick-or-treaters last night and are, naturally, left with a lot of leftover candy. Leftover Snickers ftw! We had about 12 actual kids come by and about 12 high-school age people who are really too old to be begging for candy. Including! Including two who didn’t even really try to wear a costume. We gave them a hard time for it. One was “a runner.” He wore, well, running clothes. Lame. The other was “a guy who hates Buchholz (one of three high schools in town and chief rival of the closest).” Super lame. You get Raisinettes.

Speaking of lame Halloween costumes, Jill Sobule has a lovely little song entitled “Women Whose Halloween Costume is Just That They’re Slutty — That’s Not a Costume at All.” Heh. She wrote it for NPR’s Byrant Park Project, which I think is their (NPR’s) attempt to get at a younger audience. We don’t get it here, naturally, but the song is pretty funny. You can hear the song at the BPP blog. I totally have to agree. Hot? Yes. Enjoyable to see? Sure. But a good Halloween costume? Not so much.

I actually did see a ghost yesterday, too! Well, a ghost from my past. I saw an old girlfriend from high school yesterday in the supermarket, but didn’t recognize her right away. Whoops. So there I was, walking away from the deli area and I notice a slightly familiar, friendly-looking girl staring at me. I look at her and she doesn’t break eye contact. Sadly, I still didn’t recognize her and figured that she was just someone I *should* recognize but didn’t, so I smiled and nodded, but kept walking. It wasn’t until I was across the store that I realized who she was. I quickly overanalyzed the situation and decided that I’d look like a complete tool if I went running back across Publix to say hello, and finished shopping and left. Idiot. Oh well. Hey, Alex! If you read this, send me an email! I mean, if you want to. And sorry I didn’t recognize you. I’ll do my best next time (or at least won’t wuss out of running across the store to say hello).

Okay, enough for now. I should go do some more work. Happy Thursday!