Can You Find The Jimmy Buffet Song Hidden In this Post?

Well well well... I know it's a deep subject for a mind as shallow as mine, but actual lightning, bona fide thunder, and puddles of water abound. The only thing missing is barefoot children in the rain. There are, however, shoe wearing adults in the rain. Although still in the early stages where we walk in the rain just to get soaked, (it's an Arizona thing) the monsoon is getting more widespread every day. I, for one love the beginning of the monsoon; next to October, this is my favorite time of year in Flagstaff. The moisture brings out the best in people. If this continues, I may need to mow the lawn again.

How Many Children Do You See?

I had my daughter at work with me for about half an hour this morning. As she was wandering around the shelves, she spotted the storage cabinets for flammable compressed gases and asked me what the big machines against the wall are for. After I told her, she seemed disappointed as she replied "Oh, I thought they were cloning machines." This leaves me wondering if clones have the same moods at the same time. Just picture the thrill of double happy, or the agony of double steroidal grumpy.

Just Who's Emergency Is It?

A recent event at work left me in major stress mode, all because I wanted to make everything right for as many people as possible. We ran short on an item which is delivered on Mondays ONLY and only in a limited quantity. When last Mondays delivery was to be made, we had enough supply that no more could be delivered, thus no additional dry ice was delivered. Unfortunately shortly after the scheduled delivery, there was a major run on it and we were completely out by Wednesday morning. Oh, we also needed an additional 50 pounds to get us through the weekend. This is where I should have remembered my fire/EMT training and put myself into the "It's not MY emergency" mode and let it go at that. But nooooo, I had to go into the "it's my responsibility to fix this" mode and insist on being at a grocery store by 07:30 this morning to buy 50 pounds of solid carbon dioxide. By 8:00 the dry ice was in the bin and a lock was put on the bin. By 8:45 people who were not part of the emergency, were wanting dry ice. Because I was away from my desk, I missed the call and they had to go to a store to get some, which is what I would have told them to do anyway. I suddenly realized that I shouldn't feel guilty, I don't need the stress and it is NOT my emergency and it would have fixed itself by next Monday. The worst part is I will do the same thing with something else again. Am I really that slow to learn?

No Point Here

I have been at a loss as what to blog about for the past two days. It isn't although there is a lack of stuff to blog about, it is more a matter of my getting the thoughts organized. Thursday evening, when we arrived home we had no water pressure, so I called the water utility. The recorded message told me there was a broken main and the water should be on in the evening. It was, but to to a lot of the folks from Phoenix and Tucson visiting their second homes, the pressure was not great. Friday morning the pressure was back to normal, but by evening it was back to a trickle. This was the case on Saturday, and Sunday. Finally on Monday we had what is normal pressure in the evening. This is usual for a long weekend in the summer, as the water system in the upper reaches of Mountainaire is less than modern, and tends to crap out when the population increases by 20% as it does during holidays in the summer.

Rhyme Time

Today as we were on our way to town, Kim said that there are no rhymes for the word girl. I was quick to point out that girl rhymes with pearl. Kim replied "Oh yeah, and it also rhymes with hurl.

Name That Solvent

Every once in awhile, the HVAC system in the science lab building is kind enough to spew intoxicating aromas into my office. Sometimes it is exhaust from contractors vehicles in the area smoke from nearby forest fires. Todays flavor was described by a faculty member who was in my office as a faint xylene, organic solvent, spray paint type odor. It came and went, but it is really par for the course for a $35M building that is less than 2 years old. Don't get me wrong, the taxpayers have provided us with a vast improvement over the old building, and besides, the effect remindes me of how I used to feel at Dead concerts.

Happy New Year

It is a new fiscal year at NAU and due to a self-imposed moratorium on orders for the past week, I have had a back log of orders to get out. Fortunately, I was more alert than usual this morning and finished placing the easy orders and getting the necessary quotations for the other before noon. This meant that a particular vendor also had to be prepared for my request, and was able to confirm the receipt of my order by 2:00 PM. This is for a chemical I usually buy in bulk and started to run low on about 2 weeks ago. I had to wait for the new fiscal year to order so as to not throw the account out of balance. I can now order as a republican member of congress spends tax dollars - at least for another year.