Friday, February 17, 2023

Friday evening things

 * I think the PT is working. I was MUCH less achy later this week, was able to do a workout this morning without pain. I had another session today, got up to 10 minutes on the "hard" machine. I've learned a few exercises to do at home - some planks, and some stretching exercises for my hamstring. I should probably do a few right after getting up but before working out; that might stop me injuring myself when I work out. 

* Weird, weird occurrence today. Just before I left for PT, my phone rang. The number was attributed to WIRELESS CALLER which I knew could either be spam or genuine; I figured if it was that scammy "journal company" I could just hang up.

So I answered. 

"Hello, is this the biology department?"

"Yes, this is a biologist"

"Oh good I'm looking for someone who can help me"

Now, usually, this call involves some kind of species identification - several times in recent years a person has called or e-mailed about "this weird thing that looks like throw-up growing in my yard" and that's always a fun call because that is an organism called dog-vomit fungus, it's totally harmless, and usually the person is relieved to learn it's not pathogenic and is also amused by the name. Once someone was worried because their kid ate some berries and they didn't know whether to make him vomit. (If I remember correctly, we figured out they were yaupon holly berries, which would eventually solve that problem - the scientific name is Ilex vomitoria and allegedly some Indigenous people used it as a purgative). But not this time.

"Yes, I want someone to come to my house" (uh oh) "and figure out what's going on with the electromagnetic radiation and the wifi waves and the 5G and tell me if it's what's making me sick" and oh no Danger Will Robinson, get out of this call as fast as possible.

(FWIW: I don't even think we HAVE 5G yet down here. It was an Oklahoma City area code but being a wireless call, it was likely someone here in town who had a phone number from there)

So I responded: "uuuuuuhhhhhh.....I'm a botanist, I don't know about those things....uhhh...you could try the local County Extension agent* they might know...." and then I said I had an appointment (Truth: it was about five minutes before I needed to leave for PT) and rang off.

Because if you tick off unhinged, unhinged will keep calling you

(*sorry County Extension but I also think y'all make more money than I do)

I happened to run into my chair on the way out and I told her and she laughed and laughed, apparently that had never happened to anyone in the department before. 

And yes, increasingly I am identifying my specialty as "botanist" given that I am essentially the only one in the department now. (But I'm also a lot of other things: I'm the soil scientist here, and the biostats person, and the "expert" (snort) in environmental law....at the small regionals you kind of have to be a utility infielder)

* This weekend is a rare one I can take fully off; I managed to work ahead far enough (including writing the systematic botany lab for the next two weeks) so I am making a quick run to Sherman before Knitting Zoom to pick up some things I kind of need. Also I do just kind of need to get out. 

* My combined Valentine's/birthday present (my birthday is in 10 more days) came today:


This is Zekko, who kind of looks like an alien-bug-rabbit-Pokemon. I'm surprised at how large and chonky he is - they gave the dimensions in centimeters and I was kind of like "okay a little over a foot tall and maybe about 10" wide" but I didn't realize how big he was

And yes, he has toebeans:

I'm surprised how fast he came - I think I only ordered him a week ago, and he shipped from Germany. FedEx actually came through for once....



1 comment:

Roger Owen Green said...

Oh,yeah, you're a Pisces. A FEBRUARY Pisces, but still... ;-)