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1月10日 Sleepy Days and a Tricky CatWe have a small dog door that allows our dog to enter and exit the house on his own. It is installed in our laundry room and goes out onto our deck. This door is so convenient! The cats have discovered the door and take advantage of it as well. This would not be a problem if not for Mr. Burns.
Mr. Burns is a huge grey tabby with a white face. He is the cat who moved on down the road to our house after his family abandoned him. I gave him away once, to a family in the next town. He showed back up on our front step about a week later. Mr. Burns is old. He doesn't move fast, just kind of plods along doing his own thing. Oscar, my dog, loves to chew on his ears, which he allows for a long time before voicing a gravelly annoyed meow. Mr. Burns loves the freedom of going through the dog door. We thought he was too old and set in his ways to be much of a problem. Things were moving along great until this week. Mr. Burns learned a new trick.
Three weeks out of the year I have to be at work by 7:30 A.M. The reason I have to report for duty before night's official end (well... my definition of night's official end) is to get all the new labs going at the beginning of each term. This has been that dreaded week.
I normally work 10 to 4 every day. It is WUNN-DERR-FULLL!
I get up at 9, leisurely get ready and arrive at the office at 10. My job can be chaotic at times, but is always (or almost always) a positive experience. I am in charge of scheduling and supervising about 30 student employees, the museum, the weather station, the web site, the online learning program used at our university called Blackboard, and whatever else they throw my way. It sounds like a lot, but the reality is I do so many diverse things that I am never bored. I finish up with work at 4, hit the grocery store and the roads before the 5:00 rush. It's a great life.
But three times a year I have to attend and explain Blackboard to every geology lab. This term there are 14. I have gone through this explanation and demonstration so many times that I usually say the same words over and over. Last summer, when our building was undergoing a major remodelling, one of the construction guys came up to me and said he had my monologe memorized and could go in and do the next class for me. I've come up with little mind tricks to keep it interesting. One time I might try to get someone to smile. That sounds like a simple thing, but any professor will tell you that on the first day of class most students sit there and look at you like you had an extra ear growing out of your forehead. Another goal of "intro day" is to actually get someone to ask a question! This is another rare event for the first day of lab. Today I hit jackpot. In my first lab I actually heard someone laugh, and the lab after lunch we had a regular Q. & A. going.
This is where Mr. Burns new trick started to cause some problems. Early Monday morning there was a big commotion in the laundry room. It woke up the entire household. My daughter Abby, our early riser, went in there to get something and came face to face with a horrifying sight. Mr. Burns had dragged a headless baby bunny rabbit through our dog door. Abby grabbed a broom and chased the cat around until he finally took it back outside. He was not pleased. He just wanted to have breakfast in the warmth of our house and a crazy person with a broom ruined everything. My sleep was cut short that day, and I knew I had early labs the next three mornings. Oh well.
On Tuesday, (my first early day), I was able to jump right out of bed when my alarm went off at 6:40. It was only seconds later when I heard another commotion. Mr. Burns had done it again. This was a fresh kill, head still intact. We had to hold the cat back with a broom while Abby scooped up the furry body with the dust pan. He was not happy about seeing his hard-earned meal disappear. I was very glad that I had everything laid out and ready to go. I arrived ready, willing, and able right at 7:30. I was pretty proud of myself for being so wide-awake and on top of things all day.
Last night I managed to get to bed about midnight, a little earlier than normal. I was just drifting off to sleep when I heard Andy yell. There was another furry carcass in our laundry room. We had to dispose of it once again while Mr. Burns glared. It was not the peaceful drifting off to sleep I had planned. By the time the adrenalin in my body had slowed down it was quite late. I had barely shut my eyes when my alarm clock again went off. Where did the night go? I swear someone played with my clock. This time I had to drag my body through the motions of dressing and driving to work. By the end of work my boss told me that all those labs must really be wearing me out, I looked so tired. I only have one more day to go. Tomorrow morning I'm thinking the day will not be started easily. The best I can hope for is a tired, but rabbit-free morning. That I could deal with. 评论 (7)
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