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Category Archives: ponderings

Because we are like small children

I have recently been working on site for Client A, here forth known as Clia.  Working for Clia has been an interesting experience.  Mostly because thus far, we have been working in their warehouse that houses their raw, process, and finished goods.  That last one is important.  Because this warehouse houses the finished product, which are pharmaceuticals, which are expensive, which are still under patent, we have to be escorted by either Clia employees or security guards at all times while we are working in the warehouse.  Being escorted everywhere is pretty amusing.

Ok, so the escorting part isn’t really all that amusing.  We’ve had some really entertaining guards.  We’ve also had a really boring one.  I’m not sure why he was a guard at all.  He seemed really timid.  Nice guy and all, but not really what you expect from a security guard.

ANYWAY.

Like I was saying, it’s not really the being escorted part that’s been amusing, but more the thought that this is the kind of behavior that you might see on a playground with a bunch of preschoolers.  You have your one harried teacher looking out for all the kids.  One starts to drift away and do his own thing.  The teacher has to run after that one and bring him back.  While she’s doing that, another kid starts drifting away, totally entranced by say…a butterfly.  The teacher brings kid #1 back and notices kid #2 wandering off, chasing butterflies.  She dutifully runs after kid #2 and brings her back.

Meanwhile, kids #3-4 decide they’re hungry and go in search of food.  Or the sandbox.  You know.  Preschoolers are always eating sand.  The teacher manages to bring kid #2 back to the pack, but then has to chase after kids #3-4.  She herds them back, but only to find kids #1, 5-6 are wandering off again.  You get the idea.  This is what I see in my head every time I have one of the security guards nearby.  I kind of want to wander away to be chased down and watch another one of my colleagues (or the subcontractors) wander off and be chased down.  The whole idea is just SO. FUNNY. to me.   And I know I’m not the only one.  My PM told me he thought the same thing.

But anyhoo, I wouldn’t do something like that to our poor, harried security guards.  For the most part, they’ve been really nice and they get yelled at by the head of security (who is a very intense, no-nonsense lady) if something untoward, like their assigned preschoolers contingent staff wander off without them.  And there aren’t as many of us working in tandem on related projects anymore.  At one point, we had at least four groups of four working in the different areas of the warehouse at one time.  A few of the days, they only assigned two security guards to escort all of us.  They had to position themselves so they could each watch two groups at the same time.  It’s hard to do when you have all these shelves of stuff in the way.  Those security guards looked really harried.  That would have been the most fun time to run away from the guards.  But anyhow, there are cameras everywhere so it’s not like we could hide anywhere anyway.

 

Scuba diving chickens

I mentioned before that we have chickens, right? And I also mentioned that we had Silkies and then didn’t, right? Well, we have another Silkie. A rooster, this time. Actually, for the longest time, we weren’t sure if the Silkie was a rooster or a hen. Silkies are pretty quiet for chickens and this one was also really timid on top of being quiet. But what I’ve since figured out, aside from the fact that he’s a rooster, is that he’s not so much timid as pensive.

Yes, pensive. This chicken is pensive. First off, he’s rather young and the only boy. The other six chickens we have are all hens. He’s probably lonely and uses his imagination to keep himself company. Of course, if we had another rooster, they’d probably fight. But at least he wouldn’t be lonely anymore.

He’s also kept in the front yard by himself. The chickens in the back had been sick (no, not bird flu) and we didn’t want the Silkie to get sick as well. So he was quarantined in the front yard. I’m sure that just reinforces his loneliness. He’s different from the others in so many ways. And so to combat this terrible, aching loneliness, he retreats to his imagination and thinks about what he wants to be when he grows up.

So, what does he want to be when he grows up? A scuba diver. It’s so obvious.

You see, I first noticed the Silkie’s affinity for water his first day at our house. He was penned in the front yard close to the front door while we were setting up a house for him. And when I came home from work, the dogs burst excitedly from the house (yes, burst) and ran up to see me. This startled and upset the Silkie terribly. Terribly. He made a racket and immediately jumped into his water bowl for safety. His water bowl barely fits his butt, but he apparently felt safer in there. Why? Because obviously you can escape rabid, predatory dogs by diving into water. Granted, my dogs are not rabid and arguably not very predatory (at least Choco), but how was the chicken supposed to know that?

He’s repeated this behavior a few more times with Yaris. Now, Yaris is the more predatory one of the two dogs, but we had explicitly told her that she had to make friends with all the chickens. I think she’s accepted that and she gets along with the chickens in the backyard (when they all decide to escape from the pen). That is to say, the chickens ignore her when she’s far away and when she gets too close for their comfort, they move away. Yaris doesn’t chase them around without good reason (we have told her that wanting to eat one is not a good reason) and the chickens accept that. The Silkie…not so much. He jumps into his water bowl.

And finally, we recently discovered that the Silkie is, in fact, a rooster. He decided to give a crow the other day. It was…not an impressive crow. It sounded garbled and muffled. Like if he were underwater. Scuba diving. Aaaand…there’s my proof. This particular chicken wants to be a scuba diver.