...While you were sleeping...
A word to the wise: if someone from a medical laboratory asks you to sniff something, don't do it! It will invariable be a trick, and you will immediately regret it. Med Techs all have warped senses of humor.
Entomological/philosophical musings:
I devised several ingeneous ways to kill ants. One of my favorite ways was to pour gasoline down the hole leading to their den and then light the gas. It was a satisfying gesture, but not nearly as much fun as putting a firecracker down the hole. Cherry bombs and M-80s were the best. After several explosions, a crater would form, and occasionally you could get a perfect smoke ring from the explosion; the smoke ring would go straight up, sometimes for ten or fifteen feet. Firecrackers were expensive, though, and only available for certain periods during the summer.
As a bored thirteen-year old, I would get a straight-edged razor and cut the heads off of ants as they scurried up a tree. The idea was to just cut off the head; points were deducted for thoracic and abdomenal injuries and severed legs. Then there was the middle-of-the-day-in-the-hot-sun on-the-sidewalk exercise: a three or four-inch magnifying glass would focus the sun's heat on the ant and they would emit a little "pop" as their juices boiled and exploded the carpace. Sometimes there would be a little hiss sound instead of an explosion. I would imagine this to be the dying screams of these little creatures. One had to be quick and persistent for this exercise. Them little buggers could run pretty fast, and you had to avoid putting yourself in the sun's path to the magnifier.
Then there was Raid and other chemicals. I did not consider Raid to be part of the sport. Raid was for in-house use only. Using Raid was a deadly serious job, not fun at all. There was no personal contact with the ants. You sprayed them and they died; some would come along later and walk through the sprayed area and then stagger and die. No fun, but it did keep them out of the cupboards.
Ants are not significant to me. Individual ants are especially insignificant. The significance of colonies of ants is just above the zero level, and all of the ants in the world just a tad higher. And I know for sure that the ants don't have a god to revenge them. After all, nothing has happened to me. Well, nothing much, anyway. So, the god of the ants is insignificant, even if it does exist. It doesn't matter that most ants believe that it exists, and I'm sure that they do.(there is a parallel here, but I won't indulge myself by going into it... you probably know it word for word by now, anyway!)
Individual people are insignificant, except to other people who know them/love them/whatever. But those other people are also insignificant. Cities of people, countries of people, nations of people, continents of people... all insignificant. Individually and collectively insignificant.
Damn, we sure don't act like we believe that, do we?
I have to laugh when I see them selling stuff on TV to get insignificant people to use products to make themselves attractive to other insignificant people. This makes other insignificant people rich, so that they can unduly influence everyone who is not rich. As you can imagine, I spend quite a bit of time laughing. And I don't watch TV very much, either.
And, no, dammit, I'm not off of the Prozac again, either.
I went fishing immediately after work... stopped long enough to take my medicine and load up the tackle. I caught a few fish, but not bunches. I had to work for them. Nothing of any size. And I did get some bad news: my canoe, which has been out at Betsy's for five years, is gone. Yeah, some son-of-a-bitch stole it. I should'a had it locked up. O'well... not much to do about it now, anyway. I did load up my bass boat and bring it home, though.
Off now for seven days, then work seven, then off for twenty-one days! I'll need to be re-trained when I get back to work!
Now for a shower and a few hours of sleep... this is my turn-around day, I work tonight at Medassist, then I should be ready for bed. Then I can act like a real person... up during the day, sleep at night.
How very boring.
Ants.
I discovered ants when I was a little kid. They would bite me, and I noticed that. There were all kinds of ants, from the little bitty black ones to the great big red ones. Some of them just wandered around, and others could be found in nests and mounds.