soapbox

I managed to make it all the way home without seeing any deer. Gas is RIDICULOUSLY expensive along I-84 in NY. I saw as high as $2.35! Got right back on the interstate and got off at a different exit after I saw that. Best of all - NO TRAFFIC IN CT!!!! I hit Hartford at about 5:30 or 6pm, and it was glorious. A very minor backup on the exchange from I91 to I84, and that was it.

And, now my hair is short! I got it cut this afternoon, so it won’t be bothering me anymore. Well, except in the wind, because there’s too much that can’t be held back with a clip. My mom’s cousin always cuts my hair, and she took 12 to 13 inches off it today.

The supporting evidence for this claim is based entirely upon my recent experiences with the scanning electron microscope (SEM), which has been stricken with some malfunction the last three times I tried to use it, including this morning at 8:30 AM, when it finally gave up and let a full-blown leak go through to the lower section of the high-vacuum column.

So, after the last day-and-a-half of maintenance that was supposed to fix the vacuum problems, the darn thing will be down for service until late Monday afternoon.

I know of only one reliable solution to this sort of problem: appeasing the Equipment Gods with sacrifices, preferably of living undergrads. Also, we discovered at Rice that high schoolers could be substituted on a three-to-one exchange rate if undergrads were locally scarce, as one often sees during the summer. Anyone got any to spare (undergrads or high schoolers)?

Excuse, I believe I need to go sharpen my athame…