Odds and Ends...

I'm still on Consultant's Cloud Nine today. The thrill of the two new projects has yet to wear off. And in my excitement this morning over having extra money, I excitedly told Sarah that I can now order those two file cabinets that we've been needing. She just looked at me and shook her head and chuckled. Then she realized that if Brad were doing the buying, he'd want to buy some expensive piece of environmental equipment that would be nice to have but not necessary. So she quickly became a bit more enthusiastic about the file cabinets! With Brad we've found that discussing the merits and cost of a particular piece of equipment doesn't work. We stumbled on the only method of dissuasion that works with him and that is to ask him if he'd rather have the equipment or if he'd like to be paid. We've found that works very nicely indeed. Of course if we had plenty of extra money, we'd get the equipment. But if the choice is paycheck or equipment, well there's no contest. Oh the thrills and decisions for the small business owner!

Now on to the odds and ends. Yikes I had to fill up my Passat's tank today and the total was $36. That's ridiculous! Less than two years ago I could fill my tank for less than $20. I can only imagine how the SUV owners must cry at the pump. What the hell is up with petroleum prices? I personally think that the big oil companies as well as OPEC are taking advantage of the war and unrest in the Middle East to keep prices inflated. Of course the party line is much different according to the papers, but I don't believe it. Sheesh if this keeps up maybe I need to consider switching from environmental geology to petroleum geology!

Sarah recently told me how her ob-gyn explained her hysterectomy surgery which was quite humorous...if hysterectomy surgery can be funny. Anyway, her uterus was removed but her ovaries were saved, so the doc explained that once the uterus was removed that end of her vaginal canal was sewn up like the toe end of a sock. And in essence without her uterus and the sewn end it's like her vagina is now a sock. Hmmm. So as she has been recovering over these last several weeks, I ask her how her sock is doing! Chad wanted Sarah to ask her doc exactly what kind of sock is it? An ankle sock or crew sock or tube sock. He was very interested in getting more details on this sock thing and naturally his most important question was how soon the sock could be used!

Lastly, I really don't mind the heat at all. But I really am a big baby when it comes to humidity. I really don't mind 90 or 100 degree weather if the humidity is below 50%, but lately the temps have been in the high 90s with humidity over 60%. So my hikes have been quite the steambaths. Today as I was cooling off next to my car in the shade (ha, that's a joke) I noticed Washington State plates on the car across from mine. Two thoughts imediately popped into my head. First, all I could imagine was those Washington hikers melting and suffering around the trails. I'm used to the heat and I thought it was quite hot today, so I can only imagine that they were in agony. Secondly, good grief that must have been some long drive all the way from the Pacific Northwest to South Texas. Yikes. If they're here on vacation, I hope that they like hot weather. And if they just moved here, I hope that they like hot weather!