Midnight Meanderings

Hola Amigos,
It's been a while since I rapped at ya...

Today was my first full day in the new office. LogicTools moved from 12th and Pearl to 8th and Olive. This morning, instead of walking the half block to the old office from Brittany's house, it took me a whole 12 minutes to get to work. At least it was time well spent--a refreshing walk through nice drizzle instead of the weird unseasonable sunshine or pouring rain that we've been getting lately.

My new office is pretty tight, still sharing it with Makoto, but we're a lot further from the testing lab now. Whereas I used to basically be in it and all I ahd to do was swivel my chair, now I actually have to get up from my desk if I want to do install testing on Anoubis. Also, the whole suite is controlled by two thermostats, and for some dumb reason the one on my side of the office was set to cool and the other one was set to heat. Besides the fact that it meant the environment controls were wasting enormous amounts of fossil fuels battling to drive a 4,000 sq foot space to different temperature extremes, it also meant that my office was in the high fifties all day. Chilly. Naturally, I had left my fleece at home.

In other news, there seems to be some tension in my life, so I guess I'll do what I always do when that happens(at least, always as of this moment), and tell a story. If you don't like having your time wasted, I'd recommend stopping here.
There was once a rabbit. Like all good rabbits, she had a goal in life--a carrot on a stick if you will. The Strawberry Field. Now, this wouldn't be much of a story if the rabbit simply hopped on up to the strawberry field--no, there wouldn't be any dramatic tension at all if that were the case--and this is quite a story, so rest assured that there were obstacles in the way. This being a metaphorical strawberry field they weren't your usual bunnylike obstacles, either. No, there were group dynamics to deal with, friendships to be had and ruined, a lot of work, and no clear path. Well this was a tough little bunny but she had been trying and trying for so long, she was just about fed up--she thought she might up and end her search for the strawberry field and just sit in the thistles all day long. She completely stopped caring if they got stuck to her puffy little tail, and she supposed that one day she'd settle for eating what metaphorical herbage that was in her vicinity.

Now this little bunny, she was a stubborn one, let me tell you. Once she sat down, she wouldn't get up for anyone at all, no sir. Not that plenty of folks didn't try to get her to budge. Well, now, Old Mr. Crow, he came along, he was just singing his song about some cabbage he was aiming to find. "Come on, little Bunny," he implored our protaganist, "Let's head down this here road together, let's find us some good cabbage!" The bunny was not moved, not one bit. She turned up her little bunny nose, quivered her whiskers, she wouldn't even respond. No, the cabbage sure wasn't worth it. It was all or nothing for this bunny, if she couldn't have her strawberry field, she didn't want nothing at all.

Soon enough this little bunny's legs got real tired from just sitting on her haunches all day, so she hopped up and she jumped around a bit. She strayed a bit away from her patch of dust, and wouldn't you know it! Foxy O'Callahan was just zipping by, her reddish fur almost nothing but a blur. Bunny was almost knocked flat on her tail, but ol' Foxy, well she saw her friend the bunny and sure enough she turned right back to make her greetings. "Bunny, haven't seen you in a while--You never seem to hang around the grassy field anymore, and I haven't gotten a text message from you in ages!" Well Bunny was still sittin' on her tail, but if she hadn't been, she sure woulda fallen onto it then. Foxy was acting mighty strange. They'd been friends, but not lately, and yeah, Bunny hadn't been in the grassy field with the rest of the woodland creatures for quite a while, but what did they expect anyways? There's no strawberries anywhere near there. And what in tarnation is a text message? Bunny figured it must be another one of those durn metaphors she kept hearing about. Well, Foxy was a friendly type, for the most part, but she sure didn't have time to waste--she made mention of a tasty treat she was on her way to up ahead, and wouldn't-you-know she was off before Bunny even had time to twitter her whiskers.

Bunny just looked the other way, then she quivered her whiskers. She didn't have time for any of Foxy's tasty treats, no. She wanted just one thing, the strawberry field. Pretty soon, along ambled the tortoise, just as tortoises are wont to do in this kind of metaphor. Well, being the real good natured type that he was, tortoise sidled right up to Bunny, ignoring the twittering whiskers and asking Bunny, "how d'ya do?" Bunny was having none of it. "I'm horrible and you should know it by now tortoise. Do you see strawberries around here anywhere? No. So how could I be anything but awful?" Well tortoise just gave his deep slow laugh, "Well what did you expect Bunny? You're a-sittin' in a briar patch! How you gonna find a strawberry here?" Bunny just turned away, she had no time for tortoise's slow reply.

Tortoise kept, on talking though, always a bit slow to get the point. "Bunny," he said, "I'm on my way to a crick, where I'm gonna get me a great big bunch of tasty fish to eat, why don't you come along with me?" Bunny didn't turn around, just kept her nose high in the air. Fish clearly weren't strawberries, and Bunny'd be damned if she'd follow tortoise to some stupid creek. Tortoise waited a while, but finally, he muttered something about being hungry, and he walked off too, same direction as Crow and Foxy before him.

Well now, our friend the bunny was in poor shape by now, anyone could see. Thistles all in her tail, dust in her fur, whiskers all knotted up from quivering them at folks too much, and no strawberries in sight. No one came around for a long time, so she just started to hop in no particular direction, not quite knowing what else to do.

Our friend tortoise may have looked to have walked off, but he was not deterred, not one bit. He was just a-waiting up behind a tree and when rabbit hopped by, well he let out a yip like one you never heard before. Of course, rabbit got scared, and she made a beeline away from the sound, not even looking back to see tortoise with his wry grin. She just kept running and hopping, and hopping and running, and wouldn't you know it, the thistles, they fell from her tail and the dust, it all blew away. But she didn't stop, she just kept going, and pretty soon she realized, at this speed, there looked to be a path. And just as soon as she realized she was on the same road the Crow, and Foxy, and even Tortoise had been on, well, she saw Crow and Foxy right up ahead. It sure surprised Bunny to see them both in the same place, but it surprised her even more that they were inside the local Market of Choice(tm). Bunny never had seen a supermarket before, but there it was, right in front of her--Crow was busy munching away at some cabbage from the produce section, and Foxy was chewing on a sandwich from the in-store bistro. Bunny's little mouth just dropped to the floor, and right about then, up ambles Tortoise, who patted Bunny on the back as he made his way to the fresh salmon in the cooler sectoin. 'Course, it only took a few more seconds before our stubborn little bunny realized that there weren't just strawberries here, but blueberries, raspberries, marionberries, and carrots-to-boot.

Imagine that--all on different paths, looking for different things, but they all end up just where they wanted to be, gettin' just what they always wanted.


Now if only bunnies could get jobs so they could buy the strawberries in the Market... But that's another story.

If you made it this far, good job. Get back to work.