The Agrinautica

   Today I was injured at work. Grieviously! )= You see, Bob and I like to set goals and then try to beat them. Today we set a very ambitious goal -- we valiantly accomplished it, but I was injured in the process. )=
   More on that towards the end of this entry, for you know, suspense purposes.


   The other day we were up for contract renewal with a local water company. They asked us for several references, so Dave gave them several local school districts, the airport, other big contracts. They called back a few days later and said "You know, usually when we call references, we get a lots of 7s and 8s ... every one of your references we called gave you a 10!!" In conclusion, we are awesome.

   We used to have another technician, Ryan the Younger, who worked for us for about a year before he left to go visit Japan for a bit. Upon his return to the states, he returned to his native Modesto, California. There he has gotten a job a a supervisor for a pest control company. In conclusion, even our most junior employees are qualified to be supervisors at our competition. In conclusion we are awesome.

   Incidently, our senior technician, Ryan the Older ("one of the highest paid people in pest control) is more than qualified to run his own pest control business. Thats why Dave pays him really well and buys him a truck for christmas. (=


   Yesterday Bob and I killed some honeybees for a lady who kept on rambling all like "So do you guys ever get bit? I'm so afraid of getting bit! The pest control guy got bit! I knew someone who got bit and died!! ..." Bob and I both tried to ignore it as long as we could, but she just kept talking about bee bites. Finally Bob was like "You know... honeybees are physically incapable of biting" "what??" "Bees sting. You know, with their stinger." "What?! Just a minute!" She goes back in her house to consult with her husband, comes back out a minute later "But the pest control guy that was here got bit!" "he got stung ma'am" "but.. I know someone that DIED of a bee bite!" "It was a bee sting. 1% of the population is extremely allergic to bee stings." Even after this she still snuck in one or two references to bites.
   Seriously though, I thought it was like, the most basic knowledge that bees sting. I mean, cartoons always portray them flying around stinging people. How can you not know that bees sting?!? How can you know someone that died of a bee sting and STILL think it was a bite???



   But yeah so about my injury. This morning after we'd done about three jobs I believe, we were informed that we did not currently have any more jobs lined up. So Bob and I went to a nearby park and found some shade. "Lets see if we can sleep here for the next three hours!!" said Bob. "Thats pretty ambitious, don't choke!!" said I. Miraculously, our phone did not call with another job until two hours and fifty minutes later (we valiantly stayed in the park for another 11 minutes to make our goal). In the process of this, however, the shade moved, leaving me asleep in the noon sun for at least an hour before I noticed. I got horribly burnt!!! )= Its a dangerous job!


Picture of the Day

Iowa, or maybe Nebraska

   There's this house in Coto whose roof is too steep to clamber up, but too slanted to lean a ladder against. I was there first with technician Bobby, but he couldn't get it out. Then I returned with our senior techician Ryan -- we spent 45 minutes setting up and he went up there with a harness but then determined he couldn't do it. So yesterday morning Boss Dave, Ryan, & I came back for a third attempt. Dave went up with the harness & nailed 2x4s into the roof for added footing, while Ryan was positioned halfway up (on a lower roofpeak actually) and passed equipment between Dave & myself on the ground.
   After more than an hour of set up we were finally in position and working when a car came to the bottem of the drive way and started honking. Driver shouted something like "learn to park!" and demanded we repark our cars asap. We thought it was the homeowner gone berserk because she couldn't park in her driveway -- despite this boss dave shouted from atop the roof that she could go to hell. It turns out though that it wasn't the homeowner, but some deranged coto resident who thinks the world revolves around them and that even though they could easily go around the back of our truck thtey shouldn't have to deal with any kind of inconvenience from us lesser folk.


Picture of the Day

Jeremy pretends a piece of comb is a mustache