Well it started out a quiet day
After being at the course all last week, it felt like I hadn't been here in ages when I walked in this morning. And it was quiet. I'm talking no noise at all. For a Monday in a school with a bazillion staff and 1,800 teenage boys, quiet is something that is very much appreciated. It doesn't happen often.
My boss is away in Denver, CO, my faithful offsider Leon is away on leave and my boss' secretary has not spent the entire day yapping on the phone to her family and friends. Peace!
Till this afternoon...
We seem to have a problem with ants in our department. It's not a problem for the ants though. They love it here. Whole ant empires trek overland for days to nest in anything warm and electrical - especially those things electrical that we don't actually own - like laser printers and photocopiers. Our department is ant Utopia in that regard.
When you were a kid, did you ever hold a magnifying glass over an ant and watch it burn? Multiply that by a few thousand and add in the smell of burning flesh and that's what you get when ants decide that fuser oil is the best thing they've ever tasted, and that nesting in the workings of a laser printer, right next to the fuser oil, is the logical thing to do. Get as close as you can to the food source, of course.
So the guys from Ricoh came out and politely asked the ants to move on outta the laser printer a few months back. The pest control people came in and gave them little happy pills so they'd be sent off to ant heaven in their sleep and we thought that was the end of that.
But, no.
Today we discovered the ants had regrouped and found a new abode...under the glass of the photocopier. How they got there, we don't know. They did a better job in covering their tracks this time, using the grey carpet well to disguise their route. How they managed to get inside the glass and set up a small military camp, we don't know that either.
In comes Mr Xerox with his super suction vacuum and bye bye to ant camp in the photocopier.
Needless to say, with all these antics (haha get it? ant-ics) going on, and people walking past commenting in fascination about the keenness of the ants to live in our equipment, it's not quiet anymore.
I want it to go back to quiet! I want to surf the net and chat and blog and pretend to work in peace!
Damn ants! I killed 4 that stupidly strayed onto my desk. I feel better now.
My boss is away in Denver, CO, my faithful offsider Leon is away on leave and my boss' secretary has not spent the entire day yapping on the phone to her family and friends. Peace!
Till this afternoon...
We seem to have a problem with ants in our department. It's not a problem for the ants though. They love it here. Whole ant empires trek overland for days to nest in anything warm and electrical - especially those things electrical that we don't actually own - like laser printers and photocopiers. Our department is ant Utopia in that regard.
When you were a kid, did you ever hold a magnifying glass over an ant and watch it burn? Multiply that by a few thousand and add in the smell of burning flesh and that's what you get when ants decide that fuser oil is the best thing they've ever tasted, and that nesting in the workings of a laser printer, right next to the fuser oil, is the logical thing to do. Get as close as you can to the food source, of course.
So the guys from Ricoh came out and politely asked the ants to move on outta the laser printer a few months back. The pest control people came in and gave them little happy pills so they'd be sent off to ant heaven in their sleep and we thought that was the end of that.
But, no.
Today we discovered the ants had regrouped and found a new abode...under the glass of the photocopier. How they got there, we don't know. They did a better job in covering their tracks this time, using the grey carpet well to disguise their route. How they managed to get inside the glass and set up a small military camp, we don't know that either.
In comes Mr Xerox with his super suction vacuum and bye bye to ant camp in the photocopier.
Needless to say, with all these antics (haha get it? ant-ics) going on, and people walking past commenting in fascination about the keenness of the ants to live in our equipment, it's not quiet anymore.
I want it to go back to quiet! I want to surf the net and chat and blog and pretend to work in peace!
Damn ants! I killed 4 that stupidly strayed onto my desk. I feel better now.
posted by E in Oz at 3:28 pm
these thoughts escaped my brain at 3:28 pm
5 Comments:
"Whole ant empires trek overland for days to nest in anything warm and electrical" - what fabulous use of the English language!
"When you were a kid, did you ever hold a magnifying glass over an ant and watch it burn?" - Eve! How cruel is *that*?
"Needless to say, with all these ant-ics..." - Funny! No, really - funny! Wocka wocka wocka!
Oh gross... we get over run by ants too, but certainly not to that extent. Burning ants. Bleh.
Of course you do know the karmic 'price' you will have to pay for this dastardly deed? You will in your future incarnations have to suffer the death of each ant 1000 times.
Adam did tell you:
don't tread on an ant he's done nothing to you
there might come a day
when he's treading on you
don't tread on an ant you'll end up black and blue
you cut off his head
legs come looking for you
LOL Rob, believe me, if you knew the number of ants nests I've figuratively stepped on this year, you'd know these few thousand ants pale into insignificance...my karmic destiny has already been set.
Maybe you can make a few bucks on this. I saw the other day that they STILL sell ant farms in the toy section.
I remember having one as a kid. I thought it was fascinating.... until they all died.
Then I felt bad.
Now I just raise Sea Monkeys. ;)
Post a Comment
<< Home