Murphy's Law of Fieldwork

I'm in the middle of my last week at my co-op job and ready to be out of there. I've managed to schedule enough field work to make the already holiday shortened week go by a bit more quickly, but I'm also operating on less than 100% concentration.

Field work on the best of days under the nicest of circumstances will always see stupid shit happen; broken equipment, seized locks, wasp nests etc. When you add to that a bit of a lackadaisical attitude, field work leads to managing to finally lock the keys in your pimpin soccer mom van that you've managed to avoid, even if narrowly, all term.

The upside is that when you've done enough of the field work, and had all your fights with Murphy along the way, solutions to problems don't take long to present themselves, and you don't even have to call CAA to bust into your van. Instead, you stand in the middle of the street in a rundown neighbourhood with relics of circa 1940's and 50's small industry buildings around feeding a tape measure into your window to pull the lock. There's something to be said for those old flat style window locks, and for 12 years of wear and tear making the lock that much easier to pull....and bein' straight outta Compton.

Lock opened, keys retrieved with no questions asked, not too shabby. I thought I'd have it easy for the rest of the day, but apparently every other person in a bit of a rundown neighbourhood feels the need to have a German Shepherd, or some mutt combination with one, for protection.

I have nothing against German Shepherds, I actually happen to like them, but I don't however like owners who leave them tied up to a post all day long in the backyard with little to nothing for shade and not a cloud in the sky. I dislike the owners more when they see someone in the neighbourhood is going around to do some checks in wells that are installed right in the backyards, and then leave their dog barking at you for 20 minutes without either shutting the thing up, or taking it inside. Instead they leave it go nuts, so sparking a cacophony of all the rest of the dogs in the neighbourhood that goes on for 5 minutes in the distance as you move a block away.

Stupid pet owners deserve a slap, or a good mauling by a disgruntled pet more often. And I kind of want to have a dog around the house again.