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the correct answer would have been tomorrow
Tuesday, May 4 2004
setting: rural Hurley, Ulster County, New York
Sally seemed back to normal today, despite the two Porcupine quills still lodged in her upper lip. Actually, though, I could only find one of the quills when I examined her this morning. Evidently the shorter and fatter of the two had worked its way out while the other had become fully embedded within the narrow margin of the lip itself, parallel to the mouth. Instead of taking her to the Hurley Animal Hospital, we scheduled an appointment with an inexpensive vet who makes housecalls.
I took Sally and Eleanor hiking to the same we'd been last evening, but this time it was the late morning of a cool, clear day, and I didn't think there was much risk of nocturnal Porcupines being out and about. I don't want to develop an unreasonable fear of Porcupine encounters, especially given that we've only had one in a year and a half filled with wide-ranging hikes through very remote forest. But I will be more pragmatic in the future. I've only seen normally-nocturnal animals twice (both of them Porcupine-eating Fishers), and it was always on rainy, overcast days. So you can be reasonably sure I will never again wander through remote hemlock groves in the rain at dusk, at least not with dogs.
I was cold-called today by a nationwide company that sends computer technicians out on housecalls to fix computer equipment at various places, usually businesses. Evidently their last tech for the mid-Hudson Valley area moved away and they found me in the yellow pages. Since they offered to pay me at the same rate I normally charge, plus drive time, I decided to accept.
This afternoon I went on my first subcontracted repair gig at a local bank. A scanner attached to a large Lexmark printer was on the fritz. Since it was my "first day" and I'd been incompletely briefed, I didn't do a great job, particularly when answering client (bank personnel) questions. They wanted to know when the replacement scanner would be installed and I said "about a week" (a complete guess that nearly caused a heart attack). The correct answer would have been "tomorrow" - the company I'm working for has a policy of "overnighting" replacement parts.
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