A Skydazzler's Life Unwrapped...

Squirrel Update October

Yes, I didn't think I'd still be talking squirrels either.  This will be a quick update.  We have continued to have squirrels in our ceiling.  Lots of squirrels.  Since the last update, we've had 2 more litters of babies in the ceiling above my office, that we know of. That makes 4 litters we are aware of this past summer.  We've gone to naming them now.  There is Opie and Tyrone. (brothers from the second litter we think) Xena-Princess Warrior and Captain Unit Plan.  They roll, they play and sometimes they bust threw the tiles and fall to the floor.  It really freaks everyone out including them!  They have gotten smart and avoid the traps.  The air quality people came out and we were told that as long as ceiling tiles are regularly replaced, they are not a health hazard.  They sent out their top facilities guns and sealed up the building, top to bottom with wire mesh and steel plates.  The squirrels were happily back to their play that very afternoon.  The only thing they haven't done is called in the professionals to handle this. You've got to laugh...we are out of alternatives! 

First day back to work after vacation?

Ugh. How's that for a one word sentence? LOL Says a lot to me. I struggled all day today with “puppy attention span” Come on...you know what I am talking about. Haven’t you ever watched a puppy play with a ball, or try and come to you when called only to be distracted by something that catches their eye at the moment? That was me today. I'm sure even some of you have experienced it yourselves. Some call it multi-tasking, but that is only when the work goes well. When the work doesn't get done, or you don’t get much accomplished but continue to flutter between project after project, It's not pretty. Now throw in someone trying to follow your conversation and they start laughing their butt off, it becomes cute. Like a puppy! Thankfully most days I am on the watching side of that phenomenon. Not today. Nope, the first day back to work…a short week as it is for me, and I had one of the worse cases of puppy attention span I’ve ever seen. So what did I get accomplished? Hmmm, a couple emails, maybe a phone call or t….. hey I wonder what’s on TV tonight? Okay, I’m starting to wander again. Arf, arf…is it bedtime yet?   See UGH fits. 

Are you ready for a squirrel update?

Okay, here's the scoop.  My little family of squirrels are now in a newly relocated home.  They were trapped and taken to an exotic location on the west side of Salem.  They have a grove of tall oaks to live and play in and a beautiful view. (see picture below) Facilities personnel came over early in the week and patched up some known entrance holes with wire mesh.  They did forget to take care of the rather large gaping hole that goes straight under the building though. We were so concerned about 4 holes in the foundation and roof, where a squirrel might squeeze through and gain entrance.  But if you go right around the corner in a chain-linked locked area,  there is a path large enough to squeeze an adult size body into...with access right to the underside of the whole building!  Do you think maybe they can get in through that access?  Nah, staff say the squirrels don't have a key to the lock! LOL...  Anyway, this family is gone and should be happy in their new home.  The very next day first thing in the morning....scratch, scratch, scratch...they're back!  So once again...the squirrels are winning.  Maybe they just love the nuts at Chemeketa!

Score: Chemeketa Facilities-0 vs. Squirrels- 4...Duh!

It doesn't look like the weekend Pest Control Raid was successful.  Our mommy squirrel & babies gave the slip to our Pest Control Raiders and CCC facilities workers.  Not hard to do I must say at this point.  You can't catch what you don't want to find! We have too many do gooder..don't hurt the squirrels people here at the school.  Of course their offices are squirrel and pest free.  They also didn't do the clean up as promised either.  Reality says it would take them a week or two to clean up and replace all the insulated ceiling tiles though. So we knew that wasn't happening.  I came in this morning and my office smells something like an uncleaned hamster cage!  Well our whole office, not just mine.  I've got a headache.  Blech...stench prevails. Is this our squirrel now? (I wish our squirrel was this cute...haha)

Ah...cute little squirrel. NOT!!

I told you about a squirrel problem we were having back in March at my office.  Well, even after all of what we had to go through back then, this squirrel problem hasn't stopped for the past ten months.  I'm not sure our facilities department is very knowledgeable when it comes to getting rid of the little buggers.  They have been unsuccessful so far with their trapping and relocation efforts. One worker even bragged how they've had a on going squirrel problem for two years in another building.  Obviously an attempt to somehow make me feel better no doubt.   Yeah, yeah...I know.  Some of you animal lovers out there are going to have a full blown hissy fit to think about us big bad humans getting rid of helpless little squirrels, but I'm sure they would have a different perspective if the destruction, urine and feces was in their living space.  My thoughts run along the lines of something more natural like a 6-8 foot Boa Constrictor munching it's way through our ceiling tiles.  I'm sure there are enough squirrels to keep an average sized snake happy at least for a few months!  This past week beats all with the little mommy falling through drop ceiling tiles into my office.  Once trapped she decided to destroy my office looking for a way out.  Lot's of fiberglass insulation, urine and feces on furniture, papers and computers she was finally let out of the building by the front door.  Ten minutes later she was already back in the building hissing at us from above because we found her babies.  Well long story short...professional pest control was coming in this weekend to catch, remove and relocate our little mother and offspring.  Now the questions remains how well the building gets cleaned up.  It isn't healthy to breath fiberglass, dried moldy feces and urine.  And we just can't get them to understand the word "decontamination".  I will spare you the pictures of how much damage squirrels can do to ceiling and attic spaces.  I just hate the thought of continuing this battle with Oregon OSHA involved.   All this and we are still suppose to be professional and get our jobs done.  Yeah, sure you bet! Not a problem....just like the squirrels.  The picture I've included:  If you look closely, all the little black spots you see on the table, calendar and desk topper are poops.  The paper on top of the desk topper has urine all over it.  You know they are just like rats in that everywhere they walk they leave little droplets of urine.  What?  Not fun stuff?

Was it Friday the 13th?

Is this Friday just an end to a very odd week?  Or is it the influence of a Friday the 13th?  Now, I'm not one who believes in the day causing bad luck.  I am not that superstitious.  After all my own birthday falls on the 13th day of a month.  Two grandsons also have birthdays on the 13th day of the month.  So for obvious reasons I don't think the day for a moment is unlucky! haha.  I do think the hype of the day, or the reputation of the day can influence peoples attitudes.  This week people seem to be more annoyed, less tolerant, hurried and easily rattled or upset than most weeks.  And today in particular I saw more over reactions to normal occurrences than I have in a very long time.  Yikes...calm down people! (smile)  Is this an effect of a normal Friday gone bad?  Or Friday the 13th messing with peoples heads?  As of today I believe I have met my monthly quota of mistakes, errs, missed opportunities, crabby people, problems, complaints and demands.  I think we will chalk this week ending with Friday the 13th as just bad karma and influenced attitudes by unlucky trends of the day.  So take a number and I'll see you next month. (no, I'm not on vacation away from work, just a vacation in my mind!) And look there is some luck to that.  This month only has 30 days, not 31 so by Monday you only have to wait 14 more days to get what you need! haha Hope you have a great weekend...  I know I will !  :-) wink wink!

Office Chickens Needed?

I was really expecting to have a productive week while no one is around at the college.  Winter finals are over, Spring term hasn't started.  No Students, no staff around.  Perfect!  Schedules are done.  I have to start working on workload, contracts all prep for next week.  Today just never got off the ground.  It started out good.  I even got there early.  Remember a month or two ago when I talked about the squirrel invasion in our office?  The squirrels were running over head in the suspended ceiling tiles?  Well our facilities guys trapped and trapped and got rid of them (five or six I think they said).  The squirrels were on a witness relocation program hopefully farther that across the quad like the previous time...hehe.  At least they were gone.  A couple weeks ago we noticed the squirrels had come back.  This time frolicking and running across the ceilings...ah spring!  We called it in to our facilities department again and they came right over to set out the traps again.  We hadn't heard anything in a while so thought they were long gone and enjoying spring outside in the beautiful trees and park like setting of the College.  (We really do have a pretty campus)  then last week we noticed a bunch of flies in the office.  At first we didn't think much of it, since the "others" in our building like to leave the back door open a lot. You know they type...letting in the fresh air, while heating units are still cranked up to the 70's!  Then I noticed that the doors weren't open.  Hmmmm....  Friday afternoon it came on very suddenly, but a reakish sweet odor of something dead was coming from one of our Director's offices.  Since all of our employee's were accounted for, it was obvious we had a dead animal of some sort up in the suspended ceiling.  oohhhh, ick...stanky smelly dead animals and it was getting worse. (eek...did someone maybe forget a trap?)  I called Facilities again and they assured me that someone would come over that night after we left, remove the body and disinfect the area and clean up.  So off I go to my weekend thinking all was well.  And guess what? no smell when I walked in this morning, so they did their job right?  Well nothing prepared me for what I found next.  My Director came in late morning.  She called me to her office and asked about what was found in the ceiling.  I laughed and said I don't smell anything so they must have got it...then I started to make some smarty pants comment about all we had to worry about now was maggots, never thinking I would actually see some.  I walked into the office and there must have been 50 wiggling squirming maggots all over the carpet in front of the door.  Aghhhhh...boy I hightailed it out of that office. Then and only then did I realize that the maggots were falling out of the ceiling onto the floor.  They were on her desk, floor and inside the light fixtures. Needless to say, facilities was called again, they vacuumed but saved the big cleaning for tonight.  We don't want office pets but I suspect if they didn't disinfect and clean better this time, maybe I should go out and buy a couple of chickens and throw them up in the ceiling to clean up the bugs!! They couldn't be any worse than the squirrels as far as noise and at least they would be cleaning up the mess.  Then there is that whole benefit thing with the eggs going on too!  I didn't get much work done today.  Every time I would move, go to the copy machine, etc.  I was looking for more "moving floor" haha.  Man that is an icky sight to see!  shrug, shiver ....ughh.  Lunch anyone...let's forget the rice for a while okay?

Spring Term Classes Begin

Oh my!  Tomorrow, April 3rd is the first day of spring term classes.  I came back to work March 13th and about half our staff were finishing up Winter term and leaving for a 2 week Spring break vacations.  There are so many of my friends I haven't seen yet and I am looking forward to everyone returning!  I've been working part days for the past two weeks, getting myself prepared for tomorrow and the week.  It is always a busy and crazy day/week at the college.  Getting all of the faculty and students settled into classes.  Making sure we have no registration or room conflicts and starting to do student head counts to see if certain classes will go or be canceled.  I think I am ready.  I tried working some longer hours last week and by weeks end I was tired.  That's okay...I can deal with tired.  This week will be crazy and then we will settle in for the next 10 weeks.  If I get too tired during the day I will just go home. I promised I will not push myself.