Rabbits live all up and down Hill Boulevard, the illegitimate but highly respectable road that leads up to the parcel of airport property where my house and Mr. Barnum's is.  Every morning I see at least three hopping off in alarm as I drive down.  In the afternoons, sometimes I see one rabbit by the road who looks a bit bigger than the others.  The first time I saw it, I thought it was some kind of decoy, as it didn't move as I approached.  Then as the truck came up even with it, it flinched, just one short quick shudder all over its little body, but still didn't flee.  I shrugged and kept driving. 
    There is also a cat around here, a mostly white cat with splotches of calico.  She (and I use "she" because it's very rare for a male to be calico, genetically) takes off in a haste equal to the rabbits' and I know I have seen her about the house.  I don't know whether to try to lure her out with food or not.  I don't want to encourage the sorts of beasts that cause trouble, like raccoons. 
    Two unclaimed dogs roam the airport from time to time, trotting across the runway and playing chase across the field.  One is red and one is brown, and whatever breeds they are made up of are not really apparent.  They are both medium-small and best I can tell (they never get close enough for me to see well) they have smooth coats. 
    Zeus, Mr. Barnum's dog, has been up a few more times since I last mentioned him.  He is a walking stomach, and seemed really disappointed the last time I saw him, because I was in too big a hurry to go back up to the house and grab him something to eat.  I was on my way to work and already late. 
    Zeus has a drool thing going, and the slime gets all over.  Not that I usually mind too much, but when he steals tidbits off the table...eeeeeeeewwwwww! 
    The warehouse here is a bit different now.  We have a new neighbor, as of about a week or so ago.  They do displays, as in trade show displays and such, and so many items are coming and going that Mr. Barnum had to move his airplanes out.  I should learn how to identify planes, really!  He had one larger Cessna sorta thing and two smaller biplanes with bubbles over the cockpits.  My boys are disappointed, but frankly, I think it'd be fun to play hide and seek among all those crates the display people have over there.  It's a veritable maze. 
    The guys who work over there are very interesting looking, less conservative than our soda people.  One guy has a lot of facial piercings that I'd like to get a few minutes to really examine.  Despite my ring bedecked boobs, I really haven't been all that tempted towards piercing my tongue or nose or eyebrows or anything, but it'd be nice to have a look at his array of jewelry.  Most of the guys have longer hair, some have beards of one kind or another, some tattoos. 
    Got some practice time on the forklift this morning.  I hadn't ever operated one before, despite my longstanding liking of the small machines.  The Condiman had given me some instructions and pointers the other day, so today ws just hands-on.  Our forklift we bought used, and its age is apparent.  It stalls out if not regularly massaged, heh, kinda like my truck.  But the thing lifts and tilts smoothly.  The steering is different from anything I've driven before, but easy to catch on to.  It makes much sharper turns than I expected.  Some forklifts have a control you use to widen and narrow the space between the forks; ours doesn't, so you have to hop off and pull pins out, like on a weight lifting machine, adjust em and put the pins back in.  We have an empty pallet I lifted and lowered and moved all around.  An empty pallet is harder really cuz it doesn't sit still too well as you are sliding the forks in.  I just didn't wanna be playing around with the product.  My luck, I'd drop a palletload and have to buy it. 
    Most of my maps are finally on the walls.  I was nearly late for work this morning, in my preoccupation with taping them up.  There's a wide variety on the walls, most of them road maps and National Geographic bonuses, but there are some national park maps, tourist maps from Germany, and a few classroom style ones too.  The world map has animal stickers on it from a project the kids did once.  Many of the maps are torn or magic markered, but it really doesn't matter too much, as long as the information is still discernible. 
    I don't collect for monetary value.  I don't collect for the prestige or the rarity of certain maps.  I just like the damn things and want to have as many different ones as I can.  So, if anyone takes a liking to almost any of them, I'm happy to give it to them.  If my kids tear one, it's a bit sad, but not a tragic loss.  It's just a comfort, I guess, to have these things around.  There's probably a psychological metaphor in it somewhere, about wanting to know just where I stand or something.  Don't ask me though.  I'm just an on again, off again geography major. 
 
 

 
 
Tales from the Field 

If you are sick of hearing about soda and the soda business, I suggest you ignore the sidebar. 

Yesterday the Condiman was working his route.  As he drove down the highway, a vanful of youths pulled up alongside him.  All four of them stuck their arms out the window;  they each brandished a bottle of Jones. 

Meanwhile, the Straight Man had visited a store whose owner was very skeptical about this relatively unheard-of product and really wanted nothing to do with it.  Nevertheless, Straight left some sample bottles with the owner, who put them on the counter and got back to work.  He later called me saying that he had changed his mind.  All the questions his customers were plying him with regarding this soda on his countertop made him realize that there is quite a lot of interest in the stuff after all.  He wants to swap out his Pepsi for it.