Rides, ramblings and rants on a motorcycle.
- We are scientists, too!
2.09.2007,8:50 PM
The Rant
A rant for the sake of ranting is sometimes a good thing. Vent, get it off your chest, find release.....that type of thing. I've been ranting a bit more than usual lately. It's called "Travel Withdrawal". I haven't gone on a walkabout since last November; I have itchy feet. They want to travel somewhere.
Or perhaps it's because I've been working in the lab too much lately trying to finish a project that has been dragging on for way too long. Science is never black and white; things don't always work. Now they're working, it's near the end, and we are already finding surprises. I mutated fruit flies that have no eyes. It was not intentional, mind you. In fact, it was supposed to 'rescue' already mutated flies. Well, something else happened. Instead of correcting, or compensating for a mutated gene that disrupts eye synapse formation, like we hypothesized, the cells that form their eyes self-destruct. So they have no eyes.
I'm not sure how I feel about that. I hate flies, actually, but who knows. A mutated giant fruit fly may appear one day to take revenge.
I know when irritation and impatience is the rule of the day, I look out the train windows and ask myself "What am I doing here?", growl out loud in the lab and tell the elevator pretty voice to 'Shut the fuck up"............I mean, it's only an elevator. It speaks what it's told to speak.
I know I need a vacation. Time away from the lab, the people, the cars, the concrete canyons, the highway signs...... all of it. I need a break.
I want to stuff clothes in the SpaceSaver bags, push out the air and roll them up, stuff sleeping bags and mattress inside the dry bag, smush my contoured Thermorest pillow inside another SpaceSaver bag and giggle as I reduce it to one-quarter of it's original size. Gather sandals, gloves, extra socks, flashlight, headlamp, candle lantern, toiletry bag, Whisperlite stove, aluminum pan, French coffee press mug. Put ground coffee in bag with some dried food, dried soup, p-nut butter, tortillas, all in two ziplock bags and lay everything out on the floor next to the sidebag liners.
Carefully place items in each liner and check that they are equal in weight, grab my travel journal, maps, a book or two...... I'm almost there. The anticipation is growing. I can feel myself vibrate like a dog waiting to go for a ride. There's a certain satisfaction in preparing to go on a bike trip that I've never before experienced with any other mode of transportation. It always finds me smiling.
Well, not this weekend. But tomorrow will find me riding somewhere, out in middle-town and outback Texas, finding a place to relax and enjoy a meal, reading a book. Probably out in Ponder, where the Ranchman's Steakhouse is out in the middle of nowhere. And you can park your bike in the middle of the street. That alone is worth the trip. Now how 'middle' can one get?
Besides, they always keep my coffee mug filled, the stove always throws out comfortable heat, the clickety-clack of the well-worn wooden floor, smiling faces and the fantastic cobbler with ice cream keep me coming back.
Another 'Wander Off to Ponder' run for me.
And a ride.
Or perhaps it's because I've been working in the lab too much lately trying to finish a project that has been dragging on for way too long. Science is never black and white; things don't always work. Now they're working, it's near the end, and we are already finding surprises. I mutated fruit flies that have no eyes. It was not intentional, mind you. In fact, it was supposed to 'rescue' already mutated flies. Well, something else happened. Instead of correcting, or compensating for a mutated gene that disrupts eye synapse formation, like we hypothesized, the cells that form their eyes self-destruct. So they have no eyes.
I'm not sure how I feel about that. I hate flies, actually, but who knows. A mutated giant fruit fly may appear one day to take revenge.
I know when irritation and impatience is the rule of the day, I look out the train windows and ask myself "What am I doing here?", growl out loud in the lab and tell the elevator pretty voice to 'Shut the fuck up"............I mean, it's only an elevator. It speaks what it's told to speak.
I know I need a vacation. Time away from the lab, the people, the cars, the concrete canyons, the highway signs...... all of it. I need a break.
I want to stuff clothes in the SpaceSaver bags, push out the air and roll them up, stuff sleeping bags and mattress inside the dry bag, smush my contoured Thermorest pillow inside another SpaceSaver bag and giggle as I reduce it to one-quarter of it's original size. Gather sandals, gloves, extra socks, flashlight, headlamp, candle lantern, toiletry bag, Whisperlite stove, aluminum pan, French coffee press mug. Put ground coffee in bag with some dried food, dried soup, p-nut butter, tortillas, all in two ziplock bags and lay everything out on the floor next to the sidebag liners.
Carefully place items in each liner and check that they are equal in weight, grab my travel journal, maps, a book or two...... I'm almost there. The anticipation is growing. I can feel myself vibrate like a dog waiting to go for a ride. There's a certain satisfaction in preparing to go on a bike trip that I've never before experienced with any other mode of transportation. It always finds me smiling.
Well, not this weekend. But tomorrow will find me riding somewhere, out in middle-town and outback Texas, finding a place to relax and enjoy a meal, reading a book. Probably out in Ponder, where the Ranchman's Steakhouse is out in the middle of nowhere. And you can park your bike in the middle of the street. That alone is worth the trip. Now how 'middle' can one get?
Besides, they always keep my coffee mug filled, the stove always throws out comfortable heat, the clickety-clack of the well-worn wooden floor, smiling faces and the fantastic cobbler with ice cream keep me coming back.
Another 'Wander Off to Ponder' run for me.
And a ride.
Labels: rant
