Feels Like Christmas

There I was at work, just a working away, when my coworker bopped up to me and said, "Becky, do you know we're off Saturday?"

"Yes!" I replied, deciding not to press the issue. 

That's when my other coworker cut in and said, "Becky's the one who brought the paper around!"  

The first coworker said, "I didn't know!  I'm just so excited!  It feels like Christmas!" 

By now, you're probably wondering which issue I decided not to press.  To tell you that, we'll have to back up about 15 minutes...

I was walking past the group leader's desk returning a brazing jig to the rack, when the dispatcher handed me a piece of paper.  And on that piece of paper were the most wonderful words I'd ever seen:  

 ALL PRODUCTION AREAS ARE OFF SATURDAY.

Completely forgetting the jig that was still in my hand, I ran back to the sub brazing area, waving the paper around, calling, "WOOOO!  WOOOO!"  showing all my coworkers before hanging it up on the post beside the computer.  

So, yes, I did know we are off Saturday.  I'm not sure if it's because work may be slowing down -- it is   getting to be late summer after all -- or if someone finally convinced The Big Man Up Front that we need a break.  We've been working long, long hours these last few weeks.  We're all tired.  I can't remember the last time I was this absolutely worn out.  One of my coworkers -- who shall remain nameless -- told me he fell asleep on the toilet last night.  I told him I could have lived the rest of my life without knowing that.  He said he'd fallen asleep, then fell off the toilet, and his girlfriend called "Are you all right?" and he said he was just getting into the shower...

Kind of reminds me of the time in Navy boot camp when I fell asleep standing at parade rest.  But that's another story for another post.  

I have no idea what I'm going to do with my day off, other than sleep past 3:30 AM, but I'm sure I'll find something.  Maybe I'll catch up with all the blogging I've been wanting to do but have been too tired to.  Do, I mean.  Blog...whatever. 

A couple of weeks ago, I did some science.  I'd seen a video on Facebook in which a man grew some bacteria cultures in Petri dishes.  I found it fascinating, and said to myself, "Self, I'd like to find me some of them there Petri dishes and try that for my own self."  Naturally, I did what any red blooded American would do.  

I got onto Amazon and found some.  Then I did science.  

Now, the caveat is, these dishes are designed for kids to do science projects, so the agar is less toxic than the stuff you'd find in a professional medical or scientific lab.  That also means it's less conducive to bacteria growth, but they worked well enough, and it was fun doing it.  

I knew wearing a mask would catch the crap you cough out of your mouth, but I wanted to see if there was a significant difference in the types of masks.  I used three:  a home made mask my friend Mary Ellen sent me, a store bought mask from Walmart, and a surgical mask they gave me at work. 

Then, just because all the Facebook memes are mocking them, I also decided to test a doubled up bandana. 

I put on each type of mask and coughed twice into a petri dish held about 12 inches from my face.  The second caveat is, I don't have an incubator.  I put the dishes on top of Sunny's tank in the snake room, and closed the A/C vent. Even doing that, I couldn't quite get the room up to the 85-100' temp they recommend.  The best I could do on a consistent basis was 78.  I sure didn't want to turn on the space heater.  Not in the middle of a Mississippi summer.  I was afraid I'd roast my snakes.  

After a week, I checked the dishes and there was virtually no bacteria growth in any of them.  

And here we come to the third caveat.  If I'd had more sense, I would have taken the photos on a dark colored, non reflective surface instead of on the snake room floor.  Obviously, I didn't have more sense.

The reflection washes out the surface of the agar, so you can't really see anything.  You'll just have to take my word that there were only one or two very small spots of bacteria growth on them.  By the way, I did do a control, but as I said, the reflection washed out the few small spots of bacteria growth.  It wasn't a lot, but it was significantly more than with any of the masks. 

Since I had a couple of dishes left over, I took the opportunity to do some more tests.  I already showed you the swab I took of Jesse's mouth. None of the rest were very significant, but this one.  I've got some bad news for those of you who like hand sanitizer.    First off, I coughed directly into my hand, and took a swab without any sort of washing or sanitizing as a control.  

Then, I coughed into my hand, and used the hand sanitizer as directed.  This particular brand is 70% alcohol, and I rubbed it into my hands for 30 seconds. 

As you can see, using hand sanitizer is better than nothing, but there is still plenty of bacteria growth.  Now, I wish I'd had another dish to compare sanitizer to washing with regular soap and water.  Maybe I'll order some more and do even more science. 

Later, though.  Right now I'm going to bed. 

Goodnight.