The World's a Blur

As may come to no shock for some of you, I have been busy working in research and will continue to do so for the duration of the summer holiday. Of course, grants do not grow on trees, and the people that issue such things like there to be a possible benefit to said grant. This means that far more often than not, the research is done on insects that affect crops. Crops in Canada really only grow in the summer, and thus the associated insects can normally only be studied during this time. This results in the time honored tradition of "field season" which I now participate in. Of course, one may not just unassumingly waft into field season, but rather come prepared with protocols and equipment ready to engage the task at hand. Yet, we seem to be short some of our equipment: insect cages. It's a rather simple idea. If you wish to study a particular insects effects on plant, you need to limit the number of insects that have access to that plant and make sure that the insects are only working on the one plant -- thus, the cage. This diabolical contraption is wrought from cases of equipment jamming, messy silicone caulking, unevenly cut screen, and a host of other equally annoying items. And for the last several days, I have been tasked with building 50 of them. You'd have thought they would have made them far before now, but this would appear to not have been the case. Thankfully, this sordid tale is far from over, as I am happy to report that as of today, they decided that 50 more should be built. Job security.