Living AT WORK!

I got lucky. Just as I was in need of finding a new place to live, the apartment that is attached to the building where I work became available. Interestingly, I now have the shortest commute ever, I just open my door and VOILA! Having an apartment to myself once again does have its advantages, however, as part of the exchange I am required to be on call for fish related emergencies. A fair trade.

Although I have the apartment to myself, I do have to share the property with my coworkers. Today for example, I learned a valuable lesson - NEVER leave the property without your keys. I crossed the road to take the dogs to the beach for a swim after work. The last person who left the building decided to close the gate. This is not unusual as we have a 8 ft high fence around the entire property to keep the dirty hippies out. The gate is left unlocked during the day (unless there is a scheduled protest by the local activists), especially when I am on site. For whatever reason, today my colleague decided to lock the gate when he left.

As I returned to the property after exercising the dogs, not only did I find the gate to be locked but as well, everyone had left for the day. I tried to slide myself under the small gap between the gate and the driveway without any success. Because I couldn't go under, I knew that the only way in was to go OVER! At first, I attempted to climb the gate itself as there is no barbed wire on the top of that section. As soon as I started my ascent, the gate made sounds of protest and did not want to support my body weight. My last option was to go over the fence topped with wire.

Let me remind you the fence is 8 ft tall. I made the climb to the top with relative ease, but once there things became a little dicey. after swinging my right leg over the fence top, I had to straddle the fence as to not sit directly on the jagged wire. I couldn't go anywhere until I readjusted my hand position to swing the left leg over and go down the other side. Try as I might, I could not find a place for my left hand to rest where no barbs were present. Finally, my strength gave out and I came down hard with my left hamstring landing right on the barbs. Frustrated and spewing profanity, I tried to dislodge my leg which was bleeding at this point. The next thing I know, I lose my balance, fall to the interior of the fence and end up getting caught by the pants on the barbs. Picture it - I am now hanging on a chain link fence, 8 ft off the ground by the ass of my pants, bleeding profusely. The only way down was to reach back and tear the material that was caught up right off the ass of my pants which sent me plummeting back to Earth.

It didn't make it any better that the entire time, both my labs were jumping and barking at me from the other side of the fence. I can only imagine what was running through their heads witnessing this shit show!