I should have know by the way my day began that the best course of action would have been to roll over and go back to sleep. Every Saturday I wake up early to drive into Charlottetown to go to the gym and then hit up the farmers market. Considering the fact that I must drive 45 minutes just to get to Charlottetown, I am ridiculously meticulous about my weekend planning. Each Friday night, I pack multiple bags for my various activities, usually a bag for CrossFit, a bag for wrestling practice and a bag of shower supplies and clean clothes (because when you live 45 minutes away, you MUST be prepared for everything!).
This weekend was no different except for the fact that my alarm did not go off. Today, I woke to the sounds of whining dogs at my bedroom door. In my semi-conscious state, I wondered why the dogs were up so early considering my 6:45 am alarm had not yet gone off. As I lay in bed for a few minutes trying to will the dogs back to sleep, I realized that it was brighter in my bedroom than it should be for 6 something in the morning. I opened my eyes and grabbed my cell phone (which I also use as an alarm clock) only to find that the battery is dead! I then stumble out of bed into then kitchen and check the time on the microwave only to find that it is 7:22 am. If I want to make it on time for my 8:30 am CrossFit class, I had to be out the door in 10 minutes! I will not lie, it did cross my mind to say "Aww, screw it! Go back to bed!" but I just couldn't do it. So I raced around the house, grabbing my things as I fed the dogs and prepped my post-workout protein shake.
I headed out the door at 7:34, jumped in my car and drove down to the gate, only to find that the last people who had been in the building the night before had locked the gate! This is a highly unusual circumstance as most of my colleagues leave the gate unlocked if they see my car in the parking lot. Instead of throwing open the gate, I had to race back to my car to grab my keys. When I arrived at the gate for the second time, I realized not only was the gate locked, but that I was locked IN!! The lock had been applied from the outside, so here I am trying to force my hand through the bars to reach the lock from the other side! And wouldn't you know it, I ended up dropping my keys so I had to get down on the ground and try to reach under the gate to reach the bastards! Right there, I should have said, "Nope, this just isn't going to happen today" and head back to bed. But no, I am too stubborn for that. I finally managed to reach my keys and get the gate open. Feeling relieved and only 6 minutes behind schedule, I got in my car and began my drive to Charlottetown.
Half way between St. Peter's Bay and Morell, I heard a loud "DING" noise come from my car. When I looked down at the dash I realized that was the sound of my gas light coming on. I slept in, I was behind schedule and now I have to stop for gas! I decided to stop for gas in Morell simply because this gas station looked relatively new so I assumed that I could pay at the pump to save time. FAIL! When I pulled up to the pumps, there was a sign to greet me which read: "Pay at the pump out of order. Please see attendant inside". Great ...... I filled my car and went inside to pay. Luckily, there was only one person in line ahead of me. However, that one person decided to check all of his lottery tickets from what appeared to be the last 6 months just as I was hoping to pay and be on my way. When I finally retunred to my car, I found that I was now 12 minutes behind schedule. Although it seemed as though the universe was against me this morning, I made it into Charlottetown, late for my CrossFit class. But I managed to get through a pretty grueling workout regardless.
Although I have been living at the AquaBounty apartment for a few months, because the husbandry staff has been ridiculously busy. I still have not completed all of the "on-call" training. In particular, one of the things which I have not yet been trained to do is how to deal with low oxygen alarms. Now in theory, is should not be hard. The alarm goes off, you figure out what tank it is and go downstairs to turn the oxygen up. First I hear the low oxygen alarm goes off on the panel in the lab and then I hear the phone ring. Between the high pitched squeal of the alarm and the ringing of the phone, I do not notice that the motion sensor has detected my movement and has triggered the count down on the security alarm. So I inadvertently set off the intrusion alarm (off to a good start!).
One of my colleagues who had just left the building then called to see if I could go downstairs to check on the tank in question. He gave me all the details regarding how to adjust the incoming oxygen but sadly, at this point I didn't even know the code to get me in the door to the grow out area where the broodstock are kept! After failing multiple times at trying to unlock the door, what do I do? I decide that it is a good idea to scale the wall, which apparently now is my MO.
I successfully made it into the grow out area without falling and cracking my skull on the cement floor. However, a low oxygen alarm which should have been an easy fix, turned into a 4 hour adventure with a couple of colleagues through the plumbing of AquaBounty's fish tanks! If nothing else, I have learned a great deal about the operation of the tank system from this experience. But I really need to stop getting locked out of places at work because I cannot afford to have another fence-related injury!
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