Saturday, May 24, 2008

Unexpected developments


Alrighty, this is the first time I've posted whilst enjoying a touch of the grape. Be kind.
In addition to BioCup One (see previous posts) I'm also maintaining a holding tank. You may have noticed it in the pictures I posted earlier. I keep it simply to hold extra pond water, duckweed and milfoil, because the only vegetables I regularly keep in the house are black olives and I can't be running off to Lake Matilda everytime the snails run out of greenery, for Christ's sake!
Something's happening in there. I collected a different variety of milfoil the last time I went to the lake. (I believe that what I have in BioCup One is Eurasian Milfoil, which is an exotic and invasive species.) What I have in the holding tank is native. And it's.....increasing. Fast. It's only been in there a week, but like Topsy, it has grow'd. It has grow'd right up out of the water. I just thought it was garbage. I almost discarded it but it was so green and.......you know how when you've got a really healthy plant, and you just barely touch it and you can feel it buzzing with life? That's how this plant felt. So I threw it in with the spare crap and forgot about it. Until today, when I noticed that it was rising like Lazarus. It's rising in two places, though you can only see one in the picture.
Let's talk about snail snot. I know it's not snail snot; it's snail slime. But what IS it? Some sort of colloidal suspension, I suppose. That doesn't really narrow it down. Proteins and carbohydrates can both form long-chain molecules. So can plastics, though I think I can safely rule them out. If it's protein, then we're dealing with nitrogen. As a renal nurse, I'm suspicious of nitrogen. Nitrates, nitrites, urea; they're all bad news in high concentrations. Does this cup need dialysis?
It's 4:18 in the morning and I'm listening to Koko Taylor singing 'Wang Dang Doodle'. What else is on my playlist? Hugh Laurie singing 'Too Long Johnny' of course. I haven't got enough of that yet. Celia Cruz singing 'Te Busco', Tom Waits - 'Burma Shave' (Lordy, what a sad song.) Les Nubians, Phil Roy, Stevie Wonder, Errol Garner, Wes Mongomery, Chet Baker, Ry Cooder, Diane Reeves, Traffic, Blind Faith and, if you can believe it, Captain Beefheart! All these are interspersed with Vissi D'arte, Nessun Dorma, ("None Shall Sleep" Sounds like something Gandalf would bellow at the Ball Hog. One day I'm going to get myself a tee-shirt that says 'Villa Nova'.) Lascia Ch'io Pianga, Nunc Dimittis, Pie Jesu....so much beautiful music.
If I don't go to sleep (now it's 4:43am) I'll never be able to get up on time tomorrow to kick Eladio out of the house so I can sneak that damned cat home. How do you keep an 18 lb cat a secret in a two and a half room house? Oh, Tom Waits is singing, "come down off the cross, we could use the wood". 'Raglan Road' comes on after this. It'll make me cry. I'll say 'Goodnight' now.
- "sniffle"

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