My lab has three doors: one to the hall way and two into the neighboring labs. Most of the time, the door to the lab where the guys are working on DOGS is open. The other door has never been open. There is a sign on it, hand lettered with magic marker: "Keep this door closed at all times." I sit with my back to this door.
I'm coding away at the Hamsters and suddenly I hear a voice over my shoulder. The door had opened!
"Do you have any capacitors?"
I turn around and see a guy, another one of us older students, standing in the doorway of The Door That Must Not Be Opened.
He explains. "We're working down in 205. We're having some noise problems and we just need a little one, maybe a hundredth of a microfarad." 205 is at the far end of the hall. He must have passed through every lab between here and there.
"Sure. The capacitors are in here." I lead him into the DOGS lab and show him the cabinet of components over by where the guys are working on their flight simulator, the graphic display of which shows the plane embedded in the ground. Everyone offers him a capacitor and he takes his leave, thanking us, with a collection of them.
I also sit with my back to a little table saw and a drill press. The people down in 205 have been in and out, via the hallway door, all semester to cut things up. Today they've been slicing apart a perfboard. They cut it in half, leave, return in fifteen minutes, cut off another piece, et cetera. Perfboard smells when it's getting cut up.
They're back again. "We're going to make some more noise."
"That's okay." I turn around and eye the table saw. "You know, there was a safety guard on that thing. We took it off early in the semester because what we were cutting couldn't fit under it. I think it's still around. Somewhere." I stand up and poke aimlessly through some lab detritus.
"Oh, no. Those things just get in the way. Besides, I haven't lost a finger yet. But I'm working on it. See, I sort of drilled my finger." One of them holds up his hand to show me.
Before I can see more of a yucky spot on the indicated appendage, I cover my eyes and cry, "No! Don't show me. Euw!"
They think this is really funny. It takes a while, but finally they stop comparing accidental body perforations, cut up their perfboard some more, and go.
Skywalker appears at the hallway door with a clutch of hand tools. "Have you seen a bicycle floating around?"
God, I love Fridays.
A bicycle floating around would be much remarked upon, especially by the summarily grounded DOGS team. "A bicycle? Floating?"
"Yeah. Green? Huffy? We're using it for a club project. We left it in 205, but it's not there now. So I figured someone might have moved it," he says, glancing around at the battered fridge, stacks of computers and airplane wings, and scraps of projects from students gone by.
"Nope. Sorry."
"Oh well." He doesn't seem much disturbed by this and continues on his quest.
I wonder if I should go see what's going on in 205.
557 words | March 25, 2005 10:45 PM | Ivory tower