Birthday with a Bang! KABOOM

Never take your safety gear for granted!

 I definitely do not. I actually love safety equipment, pile it on me.  The lab coat and goggles just feels so right. I daresay cool even.

Stylin'...geek style

I was making a reagent today, that was not particularly volatile.  I've probably made this reagent dozens of times over the last five years, so I really didn't think much about it.  I set up my area and started weighing out a neat material across the room.  This only took a couple minutes, but when I came back I realized the heat knob was switched on.  Actually it was on full heat.  I reached in the hood to take the 4 liter glass bottle off the heat, and it exploded.

Yep, it blew up in my hand!

And this ladies and gentlemen is the aftermath.

(Note the stir bar still in the middle)

 Luckily only a small amount of residual solution was in the bottom of the bottle when it exploded.  It made the loudest boom I've ever heard, and people from other areas of the lab ran in to check on us.  Glass shot out of the hood, across the room, and everywhere!

 I was standing right in front of the hood holding the glass that exploded.

I'm lucky enough to be typing this article still and without any injury.  And I mean I really feel very lucky.  I could have easily gotten shards of glass all over my body and face. Any one piece of glass could have maimed or disfigured me, or worse.

We've had instances in the lab when our liter sep. funnels would become too reactive and shoot their caps off during a shake.  Other than that we've never had much problem and 0 injuries.

I guess once the oven caught on fire too, but that was dealt with pretty quickly.

After something like that happens, it shakes you up a little. After 5 years in the lab, I often feel like a well oiled robot going through the motions of my day at work.  The routine work was less than routine after the explosion though.

I didn't attempt to make the reagent again.  In fact I walked a little slower, checked my surroundings a little harder, and my heart was still beating pretty fast when I walked out the door.

I kept this scorched stir bar as a reminder that one day in the lab I felt like a mad scientist.

My new S.P.E. partner, Kim, was the only one in the room at the time.  She's still saying I just wanted to start my birthday with a bang! 

Some People are so Poor, All They Have is Money

The task of getting out of bed some days, especially a Monday, is an accomplishment in itself.  By the time I drive a half hour to work my mood usually hasn't improved.  If I can make it out of my car and into my windowless laboratory room, I'm feeling pretty damn good about my achievement.  I've made it to work, somebody pat me on the back!

                   

This morning I came in to find a new book, lotion, and body spray in my locker!  Ronda gave me the book, and my new S.P.E. partner brought the sprays and body lotion.  I hope she isn't trying to tell me something!

The tomatoes are farm fresh that I swiped off the break table.  Coworkers here are really generous, and all growing season we come in to find various fruits and vegetables for the taking.

This was just such a funny sight when I walked in that I had to get a picture.  Our labs very own farmers market.

 I'm instantly reminded that good, no great people surround my life.  Through bad moods and bad days, it is the generosity of my friends and coworkers that keep me going.  

I'd been working on this article for a week or so not sure where to go with it, but I came in today to more presents in my locker! What more of a sign do I need to finish my post about being grateful.

Kim went to visit Amber in Florida recently. 4 Ladies and a Beaker unite again! They had a great time catching up and scanning beaches for shells.  

And Kim was lucky enough to get to cuddle these cutie pies again.

They found a nice stash of shells and Kim brought these back for me! She also made an air plant magnet out of a bigger shell.  The socks were just me she said.  Hilariously enough this morning rained massive amounts and surrounding areas were pummeled with hail.  Flash floods were happening everywhere and streets were so full of water they were closed down around our work.  Today hail and high winds can't bring me down anyway.  Neither can the annoying traffic, or the broken instrument.  

Today I will smile! And I will mean it.  Hopefully it catches.

I've received so much kindness throughout my life, and I should more often stop and think about my blessings.   

 Sometimes in the midst of the chaos and sadness of the world I get lost, but my friends and family always find me and bring me back to my roots. 

 If I was asked what I truly want in life, it would be exactly what I have.  It is humbling to think about what I am really gracious for.  And I am so rich in love.  I'm rich in ways others are not.  I wouldn't trade what I have for any amount of money or things.

  I have an amazing supportive family and incredible friends.  My co-workers are like a 2nd family.  We may bicker occasionally, but we are always there for each other.  I know that i always have a sincere friend that I can ugly cry in front of even at work.

I added a couple pictures of my wonderful work family...out of work.  Here we all are. My friends and confidants.  4 Ladies and a Beaker.

Take my advice and think about the important people in your life, and smile for them, smile for a stranger, and feel blessed for the small moments of joy.

Riboflavin-Flavored, Non-Carbonated, Polyunsaturated Blood

I was working in the lab, late one night

When my eyes beheld an eerie sight...

When I first started working at the lab we had an old giant fridge outside our organics room.  We put our finished samples in there for the analysts to grab and run on their GC/SV/LC instruments. 

 This door decoration above is one of my favorites.  Right now it's on the girls locker room door next to our break area.  

It used to hang on our creepy fridge though, and was so legitimate, you might have been too scared to open it.

I made this graveyard in our outside break/smoke area.  It is the gravestones of S.P.E. employees.  

"And every day you're in this place you're 2 days nearer death." ~Great Big Sea

Monsters, skulls, but mostly cute bats and ghosts take over our lab this time of year.  I've been working on this pirate hood for the whole year, but the finishing touch was Kim's skeleton getting chomped on by a great white.

Alcohol Is The Solution

Well it's only 11a.m. but I am feeling this already.

Fragile as Butterfly Wings

On days that I really really hate my job, I try to think of all the ways I have benefited from working there.  A surprising opportunity to learn more about entomology, occurred shortly after I started at the lab.  My coworker Ronda had been working with monarch butterflies for years.  Another coworker  had started the tradition at work and passed it onto her as she did us.

 Our company has a field behind the garage of prairie grasses and flowers that we utilized.  On lunch breaks we would walk the field searching for monarch eggs, finding all kinds of interesting insects in the process.  

None of us have tried our own butterfly rearing, but instead helped Ronda gather milkweed leaves and eggs, and watched the beautiful process unfold.  When the transformation was complete, she let us help her release some of them!

This is me in our hallway outside the O.E.P. room holding a monarch we are about to release.

Watching an egg the size of a pin head change into a tiny caterpillar and then into a delicate butterfly is a patient amazing process.  Like every girl I always loved butterflies, but it wasn't until I watched their transformation that I really understood how fragile they truly are.  How cruel the world can be to something so tiny.  How insignificant such a little speck can seem to us, but oh the rewards we receive from them.

We now have what seems like an unending plethora of synthetic organic insecticides.   These insecticides function in various ways.  Insecticides can kill by disrupting the nervous system, acting as an endotoxin, damaging the exoskeleton, or causing infertility.  While some insecticides claim to target certain species, most do not discriminate.  That means we're not just killing pests, we're killing all the beneficial insects that make this world flourish with foods and flowers of every color.  Not only that, but aquatic species specifically have shown high mortality rates in the presence of pesticides.

 We need to remember what it is like to be in nature, remember that it is nature we belong with, not the artificial walls of the cities or the synthetic chemicals we think we need.  What we really need is to let nature do as it was intended to do, and the fruits of nature will unfold.  

While we're on the subject of pollinators, I followed this little friend around the yard after work the other day.  It's a spicebush swallowtail butterfly on my pesticide-free butterfly bush.  I used this very handy blog for identification so thank you for the pictures!

 http://louisiananaturalist.blogspot.com/2009/06/four-dark-swallowtails.html?m=1#butterfly

Links
http://ipmworld.umn.edu/ware-intro-insecticides-a good read into some of the uses, histories, and lasting impacts of insecticides

http://www.askdrmaxwell.com/2013/03/the-gut-destroying-toxin-you-eat-everyday/

Blinded Me with Science

A transformer went down somewhere and the neighborhood is out of power.  The backup generator isn't running the lab at full capacity.  Every hallway has flickering lights and the hoods are acting possessed. It's like we're in the middle of a horror movie or haunted house attraction.  It's pretty awesome!!! So now I'm on break and getting paid to work on my blog! Thursday you're alright!  We even got to leave and get coffee!  We heard more booms and saw sparks from an electrical pole across the street on the way back. This is the closest we get to a snow day and I'll take what I can get and enjoy it fully. This is what I was working on today.  Making reagents can be fun and very messy.  This is the carnage left after I made a reagent with sulfuric acid.  Behold the power of the tiny drops of acid.  

 

Slippery When Wet

Our lab is busy as ever here at 4ladiesandabeaker.  Our 2nd quarter busy season didn't end when the season was over, and we're currently shorthanded while training 2 new people.  Over time has been a approved, so we're going in early and staying there late.

We had our yearly lab wide E.P.A. audit just a couple weeks ago as well, putting the whole laboratory in a frenzy about finalizing data, cleaning up areas, making sure calibrations are done, etc.  Honestly I've gotten lucky not having to deal with audits too much.  This year though the E.P.A. decided to focus heavily on drinking water, and since my partner left, I'm the only one certified.  Lucky me.  It went smoothly though, and they didn't find anything wrong in our area.

By the end of a long day extracting multiple batches of samples, I come home feeling like my brain is floating in a solution of ether and methylene chloride. 

Sometimes I mix that with  a little rum or vodka.  

Chemicals, and a mix of chemicals on top of that, leaves you more exhausted than you think.  

 However floaty my brain may feel I have been diligently working on several articles sure to melt your mind as well.

This is me hard at work.  Look it's Batman, or a laboratory style shank.  No it's just me breaking glass again.  These gloves are as slick as they look.