Oratio Brevis

The days are hot, humidity is low, and the plants are nearly dead. It’s summer and the soil is almost as quenched in the mesocosms as it is on Terra Firma. This is the time of year when electronics will start failing randomly. At four in the morning a strip heater will go out or the chiller unit will fail and I’ll have to come in to lord over this place for a few extra hours that day. The routine is simple: play unsuspecting victim to the trolls that roam the field whom plot with the gnomes that rule the polyhouse. Their objective is clear, simple, and imprisoning. They deliver bad gadget-fate on the physical systems of our little experiment.

In a few weeks I’ll be amidst the salmon run. I’m going there as best man, for a spell, and then it’s back to reality. Then it’s back to the project, the gnomes, the trolls, and all that equipment. I’ll be back home with the wires, steam, gears, solenoids and computer integrated ecosystems. It will be nice to be back in this place where boxes smell like boats and the buildings open into buildings that open into automated offices filled with tubes, flow meters, and a few scarce crazies. I know I’ll miss this place where the gnomes have control; this place where the trolls dare not go; this place where I work.