The Write-Down #16
Each week here at downboy, LLC, we like to take a moment to get to know a little more about our amazing team. One question. Three Answers. No judgment.
Consider the Chiton. On a recent South Central Florida team-building beach retreat, we here at downboy, LLC began each day with a post-dawn shoreline walk, contemplating the wonder, thinking about Q2 projections, leaving our footprints oh so temporarily in the sand, and searching the white sand for that perfect memory shell. On the second morning, we came across a shiny reddish-brown lump about the size of a human heart. Wait, we thought, is that…What is the that? We crouched down to get a closer look in the foamy surf as it drifted a bit with each wave. What the hell is that? Cautious, we gently poked it with a shell fragment. (Probably) not a heart. Wielding a sophisticated mollusk identifying tool, we were told it was a Gumboot Chiton. Known among mollusk enthusiasts as the ‘wandering meatloaf,’ it is essentially eight shell plates over a large foot covered in a leathery reddish brown ‘girdle’. In open water, in can turn itself into a sort of ball. Fascinating, yes, and content with our ‘knowledge’, we later discovered this was not the end of the story. Lesson learned. Turns out it couldn’t have been the aforementioned chiton, which is generally only found in the cooler waters of the Pacific. Using the same identification tool, we realized that it was probably just a Spotted Sea Hare, quite commonly found in the shallow waters of the Gulf. Not exactly as cool as a wandering meatloaf, but a formidable creature nonetheless. To protect itself, it emits an ink like an octopus, which can induce ‘altered behavior’ in others creatures who disturb it. Not bad, sea hare, not bad.
Point is, we thought we’d open this week’s question up to a story. Describe an encounter with the previously unknown. A time when you came across some thing, some situation that prompted the age old question:
What (the hell) is/was that?
“So, at the place I used to work, we had two ultrasonic cleaners. About the size of a toaster. One, we used and cleaned often. The other was like a backup. One day, we went to use the backup and we discovered a small greenish growth on the stainless steel pan. We let it go. Over time, the growth grew into something…beautiful? In any case, it got to the point that no one could do anything about it. We checked in on it. Nurtured it, gave it a name: Larry. It (they?) eventually evolved into something a bit larger than a golf ball. When we moved to a new location, sadly, Larry and his ultrasonic cleaner world did not make the trip. But I think about him often. And what could have been…”
Em, Metal Detection Technician
“Give me a walk, I’m going to find something. My advantage is that I don’t really have the language to articulate what the hell anything is. I hear things like “Phil, no!” “Drop it.” Something about “goose poop”, or “pebble”, “We don’t eat that!” And then one time…that’s the one I want to talk about. It was a pleasant, cool afternoon in the spring. A familiar path. Just waggling along like usual. And right there, in the middle of the grassy boulevard, a filet mignon-sized (yes, I am familiar) object glistened in the waning sun. When something like that happens, there’s no time for questions…When I look back on it, I don’t know what it was, but it became a part of me, and hey…I’m still here.”
Philip K, Accounting
“I saw a dead guy once on the railroad tracks.”
Dewey Crowe, 1099 Independent Contractor (Off-book)