Returning to work after a week and a half vacation is always tricky. First of all pretty much everything of use from my bench was stolen. Marker pens, tips, scissors, you name it. So I just went and took some more from another colleague who is away. The cycle is never-ending. A rational response would be to just make sure everyone has one of all the essentials but it seems to be a sport in my lab. On Friday I discovered that my bay area was flooded. Even weirder was the fact it was coming from the freezer that doesn't work so I've no idea how it managed to condense enough water to cause a flood. Almost as if it briefly came back to life just to annoy me. Not anymore. I've unplugged it. On the other hand the liquid nitrogen containers were dangerously low. I went to fill it up only to discover that both reserve tanks were also empty (see previous mantra). I took them down to be refilled. I'll check tomorrow to see whether they still need filling. I suspect they will.
The rest of the week seemed to involve repeatedly encountering the last of everything. This really winds me up but I guess the fact I don't personally take over ordering means I'm also to blame. I do try and adhere to the "you take the last one you order more" policy.
The "green" pipette tips have transmuted into gold as we don't have any more. This one is a bit odd as several people have claimed to order them and they've never arrived so I think that one is a distributor problem. The result is that a bartering system has now started in order to get our hands on tips within the lab. I'm also being super efficient with the use of the green tips. If I can use a "red" tip (10ul), I use that and gone are the days when I'd recklessly use a green tip for making mini-preps. I probably should count how many I have left every evening to ensure none of them are stolen. Hell, I should probably take them home with me every night.
No comments:
Post a Comment