When It Rains

By Carine Nadel

Sunday, August 20, 2006

When it Rains...
The cliche goes: When it Rains, it Pours.
This past week should have been titled: If it starts to sprinkle, a flood is on the way.
It was Monday, every single day this past week. There are weeks like that and I wasn't the only one who felt this way.

It started out on Monday-at my day job, I found out I should've counted the items on an 8 page order a sixth time-because the 5 times I did, I still managed to forget to order a client 2 robe hooks. The client made it sound as if I had just ruined their entire bathroom. I had nightmares about that boner all night.

Then Tuesday-dermatologist decided he had to freeze something on my face. He said it was probably going to sting the rest of the day and hurt, due to the position of it. That same day-we had to drive 2 hours on the freeway to pick up my mother-in-law from the hospital from some minor surgery, take her on errands and then get back on the freeway for another 2 hour drive. By the time we finally got home, my face was still stinging, my sciatic nerve was killing me and my knees hurt from not moving them for so long.

I was robbed of a day off in my book!

Then comes Wednesday: The spot on my face now looks pretty darn gross and it can't be covered up with make-up or anything else. That was the minor snafu. My pregnant daughter had been laid off, had some complications, put on leave all at once. To make it even better-her husband was laid off as well. As if that wasn't enough to worry them and make us feel frozen with fear for them-their HMO denied her private insurance due to those complications!

Something good here - our brother-in-law's an attorney. But until this is straightened out and we know our baby girl gets her medical coverage back, we're holding our breath!

Thursday, wasn't too bad, the only thing that went wrong was first thing in the morning, I have to hide our labrador's allergy pills in some peanut butter. I had taken out a container of juice, stupidly placing it right near the jar (I know you all see this coming, too bad I didn't), yes my arm hit the container of liquid. Darn thing spilled all over the island, in a utility drawer and all over the wood floor-plus, it was juice. It got me too, naturally. Spent my remaining time before work cleaning, mopping and trying to de-stick the kitchen. Then I finished up when I got home from work and did a final scrubbing before starting dinner.

Then our son, geez Louise, our son, he's the one with the tattoo fetish, decided to excise his own wart! I hadn't seen that much blood pour out of an open wound since my husband had an unfortunate incident involving his tonsillectomy 15 years ago. Took me 20 minutes to get his foot to clot. Then I had to take care of all the mess from where his foot had left the trail of his DNA.
Again, worry time. He refused to go to the ER and get a couple of stitches. Since he's almost a foot taller than me and has about 60 pounds more heft that's all muscle, this time my "mother's evil eye" wasn't working. Now I have to hope that my CPR and first aid training was enough to keep him from getting some kind of awful staph infection!

As I mentioned, I'm not the only one who had a week of Mondays. There's our daughter and son-in-law. I don't think this was one of their stellar weeks. How good can they be feeling?
Bad enough to lose half your income, but all of it-in the same week???

Two friends also found out they are now without jobs. No way are they happy campers!

My sister called - one of her cats is so mad about something that he's decided to make their entire home smell like a dirty litter box. Her husband is so upset he's ready to send the darn thing to cat jail (a home kennel) for the rest of his natural existence. Can't blame him. Been there, done that (okay, their offender is 6, we held on for 13 years, but that's another story).

The two gentlemen I work with at the day job, they swore there had to be a full moon. If something could go wrong and upset a client last week, it did, in overtime. A couple of those customers resorted to behaving as if they were playground bullies and were actually name-calling! And of course, being "front line"-guess who got the worst of that behavior?

My hope: that last week is truly over. Finis. Can be forgotten.
Afterall, how long can a flood continue? At some point, the sun must shine again.

Carine, 48, is rejuvenating her career as a journalist. To read more of her works, log onto:http://www.Carine-whatscooking.blogspot.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carine_Nadel

Rainforest Layers

By Wendy Pan
The rain forest is made up of layers which will all have a different characteristic and be the home for a range of different birds, animals and insects. They will also support a huge variety of plant life which will vary according to the rain forest layers in which they exist. There are five rain forest layers which are clearly definable.

The lowest is the forest floor. Much of the sunlight does not penetrate here and in fact only around 2% of the sunlight reaches the floor. This layer will be home to millions of micro organisms and invertebrates which live amongst the fallen leaves. There will be some mosses and ferns growing in the warm and damp. Many larger animals will be found here including big cats, elephants and gorillas.

Next will be a shrub layer which is home to many varieties of shrubs and ferns. The rain forest layers then continue with a layer of small trees called the understory. Although these are small in comparison to the taller trees of the forest, they can still reach up to around 20 metres in height. These will grow until they are just under the canopy of the forest and will wait there until they find a space to grow into. You will find birds, snakes, butterflies and frogs here and the whole area will be filled with activity and colour.

The canopy, next layer up, is probably the best known of the rain forest layers. The trees will be up to 35 metres tall and form a canopy over the lower layers keeping out much of the light. Many monkeys make this area their home, as do sloths, snakes, lots of insects and some frogs and lizards.

Above the canopy will be the emergent layer. This is the highest of the rain forest layers and comprises the tops of the highest trees. It is not nearly as dense as the canopy and the trees almost look like umbrellas opened up over the top of the forest. The wildlife in this area is similar to that of the canopy although the animals may be smaller. You are not likely to find sloths, but there will be some small monkeys. This is a very difficult area to study due to its inaccessibility. Recently, however, there have been some walkways established so that researchers can record the activity in the layer.

Each of the rain forest layers is a separate community but they work together as a whole and no one layer can survive without the others. This is intuitive to them and they exist sympathetically as a complete unit. If we could learn to live with the same respect for each other down on the ground level, we may be able to save our rain forests and the rich community that lives there.

Wendy Pan is an accomplished niche website developer and author. To learn more about rainforest layers, please visit Save The Rainforest Online for current articles and discussions. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wendy_Pan