another day

I don't know how much time has passed since I posted the last time. It's been too long. My memory only lasts a few weeks, and I've got only ten fingers to count days. Embarrassing, in other words.

My life isn't different from anyone else's – I don't have excuses. Just a lot of work during the day and social life at night. Yesterday, I found myself in a mixed group of French and Germans having a beer in what looked like a trendy teenie bar. We were out of place but having fun. On Monday night around eight o'clock, you're out of place in any night-life venue. It's not the time to go out. The evening was memorable because among the five Germans, four (one of whom I was) had studied in Jena. It was good to share memories and mention places we used to go to, place where you wouldn't be out of place even on a Monday night.

Tonight, the group was different, all people from lab, and even though two others were German, no one came from the East. Our conversation had to focus on other subjects. Our boss set the tone, passionately merging current world affairs with recent lab events. A couple of months ago, the room where we store our delicate equipment and run most of our experiments, normally held at 4C, froze solid.

When I came in the morning after, I didn't immediately realize the full extent of the disaster. I walked into the cold room and was surprised at how chilly it felt. A few minutes later, a colleague pointed out that all water was frozen and everything containing water had burst. My eyes opened by his words, I went back for a better look. Believe me, a more miserable sight I've never beheld. Broken glass was everywhere, surrounded by all the good things the glass held when it was still intact.

This disaster would have easily broken the back of a less pecunious lab. We were lucky that we could just order what we had lost and rejoice in getting replacements where we used to run old equipment. However, and here's the tie-in with the dinner conversation, we tried to cut our losses by submitting an insurance claim. The situation was clear. The cold room had failed. The policy was against failure. We should get our money back, close to 50 grand all bits and pieces summed up.

I was reminded of the movie Crash when the insurance agent got back and declared, with fake sorrow in his voice, that his company couldn't cover anything because of this reason or that. My boss was much aggravated until yesterday, when American International Group, one of the world's biggest insurers was transferred to state ownership in a way that would have made Fidel Castro cry. It went bust and was mopped up by the government, bringing redemption to the world in the eyes of our boss. Those damn insurers!

I'm following the economics news with much interest myself. Who'd have imagined a year ago that socialism would progress in great strides in the United States, or that major turmoil would grip the global economy. Keeping up with the failures, mergers and bail-outs that are by now daily occurrences, takes all the time I don't spend working, eating, sleeping or socializing, and sometimes even the time that I do.