73 - Got covered in spores.
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There's this, I don't know, some kind of spa down
on the north end. I was there the other day to do
the annual test on their water service backflow
assembly. The place is like this really old
warehouse or workshop building, mostly empty. The
crawlspace hatch is in the corner where all their
customers are sitting. They're all sitting around
in cheap lawn chairs, with their feet buried in
big buckets of dirt, and wet towels draped over
their heads. All ages, but all homo-saps - no
Olds. Some helper goes around checking on them
all, but mostly no one even notices as I pass
through. Not quite sure what's going on here, but
hey, whatever floats their boat.
Anyways, I get to the hatch, go on down in there
with my flashlight and test kit, spot the
assembly, crawl over to do the test. It's dark and
cramped, but I'm used to it. Then I notice that
the assembly is surrounded by some of those weird
mushrooms that I find here and there around these
parts. The ones with the blue stripey heads, and
that bizzare sychronized rhythmic movement going
on somehow. They kind of creep me out, to be
honest. But I got a job to do, so I go to crawl
carefully around them as best I can. But then I
somehow catch my wrist in a root or something, and
stumble, and land face-first right in the middle
of the mushrooms. A few get crushed. Yeccch...
I pick myself up, and then I notice that all the
mushrooms have stopped their funny little
dance. All just sitting there, like they were
offended or something. And then it
happened. There's this audible POP sound, and they
all turn inside out and blow off their seeds or
spores or whatever. The cloud of them fills the
whole corner of the crawlspace where I'm in, and I
take it all straight in the face. I'm coughing and
choking and spitting, and it's just awful until it
all settles down. It feels like few minutes before
I can clear myself out to the point where I can
function again. I test the assembly quickly and
get out of the crawlspace as fast as I
can. Although funnily enough, the lingering smell
of all this is actually kind of pleasant. It
reminds me of freshly-made waffles.
Anyways, job's done. As I'm heading out the door
at the other end of the warehouse, I notice there
are these two little gnomes sitting on the floor
there, playing jacks or marbles or
something. Which is kind of odd in itself. But
when they see me coming, they stop playing and
just stare at me. As I leave the building, they
hastily stumble backwards to give me plenty of
room, staring at me all the while. Sort of weird.
I had another job after that one, but I wasn't
feeling up to it. I drove back to the motor-home
to lie down. Had a headache.
