Back To Work

      After a week off, it's back to work.  I don't want to go.  There's plenty to do at home -- but only work produces that lovely paycheck every other Friday.  So off I go.

     There is some question about getting into the North Campus.  Thanks to a jammed up front gate and a contractor whose crews can't seem to figure out how multiple padlocks on one chain are supposed to work at the back gate, I had to climb the fence twice, the week before last.  After the second time -- a tough scramble up and a hard landing -- I told my boss that unless it's an emergency, I'm done climbing high, barbed-wire-topped security fences* into an isolated and otherwise unoccupied location.  Inside a locked gate is not a good place to have a broken leg or ankle!  If I'm locked out, I'll call in and do something elsewhere until the problem is resolved.
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* The main reason for those Y-shaped barbed-wire supports on top of a ten-foot chain-link fence is to add an unmistakable, "And we mean it!" to the "No Trespassing" signs.  A good pair of gloves and a determined attitude will get you over it.  Places that need better security use higher fences, fine mesh over the chain link to deny finger and toe-holds, razor wire in place of barbed wire and even electrification.  But a non-governmental site has to be careful not to make fences too daunting; courts have held that an overdone fence presents a "challenge," and attracts efforts to breach it.  A good fence is just enough trouble to get through that most malefactors -- and the idly curious -- will pass it by in search of easier prey.  The main risk I run climbing in is having to explain myself to local police from two different jurisdictions, who make a point of passing by fairly often.