Ice Ice Baby
1/15/2

I woke up, not upset, but sensing something was wrong. I feel more normal now. But even when I got into work, an hour after I wake up, I still felt this way. Heck, I still feel that something is wrong; I just can�t place what it is.

Not only that, but I can�t think of anything interesting to say, so I�ll talk about ice.

Sometimes in the daily drudgery that is being the kind of government worker that I am, I need ice. Up on �The Hill� there are two icemakers. One makes ice that is in cute little cup shapes. If they were a little larger, I�m sure they would be a hit at bars.

Bars with a big tolerance for water being all over the place.

The other icemaker, my icemaker of choice, makes the ice in small chips.

Today, as I was getting ice, Farkus said, �You know, Meyeke has an ice maker.�

I�ll not read anything into him pointing this out to me, since his icemaker is actually just as convenient as Meyeke�s.

My instant response, which made him think I was an alien, was:

�Yeah, but they have too much void space. I need more ice per volume.�

This is a completely normal thing. See, I�m not looking for increased surface volume on my ice, as the Meyeke ice machine design is for. You�d want more surface volume if you wanted quick cooling. I�m into long term, 24 hour icing. I have to keep my samples under 4 C and the latent heat that ice has is perfect. Those blue packs are worthless.

However, at least in the summer, the Meyeke ice won�t last four hours. I�m not sure how long the Farkus ice would last outside in our Hot Alabama Sun, but that�s why I�m not sampling then.

Using Farkus ice, I get about 40% of my ice melting in 24 hrs. Since someone in Meyeke�s group swiped my big barrel style ice chest, I have to use the medium sized sample carrying one to take ice out. This is enough to replenish the ice supply for the next day.

If I�m boring you, I can order you a hammock from the office supply catalog.