AGAIN AND ALMOST SORT OF...

Ever have that junk you got to do more than once, but you really hate doing it so you try to say it is something different? I'm not talking about chores so much. Those are a kind of again you have to do. So those don't count in my book.

I'm thinking more in terms of junk that I have to do as a grimefighter. It is sort of chore, but it isn't since I don't have to be a grimefighter if I don't want. They call that being a volunteer and it can be pain if it means doing crap more than once you could live without ever doing again in your entire life.

For me the top of that list includes when we have to do sewer patrols. It really stinks when we got to do that for STINK. But we do have to do it sometimes. I mean griminals don't exactly hang out at only good places.

Our boss knows it too, which is why he sometimes tries to give it a different name than sewer patrol. We all know he is talking about sewer patrol, but it does help to sort of call it something else.

I guess my favorite is when he calls it stealth filth recognition. That is how he describes it because most of the time it is sort of dark in the sewers we check. So the stealth part makes it sort of sound cool.

As for the filth recognition, well I don't know, he kind of throws that in like this is going to require any real thought. But we all understand that is just more for a reason to make it sound good, which it ain't.

After all filth sort of is what you expect to find in a sewer anyway. And recognizing it ain't that hard either. We just normally accept that is a way to make it sound better.

Course the truth is once you get down in that stupid sewer the one thing it isn't is better. Oh you can try holding your breath. It works for a few seconds. However, sooner or later you got to breath. Then you sure do tell the difference.

About the only good thing is we don't have sewer patrol all the time, just once and a while. Basically, there is enough time between each time we have to do it that you can nearly forget the whole last time you got stuck with the duty.

So it does help during those times to have it given another name. Which sort of makes you forget what you really have to do. That is till you are standing in the sewer and that first blast of stink hits you. Believe me at that point you don't have amnesia very long.

Still it is kind of nice for a while to have that sort of name that helps you forget that what you are about to do is really crappy. Sometimes when you call a rose or whatever by another name it does make a difference. Too bad it isn't forever. Because let me tell you my nose definitely knows the change regardless of what name you sort of give it.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: "Why do they only call it 'self-serve' at a gas station when I have to serve myself at a grocery store too?"