Hamsters

I had a couple of minutes to daydream at work today...but only while waiting for a query to finish running.  And only because we have the slowest network in, well, the state of Illinois.

*ahem*

Yeah...so back to the daydreaming.

I wondered about hamsters and their wheels.  Do they run in them because it's all they have to do?  Or is it some innate instinct that compels them to run (like a lemming) and since the wheel is the only real outlet...why not?  They have to use up their pent up energy-since they're usually confined to ridiculously small cages-and running seems to be a good outlet for something that small and low to the ground.  If lemmings had wheels, would they all still jump off a cliff?

I do know why they run...but it doesn't stop me from wondering 'why'.  If that even begins to make sense.

I worked for Petco for almost seven years and came to know quite a lot about the various pets they sell.  I  learned that hamsters are not good pets-they bite and they smell...and they're not fond of being held so they bail-quite literally-and often die from the fall to the ground.  Turns out they're not all that durable...not quite built to take a fall that equals 50x their size.  Come to think of it, only a cat is really built to go that far down and survive (if they fall correctly).  

I'm all over the map. 

And I'm wondering why, out of all of the things in the world to ponder, I chose hamsters...or thought of hamsters.

Right now, I equate work to running in a hamster wheel.  I have a fairly simple routine and then go to work and execute another very routine 'routine'.  That routine now is the project that refuses to be finished.

Maybe I've found another rut...I'm that hamster that's sick of my Habitrail system-no matter how many times it's reconfigured, it's still just tubes that lead me right back to the wheel I was trying to escape.

Someday, I'll figure out how to get that door open and see how far I can make it before that stupid cat catches me.