Seal training

Lest I become arrogant, I now have three seals dangling above my head at work.

Mom and dad were visiting me in California once. I lived near the large Marine base, Camp Pendleton. We were driving through the camp, along the ocean. Often as you go through, you’ll see Marines doing various training exercises. On this particular day, there was a very large chopper just off the coast. Dad said something about dropping seals. My little wheels spun for a few seconds, and I asked why the heck they’d be dropping seals?! I mean, I’m not a huge animal lover, but wouldn’t that hurt them?! And golly, think of the splash?!

Ah yes. Definitely one of my finer moments!

One of the reasons I love my coworkers is that we do not take ourselves too seriously. We laugh at and with each other, and we all know the silly and/or dumb things we’ve done. And then we don’t let each other live them down. This helps keep us humble. When one of my coworkers was being “picked on” a few weeks ago, I thought I’d distract the crowd. I shared my seal story; it of course elicited excessive laughter.

A few days later, I walked into my office. There, hanging down from ribbons above my desk were three cute, acrylic seals. They are dropping--training, I’m sure.