73 - Got covered in spores.
joneworlds@mailbox.org

There's this, I don't know,  some kind of spa down
on the north end. I was  there the other day to do
the annual  test on  their water  service backflow
assembly.  The  place  is  like  this  really  old
warehouse or workshop  building, mostly empty. The
crawlspace hatch is in  the corner where all their
customers are sitting.  They're all sitting around
in cheap  lawn chairs,  with their feet  buried in
big buckets  of dirt,  and wet towels  draped over
their  heads. All  ages,  but all  homo-saps -  no
Olds.  Some helper  goes around  checking on  them
all,  but mostly  no one  even notices  as I  pass
through. Not quite sure  what's going on here, but
hey, whatever floats their boat.

Anyways, I get  to the hatch, go on  down in there
with  my   flashlight  and  test  kit,   spot  the
assembly, crawl over to do the test. It's dark and
cramped, but  I'm used to  it. Then I  notice that
the assembly is surrounded  by some of those weird
mushrooms that I find  here and there around these
parts. The  ones with the blue  stripey heads, and
that bizzare  sychronized rhythmic  movement going
on  somehow. They  kind  of creep  me  out, to  be
honest. But  I got a job  to do, so I  go to crawl
carefully around  them as best  I can. But  then I
somehow catch my wrist in a root or something, and
stumble, and  land face-first right in  the middle
of the mushrooms. A few get crushed. Yeccch...

I pick myself  up, and then I notice  that all the
mushrooms   have   stopped  their   funny   little
dance.  All just  sitting  there,  like they  were
offended    or    something.     And    then    it
happened. There's this audible POP sound, and they
all turn  inside out and  blow off their  seeds or
spores or  whatever. The  cloud of them  fills the
whole corner of the crawlspace where I'm in, and I
take it all straight in the face. I'm coughing and
choking and spitting, and it's just awful until it
all settles down. It feels like few minutes before
I can  clear myself out  to the point where  I can
function again.  I test  the assembly  quickly and
get   out  of   the  crawlspace   as  fast   as  I
can. Although funnily  enough, the lingering smell
of  all  this is  actually  kind  of pleasant.  It
reminds me of freshly-made waffles.

Anyways, job's  done. As I'm heading  out the door
at the other end of  the warehouse, I notice there
are these  two little gnomes sitting  on the floor
there,    playing    jacks     or    marbles    or
something.  Which is  kind of  odd in  itself. But
when  they see  me coming,  they stop  playing and
just stare  at me. As  I leave the  building, they
hastily  stumble backwards  to give  me plenty  of
room, staring at me all the while. Sort of weird.

I had  another job  after that  one, but  I wasn't
feeling up to  it. I drove back  to the motor-home
to lie down. Had a headache.