*headdesk*
I am the only person at the company who writes reports. This means that I spend more time in the office than I did last year, not that I really mind. I don't have to spend every day thrashing through the bush, being eaten by mosquitoes? Joyous! Not joyous: having to talk to one of the provincial archaeologists. Which I had to do today. Sweet zombie jesus, where do they find these people? The issue in question was over the fate of a site that consisted of a single flake. We don't collect crap like that, because then we'd have to give it to the university, and believe me, they aren't going to thank us for it. We are talking about something that, in terms of value, is approximately as useful as a bottle top.
Anyway, in the report, I recommended that the site be excluded from the block, because it seemed the easiest method, given that the area in question is roughly the size of my apartment. Mr. Provincial Archaeologist disagreed, and I spent an aggravating fifteen minutes trying to explain, while he huffed that I just wasn't getting it. You see, by leaving the flake in situ, we may force him to issue an alteration permit, which would be work. And we can't have that. The absolute best part came at the end, when he asked that I mail a hard copy of the revised report to him, because if I email it, then he has to print it out, and then staple it, and that's a lot of extra work. Oh, yes, heaven forfend that the strain of picking up six pieces of paper and putting a single staple though them bruise your petal-soft hands. I do hope the ministry has provided a fainting couch next to the printer, so that you may recover from your exertions. I press my wrist to my forehead in sympathy.
So anyway, someone now has to go back to that block and pull the fucking flake, because otherwise it will be despoiled, woe. To put this into context, we found a big site, with about sixty cultural depressions and a lithic scatter. The ministry's response? They can log around that shit! A significant site hell yeah they can just roll the skidders right over, but a single flake must be preserved. Save teh flake! So yeah, we pull the flake, and everyone's happy: me, because I don't have to listen to Mr. PA bitch at me, the ministry, because they don't have to fill out more paperworkit has beem preserved for all eternity, and the logging company because they can then rape the forest unencumbered by pesky heritage considerations.
I'm getting a headache just thinking about it.
Anyway, in the report, I recommended that the site be excluded from the block, because it seemed the easiest method, given that the area in question is roughly the size of my apartment. Mr. Provincial Archaeologist disagreed, and I spent an aggravating fifteen minutes trying to explain, while he huffed that I just wasn't getting it. You see, by leaving the flake in situ, we may force him to issue an alteration permit, which would be work. And we can't have that. The absolute best part came at the end, when he asked that I mail a hard copy of the revised report to him, because if I email it, then he has to print it out, and then staple it, and that's a lot of extra work. Oh, yes, heaven forfend that the strain of picking up six pieces of paper and putting a single staple though them bruise your petal-soft hands. I do hope the ministry has provided a fainting couch next to the printer, so that you may recover from your exertions. I press my wrist to my forehead in sympathy.
So anyway, someone now has to go back to that block and pull the fucking flake, because otherwise it will be despoiled, woe. To put this into context, we found a big site, with about sixty cultural depressions and a lithic scatter. The ministry's response? They can log around that shit! A significant site hell yeah they can just roll the skidders right over, but a single flake must be preserved. Save teh flake! So yeah, we pull the flake, and everyone's happy: me, because I don't have to listen to Mr. PA bitch at me, the ministry, because they don't have to fill out more paperworkit has beem preserved for all eternity, and the logging company because they can then rape the forest unencumbered by pesky heritage considerations.
I'm getting a headache just thinking about it.