Tallahassee Area Mensa
Welcome to the home page of Tallahassee Area Mensa!
Tallahassee Area Mensa a local chapter of the High IQ Society, American Mensa. The Tallahassee
area serves Florida from the Apalachicola River east through Taylor County including part of
Madison County and even a bit of Dixie County. Our area is also the only area in all of Florida,
Region 10 of American Mensa, to include a portion of Georgia. For a full view of the area we
cover, visit our map.
Interested in joining Mensa? The only qualification for membership is a score at or above the
98th percentile on an approved IQ test. There are two different ways you can join. One is by
submitting evidence of scores from any of a number of approved intelligence tests that you have
already taken, or you can take the Mensa Admission Test. For more information about qualifying
to join, visit the Join Mensa page.
Robin's Roost - rest your feathers!
Welcome to May! In my youth, I would celebrate May Day by picking wildflowers from the yard and tying them into small bunches that I would leave at neighbor's doors. Some thought it was cute and were appreciative. One particularly grumpy and unpleasant old man always yelled at me. It makes you wonder what happened in his life that he would feel the need to yell at a little kid for giving him flowers.
We had quite an adventure in April with our septic tank. It was time for its regular pump-out, so I called the company I have used for over 10 years. My prior interactions with them have always been very pleasant and the first time I used them, the guy was so impressed with my knowledge of the septic system and the drain field, he offered me a job (which I declined). Sadly, this year, things did not go well. The crew who came out was comprised of a guy who has skin cancer and a host of other ailments and is trying to get on disability. He was pleasant, but couldn't do any of the work, he mostly stood and watched. The other man is a former trucker who changed to this work so he could be at home more and bring in some money until he retires (he is nearly 70 years old). I greeted them at the driveway with my usual smiling congeniality, and this man started complaining about the traffic on Mahan, the rampant "lawlessness" of everyone around us, and declared that his religion has taught him the signs and he knows these are the "end times" and the "end of days". He then proceeded to complain about the people who make up a specific political party and how stupid they all are. His proof was a family he had recently done, and they didn't even know where their septic tank was. He had to spend time locating it before he could do the job. He declared that level of stupidity was typical of people in that party. Knowing where my tank is, I showed him the location, pointed to where the access panel would be, pointed out the amaryllis growing nearby and said I could dig them up and move them if he felt they were in the way. He said no, they would be fine. But over the course of his digging, he completely trampled them into little pieces.
I continued to be conversational and pleasant, and he continued to be less so. His partner barely spoke at all. Since I have dug out the access panel myself in the past, I was surprised to see how deep he had to dig to reach it and commented that the ground had built up a lot since the last time I dug it up. He looked at me like I was crazy, then turned to his partner and said, "She thinks the ground builds up!" and proceeded to laugh at me. I was stunned. The ground DOES build up, I have to dig my walk-through gate out every year or it can't be opened, the wire fence I put in many years ago is now 4"-5" underground. Archeologists usually dig DOWN to get to what they want to study. But he kept laughing at how stupid I was, so I decided to remove myself entirely and stop talking to him. He finally got the hatch exposed but could not get it open. Nothing that he did loosened it and in his attempts to open it, he cracked it. This meant we needed a new cover, which he did not have with him, so they would have to come back another day to replace the hatch cover. He also could not complete the job because his truck was too full. He was able to pump it out, but he was not able to do the final flush out.
He left us with mounds of dirt, an open hole, smashed amaryllis, and an unhappy customer. Ray took a piece of plywood and covered the hole so the dogs would not fall in, then we covered it with a tarp so if it rained (I wish!!) the mounds of dirt would not wash down into the hole. On Monday he returned, but only to drop off the hatch cover, he said another crew was going to finish the job (which was fine with me). The second crew arrived and got everything ready to do the flush out, but inexplicably the guy at the truck had the thing set to blow from the wrong tank. So instead of water coming out of the pipe, someone else's tank contents came spewing out. With the force of this not-all-liquid material gushing out of the hose, the hose did not stay in the tank but came flying out and began to spray someone else's tank contents all over the worker, the mounds of dirt, and the house! The man was screaming at the man at the truck to turn it off, but he did not hear him and casually sauntered into the backyard, cigarette in hand, to a scene from a horror movie and both his partner and Ray screaming at him to turn it off. He ran back and turned it off, Ray brought the man a hose to wash himself off, he was covered, and they tried to wash off the house, but it will need scrubbing with a brush. Ray put on gloves and picked up all the wet wipes that had spewed out along with the human waste. It was beyond disgusting. Now dripping wet and stinking, the guy finished the flush out, plugged up the tank, and covered it back up. After they left, Ray spent time smoothing the dirt and trying to get things back to normal, but every time we walked outside on the patio, the smell was powerful. The dogs, predictably, are fascinated! Something tells me I won't be using this company again.
Did you get a recall ballot in the mail? Me too. Please see page 7 for an editorial about the situation and some thoughts on the topic. I soncerely hope the bruhaha on the National level will not deter you from enjoying your local group. Mensa, for me, has always been about the local group and not about National.
Looking forward to seeing you all at the dinner this month!
Robin
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