Bagworm Inspector

With a pen behind my ear and a clipboard of geocache descriptions and Google Earth printouts in hand I head to the likely hide, ignoring the three-year-old-boy on the nearby playground and the man watching him. I'm searching one of the evergreen trees when they wander up.

"What'cha doin'?" he asks.

I don't even look at him. "Bagworm inspection."

He does a double take. "Huh?"

"Bagworm inspection," I repeat, and point out one of the little critters. "We're trying to find out what kind of infestation we're dealing with here."

He glances at my clipboard, which has a color Google Earth satellite image of the playground on top, with GPS coords and crosshairs right where we are.

"Yeah, we can spot them from outer space," I say, "but then one of us has to check the site in person." Now I'm methodically searching branches and pointing out bagworms and writing cryptic notes on the clipboard (mostly about our conversation) and trying to keep a straight face. We chat for a bit longer.

"You do this on Sunday?" he asks.

"Yes, sir," I say. "The Government pays double-time for work on Sundays."

He eventually takes his boy back to the playground and I finally spot the cache. Watch for angry letters to the editor about government bagworm inspectors pulling down double time on Sunday!