About one weekend a month, I do archery competitions where I walk with a group of four through the forest, shooting foam animals along a path. It’s idyllic, and it’s great to keep up with my archery friends.

One such weekend, the first target to shoot was a deer. We were standing 15 meters from it, one of us aiming, when a woman came screaming from her car which was haphazardly stopped at the side of the road.

Astonished, my friend quickly un-nocked his arrow as she lept between us and the target. We were shocked at her ranting until we deciphered that she was under the impression that our target was a real deer and it was tied in place. We tried to explain and to tell her to turn and look, but she was having none of it.

With other archers coming out of the woods to see what was going on, I slipped past her — a feat in itself because she was still desperate to protect this “poor animal” — and pulled the removable head off the deer.

Rendered speechless for a really long time, she then snapped out of it, yelling at us for shooting at tied-up animals as she stormed back to her car.

The people putting on the shoot traded out the deer — the only target visible from the road — for a two-meter-tall cobra that had been further down the path. No one bothered us about shooting at that thing.

Right now, the state of Nebraska and many other parts of the Midwest are being hammered by flooding. The town I live in is mid-sized — about 20,000 people — and currently inaccessible except for by air. We have been lucky that the airport was not flooded and at least a dozen pilots from both the city and surrounding cities like Lincoln and Omaha are donating their time and fuel to fly people both into and out of Fremont to reunite families and bring in supplies. Regular access is still several days away due to bridges not just being flooded but gone altogether in several areas, so this is very much appreciated.

I ran into a woman at a store whose mother wanted to spend $1000 to help, but didn’t know what to buy. She told her mother that people were donating things for the people but the displaced dogs and cats would need supplies. She was buying dog and cat food and tons of different toys to help relieve the stress of these animals.

Thank you for all the help and support that everyone is showing the area.

I worked in a jewelry shop and it was close to Valentine’s Day. A lot of men came in to buy some jewelry for the occasion, and we had some strange requests, but there’s one man that I’ll never forget.

He came in and wanted to see some diamond rings to give to “the love of his life.” I didn’t think too much of it since he was wearing Armani clothes and had a Rolex watch and some expensive rings on his fingers. He finally decided on one ring, but when I told him that that would cost 1250 Euros, he was shocked and wanted to see some cheaper rings.

So, I presented him some rings in the 500-Euro range. No, too expensive, but he wanted the best for the love of his life. Okay, some rings in the 250-Euro range? No, too expensive for the love of his life. 100 Euros? No, too expensive. Twenty minutes later, he still couldn’t decide on some cheap rings for the love of his life.

Finally, a customer next in line who saw it all happen came up with this: “Hey, Buster, why don’t you head to [Big DIY Store] and buy a copper curtain ring? The last time I was there, they were 25 cents each. Should be just about right for the love of your life. Or you could buy her an angle grinder; they’re on sale now.”

While I saw some customers grin and smirk, other customers in the shop laughed out loud. The rich guy turned red and sneaked out of the store. Of course, I gave the customer who spoke up a discount for chasing that cheapskate out of the store.

I guess you only become rich by not spending any money. Not even on “the love of your life.”

My introductory microbiology professor had a tradition of having the students make yogurt during the last lab of his class as a fun way to demonstrate the usefulness of microbes in food production. For those who aren’t familiar with the process, good bacteria are added to milk, and after incubating for a few hours the milk becomes thick and sour.

My professor showed up to lab that day quite perturbed. He had a PhD in microbiology, but the university had told him he could not make yogurt in the lab anymore because he did not have a food handler’s permit.

One day at work in our small office, the intercom beeped, as it usually does before our receptionist announces who a call is for and what line. However, this time, I didn’t hear our receptionist. Instead, my phone started squealing and beeping!

I started to giggle at the technological difficulties, and then one of my coworkers said something funny from his office, and I burst out laughing. All of a sudden, my boss appeared in my office, and simply pointed at my phone. Somehow, I had accidentally bumped a button and paged the entire office, so everyone heard me giggling and laughing over the intercom!