Wild Goose Chase

I funny thing happened at work today.  My Director is working on the next Fiscal Year's Budget.  He said to me, "Find out how much we paid that guy who shakes the goose eggs, last year."

My intelligent response: "Wha......?"

Followed by, "We pay a guy to shake goose eggs?"

Yeah, he's the Department of something or other...Agriculture....Environment.....Massachusetts Department of something.....maybe.

So, I went to the bank of files.  I was lucky to have a teenager doing community service, so I had help going through last years' invoices.

Nada.

We looked up payments in our computer server.  We tried all the Department ...   Massachusetts....  MA....  Mass....State....

As we were looking up every possible connection to a company that would shake goose eggs, I had an epiphany.  This is a joke.  He's playing a trick on me--he's sending me on a wild goose chase.  Of course!  What kind of job is shaking goose eggs?  He's kidding, of course.

Before I made more of a fool of myself, I asked around the office to see what others thought.  Everyone agreed that the Director is not the joking kind.  He would not play a trick on me.

Mmmmmm......I wondered if everyone was in on the joke.

Nah, someone would give it away.  I could tell.

So back to chasing the goose.  I reasoned that where we have a problem with goose eggs is around the pond and wet lands.  I telephoned all the people concerned with those areas, and got a lead.

It's not state, it's federal--U.S.

Back to computer surfing.  Bingo!  United States Wildlife Service!

But it still was kind of a wild goose chase because we didn't call them in at all, Fiscal Year 2010.  So we spent, "0".  

All that for nothing.  What a wild goose chase!