fats and freebies

We were downtown this morning, having a coffee. Yes, it is noticeably more peopley now. University classes start tomorrow, and everybody has assumed their positions, it seems.

Speaking of crowds, yesterday was [Tour de Fat] at New Belgium brewery. It's basically a HUGE bicycle parade followed by a big bash at the brewery. It's free, so everybody and their grandma goes. We missed the bike parade, but did go by in the afternoon just to look around. 

Everybody seemed to be having a good time, and I surmised that it's pretty hard to get very drunk at the event since the beer lines were so loooooooong. But there's live music and games and weird bicycles to ride at your own risk. 

Coworker Party Girl had invited me to join her group for the parade, but I passed on that and just went with Magnum later. 

From past events, I wasn't sure if we'd even have a decent spot to park our bicycles, but we managed to squeeze in the massive parking field 

This past week was also opening week of classes at the community college. 

The whiteboard of the adjunct instructor office space:

So far, what is most looked forward to this fall is free coffee at Ziggi's and super pretzels with cheese. 👍

peopling

It's noticeably denser here. Living in a college town brings fluctuations in population, and things become thicker in August. 

This week is Freshman move-in, and classes start at the university next week. The community college where I work started classes yesterday, so here we go. My tutor schedule is wide-open, we'll see where we are at week's end. Tutor Boss says she has lots of intake meetings scheduled - where she assesses student needs/ requests and matches students and tutors. I'm hoping to get busy soon before we're replaced by AI.

In the meantime, I'm in laid back mode still. Yesterday, I went for a haircut. Remember a few months ago, I blogged [that weird haircut experience]? At the salon I'd been going to for a few years? Welp, I'd decided not to go back there. Thanks to reddit, I found a different salon that is not only as good in both quality and price as the old place, but it's all around better - better location, friendlier, a little cheaper even. No more getting my haircut in the middle of a freakin' coffee klatch!

Later I went for a bicycle joyride cleverly disguised as errand running. I think I'm going to start using the GoPro again for these joy errand rides. My work commute is typically uneventful - knock on wood - so I stopped bothering with the bike cam, but yesterday included:

• I was coming up on three other bicyclists, about to pass them. The three entered an underpass/ tunnel and I heard a *clank-cah-clank*

Once in the tunnel, I see one of the cyclists has gone down, like she crashed into the sidewall of the tunnel. The man behind her stops and I stop as well, while the third guy just goes around and keeps on a-going. 

Amid the typical, "y'aright?", I'm assessing. The woman who crashed and the man who stopped appear to be riding together. They're both on "Rent Me!" bicycles and middle-aged. I'm guess they're from out of town - possibly dropping off a college kid and enjoying some kid-free recreation.

The woman says she's fine, landed on her foot, lost a shoe. I have a small first-aid "kit" with me, but more for cuts and scrapes than for a twisted foot. But she says she's fine, didn't hit her head or anything. The man thanks me for stopping, and then I continued onward.

• I was going around a right bend when these three hooligans - how's that for an eligible-for-the-senior-discount word? - these three hooligans come flying towards me on motorcycles. Motorcycles?!

This was on one of the friendly multi-use paths running through our county. Hooligans were on full-blown gas-powered motorcycles, which are most definitely not allowed. The only motorized vehicles allowed on the pathways are ebikes and scooters that max out at 20 mph. And these kids were going, I'd guess, at least 40 mph. 

Thankfully, they were single file in their rightful lane, but sheesh. In the flash that I watched them go by me, it seemed they were rounding that turn, pushing the envelope on how much control they had at that speed. They looked to be middle schoolers or high school freshmen at most. 

And so I'm wondering what went on after they're behind me? I went by a few law-abiding others in both directions. What of them? What of the "Rent Me!" crash couple?

Eventually, I dropped off a book at the library - one of my joyride enabling errands - and there are three librarians with walkie-talkies in the foyer, debriefing after some sort of incident at the library park. But that's just another day at the office for them. Those downtown librarians are tough. 

 

Friday five

The college's fall semester begins next week, and we await another batch of new and returning students. So a little recap of this last week of summer daze.

• I took a look back at my summer reading. I'd intended to "read more and doom scroll less" with no more specific goal than that. I think it's going well, and I took a look back at what fiction I read over the summer along with my star ratings:

This list yields an average of 3.44 stars, so good times. The book I'm currently reading is ["You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine"] which was recommended to me because it's "weird, but in a good way". So far, I'm finding it weird, we'll see about the way.  

While I'm reading it, it kind of reminds me of hanging out with my friends in high school around a campfire, possibly smoking something a friend grew in her backyard.

• Speaking of teen behaviors, I worked with Party Girl last Saturday. She showed up seemingly off the ball - if there's to be a phrase meaning not on the ball. She's typically pretty responsble despite her partying ways, but she was slacking off last Saturday. She still did her fair share of the work, but I was unimpressed. Reminder, she's in her mid-fifties and sometimes acts like a teenaged party girl. Her age was really showing on Saturday.

Anyway, this week, she's seemingly cranked up her responsible side. I suspect she feels a little guilty about her Saturday performance, although I didn't say anything to Boss or anyone else.

• Speaking of high school, school started this week for the school district. We live near a large-ish high school, so the morning and afternoon traffic snarl has returned. Plus, there's a big construction job on the main road in front of the high school. I'm glad I'm not in that commute!

• Speaking of responsible coworkers, Star came in for a visit yesterday. Recall that young Star got a good full-time job a few months ago. We miss her, but I'm glad she moved on from part-time at the testing center and is building a career. She now lives with her sister about an hour's drive away, but came home for the weekend. She brought cookies for the win!

• Speaking of family matters and jobs, Sarge's wife - who is the main breadwinner of the family - is having her job replaced by AI after another company bought her employer. She'll get some severance and extension of benefits, but is contemplating her options.

When I first started working in testing, I thought robots would take over "in about 5 years". They're trying, but there are glitches. We'll see.

On that note, time to go do the paid people watching.

testing

Before I worked in a testing center, I had no idea the number of professional certification and licensing exams were out there. 

When a tester enters, we all start to mentally make guesses as to what test they're doing. Some are more obvious than others. 

• Dirty fingernails and a shirt with their name on it, usually male = automotive tech
• Early 20's, female = elementary school teacher
• Teen = GED or HiSET
• Broad shouldered, big boots, equally male or female, actually = firefighter or law enforcement
• Lots of tattoos/ piercings, male or female = addiction counselor (probably with a "past")

But really, anything goes. And there are plenty of ambiguous testers. The most ambiguous is probably the insurance people. They are anywhere from dapper law office types to rather rudderless types that were preyed upon with "MAKE A CAREER SELLING INSURANCE! YOUR SKILL SET IS JUST WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR" - yes, I've received those emails...

At home this morning, I was finishing up my breakfast when I heard some chatter outside. Being the nosy neighbor that I am, I peeked out the front window to see what's what. Four young guys exiting a pickup truck.

Tree guys, must be.

There is a test to become a Certified Tree Climber. We get those too 

• Young, male, very tan, agile looking, facial hair, lots of pockets = tree climber

And now, based on my nosy observation

• Taking hits from the vape pen

I'm glad there's a test for such a job. Climbing a tree can be dangerous enough, let alone doing so with an operating chainsaw.

Sure enough. Another pickup with a mulcher attachment pulled up. I was momentarily encouraged, hopeful they were here to prune the neighbor's overly enthusiastic pear tree. It's gotten huge, has some damaged branches, and is flopping over the fence onto our property. 

We've pruned our side, but the rest should probably be done by a certified tree climber, which neither of us is. Magnum mentioned it to the nice neighbor, who rents. She said she'd put in the work order to the property manager, but none of us are holding our breaths.

And now, I can hear the chainsaws sawing, but not next door. 

Maybe by the first day of Christmas.

finders keepers?

Magnum and I took a typical Sunday morning bicycle ride today. Temps were in the low 70s, which almost felt "cold" relative to recent weeks. Not complaining.

We pulled up to a red light at one point, and I noticed something interesting on the ground. So I picked it up, and popped it into a side pocket on my backpacket to scrutinize further later.

I've since scrutinized it further, and am left with more questions than answers.

The thing in question:

It clearly has a carabiner on the left there, but what was the rest? I figured it was some sort of multi-tool, but unlike my usual finds - as mentioned [HERE] and also [HERE] - in the wild, it had no sharp edges. 

Once we made it to our destined coffee shop, I whipped it out for research. It's apparently an "Artifaxing" caribiner, and other than the caribiner part, the rest is just a logo for ... some... thing?

I landed on the Artifaxing instagram page which seems like a bunch of random posts, but the page has over a million followers. Okaaaaay (I did not add myself to the following). 

There is also a website, showing the caribiner as SOLD OUT, and noting it is not to be used for any kind of weight bearing use - just keys, etc. But it appears to be a highly sought after item among the followers/ community, which appears to have started on instagram.

So the whatizzit? A small, weak, caribiner/keychain.

The whyizzit? I have no idea.

While perusing the instagram page, I noticed a screenshot where someone else had supposedly found one lying around, and advertised to get it back to its owner. Some speculated that the drop was a marketing ploy to ramp up interest in the... whatever they are.

Was that how it entered my orbit? 

I don't know what it is about. I also doubt I'm in the intended target market.

But it's mine now.

adventure

Summer semester officially ends today. As such, I'm in a lull for about two to three weeks, and I'm not complaining. I'm doing some tidying and reorganizing - mostly digitally. I still have a couple of short shifts in the testing center each week, so it's not a total slugfest. 

With the tuting, I don't blog as much as I used to. This blog has served to help me recall the whats and whens of different happenings, so a few bullets from recent.

• A couple of weeks ago, we went out with Wolfgang and Meego to celebrate Wolfgang's recent birthday. He chose a Korean BBQ place, and we put away much food. The restaurant brings all the dishes out along with raw meats that we cooked at table top, built-in grills. Intereactive!

At one point I was enjoying tearing into a seafood pancake and noticed some soft little white ring things. I had no idea what they were, and later I happened to come across a video of a chef cooking up some squid and realized that's what I was eating. So I've eaten squid, cool.

• Our little brush with nature last week, in the form of a rattlesnake, sent me down a snake infested rabbit hole of learning about rattlesnakes. They are actually pretty cool critters, but I still don't want to ever ever get bitten by one. 
  
  
• We've been pondering the idea of getting some nearby recreational land, but haven't gotten very far beyond the pondering stage. We'd like to kick things up and get more active on that "project" before we're too old to enjoy it.
  
  
• 
  This morning, I was leaving the gym when a shiny new Mercedez-Benz G-wagon pulled into the parking lot. I'd only ever seen one from afar, and never really took much notice. Up close, it was obviously quite the adventure toy. 

 

I realized that, for the price of one G-wagon, we could get about 35 acres of rural land and all the rattlesnakes it would hold. 

chutes and rattlers

 We played some hooky this morning. Both Magnum and I had a light workload today, and Magnum suggested "a hike or something".

Okay.

We took advantage of the fact that it's not the weekend and went to a popular local hiking trail: [Arthur's Rock]. The hike is about 3.5 miles, round trip, and gains about 1100 feet of elevation. We got to the trailhead around 8am, and the heat was already kicking in. It would be a "heat training" kinda day.

As expected, we saw only a handful of other hikers since it's Monday. The final push to the summit is this gratifying chute scramble.

We hung out atop Arthur for several minutes, taking in the views, trying to figure out different landmarks.

Magnum utilized his trekking poles for his sketchy knees and wobbly ankles, needed mostly for the descent.

At one point, as we navigated the trail under the full on sun, we heard what at first, to me, sounded like a horny grasshopper stridulation. Upon closer inspection, it was a frickin' rattlesnake giving us a fair warning!

Snake was right next to the trail, within easy striking distance of our naked shins, poised at the ready.  Magnum looked at it and said, "oh hey, it's a rattlesnake" then made like he was just gonna keep on a-walking.

I said, "hold the phone!" or something like that. We decided we should back off and consider our next move as the trail was quite narrow at that point. As we did so, Snake backed off and slithered off away from the trail.  We proceeded on by, "thanks for the warning, Snake!" Nice of him/ her.

We made it back to the trailhead without further incident, passing a few other hikers headed upwards.  All in all, a good use of hooky morning.

Now for some unabashed product placement:

Not-weed gummies = quick energy snack

"Thirsty for Justice" bike-to-work day Law Firm freebie water bottle = expendable in case I fell off a cliff or was taken out by a rattler