a little rant

It's not that she's incompetent. She just rarely shows up.

I'm speaking of our assistant boss at work, who's been there less than a year. I've blog named her Mango, but realize she should have a different name because I've got a Magnum and a Meego here already... too much, so I'm ejecting the Mango.

Let's call her Blossom. I can't think of one week - besides maybe in her first month at work - when she hasn't called in "sick", or come in late, or "needed" to leave early. She does it so frequently, that we just roll our eyes and carry on in our short-staffed fashion.

But is that the right thing to do? I have no idea what it takes to "can" someone at the college. I know Boss has "talked" to Blossom about her frequent absences. She'll clean up for a while, but then it's back to the no shows.

It's weird. She seemingly gets along with everyone, knows the job well, is not a big partier. But what is she doing?  I do know she enjoys smoking weed on occasion, but don't know how much. Maybe its more than I'd thought? Her boyfriend she lives with seems to be a night owl. But really, I think there's more to it.

It's the way she is so nonchalant about calling off. Like "everybody does it", when in fact, no one else but her, at our workplace anyways.

It would be easy to blame her generation - she's a gen z-er, and fitting the stereotype. But then there's Star, who is wonderfully reliable and disciplined at just one year older than Blossom. It's frustrating because Star was originally interested in the position, but HR determined she didn't have enough prior administrative experience. 

Well, she does now. Can we just put Star into the slot and let Blossom take every day off from now on?

If only. 

throw the bum out

Okay, so I have a situation. Yesterday at work, Boss shared that another college staffer - "Trish", who used to work with us in testing - is in a difficult place right now.

He didn't want to elaborate because the person who let him know is Trish's current boss, who said Trish doesn't want to talk about it. But at the same time Trish's boss wants to help Trish out financially.

To clarify - Boss, Trish, Trish's boss, and some of us in testing all know each other pretty well. We might not necessarily hang out that much, but it's more than just work relationships. 

In fact, Trish and I worked together on the hiring committee for hiring the assistant boss for testing. When a candidate asked about the coworker environment, Trish jumped on it saying, "It's more like a family!"

When I first started working there, Trish was another part-timer in testing. She was working on getting her bachelor's degree at that time and had a young daughter and a sort of on-again, off-again "husband". She got her degree, and took a full-time position in a different department where she's been for the last couple of years.

About a year ago, much to our surprise, she told us she was pregnant. Apparently, husband was on-again. Cute baby boy came along last spring.

So here we are at present day. I talked to Trish's boss, who is collecting some money for Trish's daughter, not going to say where it came from. Trish Boss spilled a bit that Trish's husband beat her up? A little?

Anyway, good news - husband is out the door. Bad news, Trish is left as single mom to now two kids, one an infant. Prior to this, she and the husband would provide care to the kids by working opposing shifts. Trish's job allows her to work remotely a couple of days a week.

I don't know what other childcare resources she has, but naturally, she's struggling as this goes beyond finances.

So here's the thing. I've blogged about my involvement in P.E.O. - this organization that helps women with scholarships, loans, blah, blah, to further their education, etc. Here in Colorado, we also have a special fund for temporarily helping women in situations such as Trish's.

I would totally go to bat for Trish as she's the perfect candidate to tap into those funds. BUT, I'm not supposed to know about her situation!

Unfortunately, the fund doesn't allow anonymous sponsorship. All other info is strictly confidential - my P.E.O chapter wouldn't even know about it - but I do need to convey my relationship with Trish and work with her through the application process in order to be considered.

Welp, it's all pretty fresh for Trish right now. I'm hoping she'll eventually open up.

babies and baubles

Another tutor day ahead. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I only tute. The other weekdays are some combo of testing and tutoring. 

One of my students is a mid-30s single mom. She's got a toddler and has been breaking free of the baby dad for the last few months. She moved to a new place last week, changed her phone plan, life is good.

So she was telling me how she's taking a chemistry class online. This is allowed probably as a by-product of covid. Because chemistry classes include a lab component, she's able to do her labs at home. The equipment - whatever it is - is sent through the mail.

She'd signed up for the class while still living with baby dad, now she's got a new address. She told me how she called the lab gear suppliers, told them the situation, and explained, "When it arrives at my previous address, that f*cker will likely just throw it away..."

No worries. Happens more often than you'd think. Sadly.

Another late 30s tutee is returning to college after many years out of school. She's sort of this zenny, (that a word?) spiritual type. She told me she teaches yoga and is into numerology. She's very jangly when she arrives - as in she wears various jewelry that jangles. Bauble-laden earrings and bracelets. She does have a rather calming presence about her. Makes me wonder what Steffie the Good Witch of Best Buy would say about her aura. 

Anyway, we were working on her math homework when I informed that "ten to the zero is equal to one". She stared at me

I went on to say, "any number raised to the zeroth power is one". The staring continued, so I did too.

"100 to the zero is one, ten bazillion gajillion to the zero is one, pi to the zero is one..."

At this point she burst out laughing. She thought that was the most hilarious and wonderful thing. When the concept came up again, she burst out laughing again. I'd never realized how joyous that little math tidbit could be.

Or maybe she was a bit high?

Speaking of which... our Colorado recreational marijuana smoking room screen house is pretty much done. Outdoor lights and required outlets have been installed, the city will come for the final inspection probably today.

It's already so much nicer back there - no longer the surface of Venus in full sun. I won't miss shoveling the snow off of it either, I bet. 

live long and prosper

I still think of it as "Mom's car". The car I've had since 2014, when my parents gifted it to me. This was probably a couple of years after Mom should not have been driving, but whatcha gonna do? By then, Mom's remaining days on earth were few, she'd finally given in.

 So I'd had Mom's 2000 Toyota for the last 10 years, and now it was time to rehome it.

I figured I'd sell it myself as the dealership where we just got our new funmobile likely wouldn't offer much in trade. I looked on Marketplace for comparable offerings, but really found none. Oh, there were plenty of old cars, all with around 200,000 miles. My car was old, but had less than 31,000. Nothing to compare it to!

So I winged it. I took a few glamour shots of her in the driveway, sure to include a real odometer reading, and put her out there.

As happens, there are weirdos out there. I figured I could weed out the scammers well enough. But the post went absolutely bananas. I'd done an online Carmax quote, then set my price at a few hundred dollars more. Cash only.

I've lost count of the number of inquiries I fielded in just the first hour. A few I knew were NOT scammers because they countered with shamefully low amounts. They were easy to slough off. Others were more persistent. 

One guy in particular sent me a photo of a grid of 100-dollar-bills laid out (on a bed?) - totalling the full amount I was asking. 

Sheesh, I thought. I wonder if this is what internet dating is like. D*ck pic analogy, anyone?

Finally, I marked it as "sale pending", just to slow the flow of inquiries. See, I wanted to screen potential buyers a bit. Many of them looked to be flippers who would just turn around and try to sell it for more. And that's FINE - in fact that's the Carmax business model - but I wanted to hold out for the just right. I took a moment and asked the universe (and Mom) for guidance. 

By late afternoon, I was ready to remove the listing and screw it, take it to Carmax. Just as I had that thought, my messenger pinged. It was one of the earlier, more promising inquiries. Here he was offering a few  hundred over what I was asking. 

Mom's little-old-lady car started an online bidding war?

In my exhaustion, I messaged back. "I just got home from work, I can meet anytime if you want to come look"

And he was on like Donkey Kong.

He lived about an hour away, and was out hiking just then. He said he'd head over once he got back to his car at the trailhead, make a quick stop at the ATM, and gather up all his cash.

And that's how the weird car sale day ended. We met him and his girlfriend (who lent him the last few hundred) at a nearby parking lot. They showed up in their hiking gear and bought Mom's car - about 10 hours after I'd posted it. He said he has a lifted SUV, great for the mountains, but has been struggling to find a good used economy beater car for getting around town.

Sold. 

Mr. hundred-dollar-bills pic expressed his sadness. It wasn't in the stars for him this time.

Right, Mom?

can't take it with ya

The weekend, she was a good one. I'm feeling much lighter, but not necessarily in a good way. We dropped a lotta cash.

I mentioned we were looking to get a new vehicle that could get us around in snow and into the boonies. This after years of me yo-yo-ing between getting such a thing or giving up a car for the bike and rent something as needed.

Well, screw it, we (I) honed in on a vehicle I liked, did a bit of research, looked around for one, ended up traveling to Cheyenne Wyoming for our new acquisition. 

Cheyenne is a quick trip from Fort Collins. The dealership was friendly, had several for us to choose from, with lots of wide open space for test driving. Highly recommend.

In the meantime, the screenhouse? It's progressing nicely. The roof is complete. We just need a couple doors, and it's a thing.

We keep reminding ourselves, "we can't take it with us". Still, after years of frugality, this is not the norm for us. 

Yesterday, I went for a lovely hike. Just me and Meego. He invited me to check out [Button Rock Preserve], so we did that. It was a nice hike and a nice catch-up with Meego. As the youngest kid, he sort of fell in with this ready made family. 

I hadn't really realized before, but he wanted to know more about who we were 😂

For one, I explained the relatively large age gap between him and Wolfgang. How Chaco and Wolfgang arrived - *bang* bang*. After a couple of miscarriages, we finally got Meego. Born on Mother's Day no less (he knew about the Mother's Day birth, at least).

Life, religion, family, relationships - easily the deepest, and longest, conversation I've had with him. Oh, and the hike was nice too.

Anyway, really nice time. Now it's Monday. Carry on.

the sequel

For this final installment of the events of Thursday morning, I offer this birds-eye depiction. 

I've tried to show Alex, heading south on the bike path and crossing the road. The Prius that hit him was going west, I was going east, about to turn onto the southward bike path.

The red splotch is the approximate spot where Alex landed.

The sun-looking things are to represent flashing lights that a pedestrian or cyclist is to activate to alert oncoming traffic. There is no stop light or walk signal at this particular intersection.

I didn't see the actual collision, but from what I gathered from those who did, Alex didn't stop at the intersection, and was going pretty fast. I don't know if the lights were flashing at the time, possibly activated by another cyclist who had gone through ahead of Alex. They continue flashing for about 5 to 10 seconds after the button is pushed.

I will say that those flashing lights aren't the greatest. They're the same as the yellow lights that flash in school zones during drop-off and pick-up times. 

As for the woman who hit him, she was distraught, not angry. Felt absolutely awful. When I went over to check on Alex, she kept repeating, "I hit him..." and "my baby is in the car...", so I told her we'd keep Alex safe until paramedics arrived and to go ahead and check on her baby - she'd parked the car a few feet west of where Alex was laying.

"No", she explained, "I want to stay here with him. Will you please go check on my baby?"

Oh, me? Okay.

I went to the car and saw a kid of about one year, secured in his car seat in the back passenger side, just as he should be. He held a small plastic Tonka dump truck. I'd say he was utmostly the least fazed person at the scene.

Back to Alex, where he remained motionless and disoriented. [Fresca] noted that he was most likely in shock. After googling the symptoms of traumatic shock, I would certainly agree. That combined with obvious head trauma would explain his seeming "calm".

He did look to try to roll himself - possibly thinking about sitting up - a few times. But his movements were too slothlike and ineffective. Plus, whenever he did that, we all told him not to move, and he complied, only to try again in a minute or so.

By then, a nurse was on the scene. Ever witnessed a medical situation, and a nurse seems to automatically appear?  I swear, they are everywhere! Thankfully.

About the time the paramedics arrived, the nurse told Prius woman that she'd done a cursory neurological test on Alex, and he did fine. By that point, we were nearly as concerned for Prius woman as we were for Alex, she was so beside herself. 

Competent paramedics arrived, west-bound traffic was re-routed, so I figured I should probably get out of the way at that point. I checked social media and incident blotters, but never heard anything else about the crash other than that paramedics spent an hour and nine minutes on the scene. 

I left feeling concerned for Alex, but at the same time wondering at his carelessness. Not stopping at that sketchy intersection, not wearing a helmet.

Noting the day, time of day, his age, and the direction he was going, I couldn't help but think he is a student at the college where I work. He had a messenger-type bag on, and the top flap was partially open underneath him, from where a mangled breakfast burrito peeked out.

So, to Alex, I'm thinking aboutcha. You too, Prius woman.

the morning

So, yesterday started with a bang.

I was on my way to work, enjoying my lovely morning bicycle commute. I was going down a street that connects to the bicycle path that takes me most of the way to the college when I noticed some traffic conjestion a few yards ahead.

I'm harumphing in my head because a car has pulled into the bike lane in front of me, and as I work out my strategy for getting around the car and onto the bike path, I realize something is awry.

Looking to the other side of the street, that's when I saw him. A person lying motionless in the bicycle lane, a toppled bicycle a few feet beside them.

Ah, I put it together. There's been an accident - most likely a bicyclist hit by a car. I stopped, dismounted, and headed over to the motionless person.

It was eerie to me the way he wasn't moving, but his eyes were wide wide open, not looking at anything in particular. As I got closer, a rather distraught woman tells me, "I hit him... I didn't see him..."

She goes on about her baby in the car and is clearly agitated. Other witnesses have called 9-1-1, so I lean down to the injured cyclist. There's blood streaked across his face, a small pool of blood on the pavement, and he has a deep deep wound right to the outside of his left wide-open eye.

"It's okay", I say. "You're gonna be all right". I could be totally full of sh*t, but it seems like the thing I should say to him.

"Where does it hurt?", I ask, really just wondering if he can respond. In a slothlike fashion, he raises one arm  so his hand is toward his head. He has yet to say anything. I'm somewhat relieved to see he can move a limb.

"What is your name?", my next quiz. 

A rather slurred "Alex" comes out, just slightly above a whisper.

To be continued... 

...because I have to go to work. But I wanted to start to blog this down because I felt weird the whole day yesterday afterward.

Bottom line: WEAR A HELMET and stop at sketchy intersections.