final march and a dead thing

I'm behind by two inktober drawings, but we're in the homestretch! 

This week turned busy with P.E.O. stuff including getting a scholarship recommendation in before the deadline.  I figured that was more important than inktober scratchings.  BUT, recommendation is in, and now we wait.  My part is mostly done.

Meego had state champ marching band competition yesterday.  They looked really good, possibly their best show all year, but they didn't get a trophy.  ALL the bands brought their A-games and the bar seemed really high this year.

However, as another mom put it, "No ramp tumblings!", since amazingly, no one fell off those blasted prop ramps.

Magnum and I got out today for a bit of hiking.  Geocaching too, but we came up empty.  As I was stupidly and ineffectively hunting around, I came upon this grisly scene:

See the skull?  I'm thinking it's a large mouse or chipmunk?  Clearly, there was pagan sacraficial activity going on!  Now, we're probably cursed.

the last time I saw her

"Don't look!", I told myself.  Act like everything's normal.

I knew if I looked, she would either disappear or I would totally freak out.  Or both.

But I knew she was there.  She was ninety degrees to my right, standing in the doorway to my bedroom.  I was facing a mirror above the dresser, getting ready for work.  It was early morning and still a bit dark out.

So I didn't look.  I pretended to continue to primp, but it was bad pretending because even without looking, I was freaking out a little.  Even without looking, I KNEW she was there.

Eventually, I figured that, since I was already freaking out anyway, I might as well look.  I had to look.

So I did.

And there she was.  The vision probably lasted less than a second, but I saw her.  She didn't speak.  She didn't move.  She was only standing there, looking right at me.  She was wearing navy blue and sunglasses.  She looked good.

Then she was gone, and I was left standing, looking at the hallway outside my bedroom.

My grandma.

About 15 years after she'd passed away.

I still wonder why she was wearing those sunglasses.  Maybe I'll ask her next time I see her.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Linking up with Mama Kat for the prompt:
5.) Write about a time you were totally freaked out because thought there was a ghost.

graceful, deep, and furious

This week has been a real whiz-bang of activity!  Mainly featuring parent-teacher conferencing, P.E.O.-ing, marching band regionaling, and the continuing saga of Inktobering.  Whew.

It's all good, but it's meant little to no blogging.  I'm happy to be here now.

Parent-teacher conferences went as expected - meaning that really NO one came to talk to me.  I'm high school study hall, for chrissake.  Luckily, I was assigned to the library with a few others that no one typically visits - a couple of P.E. teachers and a part-time math tutor.

We had a rip roaring good time in the library. Sadly, the one woman who stopped by my station just came by to sign something for the other study haller (who had smartly taken the night off).  I was glad for the visit until I realized she'd walked off with my pen.  *sigh*.  I liked that pen.

Meego had marching band regionals on Wednesday and will by vying for state competition later this week. Their show theme features a ship lured by mythical sirens, so yeah,  the ship crashes, etc.

They've got these props that are meant to be the rocks that the ship crashes upon, and various members of the band go up and down these rock props during the show

On Wednesday night, one of the bass drummers bit it on the way up the prop, fell off the ramp.  An audible "Oh shit!" was  emitted.  But I'm pretty sure that only the other parents in our close vicinity heard me 😳.

She wasn't badly hurt, composed herself, and recovered nicely for the remainder of the show.  Later I learned that this is not the first time someone has fallen on that stupid ramp - friction problems.  I say it needs a better solution than what they're doing now, but then again, it IS a shipwreck.  Say it's part of the show?

Speaking of recovering, I've got my head slightly above water on Inktober after falling a bit behind this week.  I managed three drawings yesterday to make up for a couple I'd missed

17.  graceful

20.  deep

21.  furious

Today, I plan to be all caught up!  Just need to finish Fat, get Filthy, and hit the Trail!

some pics, no ink

Last weekend, I mentioned how Magnum and I came upon a cute little rattlesnake while out geocaching?  Lo and behold, a Colorado hiker died after being rattlesnake bit last weekend.  It's actually quite rare to die from a rattler bite, especially if medical  help is available, which it was for this young hiker.  Plus, it's not like he was out of shape, he was a triathlete who loved to go on hikes.  Sad thing.

I have since learned that those little young snakes are often more dangerous because (1) they usually inject venom whereas adults will often "dry bite", and (2) the younger snake's venom is typically more toxic than with older snakes.  Well, now.  I feel bad for the guy's family and friends, though.  By all I've read, he was a really nice guy.  Be careful out there.





On a much lighter note, it was a lovely morning for a bicycle joyride.

The fall air was crisp, and I realized I looked somewhat like a scuba diver on dry land in the cool-weather garb.  Balaclava season is upon us.











I snapped this photo of a hot air balloon hovering at a height I would not be comfortable hovering at.

But it was pretty from the ground.

Yesterday, we went to watch Meego and the gang at a marching band competition.

Meego and the rest of the bangers

They had a good showing, despite the fact that it was annoyingly windy.  I felt for those flag girls - do a toss move and, "where'd my flag go?!"

I'd been keeping up with Inktober 2017 until yesterday.  The day just got eaten up by marching, and in-lawing, and haircutting, and general lazing arounding.  So now I'm behind a day, but I'll catch up.  It's the halfway point, I can't stop now!

this one has a story

Today's Inktober prompt is "shattered".  I kept coming back to a recent incident, so I inked it out for the catharsis.

A couple of weeks ago, I was leaving work.  As I came upon my bicycle in the rack at school, I noticed my tail light was missing. 

Now, sometimes, I remove my lights when I park the bicycle just because there are people who will take them.  But I'd become too trusting and had begun to just leave my lights attached.

So I was discouraged when I noticed the taillight missing.  It wasn't an expensive light, but it served its purpose of helping me stay visible, especially now that the morning rides are getting increasingly darker.

In my discouraged state, I looked around the area a bit and sadly, found my light.  Broken in several pieces and strewn about.  It was a sad day.

I gathered up all the pieces and tucked them in my bag.  Not sure why, I just didn't like seeing my trusty light all shattered and left for dead like that.

I mentioned it to my supervisor who happens to be the administrator in charge of discipline - behavior issues, detentions and such.  She in turn told the head of security:  A large police officer named Buck. 

Buck in turn involved "Security Barb", one of the school resource officers.  Barb contacted me:

"Abby

I do have a camera facing some of the bikes.  I need some intel on which bike I am looking at..."

"Intel" - doncha just love the CopSpeak?!

Barb showed me some footage, and eventually we found me showing up for work and parking the bike.  I was encouraged at how clear the picture was, however, it was footage of mostly the top of my head...

Good ol' Barb, though.  She scanned the footage from that fateful day and:

"...found what I think is the incident at about 14:54:55..."

The incident at about 14:54:55, doncha love it!

Anyway, yes, she found the incident, but was unable to identify the perps.  Two boys.  One swiped at the light and it came off.  The second perp picked it up and threw it against the wall. 

*sigh*

I thanked Barb very much for her efforts, then wrote the incident off as a disappointing lesson learned.

Today, one of the counselors came by my room and asked to speak with me outside.  He asked me about the tail light, what I knew, etc.  It seemed strange that he would be asking me about it at this point.  I had my bike parked in my room, where I've parked it since The Incident.  He noticed I had a different and more secure light on the bike - in my room and not in the rack.

He didn't say so, but I'm wondering now if they continued to investigate and possibly found the tail light violators?  I'd told him the light wasn't worth much in a monetary sense, but I was just disappointed in the kids who'd done it.

He was quite sympathetic in a school counselor sort of way.  Said, "You'd probably at least like an apology, I bet". 

I dunno.  I hope the team did find the kids, but I don't necessarily want to know who they are. I just want them to know they got caught.

.

rattlers, study hall, and revealing quizzes

Magnum and I got in some hiking/geocaching yesterday afternoon. It was a gorgeous day out, plus it's supposed to turn crappy overnight tonight, so we had to go outside.




We had much success finding caches in Ute Valley Park, where we also came across a cute little rattlesnake sunning itself.

That park is known for rattlesnakes, but when we came upon this one, I realized it was the first time I'd seen a live rattlesnake in the wild.

He/she was actually quite cute.  A young one, no more than 18 inches long, I'd say, with the cutest little rattle.  I tried to get a decent photo of it, which was when it showed us the rattle and that it knew how to use it.  But it slithered off into the grass before I could get a decent photo, probably cursing the damn weekend hikers.






At work last week, I had to send emails out to the parents of 11 students who are failing study hall.  One one hand, 11 out of about 250 isn't a bad percentage.  On the other hand, IT'S FREAKING STUDY HALL!  Who fails study hall?!

I don't think I had a formal study hall during my high school years.  I recall that certain teachers would just sometimes call a study hall day to get caught up.  I do remember being in the school library with a couple of friends as we worked through sex quizzes in Cosmopolitan magazine.

Why did my high school library have a subscription to Cosmo?!?

Oh well, can't say I didn't learn anything in study hall...

Today's Inktober submission:

8.  Crooked

ink has spilled

Inktober is one week old/young!  It's been a fun week of  joining in the draw-every-day challenge.  When I was a kid, up until about puberty, I'm pretty sure I did draw every day.  So, it's been a bit of return to my prepubescent self?

Oh well, whatever, it's been fun.  There are daily optional prompts, but the priority is to complete an ink drawing every day.  I like using the prompts, though. 

During the week, I've actually been "sneak drawing" while at work - just kinda chip away at the drawings in between work stuff.  Dang, those teenagers can be so interruptive!  Rude, no?  Also, for drawing at work, I limit myself to my little moleskine notebook, a fat sharpie, and a generic felt tip.  Further challenge!

Here's what I got so far

1.  Swift

2.  Divided

3.  Poison

4.  Underwater

5.  Long

6.  Sword

7.  Shy

Wolfgang's been keeping up too, so we keep each other motivated.  Good little exercise for those of us feeling rather underemployed 😕 😀

sale?

Couple of months ago, I bought some new shooz (yeah, I know, stop the presses).  They're running shoes, and I ordered them online.

So they arrived and felt a bit tight, but not too.  I hopped around inside the house and deemed them good.  Then I ran around outside, and that changed my mind.  I really should go up a half size.

I got a second larger pair and we've been enjoying a  happy existence ever since.  But... what about that first pair?  I couldn't return them because I'd stupidly hastily run around outside in them.  Other than being too small for ME, they were perfectly fine shoes, only worn that one time.

I could donate them, but I was thinking (1) they're practically brand new, (2) they're not a common brand for people who don't run, and (3) I just doled out some good cash for these things.  Maybe I could sell 'em?  Maybe some other runner lady, with feet slightly smaller than mine, would recognize the brand and realize the bargain!

I jumped into action.

Guess the shooz!
(photo not my feet/shooz/legs)

Off to craigslist I went, with a few pretty pictures and a bit of the story - only worn once, wonderful, just too small for me, blah, blah, blah...  I posted my ad under both "clothing" and "sporting goods", and figured I'd just let it run for a couple weeks.

Not surprisingly, nothing happened.  Weeks went by, and I actually forgot about the ad... until I got a recent email in my covert only-for-things-like-craigslist email account.  The subject read, "Running Shoes".

That jogged (see what I did there?) my memory that I'd put those shoes on craigslist.  At that point, I figured any response wasn't even legit, and was reminded I should probably just bite the bullet and put the shoes in the donation bin.  Chalk the expense up to lessons learned.  I opened the email anyway.  It was from a dude.

      "Any chance you could sell these to me fresh off your feet? Thanks"

Ew.

Okay, there are stranger things than smelly shoe/feet fetishes.  But no.  There's no chance.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

3. Write a blog post inspired by the word: change.

grey days, red rubber pants, and buffaloes

I used to do "silver lining" posts nearly every Sunday, but somewhere along the way, I got out of the habit.  I think I'm due.

We had grey skies and rain all last week, which is quite rare for this neck of the woods.  We don't typically get socked into any one particular weather pattern, but there it was - the week of grey.  It was nice to have all that moisture, but the lack of sun was starting to get to me by the end of the week.

However, one of the teachers at work noted that the students all seemed better behaved than usual?  Maybe so.  The greys kept the stir-crazies away?  Crappy outside, may as well buckle down?

The sun did return, and I snapped this photo while out on a joyride with Alice this morning.  First sign of appreciable snow on the Peak - not much.  Like a pubescent boy getting his first chin hairs.

In other silver liningness, I usually have the sun in my eyes on my way into work each morning.  With the clouds, that wasn't a problem.  One coworker asked how I stay dry on such rides, so I'll give a shout out to my rain gear.   Love me some rubber pants on a rainy day!

And y'know my big brained brother, Hagrid?  He has officially retired from his secret government scientist job after 48 years.  I hardly remember a time when he wasn't a secret government scientist!  He had a retirement bash last week, that sadly I couldn't make it to.  I'm sure he still got plenty of glory, despite my notable (NOT) absence.

Now, it's on to the next thing for him - a deserved and respected university position at his Alma Mater - MY Alma Mater too!  Go Buffaloes!  The university should name a building after Hagrid.  Then I can pretend it's named after me.