let's pretend it's science

I was at work today, and one of our rehabilitation residents had on a Colorado Buffaloes - a.k.a CU - sweatshirt.

"Hey, I like your sweatshirt!  Did you go to CU?", I asked the white-haired woman.

"Yes, I did", she deadpanned.

"I went there too, always nice to meet a fellow alum, particularly here where there're a lot of Ram fans", I continued (Fort Collins is home to the in-state rival university of CU).

"Oh?  When were you there?", she asked.

"I graduated in 1990", I answered.

"Ah.  I was there... before that", and we giggled a bit as I went about my non-college-degree-requiring job.

My young coworkers know that I also work as a tutor.  I've told them, "I'm here for the 401K", as I've extoled the virtues of pretax savings.  Most of them are not at all interested in socking away for retirement at their current stages of life.

Tutoring is contract work, so no bennies.  It's a nice side gig, but I've typically had another side gig job, like now, that offers a 401K or other pretax savings plan of some sort.  Not a whole lotta money, believe me, but I like to contribute a little plus have some occupation to balance the tuting.

Also today at work, our dishwasher went on the fritz.  Not the machine in the kitchen, but the human who loads and unloads the machine in the kitchen.  Through a series of unfortunate events, she had to leave, which left us dishwasherless for a couple hours.  Anxious times, I tellya.  

I gathered my wits and headed to the alien land that is the dishpit.  Told myself, "I'm a retired mechanical engineer, I should be able to figure out a feaking commercial dishwasher".

And I did.

I went to college.  And today, I washed dishes, thereby saving the day.  

Wait, what?