slowly closing in

We've made it to the last day of 2022. It's handy to have a blog so I'm able to dig around and see what just happened. 

Before ripping out the old calendar, I will summarize with an oh-so-exciting look back.

We did our first winter bike-to-work day. Cold day, but the coffee and sweet rolls were warm and worth it. Ran into Wolfgang for a win.

Meego graduated college. WHOOP!

Magnum and I took a trip to Taos, NM and stayed in an Earthship. Interesting structures, desolate landscape.

Summer bike-to-work day. *Note:  on neither of these bike-to-work days was I actually scheduled to work*

We did a family trip to Steamboat Springs, CO. I'd never been there before. Lovely place.

Other things I discovered in my archive dig:

• The entire family got COVID around the same time.
• I began tutoring for the college in addition to my part-time admin job and like it
• We attended our first Tour de Fat and first Tour de Corgi 🐶
• I completed *most of* Inktober '22
• I raced against the mayor on Thanksgiving day and won

Okay, enough of that business. Move on!

repair and refresh

Christmas '22 has come and gone. I took down my sparse decorations on Tuesday, and we're back to darkness. We had a nice gathering, just us five. Thankfully, no one was having to fly to get here.

Chaco has been here since last Wednesday evening. Drove up in a blizzard and had elective shoulder surgery on arctic blast Thursday morning: Bankart repair after repeated shoulder dislocations. 

So we've become somewhat educated on arthroscopy and shoulder bits. It's been a week, and he'll likely return to his place tomorrow. Know anyone in Westminster that will shovel snow on demand?

The weather did greatly improve after the polar vortex, the bombogenesis, whatever the term. Temperatures mellowed out and most of the snow is gone, only to be replaced by another little spitting last night.

Work starts up again next Tuesday, then classes begin - heralding in new tutees - in mid-January. I feel a bit stagnant in the testing center. There's not much more to learn, and I have no wishes to "move up". The job functions as a steady trickle of income and 401k eligibility, so I remind myself that it's serving that purpose just fine. 

Our little workplace gift swap didn't happen since the campus closed a day early. I don't think anyone was particularly disappointed about that. It would've been a swap of re-gift items. Scented candles galore, I'm sure.

And yes, Boss did end up getting that promotion, so we'll see what happens. I was voicing my workplace ennui to Party Girl recently, and she offered that maybe that will change for the better when Boss moves to his new digs. Maybe? She's counting on it for herself. 

Here's to a happy new year all around 🍾

may your days be merry and bright!

 

Happy Holly Jollies to y'all! 🎄

my tears can't drip

I was covered, head to toe, convinced it was the only way to survive the arctic blast. Even so, after 10 minutes or so of shoveling, my frozen fingers were complaining. Then, neighbor dude went by.

He had on an unzipped jacket and jeans, no hat, no scarf. Boots? Maybe. Gloves? Maybe?

He pushed his shovel down several yards of sidewalk in both directions from his house, clearing a path for his house, our house, and several others. I stopped my shoveling and watched him, nearly naked, go past. 

How were his ears not falling off, frozen bits of meat? How did his face still work? I thanked him for his fine but perplexing work and went about continuing to freeze my fingers.

Yes, like many parts of the country, we are in a deep freeze. Magnum and I went out and cleared our driveway and walkway early this morning when it was about -7 degrees F. He had to take Chaco to an appointment, and I stayed home with three dogs and the cat.  The college announced on Tuesday afternoon that we would be closed today through Saturday, so my winter break started a day early.

The sun did eventually peek out, so it turned into a pretty day, but never got higher than 2 degrees above zero as far as I could tell. I ventured out for a little look-see as the cabin fever was setting in. I figured I'd walk to the nearby convenience store for cigarettes. Just kidding.

The bright sun made it seem warmer than it was, and thankfully, the wind was nearly nonexistent. I swung by the neighborhood park to shoot a
hoop under that clear blue sky.

Afterwards I thawed out satisfyingly at home with hot tea and a ridiculous book - ridiculous not in a good way.

I guess Magnum thought my reading approach amusing from across the table.

I will not ever join an online dating site, but if I did, this would be my profile pic.

Truth in advertising.

Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:
2. Write a blog post inspired by the word: cold.

drifting

Winter solstice 2022 is Wednesday, 12.21.22 at 2:47pm MST, but who's counting? I'm looking forward to more daylight/ less nightdark. We're almost there. Will my headlight batteries last long enough?

I'm appreciating the warm house after a cold, blustery week. Today is just cold without the blustery. We've been step-by-step replacing pieces of our house, a former rental. Last year it was water pipes, water heater, windows, furnace. Now we've moved onto washer, kitchen range, and are currently in the middle of a bit of dishwasher drama, and it's all good. Appliance makeover is nearly complete. *looking at you, old fridge*.

The new range has an induction cooktop, which is very cool (and hot), and I'm still learning its idiosyncrasies. I have a voucher for a 6-piece cookset from Samsung in exchange for my review on their website. Haven't given the review as the range is still pretty new, plus... I don't need the cookset. We'll see if I get motivated enough to submit a review.

In entertainment news, this week we watched a couple of good movies. Firstly, Emily the Criminal with Aubrey Plaza as the title character. I thought it was really well-done, although I didn't like any of the characters. In this case, I didn't need to like the characters to like the movie... and now I'm paranoid about credit card fraud.

We also watched Troll, a Norwegian movie about, well, a troll. It's basically a monster movie, but it was better than I expected, having some colorful, well-written characters. 

And I'm reminded of the 2010 film "Troll Hunter", which was also quite good.  Troll Hunter is not necessarily a monster movie. It's presented like a documentary production made by a group of film students. Bunches of fun!

I'm looking forward to wrapping up this week at work, then we have a week off before the January fun begins. Boss had his interview for that promotion, so we've all got fingers crossed but not counting any chickens. 

I'm about as ready as I'm going to be for Christmas. Just need to get the food. Minor detail.

concentrate

When I was a college undergrad, I did my time working retail. This was back before "online", let alone online shopping. So Christmas time was a zoo, Christmas eve being the worst. I was shocked at the number of shoppers on Christmas eve - grabbing whatever was left on the nearly empty shelves in order to have SOMEthing for Uncle Charlie!

Now, years later, I've circled around to another part-time job, this time at a college testing center. The equivalent to retail Christmas eve is last day of finals, which was yesterday. A steady stream of the anxiety-riddled.

At one point in the mayhem, an instructor stopped in. Instructors come by on a regular basis, usually to drop off or pick up exams. So this one - an older man - wandered in, and I met his gaze.

"Hi. Dropping off? Picking up?"

He looked at me rather confusedly, "Uhm... neither", then he turned to Assistant Boss, who was behind me, to say, "I'm in class giving the final, but if you have any questions about my tests for students here, it's okay to call me".

Assistant Boss said, "okay", and old instructor guy exited.

Then Assistant Boss looked to me and said, "That was weird".

And I said, "Yeah, why would he need to come in here just to tell us that".

And Assistant Boss, who is male, said, "No, I mean, why did he tell it to me instead of to you??"

"Oh, that", I replied, "because clearly my lady brain can't handle his complex instructions".

This particular instructor even looks similar to this manly man from a scene in Orange is the New Black:

Except in addition to regularly ignoring us women-folk, he often seems a bit spacey. Recently, one of my fellow lady-brained coworkers noticed him intentionally stealing pens from us. Weird, especially given that our pens are nothing special.

Maybe he thinks it's fine unless someone sees him stealing pens? And women don't count?

So I chalk his behavior up to him being a little "out of touch", or him losing his mind, and not worth the angst.

He teaches biology. Hmmm.

storm before the calm

I worked the Saturday shift with Party Girl yesterday. She confirmed, as I expected, that she is also hoping big for Boss's promotion. In fact, she didn't mince her words when the subject came up, stating, "Oh, he needs to get the F*CK outta here", then told me how he held her captive talking about stock car racing while she was trying to "actually get some work done" on Friday.

Boss has been a life long bachelor for all of his 62 years until just a few months ago when he moved in with his "girlfriend" of about 2 and a half years. We consider his living alone for so long to be the main reason behind his long-winded, self-centered monologues. Or is it vice versa?

Wouldn't it be funny if he got the promotion, but kept his current office? Ha! NO!

Either way, girlfriend must be a glutton for punishment or otherwise made differently than the rest of us. 

Anyway, another good week down. I finished up with all my college tutoring for fall semester as students are in the throes of final exams now. Tomorrow is sure to be a zoo in the testing center as it's the last day of finals. The storm before the calm.

I'm not at all on the ball with Christmas prep, but no biggie since we don't make a big deal about it in our household. Still, I like having something for each of the kids to open. And I might finally get some lights hung later today. Neighbors keep putting us to shame.

This reminds me that it's once again time for the box of diabetes to arrive from Magnum's dad's wife. I've mentioned here before how most of it ends up at work breakrooms and/or the trash since I don't know of a good way to get her to stop sending the mountain of store-bought sugar shock each year. It just seems so wasteful.

Maybe she'll forget this year? 

porridge

I have a vague memory from when I was around 3 years old. I was at home with my mom, and she bundled me up and let me go out in the backyard by myself. By myself! I don't think I'd ever really been by myself outside ever before. 

The backyard seemed YUGE, a vast expanse! It was covered in freshly fallen snow. 

And maybe my mom was out there with me, but in my memory, I was alone in that "wilderness", quite mesmerized by the sensation of waddling through the snow. I remember how it felt to move through it in my boots, and the swishy sounds it made, and how comfy I felt in all my bundlage.

This was snow. How enchanting.

Honestly, I'm not a great fan of snow. I don't even ski. I KNOW, I live in COLORADO! So I've skied, but it's not something I'm passionate about, and it's gotten so expensive anyway. And the crowds. I guess I equate my snow bliss with being away from crowds and bustle. 

So this morning, when I stepped outside and was met with surprise snow ("this was NOT in the forecast"), I took it as a gift? Maybe?

Yes. 

What a beautiful morning - not given justice with my cell phone pics and lacking photography skills.

I came across a few others out there - walking dogs or out alone, a few bicycle commuters slowly doing their thing - no one complaining. 

Eventually, I had to turn around and head back home, but I kind of didn't want to. Hypothermia, though... not good.

Sometimes we get just a little bit of snow that only functions to create mud to be tracked into the house.  Other times, we get dumped on, and it makes a mess, creates crap conditions for getting anywhere, and long overstays its welcome.

But once in a while, we get these Goldilocks snows. So my day started out just right. 

playing catch up

Hello, December!

Another busy week down. Finals begin this week at the college. High anxiety time. These days, there are all these stressbusters in place: puppies, free treats, free yoga, etc. Sheesh, when I was in college, we tempered stress by studying and abusing substances on our own dime.

In other work related news, my boss is up for a promotion.  Similar role, but bigger crown. I hope he gets the job because (1) I think he'd be highly effective at it, and (2) if selected, his office would be at another campus.

I would still work for him, and as I've said here before - I like working FOR my boss, but I don't necessarily like working WITH him a lot of the time. He talks SO much about himself and his special interests (which aren't very interesting). So if he is the chosen one, it's the best of both worlds for me, and his maybe-promotion is all about me.

The selection process will take a while, but I'm over here rooting for him. He actually asked me to go over his cover letter and tighten it up a bit. You know I did my best!

The weekend was good. I had a PEO meeting on Saturday and then another Tortoise and Hare race on Sunday. This one was a 6k, so about 3.7 miles. 

The nature of these T&H races is such that "the fastest person doesn't always win". In fact, the fastest person rarely wins.

Likely winners are those who improve over their previous race. Last year, the one who took the grand prize at the end of the season was a 7-year-old kid.

But it's still a race, so naturally, everyone wants to know who's the fastest. Sorting the results always pulls up the same bunch.

Always those whipper snapper high school cross country kids. Oh, to be young again.