hold the fat

 To quote Bette Midler in The Rose, yesterday, I felt like "a waitress in the banquet of life".

Yesterday was Tour de Fat here in Fort Collins, one of our largest unwritten "holidays".

"Tour De Fat is an annual, free-to-participate event put on by New Belgium Brewing Company featuring live music, costumes, beer and bikes"

It begins with a huge bike parade down scenic Mountain Avenue - which, by the way, was the route Magnum and I were on for his fateful crash and burn a few weeks ago, thankfully not during a massively attended parade. The parade finishes up at New Belgium where the fun and festivities continue. 

Magnum and I attended our first Tour de Fat last year  - such a happy event. It didn't happen in 2020 or 2021 because of you-know-what. 

I knew in the back of my mind that it happens around Labor Day, and a couple of weeks ago, I saw that it would be Aug. 26th this year.

And I thought, "hmmm, that date sounds familiar". Oh yeah, I was scheduled to work that day, harumph. 

Our testing center is open for 5 hours every Saturday, and Boss schedules two people to staff it on a rotating basis. So while my Monday thru Friday schedule is very predictable, the Saturday rotations come around when they come around. So yep, it was Triple Dee, Chili, and me working on Tour de Fat Saturday.

Not a hardship, really. I probably could've gotten someone to switch if I was desperate, but I wasn't. I enjoy the parade and bikes and costumes and people watching, but I'm okay to leave the festivities to the young folk.

On my commute home, the bike path was clearly a bit more crowded than usual with people heading home from Tour de Fat - silly costumes, decorated bicycles, large groups in matching shirts, etc. I understand there were lots of Barbies and related gear this year.

And there I was, in with them for a short bit, in my conservative Saturday going-to-work clothes.

So I'm sure it was fun, weather was good, and attendance was high. I'll plan to be at the next thing:

Tour de Corgi!

for reals

I came across this little (literally) guy this morning while out on another morning meandering.  

He seems appropriate for the Friday mood.

He is one detail in this larger... erm... yard ornament decoration thing?

It sits on a corner house, and I'd seen it before while bicycling by, but never looked at it closely before this morning.

There is a whole mess of little characters and crevices to discover.  The painted mailbox says, "Fairy and Leprechaun mail only". The main structure is part of a tree that is bolted down to a tree stump. Looks to me like the bolted down portion is part of the original tree. 

Either way, I enjoyed the morning look-like-a-runner outing as it's raining now. We're predicted to have lots of rain all day today - a rarity here. Remnants of hurricane Hilary, perhaps?

My work schedule changed slightly this week, and I'm liking the new schedule well enough. We're in the process of hiring a new boss since Boss boss was promoted to yet another layer of admin. Current Assistant Boss is in the running, but not necessarily a shoe-in, and hopefully we'll have an answer within a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I played around some more with my little WacomⓇ tablet. I am a legit preschooler when it comes to creating digital art. Clearly in the only-can-do-cartoony-things phase.

I call this depiction "me walking the dogs while imagining me walking the dogs"

Based on a true story.

people

It's crowded here again. Nothing obnoxious, but the elbow room of summer has noticeably diminished. I understand that enrollment at the university is approximately 30,000 students. Their fall semester starts tomorrow, and freshman move-in happened in waves last week, so that was particularly noticeable with all the freshman parents in tow as well.

On a more subdued change, our semester at the college also starts tomorrow, but we're just a community college - no dorms, no sports. I doubt that anyone comes from "far and wide" to attend. My schedule will change slightly - same days of the week, same number of hours. Coworker Triple Dee teaches a class, so I'm swapping a couple of shifts with her to accommodate her class times, and I'm looking forward to the change if, for none other than it being a change. Ho hum. We had our tutoring ducks-in-a-row meeting as well, so let the games begin.

Earlier this week, I was at the downtown library. It was mainly an excuse for a joyride on my bicycle, and I did have a book to return. I stopped in the ladies room before heading home, and while I was washing my hands, a bearded guy emerged from one of the stalls. 

Another woman was washing her hands beside me and gave me a little sideward glance like, "what the hell?", but we didn't say anything. He didn't bother me - was using the facilities and not doing anything creepy. 

SOURCE

Outside, as I was unlocking my trusty bicycle, the-bearded-from-the-bathroom passed by me, heading toward the parking lot. I glanced over and realized, "he" was not a guy, but a woman with a full-on neck beard, possibly a case of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) or similar.

Not long ago, Party Girl shared with me that she used to be quite hairy. She spoke of arm hair she could comb, chest and belly fuzz, chin and neck fur, and her lap - a veritable forest of pubes. 

You'd never know it today. She explained that she had it all lasered off at some point, all except her face. 

But she did have the neck beard going on. For that, she said, she'd had routine, painful electrolysis. It was at one of those sessions that the electolysiser mentioned PCOS.

Party Girl said she asked her doctor about it, and her doctor said, "No, you don't have that", reasoning  that, "you're not hairy other than your face".

Hello? Laser removal? But he just shut her down.

She (smartly) got a new doctor... and meds to control her facial hair.

I've heard of bearded women who are comfortable letting it grow. I'm glad we didn't confront the "guy" in the bathroom before noticing she was a woman. 

there

We were walking the dogs last night as the sun was setting. Magnum noticed the colors in the sky mixing with the clouds.

"I'd take a picture, but it wouldn't look as good"

Ain't that the truth? A (cell phone) pic doesn't do justice, and you just had to be there. So I rarely take photos just for looking at. I'm more apt to, like recently, snap a pic of my bottle of allergy medicine so I can be sure to get the same stuff when I go shopping.

That said, I'll share a couple of recent pics that you'd just have to be there for.

This morning, I was out enjoying a meandering jaunt while the temperatures were still quite friendly for such things. My meanderings took me through the university trial gardens - a happy destination. 

Emerging from the tunnel access, I saw this portion being watered, and something about the sprinklers and the flowers backdropped by the gazebo got me to whip out the phone. A groundskeeper tried to photobomb from his little groundskeeper vehicle. Spy him?

The university has a strong horticulture department, and the purpose of the trial gardens is:

"to evaluate the performance of different annual plant cultivars under our unique Rocky Mountain environmental conditions"

But other than that, it is a gorgeous place to check out, hang out, run around, bring friends/ visitors, and maybe learn some stuff while you're at it. Easily accessible and free, the trial gardens are always popular in the summertime, but not so much that they're crowded and obnoxious. I'm pretty sure the bees appreciate them too.

And for extra credit, we were dogsitting Chaco's dog, Ella, again this past week. She's a good looking dog, but not an easy one to photograph. 

A Jackie Onassis of the dog world?

Especially when out for a walk, she's on a mission known only to her. Expecting her to stop moving is typically futile, let alone provide a decent profile for snapping.

Somehow the stars aligned and I managed this.

Looking at both of these photos now, I again realize, "you had to be there".

But I'd say they're at least more blog worthy than a bottle of allergy meds.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

2. Show us the last photo you took and let it inspire a blog post.

it begins

Out on my bicycle this morning, and what did I see? Kids. In fresh new clothes. Backpacks. Waiting for the school bus. 

And so it begins. The K thru 12ers are back to school. We've also noticed an increase in population over the last couple of weeks with university students returning. Freshman move-in day was Monday, and I assume many upperclassmen had rental leases that started at the beginning of the month. 

Last night, we were out walking the pooches and went by a house that looked in the middle of move-in. A couple of college-aged guys were sorting through piles in the garage. One was having a phone conversation, and I surprisingly heard:

"You're on your way now? Please remember to bring a broom"

I say it surprised me because, in general, college guys aren't known to be particularly tidy, thinking about brooms. In addition, the "Please" was a nice touch. 

The scene somewhat reminded me of "The Lake House" that Meego and his roommates vacated after 3 years when they all graduated ("The Lake House" because it was on Lake street, not near any lake that we know of).

From what I could tell, those guys were pretty responsible renters and seemed well liked by the landlords. They took care of the lawn and even had a small successful garden. They joked about two of the guys who were the "dads" in the way they controlled the weeds, complained about neighbors not controlling their weeds...

I stumbled upon a blog a few weeks ago, written by a girl embarking on her freshman year of college. She's journaling her preparations for moving, creating her class schedule, getting to know roommates, etc. Now, on the brink of moving into the dorm, she and her three suite mates are already squabbling a bit, via text, over bathroom decor - before setting foot in the place. Bathroom decor.

I recall a college orientation rep explaining the typical dorm situation and noting, "Guys, in general, are slobs. Girls, in general, bring lots of drama".

Reading about the brewing dorm bathroom drama, I remember part of the story of how Meego and his friends found The Lake House. Did the previous renters all graduate and move on?

Well, no. 

"They were four girls who were 'best friends', and now they all hate each other"

weekend mash-up

I'm nursing yet another spider bite. A couple of weeks ago, I had three - count 'em, three - spider bites at various locations on my head. Annoying, itchy, oozy things. I assume a spider was in my bicycle helmet when I unknowingly put it on? Then it had a munch fest?

Friday morning, I woke up with another telltale bump. This one on my chin. It has oozed for the last couple of days, and I think we're almost done, but sheesh.

Us at our flashiest

Magnum and I racked up another year of wedded bluster bliss this week. That makes 33 of them so far. Egads! 

No big celebratory antics, just mutual acknowledgement and back to it. We're both so dang low maintenance, and that's probably the biggest factor in our "success".

In this week's news, certainly the devastating fires of Maui caught our attention. We've had our fair share of scary wildfire in Colorado, and I think of Hawaii as being in the tropics and not as susceptible, but, sadly, no.

And on a local sad note, the local bike club planted yet another ghost bike. This one a memorial for a 10-year-old boy. 

Heartbreaking. 

Ghost bikes shouldn't be this small.

The work week ahead looks good with Boss and Assistant Boss away at a conference. I honestly can't imagine how one fills a whole week at a Testing Conference, but they're off on their adventure, and maybe the mice will play.

Fall semester classes begin a week from tomorrow. *WHOOSH* ← The sound summer makes as it leaves the chat.

backup's time to shine

When I first started tutoring, I lived in Colorado Springs and worked for a company based in Denver. While I was there, they broke into the New Territory of live online classes. It was oh so groundbreaking! Those were the good old days of frequent disconnections and horrible lag and people not able to connect at all, not to mention the big headsets and wobbly webcams. 

The company issued me a Wacom tablet for sketching on the online whiteboard, and when I left, my boss told me "Eh, might as well just keep the tablet", which meant he didn't have to deal with getting me a shipping label and whatnot to get it back to the office. 

So I've continued to use that tablet without guilt since breaking away and becoming my own tutor boss. It still works fine to this day. Five years ago, I figured I should get a backup since that granny tablet must certainly be ready to keel over at any time.

The backup I got is a cute Wacom Intuos, smaller and thinner than Granny. As I mentioned, however, Granny just keeps on kickin'. The cute Intuos has sat on a shelf, moved, and sat on a new shelf since 2018.

Today, I saw it sitting there and decided to let it out to play. I'd never even opened it! What would Marie Kondo say?!

She'd probably say that I never "welcomed it home" or made the tablet feel that it "belonged" or something. And yes, I'm a Marie Kondo disciple, all about the joy sparking. But I failed that tablet.

I cracked that seal today, hooked it up, dowloaded the drivers and took it for a test drive. Thankfully, it didn't seem to hold a grudge for my unwelcoming disposition. That little Intuos is so nimble, so playful, so less crotchety than Granny!

So I drew my cat

Except, now... heck if I'm gonna use it for math.

I knew them when

Some of my high school classmates are planning a reunion - our 40th already, yeesh. I have no desire to attend. I mean, I like most of those people, have fond memories and all, but yeah... no.

Most of all, the reunion would take place in my hometown, which is about a 4-hour road trip away.  My parents have both passed away, and I have no family in town anymore.

The town itself has become pretty depressing to me, actually. I enjoyed growing up there, but I hear it's pretty much gone to the pot shops, and the population has diminished further. I've heard of attempts at gentrification, to attract artists and turn it into the "new Santa Fe", but don't know how well that's going.

I was sort of "peer pressured" into joining the class facebook page although I don't really use facebook much at all - it's for old people, heh.  But now I'm learning about classmates who have passed away. A lot can happen in 40 years.

My hometown was small, and my graduating class was about 120 kids. Naturally, there were different cliques as happens in high school. And with small towns, everybody knows everybody's business. So I had the friends I hung out with most, but I knew "of" all my other classmates. 

I realize that the ones I'd care to catch up with if I were to attend the reunion are the ones I didn't hang out with much back in the olden days - get to know them a little better now, maybe? Would they care to catch up with me? 

Either way, pretty sure I'm gonna skip.

sound and furries

A coupla guys are yelling at each from a nearby street. They're not fighting. I've been able to ascertain by their yells and other noises that they are cutting down and mulching a tree. I'm guessing that one guy is in the tree or cherry picker bucket and the other is on the ground, and that they are professionals hired to do this job. 

It's strange to me that they are communicating by yelling. Shouldn't they have radios? Shouldn't the guy with the chainsaw have hearing protection? The two of them seem to get along well, though.

I was doing some side work for tuting, but got distracted by the tree trimming communications. I distinctly heard a "F*CK!", and I think chainsaw guy got hit with a loose limb. He's evidently okay, though. Hopefully he has a hard hat to protect his head while ruining his ears.

Such is a disadvantage of working from home - the distractions. 

Later this afternoon, I'll head to my job at the college, fully focused on the tasks at hand, of course! *sarcasm*

"Hey, where's Chili dog?"

"Hi, nice to see you too"

Thus began an exchange I had with an instructor earlier this week. Chili dog is, in fact, a dog named Chili. My coworker, Triple Dee (nickname is not to do with boobs), adopted Chili a couple of months ago and has been bringing her in to work. When Chili's not there, people tend to notice. I mean look at what I'm greeted with upon my own arrival:

All smiles with a tail all a-blur!

Chili is a large-pawed, long-legged sweet girl. I predict she's going to fill out further judging from those paws, shown off here as she executes this perfect downward dog pose:

Triple Dee adopted her from a shelter after she was found straying around Denver. She's quite well behaved and her size and demeanor offset with our other furry coworker, Gizmo.

Gizmo comes in with Work Study. He is small and soft and cuddly, but at times gets rambunctious because he can be too cute to correct!

Chili and Gizmo are not service dogs, but fall in the "emotional support" grey area for Triple Dee and Work Study. The rest of us like having them around too.

I know many people like working from home since "discovering" it with the help of covid. Personally, I like getting out of the house, at least part-time. I appreciate the college job in this season of my life, for now anyway. It serves a purpose, and I do like my coworkers - even some of the human ones.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

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