50 shades of grey

We got a decent snowstorm on Friday into Saturday, still digging out a bit.  I guess I'll accept that winter is here. As such, I sorted through my clothing, and put away the warm weather stuff. As I looked at my satisfyingly tidy closet, I couldn't help but notice the near monochrome wardrobe left for the next few months.

Really? I had not noticed this happening. When did nearly every warm top I own become some shade of grey?

These are work tops, and my putz-around-the-house tops have slightly more color variety, but Magnum and the pets likely don't care.

While not one to wear ugly Christmas sweaters, I'm still thinking I should make more of an effort with color.

It was a satisfying few days off from work before the remainder of the semester. This coming week is chock full of stuff - panic stricken students hitting me both from the testing side and tutoring side. In addition, I've got two afternoons of interviews scheduled for the assistant boss position. 

I'll be glad to be done with that and have someone to onboard. We've been short staffed all semester, and I'm glad to see several good candidates to sift through. It could be a difficult choice. Fingers crossed we make the right one.

Now, what to wear for interviews? I'm thinking grey? Maybe black?

fourth thursday

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all  'mericans!  

Today is actually looking to be a quiet day for me. Magnum, Wolfgang, and Meego are going to Magnum's sister's for the big gathering. I'll stay behind and chill with the dogs since we had no one to unload them upon. Chaco recently moved out of state for work, so will also be thankful in abstentia.

It's just as well with the mystery dog illness going around. This is no doubt a busy time of year for dog kennels and other boarders. I know there are heightened restrictions in place, but don't know the extent. Turns out it's a good thing to have antisocial dogs - currently anyways.

The four of us plan to get together on Saturday. Might go downtown to check out the Christmas elaborations. Either way, I'm off the hook for cooking this year.

In other mysteries, I parked my bicycle after getting home from work yesterday. I keep the two bicycles I ride most often in the house because I'm a wimp and don't like retrieving them from a cold garage they're precious.

Soon after I'd settled my commuter, the cat snuggled in beneath the bicycles and was rolling around in some sort of bliss. If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought he found catnip down there. 

He hung out among the tires and chains for a good couple hours before deciding to, once again, join the sober. He hasn't returned to the seeming euphoria, and I have no idea what that was about.

I'm looking forward to four relatively quiet days off. I worked the last three days, and the place was a bit of a zoo. We thought it would be slow with the students on break, but it seems that everybody and their grandma decided this would be the time to get their professional certifications in. It was like a Black Friday version of testing. Door busters!

As I mentioned earlier, no Thanksgiving day road race for me this year. Recall that last year, I managed to beat the mayor. She no doubt has something to do with sabotaging my foot this year.

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Linking up with Mama Kat for the prompt:

1. Happy Thanksgiving! Share your Thanksgiving Day plans.

... or are you happy to see me?

Thanksgiving week is upon us. At this time of abundance, I'm doing all the prompts from Mama Kat:

1. Tell us about a current interest.

I've been following the Kaitlin-Armstrong-killed-Mo-Wilson sentencing and trial recaps. Sheesh, what a bizarre case. 

2. Write about something you gave a negative review.

This week I bought some cajun flavored sesame sticks from Natural Grocers. After eating a couple, I realized they were not cajun flavored but garlic flavored and mislabeled. And I was all, "gross", because I quite dislike garlic. But thankfully, no one here is allergic. But what if someone was allergic? That could be bad. 

I let the store know about it via their online contact page. Who knows if anyone reads the submissions? Not necessarily a negative review, but mislabeled food products could land them in hot water.

3. Tell us about something you are looking forward to.

I'm looking forward to a slowed week at work coming up. The test center is open through Wednesday, but students are on break all week, so it should be fairly calm and quiet. 🤞

4. Book review! Share a recent favorite (or least favorite) read.

I'm currently reading Happy Place by Emily Henry. I'm about halfway through it, and apparently it's a popular book. For me, I dunno, it's kinda... bad. It might end up a DNF for me.

5. Write a blog post in exactly 7 lines.

My fritzed foot is still not 100%.

But it feels better with each passing day.

I feel I could go for a short run.

But Dr. Internet says not to run for 4 to 6 weeks. 

So, no Thanksgiving race for me this year.

Boo hoo. 

Still very thankful for lots of stuff.

6. Write a blog post inspired by the word: over

We caught a cheater at work this week. Really, it's a rare occurrence. I've worked there for 2.5 years, and can remember just 4 cheaters, all of them college students.

But this guy, he hid a cell phone in the crotch of his pants, then began using the phone during his test. A coworker busted Cheater and took the phone. When going over the video footage, we also learned that Cheater was chewing tobacco and spitting in his testing room.

Party Girl had a justified cow when wiping down the workstation after Cheater finished, at which point he denied doing any spitting/ mess making.

He knew we have cameras, now he knows that they don't just watch, they record.

Game over?

mid-week mash up

• I mentioned a while back that a childhood friend of mine was (surprisingly and strangely) running for mayor of our hometown. I didn't think he had any chance at all, and the polls returned that prediction in staggering fashion.

I took a peek at his facebook campaign page, to which I never accepted the "friend" request, and he's been profanely ranting ever since - not surprisingly.

I honestly wonder about his mental state. 

He and I have been in and out of touch over the years, mostly out. A few years ago, he'd sent a request to connect on Linkedin. His Linkedin profile was very odd, and I wondered if it was a joke or if he's off his rocker. Could go either way. I never accepted that request either.

• The assistant boss hunt is proceeding. All applicants are in, and we're poring over resume's. First round interviews likely won't happen until after Thanksgiving because of... Thanksgiving.

We have two fellow part-timers who had expressed interest in the position. One has sort of developed a reputation as a slacker, while the other has been performing really well. I haven't worked much with either of them as they are very part-time at our campus, but the others have shared their thoughts with me.

SO, turns out "the slacker" applied for the position, but the "the star" did not. I don't know if Star just changed her mind or what, but the deadline has past, and she's not in the running. I shared this quietly with both Party Girl and Sarge, both were quite disappointed.

I think I'm doing well with keeping myself unbiased despite all this chatter. Slacker is not a shoe-in, as a few other candidates look well qualified.

• Screaching tires UPDATE: recall the ongoing screaching tires Magnum and I heard on Saturday night? We did a bit of investigating during a coffee & bagel mission.

Walking across the nearby high school parking lot revealed that our assumption of someone(s) spinning lots and lots of donuts was most likely true.

I can only imagine the heat and smells that were generated. 

And if it was some kid shredding their parents' tires? Consequences?

morning balloons, night donuts

My right foot is on the fritz. It doesn't feel like running. Doctor Internet tells me I have metatarsal(s) stress/ strain. Fine, so be it.

But walking is agreeable, so my feet and I went out and did that on this sunny morning. Not long after heading out, I heard the unmistakable sound of a hot air balloon torch. I looked up to confirm my suspicions.

Hot air balloons are such a strangely calming sight, quietly floating along in the early morning. If I was in that basket, however, I would be anything BUT calm. 

I'm sure the views from up there are stunning, making me a bit jealous of the non-acrophobes. I'll stick to getting awe-inspiring views from the tops of big firm mountains and foothills.

This past week was a good one - felt productive. I was able to stick to my plan of getting up an hour earlier than I had been, putting that dang time-change to good use. 

Last night, we were streaming a movie when I heard squealing tires from not far away. I figured someone was Starsky-and-Hutching it down the main drag. But then... the squealing kept on and on. It would pause then resume, pause then resume... this went on for several minutes. Finally, I paused our movie to listen. 

It was quite noticeable, and I was surprised how long it continued. We stepped outside and concluded that someone(s) who has no qualms about needing to buy new tires, was spinning donuts in the nearby high school parking lot. I'll have to go out and investigate in a little while to see if there's a mess of burnt rubber evidence. 

As far as we know, no one called the cops, although I'm sure others heard it. Maybe most, like us, figured "someone else will report it" or "as long as they're not on the street, let them have their fun". It eventually stopped. I checked nextdoor and reddit, my main go-tos for nosiness. Nothing.

That's about it for the excitement at my end: bum foot, balloon, burnt rubber.

in the middle of the street

The hiring process for our new assistant boss marches on... at a snail's pace. It's good that the process is so thorough, I suppose. My fellow committee members and I have hurdles to jump through, and each jump is evaluated by HR until we are given the go ahead for the next hurdle. We're getting closer to the finish line, the application window closed yesterday.

Once we pare down the candidates, the remainders will go onto second interviews with Boss and Boss's boss. Fingers crossed we get someone in before Christmas.

Boss is able to take a look at materials submitted from the approved candidates so far. A few days ago he noted, "I didn't see anyone with test center experience".

And I thought to myself, "Well, yeah, because if they had actual test center experience, they would know not to apply for a full time job of it...", but maybe I'm just projecting *ahem*.

But I'll say it again, I like the job - the part-time version of it. It allows me time for tutoring and other interests, and I, thankfully, am not concerned about not having employee benefits. 

In other unfulfilled positions, the rental house next door to us remains vacant. Magnum reports seeing a few looky-loos as noticed while working from home. He knows when someone is checking out the backyard because our dogs announce it from our backyard. 

Affordable housing is a concern around here, like a lot of other places these days. Are the landlords asking too much?

... it's not our dogs, is it? 

Nah.

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

see you in the morning

I'm up early on a Monday. Recently, I'd been thinking I want to get up an hour earlier than I had been. With the advent of the return to standard time, I figured I could begin getting up "an hour earlier" only as far as the clock was concerned. No jet lag.

So here I am with an extra hour before needing to go into work. I figured I'd get some tutoring ducks in order, which I'm obviously not doing.

I had to work on Saturday, so the weekend felt short. Party Girl, my functioning alcoholic coworker, has been caught up in legal proceedings involving the death of her dad's wife and his share of the estate. She'd hoped to reach a settlement with her stepmother's daughter (doesn't feel any sisterhood with her - not even step-sisterhood), but that hasn't happened so the whole thing's going to trial.

As such, she had "sober October" because she wants to be clear headed throughout the process. She does these dry months every now and then, but they aren't exactly "dry" as they include scheduled cheat days. "Makes it less awful"

Interestingly, she revealed to me that, by the end of the month, she no longer feels vengeful toward stepmother's daughter. She believes it was the alcohol that made her feel like putting up this whole legal battle, and now she doesn't really care. But they're so far into it, she's got to see it through. Plus, her brother (sober always) is a vengeful force and sharing in the situation.

She went on to explain that her brother is "this big, burley guy who can be pretty intense". Now, I've seen Party Girl's parents. Mom is average height and build, while Dad is a small slip of a man. 

"How did your dad make such a big burley son with dark hair?", I asked

"Oh, we just figure it was a 'milkman' or something", Party Girl explained in all seriousness. "My dad adores my brother, so we just don't talk about it."

This week, the hiring process for new assistant boss continues. We have to jump through a few hoops for HR before gaining access to the applicants, and I'm ready to get this show on the road. We'll likely get someone hired just in time for the start of finals - trial by fire.

go forward, move ahead, crack that whip

It's a relatively calm Friday, I have not a lot going on. So I'm doing some laundry and gonna rake leaves in a minute. Excitement abounds!

It also happens to be a payday. We get paid every two weeks from the college, and I never really look at my emailed paystub. But today, I decided to peak at it before discarding. Lo and behold, we've gotten a pay increase.

This is strange because, it being a state school, there are no merit increases. Everyone who works a certain job, whether they've done it for 5 years or 5 minutes gets the same pay. We get annual increases, typically in mid-summer. 

In July, my coworkers in the testing center and I got half the percentage increase as most other positions that we knew of, which actually seemed a bit silly and insulting. An informal sampling of others at the college revealed that most got the larger increase - my tutor wage, for instance.

Honestly, my working there is not so much about money at this point in my life. It's a comfortable gig for a variety of reasons, and better than a lot of other part-time jobs available to me. But I noticed, while perusing my pay stub this morning, that we got an additional pay increase a few weeks ago and are now being paid the full increase as the rest of the college over this time last year. Why nothing was ever said about it, I don't know. Maybe someone heard my somewhat internal bitching? 

New boss did mention to me that our old boss, now Director, has been adamant in meetings about sticking up for us part-timers and noting that we should not be taken for granted. We "are not easily replaced". The guy often drives me bananas, as I've mentioned here before, but he's a good guy to work for. 

And speaking of the job, a young student came in for a test yesterday. She did not have any photo ID - as required for testing - on her. 

Me: Nothing? No driver's license, student card, etc?

Her: Uh.. no. 

Me: Well, we need to verify that you're you before we can give you the exam.

Her:  I can show you my instagram?

...That struck me as such a gen Z thing to say. At least she didn't try a SnapChat

The entertainment does help make up for the wage. 

And no, an instagram account does not count as proof of identity. 

all I needed for another day

Happy November! This really is my favorite time of year. I feel I started the month off right with a morning jaunt at sunrise.  Had to snap a pic of the view

... to which the cell phone, of course, does not do justice. We did get our first snow this past weekend, a decent amount - 5 inches maybe? I was NOT at all aclimated to the abrupt onset of c-c-cold, but it was pretty.

Temperatures were not too too cold last night for the trick-or-treaters, of which we only had a handful. We've got leftover candy that I can take into work. Plenty of moochers to be happy, and better to have too much than not enough. 

Work is busy as we're still short-staffed. We haven't yet hired a new assistant boss, and one of the part-timers who left a couple of months ago has not been replaced. BUT, we finally got the ball rolling on hiring the new assistant boss. I'm on the hiring committee, and we've begun getting the ducks in a row as the job was posted this week.

Oh, and #inktober2023 is done. Whew, it was fun but for the pressure to draw everyday! Not that I had to do it, but y'know when you get a good streak of something going, and it's hard to quit? 

Well, I surprised myself by getting 30/31 prompts. I only missed number 15, which was "Dagger". Not going back. I think my pens are about out of juice anyway. So - yay! New pens for me!

Anyway, another pic that I took a couple of weeks ago along the running path... before it all turns to cold and ice.

We set our clocks back this weekend (really, can't we just pick one and stick with it?!). Darkness descends.