says there's room for maybe just one more

Yay for Saturday! Sheesh, this was a busy week. I'm glad to have survived.

The students have all of next week off at the college. Testing is running through Wednesday, but my tutor schedule is happily empty.

Don't get me wrong, I do typically enjoy tutoring. But as can be expected, the students who sign up for tutoring are the ones who struggle, not only with the coursework, but with stress and anxiety in general, and I'm no therapist.

But really, it's kind of an odd mix. Some are older students who haven't been in a classroom for a while, so just need some extra guidance. Then there are the younger ones who were academically abandoned by the pandemic and other "systemic failures" during their high school years. 

It's a bit of an old story here - I'm sure I blogged about it as I went through it. But in a nutshell, my degree is engineering, I was a happy engineer for several years, we had kids and I became a happy mom and former engineer, and I picked up tutoring along the way.

About 10 years ago, I enrolled in a program at the university that was a pathway for people with STEM degrees to become high school math and science teachers. Seemed like all paths led me in that direction, except...

I learned that I have NO desire to teach at a high school. I mean... the education classes I was taking felt lame to me, for lack of a better word. The atmosphere at the schools we observed didn't gel with me. I even took a non-teaching job at a "nice" high school and couldn't stand it more than one semester.

But hey, it's not them, it's me. I know! I do know wonderful teachers who love their jobs and their schools, and more power to 'em. It's just not my bag.

I shared that summary with one of my tutees this week after she asked me about it. She was enticing me to take on a next level class that I currently don't tutor, but she will be taking next semester. 

"Do it, we need you!", she implored. Seems the only tutors for that course are retired instructors who only tutor online, while I'm okay meeting in person.

I'll probably do it. I'm reteaching the subject to myself to slough off the dust by Spring semester. As we talked, she asked if I'd ever want to teach a class at the college. People have asked me that before, and it seems like there's always openings for math teachers. But... ew. I enjoy tutoring. Teaching is a whole 'nother can of worms. It really has very little appeal to me.

Part of that is likely because... I turned a ripe 60 years old this week. *ock, my bones*. Ain't got no time nor patience for BS. Teachers put up with a lot of BS, while tutors show up, wearing halos.

In true old lady form, here's a coupla pics of a cat. Wolfgang's cat Maisey, whom I've visited daily this past week while on food duty.

I'm happy to make it to 60. Let it be known, I have no desire to do 60 more.

magical time

When Wolfgang goes out of town, lucky him, he has a willing person to check on and feed his cat, Maisey. That person would be me.

Maisey is not the most social of cats, but she's figured out that I'm the food person, so I think she likes me. I wish we could just have her stay at our house, but clearly, all hell would break loose if she did. Our cat is not fit to share with other cats - it's how he got booted from his first home and ended up with us. 

Bottom line, I go to Wolfgang's every day if he's out of town, which has been the case recently. 

It's a pleasant 10-mile bicycle round trip from my house to Maisey's. If I go there after work, it's more like 12 miles, mostly flat. Wolfgang lives in a modern apartment complex downtown. When I go there, I feel like one of those bike messengers, in the elevator with my bicycle, on a mission.

The building has private entrances along interior hallways. Several of them have welcome mats. This one intrigued me back around Halloween.

How fun, right?

Except... I was there again this week. The Ouija board "welcome" is still there. Apparently, it's not a Halloween decoration, but a permanent fixture. Heh, those jokesters... I think

Not far from that is this set up

I have no idea the signifigance, if any, of the white wreath. But the mat reminds me of the illuminati symbol or Eye of Providence, which again, I really don't know its message. 

I guess the inhabitants just want to keep their floors clean.

In other news, the college students (and teachers and tutors, for that matter) are dragging butts to make it to fall break. After that, there's one more week and then finals. Meanwhile, I'm planning my schedule for spring semester while students are hoping to not have to retake any classes. This isn't high school. Actual failure is now an option.

Maybe they can summon outside forces for finals. Magic 8-ball?

things change

I was feeling the need for a change and rearranged my little sanctum that I share with the cat.

This room was a cold, dank, unfinished portion of our garden level basement when we first looked at this house. Between that time and the time we moved in - as it was then a rental - the previous owners DIYed a quick little space.

It became my and Napolion's space, although he'd probably say it's his space that he lets me use sometimes. It is the one area of the house off limits to the dogs because of the variety of "snacks" (it is both the cat's dining room and bathroom).

It's cozy and comfy and mine. I rearranged, hoping to make it feel more spacious. It feels like it worked. 

This table, though. It's old, and like a human, it's got a few sags, dimples, and  unexplained blotches.

I've started looking for a replacement - something between kid's desk and professional's work surface. I'm finding a lot of both ends of the spectrum, not so much in the middle. 

The cat was keen to inspect, and seems satisfied enough with the change of digs.

He seems to have little concern about the crappy table.

Today was beautiful weather-wise. A gift after a cold, cloudy, damp several days that I was not quite yet acclimated for. I thought, "what a nice day for cleaning up the yard", and then thought I must be getting old to have that come to mind so quickly. 

Well, if the shoe fits...

Alegra la noche

Yesterday afternoon, on the way home from work, the city had a station set up, giving away free stuff. Yes, I consider myself a minimalist, but that won't stop me from checking out some free stuff.

They were giving away bike lights, reflector bands - like for your sleeve or pant leg - and reflective shoe laces. I partook of the bike lights (the freebie tail light turned out to be total crap, but the headlight's a winner) and the shoe laces. The occasion was "Brighten the Night", sponsored by the city. I guess it for  now that we're back to standard time, heading toward winter solstice.

The utilities people were there too, and I got a 4-pack of LED light bulbs. Generous of them. I was on my bicycle and really needed to play some excellent tetris to get everything in my bag.

This week has felt weird. Early darkness coupled with the election - tutor students looking for ease of anxiety, and not just the math kind. So we worry about the things we can control. Math is friendly that way. No ambiguity.

Speaking of controlling and brightness, I upped my visibility as I mentioned recently, regarding the early morning runs in the dark.

Snapped a couple of pics out in the pre-sunrise wilds this morning before the snow moves in.

My new vest not only is reflective, but has built in lights - front and back. Three light modes: fast blink. slow blink, and steady. I swear the fast blink has seizure inducing quality. I stay away from that. 

Stay seen and sane, everyone 👍

ground control

Happy November! It's a beautiful fall morning here. I partook of the popular pastime known as rake-all-the-damn-leaves for a while. Now I'm sluggishly chilling. Sluggishly because maybe allergies combined with the flu shot I got yesterday. Plus, apparently, my dependence on caffeine, which I've not yet had today.

I'm not a fan of changing clocks, but I'm feeling rather appreciative of the extra hour we get this weekend. But, let me wrap up the week, bullet style

• At the testing center, we underwent required "de-escalation" training. Out of curiosity, I'd asked Boss why we were required to do this, as it had never been part of the plethora of other required trainings. His answer, "Something happened at one of the other testing centers, and I've already told you too much"

Well, okay then. Bring on the training. Presented by a couple of our security guys (Work Study loved it), it was good common sense reminders. We all felt pretty good about how well we work together to de-escalate such situations.

The VERY NEXT day, dude bullies his way in, gets all upset because he can't keep his cellphone with him (?!) while taking his test. Spends 9 minutes failing a test he was given 2 hours to complete, flings a chair (it was on wheels, so it just went for a fun roll, not hitting anything/ one), and storms out with a parting, "F*CK Y'ALL!!"

Not gonna lie, my calming strategies from the prior day's training took a back burner to my inner seething. Same for my coworkers Blossom and Sarge. But we kept it together enough to, at least, not escalate things. From his parting salutation, I was reminded of the pride banner hanging over the disabilities services office:

And I thought, "Well, how wondefully inclusive of him"

• On the tutoring side of things, I was talking with one of my tutees. He's majoring in mechanical engineering and told me he's interested in becoming "an agricultural engineer on Mars". Whoa.

Apparently, there's a fair amount of research going into the colonization of Mars. Still, I think it'll be a while. But hey, he's young, and it's nice to have a focused goal.  

Meanwhile, I struggle to grow a decent garden here on Earth.  

*the shadow of a lover goes dancing by...

oh, nope. Just a little pooch.

The days are getting shorter and colder and I like it! We are under a freeze warning for tonight. I say "bring it!" a.k.a. kill the allergens, already.

I went for an enjoyable run this morning. The thermometer said 37F and the feels like said 30. I had a hard time remembering what I should wear for such conditions. As it happened, I had on one too many layers, but nothing crazy.

I enjoy being out there in the dark and quiet - after talking myself out of sleeping in.  Fall is my favorite time of year. Soon, the early morning hours will be icy and unwelcoming, but currently, they're perfect. 

There's very little activity at that time of day, save for a handful of dog walkers who seemingly like the feel of the dark, quiet, early mornings too. I shuffled by a few of them, each of us acknowledging each other briefly before continuing our morning solitudes - pondering our life choices, or unable to shake a random earworm.

Some have small lights on their dogs, others wear lighted/reflective vests and/or headlights. Me, I have a headlight, but nothing else to really help the visibility. 

I was over on J. Bezos's store site, looking at light vests, pondering. 


It's reminiscent of my glory days as an elementary school crossing guard.


Now THAT was high fashion.


sigh what to wear?

*This run's earworm:

awaiting outcomes

It seems my skeletal friend at the college got a job in facilities. I spotted him riding shotgun in one of the maintenance trucks. Safety goggles protecting the non-existent eyeballs.

My ballot tracker service has informed me that my ballot's been received. We dropped ours off over the weekend. It was quite lengthy - lots of proposed ammendments in addition to the big thing on the ballot. We'll see where we are in a week. It's likely to be ugly no matter the outcome. 

This looks to be another busy week of stressed out students as the semester winds down. Over in testing, Blossom is still often out. Last week, it seems, she actually was battling a real illness. All that slacking has come back to haunt her because she's out of sick days. 

She was in yesterday, and I asked how she's doing. She admitted that she needs "to take better care" of herself. After battling real health issues, she's already sick of going to the doctor's. Will things turn around? We shall see.

lunch

On abreak  during work yesterday, I sat down next to this dude. He was a wonderful conversationalist.

I'm concerned that he's been working himself too hard, however. Literally, to the bone.

I should've gotten him some more pancakes.

Speaking of working too hard, Blossom continues to not. Out again Tuesday and yesterday.

At what point will it be considered just comedy?

gone fishin'

"Find something beautiful to look at, and spend a few minutes contemplating it. You already know how to create beauty, and that's a start"

So sayeth my horoscope app for today. Yes, I have a horoscope app. I don't know squat about astrology, but heard of the app and downloaded it just for grins a few weeks ago just to see what it would say.  It gave this advice after "telling" me that I'm over-identifying with other people. What?

I had two tutor appointments this morning. Appointment number one showed up and informed me she's withdrawing from the class because the teacher can't teach and she's over it. Appointment number two showed up stating he has to pass his test today, or he's withdrawing from the class - then he opened his backpack to realize he didn't bring his class notebook or his notecard he's allowed for the test. 

An unproductive day for me so far. I should find something beautiful to look at, already.

In the meantime, I will contemplate these tutees. I know Tutee1's teacher. She seems okay, but then I've never taken a class from her. Tutee2 is a nice enough guy, a little impatient with things in general, but not a hopeless case. 

I suspect, as I'm only hearing their sides of the stories, that their struggles are not solely due to their instructors. The pandemic didn't help this generation, academics-wise.

I have three more appointments today, hopefully things will become more productive.

In the meantime, I had some playtime. I'm not inktobering this year. It became not as fun after instagram changed their algorithms, and my interest lagged. But I saw the prompt for today was "Camp", so partook of a getaway.

A  depiction of a thing originally created by someone else. 

Now I'm off to meet with Tutee3. What's in the stars?

a little rant

It's not that she's incompetent. She just rarely shows up.

I'm speaking of our assistant boss at work, who's been there less than a year. I've blog named her Mango, but realize she should have a different name because I've got a Magnum and a Meego here already... too much, so I'm ejecting the Mango.

Let's call her Blossom. I can't think of one week - besides maybe in her first month at work - when she hasn't called in "sick", or come in late, or "needed" to leave early. She does it so frequently, that we just roll our eyes and carry on in our short-staffed fashion.

But is that the right thing to do? I have no idea what it takes to "can" someone at the college. I know Boss has "talked" to Blossom about her frequent absences. She'll clean up for a while, but then it's back to the no shows.

It's weird. She seemingly gets along with everyone, knows the job well, is not a big partier. But what is she doing?  I do know she enjoys smoking weed on occasion, but don't know how much. Maybe its more than I'd thought? Her boyfriend she lives with seems to be a night owl. But really, I think there's more to it.

It's the way she is so nonchalant about calling off. Like "everybody does it", when in fact, no one else but her, at our workplace anyways.

It would be easy to blame her generation - she's a gen z-er, and fitting the stereotype. But then there's Star, who is wonderfully reliable and disciplined at just one year older than Blossom. It's frustrating because Star was originally interested in the position, but HR determined she didn't have enough prior administrative experience. 

Well, she does now. Can we just put Star into the slot and let Blossom take every day off from now on?

If only. 

throw the bum out

Okay, so I have a situation. Yesterday at work, Boss shared that another college staffer - "Trish", who used to work with us in testing - is in a difficult place right now.

He didn't want to elaborate because the person who let him know is Trish's current boss, who said Trish doesn't want to talk about it. But at the same time Trish's boss wants to help Trish out financially.

To clarify - Boss, Trish, Trish's boss, and some of us in testing all know each other pretty well. We might not necessarily hang out that much, but it's more than just work relationships. 

In fact, Trish and I worked together on the hiring committee for hiring the assistant boss for testing. When a candidate asked about the coworker environment, Trish jumped on it saying, "It's more like a family!"

When I first started working there, Trish was another part-timer in testing. She was working on getting her bachelor's degree at that time and had a young daughter and a sort of on-again, off-again "husband". She got her degree, and took a full-time position in a different department where she's been for the last couple of years.

About a year ago, much to our surprise, she told us she was pregnant. Apparently, husband was on-again. Cute baby boy came along last spring.

So here we are at present day. I talked to Trish's boss, who is collecting some money for Trish's daughter, not going to say where it came from. Trish Boss spilled a bit that Trish's husband beat her up? A little?

Anyway, good news - husband is out the door. Bad news, Trish is left as single mom to now two kids, one an infant. Prior to this, she and the husband would provide care to the kids by working opposing shifts. Trish's job allows her to work remotely a couple of days a week.

I don't know what other childcare resources she has, but naturally, she's struggling as this goes beyond finances.

So here's the thing. I've blogged about my involvement in P.E.O. - this organization that helps women with scholarships, loans, blah, blah, to further their education, etc. Here in Colorado, we also have a special fund for temporarily helping women in situations such as Trish's.

I would totally go to bat for Trish as she's the perfect candidate to tap into those funds. BUT, I'm not supposed to know about her situation!

Unfortunately, the fund doesn't allow anonymous sponsorship. All other info is strictly confidential - my P.E.O chapter wouldn't even know about it - but I do need to convey my relationship with Trish and work with her through the application process in order to be considered.

Welp, it's all pretty fresh for Trish right now. I'm hoping she'll eventually open up.

babies and baubles

Another tutor day ahead. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I only tute. The other weekdays are some combo of testing and tutoring. 

One of my students is a mid-30s single mom. She's got a toddler and has been breaking free of the baby dad for the last few months. She moved to a new place last week, changed her phone plan, life is good.

So she was telling me how she's taking a chemistry class online. This is allowed probably as a by-product of covid. Because chemistry classes include a lab component, she's able to do her labs at home. The equipment - whatever it is - is sent through the mail.

She'd signed up for the class while still living with baby dad, now she's got a new address. She told me how she called the lab gear suppliers, told them the situation, and explained, "When it arrives at my previous address, that f*cker will likely just throw it away..."

No worries. Happens more often than you'd think. Sadly.

Another late 30s tutee is returning to college after many years out of school. She's sort of this zenny, (that a word?) spiritual type. She told me she teaches yoga and is into numerology. She's very jangly when she arrives - as in she wears various jewelry that jangles. Bauble-laden earrings and bracelets. She does have a rather calming presence about her. Makes me wonder what Steffie the Good Witch of Best Buy would say about her aura. 

Anyway, we were working on her math homework when I informed that "ten to the zero is equal to one". She stared at me

I went on to say, "any number raised to the zeroth power is one". The staring continued, so I did too.

"100 to the zero is one, ten bazillion gajillion to the zero is one, pi to the zero is one..."

At this point she burst out laughing. She thought that was the most hilarious and wonderful thing. When the concept came up again, she burst out laughing again. I'd never realized how joyous that little math tidbit could be.

Or maybe she was a bit high?

Speaking of which... our Colorado recreational marijuana smoking room screen house is pretty much done. Outdoor lights and required outlets have been installed, the city will come for the final inspection probably today.

It's already so much nicer back there - no longer the surface of Venus in full sun. I won't miss shoveling the snow off of it either, I bet. 

live long and prosper

I still think of it as "Mom's car". The car I've had since 2014, when my parents gifted it to me. This was probably a couple of years after Mom should not have been driving, but whatcha gonna do? By then, Mom's remaining days on earth were few, she'd finally given in.

 So I'd had Mom's 2000 Toyota for the last 10 years, and now it was time to rehome it.

I figured I'd sell it myself as the dealership where we just got our new funmobile likely wouldn't offer much in trade. I looked on Marketplace for comparable offerings, but really found none. Oh, there were plenty of old cars, all with around 200,000 miles. My car was old, but had less than 31,000. Nothing to compare it to!

So I winged it. I took a few glamour shots of her in the driveway, sure to include a real odometer reading, and put her out there.

As happens, there are weirdos out there. I figured I could weed out the scammers well enough. But the post went absolutely bananas. I'd done an online Carmax quote, then set my price at a few hundred dollars more. Cash only.

I've lost count of the number of inquiries I fielded in just the first hour. A few I knew were NOT scammers because they countered with shamefully low amounts. They were easy to slough off. Others were more persistent. 

One guy in particular sent me a photo of a grid of 100-dollar-bills laid out (on a bed?) - totalling the full amount I was asking. 

Sheesh, I thought. I wonder if this is what internet dating is like. D*ck pic analogy, anyone?

Finally, I marked it as "sale pending", just to slow the flow of inquiries. See, I wanted to screen potential buyers a bit. Many of them looked to be flippers who would just turn around and try to sell it for more. And that's FINE - in fact that's the Carmax business model - but I wanted to hold out for the just right. I took a moment and asked the universe (and Mom) for guidance. 

By late afternoon, I was ready to remove the listing and screw it, take it to Carmax. Just as I had that thought, my messenger pinged. It was one of the earlier, more promising inquiries. Here he was offering a few  hundred over what I was asking. 

Mom's little-old-lady car started an online bidding war?

In my exhaustion, I messaged back. "I just got home from work, I can meet anytime if you want to come look"

And he was on like Donkey Kong.

He lived about an hour away, and was out hiking just then. He said he'd head over once he got back to his car at the trailhead, make a quick stop at the ATM, and gather up all his cash.

And that's how the weird car sale day ended. We met him and his girlfriend (who lent him the last few hundred) at a nearby parking lot. They showed up in their hiking gear and bought Mom's car - about 10 hours after I'd posted it. He said he has a lifted SUV, great for the mountains, but has been struggling to find a good used economy beater car for getting around town.

Sold. 

Mr. hundred-dollar-bills pic expressed his sadness. It wasn't in the stars for him this time.

Right, Mom?

can't take it with ya

The weekend, she was a good one. I'm feeling much lighter, but not necessarily in a good way. We dropped a lotta cash.

I mentioned we were looking to get a new vehicle that could get us around in snow and into the boonies. This after years of me yo-yo-ing between getting such a thing or giving up a car for the bike and rent something as needed.

Well, screw it, we (I) honed in on a vehicle I liked, did a bit of research, looked around for one, ended up traveling to Cheyenne Wyoming for our new acquisition. 

Cheyenne is a quick trip from Fort Collins. The dealership was friendly, had several for us to choose from, with lots of wide open space for test driving. Highly recommend.

In the meantime, the screenhouse? It's progressing nicely. The roof is complete. We just need a couple doors, and it's a thing.

We keep reminding ourselves, "we can't take it with us". Still, after years of frugality, this is not the norm for us. 

Yesterday, I went for a lovely hike. Just me and Meego. He invited me to check out [Button Rock Preserve], so we did that. It was a nice hike and a nice catch-up with Meego. As the youngest kid, he sort of fell in with this ready made family. 

I hadn't really realized before, but he wanted to know more about who we were 😂

For one, I explained the relatively large age gap between him and Wolfgang. How Chaco and Wolfgang arrived - *bang* bang*. After a couple of miscarriages, we finally got Meego. Born on Mother's Day no less (he knew about the Mother's Day birth, at least).

Life, religion, family, relationships - easily the deepest, and longest, conversation I've had with him. Oh, and the hike was nice too.

Anyway, really nice time. Now it's Monday. Carry on.

the sequel

For this final installment of the events of Thursday morning, I offer this birds-eye depiction. 

I've tried to show Alex, heading south on the bike path and crossing the road. The Prius that hit him was going west, I was going east, about to turn onto the southward bike path.

The red splotch is the approximate spot where Alex landed.

The sun-looking things are to represent flashing lights that a pedestrian or cyclist is to activate to alert oncoming traffic. There is no stop light or walk signal at this particular intersection.

I didn't see the actual collision, but from what I gathered from those who did, Alex didn't stop at the intersection, and was going pretty fast. I don't know if the lights were flashing at the time, possibly activated by another cyclist who had gone through ahead of Alex. They continue flashing for about 5 to 10 seconds after the button is pushed.

I will say that those flashing lights aren't the greatest. They're the same as the yellow lights that flash in school zones during drop-off and pick-up times. 

As for the woman who hit him, she was distraught, not angry. Felt absolutely awful. When I went over to check on Alex, she kept repeating, "I hit him..." and "my baby is in the car...", so I told her we'd keep Alex safe until paramedics arrived and to go ahead and check on her baby - she'd parked the car a few feet west of where Alex was laying.

"No", she explained, "I want to stay here with him. Will you please go check on my baby?"

Oh, me? Okay.

I went to the car and saw a kid of about one year, secured in his car seat in the back passenger side, just as he should be. He held a small plastic Tonka dump truck. I'd say he was utmostly the least fazed person at the scene.

Back to Alex, where he remained motionless and disoriented. [Fresca] noted that he was most likely in shock. After googling the symptoms of traumatic shock, I would certainly agree. That combined with obvious head trauma would explain his seeming "calm".

He did look to try to roll himself - possibly thinking about sitting up - a few times. But his movements were too slothlike and ineffective. Plus, whenever he did that, we all told him not to move, and he complied, only to try again in a minute or so.

By then, a nurse was on the scene. Ever witnessed a medical situation, and a nurse seems to automatically appear?  I swear, they are everywhere! Thankfully.

About the time the paramedics arrived, the nurse told Prius woman that she'd done a cursory neurological test on Alex, and he did fine. By that point, we were nearly as concerned for Prius woman as we were for Alex, she was so beside herself. 

Competent paramedics arrived, west-bound traffic was re-routed, so I figured I should probably get out of the way at that point. I checked social media and incident blotters, but never heard anything else about the crash other than that paramedics spent an hour and nine minutes on the scene. 

I left feeling concerned for Alex, but at the same time wondering at his carelessness. Not stopping at that sketchy intersection, not wearing a helmet.

Noting the day, time of day, his age, and the direction he was going, I couldn't help but think he is a student at the college where I work. He had a messenger-type bag on, and the top flap was partially open underneath him, from where a mangled breakfast burrito peeked out.

So, to Alex, I'm thinking aboutcha. You too, Prius woman.

the morning

So, yesterday started with a bang.

I was on my way to work, enjoying my lovely morning bicycle commute. I was going down a street that connects to the bicycle path that takes me most of the way to the college when I noticed some traffic conjestion a few yards ahead.

I'm harumphing in my head because a car has pulled into the bike lane in front of me, and as I work out my strategy for getting around the car and onto the bike path, I realize something is awry.

Looking to the other side of the street, that's when I saw him. A person lying motionless in the bicycle lane, a toppled bicycle a few feet beside them.

Ah, I put it together. There's been an accident - most likely a bicyclist hit by a car. I stopped, dismounted, and headed over to the motionless person.

It was eerie to me the way he wasn't moving, but his eyes were wide wide open, not looking at anything in particular. As I got closer, a rather distraught woman tells me, "I hit him... I didn't see him..."

She goes on about her baby in the car and is clearly agitated. Other witnesses have called 9-1-1, so I lean down to the injured cyclist. There's blood streaked across his face, a small pool of blood on the pavement, and he has a deep deep wound right to the outside of his left wide-open eye.

"It's okay", I say. "You're gonna be all right". I could be totally full of sh*t, but it seems like the thing I should say to him.

"Where does it hurt?", I ask, really just wondering if he can respond. In a slothlike fashion, he raises one arm  so his hand is toward his head. He has yet to say anything. I'm somewhat relieved to see he can move a limb.

"What is your name?", my next quiz. 

A rather slurred "Alex" comes out, just slightly above a whisper.

To be continued... 

...because I have to go to work. But I wanted to start to blog this down because I felt weird the whole day yesterday afterward.

Bottom line: WEAR A HELMET and stop at sketchy intersections.

do you remember

 ... the 21st night of September?

I didn't. Not really. I realized that was last night only this morning when I got a feed in my instagram about a big play from the CU Buffaloes homecoming football game - [Earth, Wind, and Fire] providing the soundtrack. I don't really follow college (or any really) football, but it's where I live, so...

Anyway, happy fall! Flip your mattresses, change out your toothbrush heads!

Work on the screen room continues. We've got walls. Just need a roof, screens, and a couple doors.

This week got busy, and I'm catching up. I mentioned the P.E.O. thing earlier in the week, then the full work schedule, which included my turn on the Saturday rotation yesterday. So today is my 1-day weekend. Magnum and I did continue our car shopping adventures yesterday after work. We've almost got a new machine, not quite in house yet.

I worked with Mango yesterday, and we were talking of the car shopping adventure. I'm contemplating what we'll do with my little Toyota. It's a 2000 Echo that was my mom's. She gifted it to me 10 years ago after she was no longer driving - something that probably should've happened a few years sooner, TBH.

I'm grateful to have had the diminutive car. It has very little "get up and go" - so much I avoid the highway, doesn't do well in snow over an inch or so... off road?  Just. No.

But for putzing around town in good weather, running errands, it's been great. Since I typically commute on my bicycle, the car spends a lot of time in the garage between errand missions. 

All this to say that it's a 24-year-old car that has, honestly, less than 31,000 miles on it. No body damage, but it could probably use a new set of tires - not because the current ones are at all worn down, but because they are 10 years old.

We don't plan to trade it in, and I figured I'd probably sell it to Carmax. I mentioned this to Mango, and also confessed that I feel a little guilty getting rid of Mom's Car.

But Mango provided some good unbiased advice.

"This is a college town, you could probably get a good price for it - students love little beaters that are cheap to keep".

In regards to the guilt: "I dunno. Probably if your mom were to know of it, she'd say something like, 'What? You still have that thing?'"

Come to think of it, I could totally see/hear my mom saying that.

trending

 Just finished cleaning out my email inboxes. Aaah, so satisfying. Last night, my [PEO] chapter had an "offical visit" - an audit of sorts. Health checkup of sorts. Happens about every 4 years.

Since I'm currently the chapter prez, I feel I was in the hot seat the most. I think it went well - a few glitches that were out of my control - but we survived. I mean, what're they gonna do? Fire us? Anyway, the "test" had been looming on my calendar for a while, and now I'm glad it's in the rear view.

I am a bit concerned about one of our officers. She seems a bit spacey in recent months. I don't know her all that well outside of meetings, so maybe that's just how she is, but I'm seriously wondering if her mind is going. 

So that's behind me, now back to mediocrity.

I've noticed a return of the men's mullet. All the rage in the late 80's - early 90's, it seems to be making a comeback.  Can't say that I'm a fan, but people can do what they want with their own hair.

And like any other fashion, it looks good on some, not on others.

A year or so ago, at the testing center, we had a man come in somewhat regularly, testing for water professional certifications. He had a glorious mullet that actually looked good on him (really, we all agreed).

We proctored him better than average, if y'know what I'm saying.  Proctored the sh*t out of him, admiring his luscious hairdo, whenever he came in for various levels of certification. Plus, he was just a nice guy.

And okay, we nicknamed him "Water Treatment Fabio"

He came in again last week for another certification after his ~yearlong absence. He'd shaved the mullet. Very short on top now, fading to nothing in the back and sides.  It was Party Girl who first realized it was Water Treatment Fabio. She remembered his real name, and when his face seemed vaguely familiar, she put it together. 

I hope we didn't make him too self conscious when we all registered our surprise at his new appearance. But certainly, we couldn't have been the only ones. The mullet was really that glorious. 

I asked if he missed his mullet at all.

"Yeah, sometimes", he replied, while rubbing the stubble on the back of his head.

I kinda miss it too.

progressing

Well, this probably had the neighbors wondering:

Yesterday, phase one of the "catio" mission was completed as the concrete people finished up their thing. A cement mixer spun out front as two men tag-teamed several wheelbarrows. Now we wait for phase two.

The photo reminds me that I need to get back on my driveway crack weeds. Recall that I'd hoped to find a good tool to help with the job, but googling "crack hoe" brought up much irrelevance, along with a few useful suggestions.

Yesterday, we went out to do some tire-kicking. We're shopping for a new vehicle. We have two smallish vehicles that are economically wonderful, but not so great when it comes to getting around in the snow or getting out to the boonies. We live in Colorado = snow and boonies... winter's coming. 

We have a model in mind and went to a nearby dealership to check one out, but the object of our affection had been put to work as a service loaner. Will they now keep it in the service loaner fleet? I'd say it no longer counts as "new" if put up for sale. Bottom line, we didn't test or purchase anything. 

Afterwards, we stopped for unhealthy and delicious Chick-fil-A. While there, we noticed a lot of students in CU Buffalo garb. Yesterday was the "Rocky Mountain Showdown" football game of Colorado State vs. Colorado, held here with CSU the home team.

I currently live in the hometown of Colorado State, but my alma matre is Colorado-Boulder. I wouldn't mind living in Boulder now, but who can afford it? (I seriously wonder)

Clearly, CU has the more appealing mascot. I don't know why CSU's mascot has such a grumpy face.

In other news, I spent time yesterday researching menopause. (Sorry, guys. Feel free to leave now, I won't be offended). Geesh, what a can of worms. If menstruation's a "curse", menopause is the not-so-nice sequel. I think I feel fine, for the most part, but maybe my brain's too foggy to know any better? Maybe I shouldn't have researched, and ignorance is bliss.

Magnum and I took a gratifying bike ride this morning. We stopped by an "[Open Streets]" event happening today. 

I finally learned how to put my bicycle on the metro bus rack. Oh, the possiblities...

make room

There is currently much grinding, sawing, interspersed with jack-hammering going on as I sit here in my comfy home cave. We've got a bit of renovation going. We have a back patio slab of cement that sits fully exposed in the southwest corner of our east-facing house. 

I've never attempted it, but I bet I could throw some pork loin out there mid-morning and have sliders by dinnertime. The place is a slab of hotness in summertime - unfit for human habitation. We've made do by putting out a couple of small tables outfitted with big umbrellas. And that's just to create some shade. The "patio" is still uninhabitable. And the umbrella cloth has become as fragile as the Shroud of Turin after all that sun exposure.

Napolion and one of his underlings

So our reno project is to extend our roof over the space and enclose it - a screen room, as they say. 

If all goes according to plan, the cat will, no doubt, believe it's for him. A proper "catio". There will be no sense in arguing.

Napolion, our cat. We didn't name him, but it suits him.

warning: dad jokes

 Knock Knock

*who's there?*

Oswald

*Oswald who?"

Oswald some bugs

Another delightful late summer bicycle ride this morning. Rather buggy along the waterways. I helped decrease the bug population, however. I find it difficult to bicycle with my mouth closed.

I did do a bit of decluttering this weekend. Nothing major. At this stage I'm more of a *kaizen* mindset (small, continuous improvement) rather than epic makeover needed. I do have a tote of items to donate that I may run out to the thrift store later today because I don't feel finished until stuff's out of the house.

On my last post, [Liz] asked, "What does 'Chatgpt did me a solid' mean?", when I blogged about my new sparkly shoes. I had turned to Chatgpt AI to give me suggestions for new running shoes. Usually, I hunt around the internet, reading or watching a bunch of Youtube reviews, to help me make an informed choice.

But I've used Chatgpt for a few queries lately, so I got lazy and thought I'd give it a try with the shoe hunt. I put in my preferences, and *BOOM* had a list of 7 or so potential candidates in about one second. I chose the top recommendation, googled a couple of reviews, bought them, and they're great. "did me a solid", I understand from today's youth means "was helpful".

That's not to say that it's always correct. I've played around with it with math problems and have caught mistakes. This from a recent "conversation"

Me: what is [math question]

Chatgpt:  *blah*blah*blah*blah*blah... the answer to [math question]  is [wrong answer]

Me: step 3 is incorrect

Chatgpt: Let's correct step 3 and accurately simplify the expression...  the answer to [math question]  is [correct answer]

I tried to get Chatgpt to tell me why it "lied" with the first attempt, but it just mumbo jumboed, stating how mistakes are generally made when solving math problems. What I should've asked was "Why was Chatgpt wrong?"

Next time.

Plus, he/she/they is just so friendly to talk to. Anyone else tried? For example, I told it my bug swallowing joke just now for an experiment:

So... did Chatgpt get the joke? I mean, they laughed, right? But then... did I squash them? Well, I swallowed them. Am I overthinking it? Maybe I should ask Chatgpt...

Then again...

 Knock Knock

*who's there?*

Axolotl

*Axolotl who?*

you Axolotl questions

testing... testing...

Happy first weekend of September. I've got the day off from work and intend to do a bit of decluttering and other mundane things. 

This week was busy despite having Monday off. Tutoring is in full swing - I did end up having a student fill my last open slot - and it's nice to be fully booked. I do appreciate the balance of testing and tutoring. I wouldn't want to do either of them full-time, but a bit of both is nice. 

Speaking of work and balance, allow me to vent just a bit. Last week, I shared that photo that Work Study had us take with her cake, supposedly for our Grandboss. Work Study has been with us for a few semesters now, starting with a typical work study stint of just a few hours per week.

At first, it was great because we were quite short staffed at the time, and her help was much appreciated. We have since become fully staffed since bringing on Mango and having Star transfer from another campus. Meanwhile, WS has somehow greatly increased her work hours. However, we just don't need her for as many hours she "works".

Additionally, she is not cleared to provide most of our services. She can help with student tests, that's it. But we do testing for a whole slew of tests having nothing to do with the college. In short, she gets paid to hang around, take care of personal business, flirt with security, etc.

I think work study is a great program, but I often grumble inwardly, thinking of the abuse of the tax payer funded work study system happening blatantly in front of me. And I know I'm not alone as coworkers have voiced similar thoughts. 

WS was set to finish her program at the end of this semester, but yesterday, she told us that she's looking to change her major, which means another two years at the college. And she wants to keep working milking the system with our department. She went to talk to Boss about it. They were in the office with door closed for quite a while.

Shortly after emerging, she quietly asked me how she could be a better worker. She acknowledged goofing around and wanting to do better. A new leaf turning over, supposedly. She took Sarge aside as well and asked the same things.

Honestly, we struggled to come up with things she could DO better. It was more about things to stop doing - and even then, we were too nice to say much.  Sarge and I both tactfully mentioned that when each of us had work study jobs, we didn't use that time to do our homework and other personal business. In the end, we didn't have much advice to offer. 

We'll see how this plays out. I'd planned to just ride out the semester since WS was expected to move on at that point, but now this new development...

Okay, enough of that. On to the decluttering - one of my fave hobbies 😊.

Oh, and I tried out those [Chatgpt] running shoes this morning for their maiden voyage.

I took a pic of them because I noticed they were "glistening" in the kitchen light this morning - something about the upper material.

But alas, my camera didn't capture the glisten - it must be magic that cameras are unable to transmit. You'll hafta take my word for it. And it was a lovely time in the glistening shoes bought for a bargain price.

Bottom line: Chatgpt did me a solid.
Make shopping easy again.

bike theft, AI shoes, free aura reading

Happy September! I'm sort of looking forward to the first frost while bracing for the big freeze. Magnum and I enjoyed a pleasant bike ride this morning. Gotta get while the gettin's good. And it was a nice week all around. Recap?

• Speaking of bicycles, Wolfgang got a new sweet commuter and came over our house to assemble it. This was the result of his previous commuter getting STOLEN! Yes, STOLEN. 

Bicycle theft is sadly a very common occurrence around here. Well, there are a lot of bikes here in our bike friendly city, so there'll be a lot of stolen ones just by sheer numbers. It was a decent bicycle that he'd bought used over 6 years ago. So, while it's violating to have it stolen, it wasn't as big a loss as it could've been.

Now he's got a new bicycle, that we witnessed being born, with a brand new hefty lock.

• Those running shoes Strava told me to go and get? I asked Chatgpt for recommendations based on some preferences, took the first recommendation, and found them on big time clearance because there's now a newer version. Cha-ching! We'll see if I like the shoes, I ordered them online.

• Speaking of buying things online, yesterday, I purchased an item from Best Buy online for in-store pickup. I went to the store in the afternoon to pick up my purchase and was greeted by a pick-up counter person - a nondescript woman in her royal blue Best Buy polo, black pants.

She scanned my barcode and said, "You have a lovely purple aura".

For a split second, my brain thought, "No, I have a small black Wacom tablet", but then I realized she wasn't talking shop with the purple aura comment.

"Oh...erm... yeah?", I responded, clueless as to anything else to say.

She went on to describe this lovely purple aura and how I am in tune with my authenic spiritual self or something like that.  

Well, okay, thank you? Then she retrieved my small black Wacom tablet after correctly checking my ID (unlike our postal employee from last week).

We had a short, pleasant exchange. I left feeling rather uplifted while wondering if she's full of sh*t and says stuff like that to everyone. Or maybe she was in the throes of a debilitating migraine, or on drugs...

But hey, it got me out of a material stupor for a moment, so a positive encounter.

So if you ever find yourself here in our town, I recommend having a good lock for your bicycle and visiting Steffie, the good witch of Best Buy.

crushes, cake, coaxing

Happy Friday as many of us settle in for a long weekend - the unofficial end of summer. Mornings are getting noticeably cooler. Nice! 

I'm off of work today, so it's a 4-day-weekend. It was a good and busy week. Nearly every time slot in my tutoring schedule is filled, and the tutees are all very pleasant. I think I've just got one 1-hour slot left on Wednesdays. Anyone?

Testing biz has picked up a little with students returning. We're not quite at full capacity yet, but soon. For now, we challenge each other by seeing who can be the fastest at the various addictive NYT games: wordle, connections, spelling bee, mini crossword, strands. When things get really busy, we might need a 12-step program.

Our work study staffer, known here as Work Study, has crushes on a couple of campus security guards. Conveniently for her, campus security is located right across the hall from the testing center. Earlier in the week, one of the crushes had a birthday that coincided with our Grandboss's birthday.

Work Study used the excuse to incessantly suggest getting a birthday cake to celebrate Grandboss, even though Grandboss doesn't work at our campus.

She got the cake, then got us all to pose for a pic to send to Grandboss so she could then present the cake to her true birthday crush. 

As I said, business is a bit slow at the moment.

The rest of us reluctantly agreed to the pic, seemingly all with expressions saying "So sorry. This was Work Study's idea..."

As for the long weekend, I've no real plans. The house could (as always) use a little cleanup - inside and out. Plus, my email says I must go shoe shopping... running shoes.

It would be wrong to ignore, wouldn't it? 

Decisions: clean the bathrooms, or go shopping...

missives and abandonment

Operation go-get-the-new-mailbox-key was a success. Too exciting, right?

Honestly, though, the process was a bit disconcerting. I'll backtrack a bit.

Earlier in the week, there was a note taped to the mailbox explaining that our mail couldn't be delivered, and that the mailbox would be replaced "soon".

Okay, fine. Actually, I was somewhat surprised at how quickly the new mailbox was installed - all shiny and with a new note taped to it:

Our exuberant mail carrier seems to be very happy for us in their correspondence. Three exclamation points!!!

As mentioned, therefore, Magnum and I made the post office our destination for our old folk's walk yesterday, with the added stress of needing to get there before the post office closed on a Saturday. The suspense, right?!

It's about a 2-mile enjoyable trek, and we arrived with plenty of time to spare. 

I stated our purpose for being there, gave the postal person our last name and confirmed the street we lived on.

She left to rummage around in the bowels of the post office for a bit, eventually emerging with three shiny, new keys .

"Here ya go!", she said with a smile while handing over the treasure.

I gave a cordial, "Uh, thanks", and we were outta there. She NEVER asked for any form of ID - as the highly secure correspondence noted would be required.

Should I be concerned?
Eh, I didn't feel like calling her on it. We get so little physical mail of any importance, going as paperless as we can. 

I tested the keys - all three work fine - extracted a pile of junk mail, and we're back in business.

In other excitement, I took delightful morning bike ride today. I ended up near the [Tour de Fat] brewery to see the aftermath. Aw, this poor bicycle left behind - decorations wilting

A little further away, I came across these abandoned reveler bicycles as well

Most likely, the owners felt too inebriated to ride off into the sunset, and left their bicycles to be picked up in a more sober fashion. Seems another successful Tour de Fat for the books.

post, parade, party

The good news: we have a new mailbox - whoo hoo

The not as good: we have to go to the post office to get our key to the new mailbox.

Oh well, gives purpose to our Saturday. Our mailbox is one of those multi-boxes for about 12 homes on the block. The old one crapped out - or was tampered with? - and had to be replaced. So looks like we'll go on a walk with the post office as the destination. This is what we've become?

Classes started this week at the college, and things got busy! My tutor schedule is already nearly filled. I'm not sure if that's because more students are requesting tutors or if we have fewer math tutors than last year, but I like it!

Recall that my campus tutor boss abruptly resigned mid-spring semester. We flailed about to finish out the semester then managed to limp along over the summer semester. We did have coordinators at the other campuses as a safety net, but the coordinator position for our campus has finally been filled. I have yet to meet her, but clearly, she knows of my existence.

[Tour de Fat] is today. It's a rambunctious time at a local brewery - that same brewery that hosts the outdoor spin classes I came upon last weekend. From the website, Tour de Fat is...

"a costumed bicycle parade followed by a party at New Belgium Brewing with music, entertainment, contests and games"

SOURCE

Yeah, I suppose that sums it up nicely.  Magnum and I checked it out a couple of years ago. Lots of fun for everyone. I bet we'll see costumes while out and about today, but we don't have plans to get into the thick of it. I don't have a costume or a weird bicycle. 

The post office will have to do. We'll try to make it weird.

onward

I took a morning bicycle ride today. We're back to high temperatures in the 90s, so best to get out in the morning when the gettin's good.  I enjoy a route that takes me along a shady path near to what is left of our river at this time of year.

As I emerged from the trail, I heard a ruckus from nearby. Further exploration in that direction revealed a morning outdoor spin class happening. 

Here I had just enjoyed a lovely ride along a shady riverside path, and there were people riding bicycles to nowhere on a slab of concrete? Oh well, to each their own. I will add, however, that it was in the outdoor area of a local brewery...

Curious, I googled afterwards, and learned that yes, [this is a thing]. It happens every third Sunday, May through October. 

For fifty bucks, cycle to nowhere, lift some heavy things, buy some beer and hit up the food trucks after. It was well attended, from what I saw. They probably think I'm a weirdo for riding a bicycle that goes somewhere.

In other news, school kids went back this week. Ugh, traffic is gross. We live near a high school, so I'm back to planning my trips around the horrendous first bell/ last bell traffic.

The college where I work and the local university start their fall semesters tomorrow. 

Mother Nature needs to heed the memo that summer's over. Turn down the heat.

did she know?

When I was in high school, I ran on the track team. I was a sprinter. Ours was a small school, and the girls' team was not well populated. As it happened, we had three sprinters on our team - myself and two of my good friends. These friends were Carolyn and Debbie, and the three of us were inseparable and each others biggest cheerleaders. 

We did pretty well for ourselves, gathering a pile of ribbons between us. We also did all of the sprint relays together, the main hitch being that relays consist of four runners, not three. But we were okay with the fact that we would not be finishing near the top in the relays. Coach would find a 4th participant - a distance runner or shot putter or something - and we'd go do our thing.

In fact, I enjoyed the relays the most - the excitement of the baton exchanges. It turned out that I was the fastest of us, so I always had the anchor position. Debbie always ran first, Carolyn ran third, and the [insert 4th runner here] ran second. By the time the baton got to me, we were inevitably behind, but not necessarily last. This was extremely motivating for me. I always had at least one other girl to chase down. 

One race was at the state qualifying meet. The three top teams would go on to compete with the best in the state. We NEVER went to state in a relay nor had any expectations of it. In that particular race, we finished fourth.

As we hugged and congratulated ourselves at our decent showing, Debbie suddenly stopped and said, "Omigod, we got fourth. Just think if one of the teams that beat us dropped their baton or did something else to get disqualified..."

Carolyn and I pondered, realizing, "Omigod, we would go on to compete at state".

Then we all heaved a great sigh of relief over the fact that we would NOT be progressing to the state track meet to be shamed by the best relay teams in the state. Yikes, that was close!

I'm thinking about that because of all the hype about Raygun, the Olympic b-girl from Australia. Clips of her breakdancing performance have been all over the internet. She earned a grand total of zero points through 3 rounds of competition.

I'm just curious, was she truly excited about being selected to compete at the Olympics? Did she realize how embarrassing her "dance" was? Or did she really think she belonged there? Her showing was truly bad, and a bit upsetting, but I'm starting to feel sorry for her for the viral backlash. As such, I will not post one of the many many many related memes to decorate this post. 

But really. What WAS she thinking?

hooky day

I have an atypical Tuesday off today. The college is having an "in-service" gathering - sort of a pep rally to incite excitement for the beginning of fall semester next Monday.  And since we're currently between semesters, the tutor calendar is empty empty.

Full timers are "expected" to attend, part-timers can if we want to, but are not obligated. Suffice to say, none of us part-timers are at the in-service. They tried to entice us with "There'll be food! You'll get paid!", but they lost us at "You hafta stay all day".

We're part-timers for a reason.

I'm sure Boss and Assistant Boss will give us the CliffsNotes. Besides, I'm working all the rest of the week, including Saturday. Star is going on another of her adventures, so I'm filling in for her while also covering for the ready-to-give-birth-any-day Kitty.

As predicted, we got our few glorious days of cold and damp late last week. I, for one, was not climatized and had to break out a fleece.

The sun and heat are back, but not as full on as it was. I sketched this fire ant in response.

I'm at the library under the guise of, "I need to return a book", but really, I just wanted to indulge in a bike ride. 

I dunno, I feel a bit guilty doodling in a sketchbook and going for a joyride on a weekday.

But it beats obligingly attending an in-service for the food and hourly wage.