spies and lame ducks

Happy Winter Solstice, y'all. We're "celebrating" by watering our trees? Really, we're so hardup for precipitation around here, had to fire up the hose.

I worked my last day of the year in the testing center yesterday. We're closed now until Jan. 2nd. We had an unfortunate turn of events this week in that we're pretty sure we got busted by a secret shopper.

These companies we administer professional tests for will occasionally send secret shoppers posing as test candidates to make sure we're doing all the security things properly. Someone got into the testing room with a cell phone.  Oooh, that's baaaaad.

I wasn't there, just heard about it after the fact. At least my coworkers noticed the cell phone at the testing workstation during the test, but by then, the damage was done. 

It's just really awkward to ask some stranger why the metal detector is going off near their crotch, and then, to investigate further! Apparently, this is what happened, and it was explained away with, "Oh, must be my belt buckle", and that was that. 

I recall a time I was scanning a woman candidate. She was a rather "stout" woman, and my detector went off at her mid back. I let it go without question because I assumed she had on a hefty bra with some serious hardware holding it shut, and I didn't want to go there.

I mean, if she was gonna hide something, she wouldn't hide it in her back bra strap, right? Right?? 

From now on, I'll just ask. And yes, take off the belt, let's do it again. 

On a happier note, I also had my last tutor session with my one high schooler. I mainly just tutor the college students now, but "D" is a holdover from about a year and a half ago when her mom contacted me because I'd tutored D's older sister. 

D is now a senior, and when we gathered online this week, she started the session with a sheepish, "So... some exciting news...". Really, she said it so shyly, I wasn't sure if she'd actually said anything at all. 

But then she continued, "I got early acceptance into my first choice university this week". Oh, goody!

I'm very happy for her, such a nice kid and hard worker. Her big challenge now is to make it through her lame duck semester of high school.

highest in the room

 Magnum tyically works from home, but yesterday he was onsite. I figured I'd check the Ring® notifications while I was at work.

As expected, nothing exciting - just my own comings and goings. 

I looked a little closer at the scene as I locked the door before heading out. 

Do you see what I see?

Yes! Miniature Batman! On my roof! Stealthfully watching my every move!

Gosh, I thought he only worked nights.

Honestly, though, I have no idea how Neighbor Cat got up there. And how long's he been doing that?

Speaking of high cats... Boss handed out gift bags yesterday for us underlings. He's a very thoughtful person, and each of our gift bags included treats for our pets as well. So, in addition to my little box of See's candies and my Barnes and Noble gift card, I brought home two peanut butter infused dog treats and a little catnip mouse.

I set the gift bag on the shelf after I got home, and went on to other things. 

This morning, I heard rustling rummaging noises. I thought it was pooch Merlin slurping at his feet as he's known to do, but no. Merlin was lazing on the couch. 

I peeked around the corner to find Napolion the cat, frantically nosing around in my little gift bag like a crackhead needing a fix.

I retrieved his catnip toy for him, and he was on it like the crackhead I didn't realize he was.

At first, he was like a lion on the Serengeti attacking a little wildebeast. This went on for a few minutes, accompanied by much flopping and rubbing. Then he turned back to my gift bag, still apparently wafting the sweet song of the catnip. He began tearing at the dog treats, which were thankfully individually wrapped so as to not take on much damage before I risked losing my fingers in rescuing them from Napolion's grip.

Then he flopped on this cushion and remained motionless with his mouse in this position for several minutes. 

As far as I know, this is Napolion's first catnip trip. We gave some to our earlier cat, Cookie, and he couldn't care less about the stuff - almost seemed insulted. So I never got into the habit of providing it.

He's acting his normal self now - maybe a little rowdier than usual. What a stoner.

elf on a...

I worked the Saturday shift with Blossom yesterday. It was a relatively quiet day, and we weren't complaining. Still, I found myself wanting to speed up time a bit, so I cleaned and tidied more than usual. 

We've put Work Study to work decorating the place for the don't-say-Christmas holidays. It looks festive enough without being overblown. Our don't-say-Chrismtas tree:

Story has it that, one year, they'd put a winged wolf (the college mascot is the wolves) atop the tree, but Leadership thought it too religious.

The past 4 trees have had the ornament shown as the topper.

It's a dumpster fire with the year 2020 engraved upon it. 

I don't know where Work Study found this nearly life-sized sticker, but The Elf adorns our entrance

I'm also not sure how easy it will be to remove him?

Another Elf reference adorns the microwave

We had our white elephant gift exchange party last week. I ended up with a queen size plush blanket and some fuzzy socks - not too shabby.

Happy don't-say-Christmas!

party going on right here

I worked at the testing center yesterday. It was the last day of finals and the place was a-rockin'!

In a nutshell, colleges and universities are required to have testing centers to accommodate students with disabilities that necessitate them taking tests outside the classroom. So we do that and also administer a whole crap ton of other tests for professional licensing and certifications for non-students. 

I swear the list of accommodations grows with each semester,  I'll say the most common accommodation is extra time - usually because of dyslexia or English being a second language. But then there are some obscure ones. Many are related to anxiety or past trauma, and we don't ask questions, just go with it.

Yesterday was all about the students, professionals be damned, and the schedule was packed. By the time I left, we'd made it through most of them with only a handful of glitches, and nothing earth shattering. 

I snapped this pic of "Felipe", at his station overseeing beverages.

Felipe was bestowed upon me for my recent birthday. A couple of weeks prior to that, Blossom asked what seemed to be a random question to us all, "What's your favorite dessert?"

Everyone expressed their opinions, and my answer ended up being, "Eh, I'm not really a sweets person. My downfall is more crunchy salty."

Unbeknownst to me at the time, Blossom was really plotting what treat to bring for my birthday.

My "birthday cake" ended up being a nacho bar! With all that Mexican flair, Boss decided it needed to be accompanied by a piñata, whom we subsequently named Felipe. 

The nachos were delish, Felipe was cute, but I was all, "How'm I gonna get him home on my bicycle?"

That's why he lives at the testing center - employed as watcher of beverages, currently wearing reindeer horns. He's empty of treats, by the way. But full of cheer!

And to update from my earlier grumblings about Blossom's work ethic. She has really stepped it up after having an actual medical thing that took her out for a couple of weeks. All those days she took off, seemingly just slacking, are hopefully behind her. 

After her return, she told me, "I really need to just take better care of myself", after realizing she hates going to doctors. 

...and I won't say anything about dealing with health insurance.

fork yeah!

Another busy week down. I feel I've neglected the blog and blog reading (as well as housework, but that's allowed) this past week. BUT the semester is now finished. Onto the next thing.

I had a PEO thing yesterday. Fun, but yet another obligation. I look forward to a relatively obligation-less week ahead. 

As such, I was over at the site where I do my other tutoring. There's a questionnaire for setting preferences and such, and I noticed some strange wording:

Forks yes, I have access to a car? I have no car, but use forks as a substitute? I'm interested in online tutoring... with forks?

So I sent a non-urgent message to the helpdesk informing them of the forks. Right after clicking "send", I thought, "hmmmm, what if the problem is at my end? Some weird glitch in the cache?". So I cleared my cache, then logged in again.

Yep, the "Forks" have been replaced with "Yes".  Aw, Fork.
Now, the helpdesk is going to see my weird issue and roll their eyes. Thankfully, I included the screenshot shown up there. I swear I wasn't hallucinating. 

So happy December. On a recent night, I awoke around 2am, realizing it was December already. And I thought, "*GASP*, Oma's gonna send her annual box of diabetes!"

Every holiday season since forever, my step-mother-in-law has sent us a boatload of cookies, candies, etc. They're store bought, nice quality, but SO much. Especially in recent years, even after offloading much of it to our now adult kids, most of it goes to the landfill. 

I decided to head her off at the pass, emailed acknowledging her thoughtfulness, but pleeeeeez, no more box of diabetes. She responded promptly, thanking me for my "honest feedback".

I was, however, not able also to ask her not to send me another desk calendar, which she has traditionally sent and which goes straight to the thrift store donation - while the year is just beginning. 

Baby steps.

a little psycho

 

Hey, how's everyone's week going? 

Better than Lillie's I hope!

Tutor Boss asked all us tutors to double check with our students to confirm their sessions since this is the last week of the semester as they head to finals. 

It's a mix. Some are raring to go, some just want it over. 

I have a vague recollection of finals time during my undergrad years. One year worked out particularly nicely because my roommate made hella messes when she was stressed, and I fell into clean freak mode when I was stressed. Perfect combination! 

She studied while trashing the place, I studied while cleaning. We rocked those finals, and our apartment got a sort of makeover.

We're busy over in testing as per usual this time of year. Then, after Monday, things will quiet down. I'm on the lookout for a white elephant gift for our party scheduled for next Wednesday. We looked up the meaning and origin of "white elephant"

"white elephant \WYTE-EL-uh-funt\ noun. 1 : a property requiring much care and expense and yielding little profit."

Well, that covers a whole gamut. 

I'm on a mission, much like this goose friend I encounted on a recent morning.

I don't know the goose's mission, but it was on it like a boss.

a gathering, a bovine, a chill dude, a flush for Friday

I went out for a brisk little run in the crisp black Friday morning air today. Apparently there was a goose convention going on at one of the local high school practice fields.

Either that or they're groundskeepers doing a fertilizer application while the kids are on break.

Christmas decorations have been making their appearance in the neighborhood. 

I came across this jolly... bull? buffalo? Maybe he's a steer considering how friendly he looks?

It was a bright sunny morning, but a frosty 20F, so coming upon a guy at the park, shooting hoops in shorts and short sleeves was a bit mysterious.

I didn't take a pic of him, but used my masterful digital imaging skills to dramatically recreate the scene.


How was he not freezing?

That's pretty much it for my Black Friday adventures. The guys had a nice time with extended family yesterday, and brought back much leftover beers - as they were in charge of supplying beer. Clearly, they brought more than necessary.

None of us are big beer drinkers. Unfortunately, unlike leftover Halloween candy, I can't just bring it to work and dole it out. Magnum says we might have to up our intake to more than the typical half a beer every couple weeks. 

Honestly, though, I get the "Asian Flush" from alcohol, and don't really like the feeling. Mainly my cheeks. If I'm buzzed, I can bet I look like I'm wearing clown makeup. 

I'm a bad boozer. Suggestions for the leftovers?

home alone 2

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow USAians! This is a quiet one for me as Magnum, Wolfgang, and Meego all went to our niece's (Magnum's sister's daughter's) who is hosting the gathering of family. I've hung back to be zookeeper to our dogs who can't be left alone for the time it takes to drive to niece's, feast, socialize, drive back.

No worries, I figured I'd get some things done around the house that need doing, spend a little time homeschooling myself on that math refresher... Those plans went out the window shortly after the guys left. 

I was stir crazy and, instead, took each of the mongrels for a decent walk. That's my purpose today, afterall. 

The college students have the whole week off, so my tutor calendar is empty empty. I worked a shift in the testing center on Monday, and that's been it for my college obligations. I'm basking in free time until Monday.

What's everyone else up to today?

I hope it's a grateful one.

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