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.