ex encounters, nice hands, pain

Magnum and I were out at a coffee shop this morning. I noticed a couple of women walking in, and did a brief glance up. There was a nanosecond of eye contact recognition before I quickly looked away. One of them was none other than my ex. 

Yeah, my ex hair stylist. 

Several months ago, I mentioned here about [a weird haircut experience]. It was weird enough that I'd  decided not to go back and to find a different salon, even though I'd been going only to this same stylist for over two years. I've since found another stylist - great location, easy going atmosphere, very reasonably priced - and all is well in my hair world. 

I figured the ex wouldn't really notice my absence. She has a fairly large clientele, and all I ever got were cuts. No dye jobs, no other treatments. Get in, get out, every coupla months. But in that nanosecond of eye contact at the coffee shop, I feel quite sure she recognized me and probably thought, "Hey, that's what's-her-face", and then realized "She hasn't been in for quite a while". 

Had I still been going to her for cuts, I would surely have stopped and chatted a bit this morning, asked about her holidays, the family, etc. As it was, I continued whatever I was talking about with Magnum. The ex was wearing eyeglasses, which she didn't wear at the salon. I still recognized her, but could easily feign a Clark Kent phenomenon going on. Silly, I know. But it felt good to skedaddle outta there before things got awkward, ha!

In other news, I continue to celebrate Boxing Day by cleaning out a few unwanted items. Soon, I'll have enough for a thrift store drop-off. And I took down our sparse Christmas decorations yesterday.

We watched a couple of movies this weekend. [Watching the Detectives] is just goofy and quirky, starring Cillian Murphy and Lucy Liu.

Is it a romcom? I guess it's a romcom. 

We've been watching [Peaky Blinders] and are on the final (6th) season. So it was fun and interesting to see Cillian Murphy as someone SO So so different from Tommy Shelby!

Same great hands, though. Ever noticed what nice hands Cillian Murphy has? Well... I digress.

The other movie was [A Real Pain], both in title and in watching it. Okay, it's gotten favorable reviews, but it didn't do much for either of us. 

Only about an hour and a half lost, though.

Now, we're in the lull week between Christmas and New Years. The college is closed. I will stay out of trouble. Maybe I'll schedule a hair appointment.

not a shrimp

Happy Boxing Day.

I went out this morning for a pleasant little jog-around. We have had a very mild December, really only one decent snowstorm among many warm, sunny days. I'm enjoying the nice weather, but at the same time fretting about the lack of moisture (and revenue for the ski resorts).

As I was out and about, I realize I've always appreciated the day AFTER Christmas, even as a kid.  Yes, I did also make a big deal about presents on Christmas morning as a kid, the big countdown to the day, having trouble sleeping the night before... but the day after feels a little like a calm after the storm, a day of appreciation. Now more pronounced in my old lady days.

There were others out this morning, walking together, walking pooches, running. I sensed maybe some new dog harnesses, new outwear, new fitness trackers. And I remembered that's the hopeful fun of Christmas gifts - appreciated things rather than unwanted, wasteful things - not the [deadweight loss of Christmas]. 

Ours was low-key, as per usual, and enjoyable. Meego and Wolfgang came over. We ate, we walked the dogs, we played some cards, we talked with Chaco on speaker phone, we passed the phone around with calls to my in-laws. No big exchange of things, but enjoyment of company.

One of my goals for this past year was to read more books as opposed to doom scrolling the internet. I'm happy with how I did with that and plan to continue. Now, a new goal is to get back into routine sketching. I fell off that habit a while back, and I've got sketchbooks, pens, pencils collecting dust. 

So I figured I'd start today with a warm-up to break up my inner rust and cobwebs. Some everyday mundane item to get the ball rolling.

But then I said, nah. 

[King Prawn Pepe] it is.

... not even a mouse

Christmas Eve. We've made it passed the winter solstice, the days are getting longer. Feel it??

We had our white elephant swap holiday party on Monday at work. We're a relatively small group - 8 staffers in total - and one had already skipped town for the holidays. So 7 of us plus one toddler got together for the rip roaring time. 

We actually gathered in the testing center while it was still open for the last hour and a half. There wasn't much business going on in there at that time on the Monday of Christmas week.

There was plenty of good food (no booze allowed on campus), and the swap was pretty fun, nothing outrageous. I don't get excited for presents, but I'd say I did pretty well with what I ended up with: two cat themed teacups, a cat themed bookmark, a sample of handcrafted soap, and a coupon for a local chocolate shop. Blossom revealed afterward that it was her contribution. 

I like the Japanese style cups, no handles. They hold maybe 4 or 5 ounces and go nicely with my teapot

I suspect that Party Girl was drunk or at least tipsy. She was acting rather weird, talking about stupid stuff and being more touchy-feely than usual. At one point, she got on the ground and tried to crawl into a large gift bag?  I don't hang out with her outside of work, though, so maybe that's just the way she is, but I still suspect some booze was involved. She's not secretive about her daily drinking habit.

So now the break has officially begun. Campus is closed until after New Year's.  Meanwhile, I'm trying to be productive and have something to justify my existence at the end of each day. We're staying here for the holidays this year. I've got my food fixings, so shouldn't have to be anywhere near a grocery store until after Christmas. 

Last night, while I was somewhere between asleep an awake, I sensed the cat doing his typical midnight zoomies. At some point later, I was awakened by what sort of sounded like rain drops or sleet spitting against our window. 

But when I became more awake, I realized it was the cat licking his chops. It was juicier sounding than his typical bathing. So I switched on the reading light to find the mighty hunter at the foot of the bed, digging in to the remains of a mouse. *GAG*

Magnum got up (better him than me), scooped the departed mouse into a bag, and that was the end of Napolion's Christmas feast. Apparently the zoomies I'd heard were not just a training sesh.

So today, I raise my cat teacup in honor of the mighty mouser, Napolion. 

cards and kitties

I had test center duty today with Kitty. Now, it's mid-afternoon, and I feel like just lazing about the house. It's grey and drizzly out, so good laze-about weather. Taking a cue from the cat.

Like me, Kitty is reducing her work hours in the testing center for this upcoming semester. Her daughter is now a toddler, and Kitty's parents are returning to their permanent home in another state after renting a place here for the past year to help with childcare. 

A week or so ago, Party Girl expressed her sadness about Kitty's situation. At first, it seemed to me that Party Girl was sad that Kitty had a daughter, and I thought that's not a sad thing. Kitty gushes over her daughter. 

But after clarification, Party Girl is sad for herself that Kitty is cutting her hours. She's not sad for Kitty, she's sad that Kitty won't be around as much

I too am sad not to work with Kitty as often as before, but was surprised about Party Girl's reaction. Despite her nickname - which she herself came up with - Party Girl is a very conscientious and thorough worker, dotting every I, crossing every T. She can be quite judgy of those who don't have her work ethic, even documenting transgressions for the bosses to sort through.

At first, Party Girl was quite judgy of Kitty because, truth be told, Kitty is the opposite of conscientious and thorough. Oh, and she'll probably show up about 10 minutes late for her shift. Every time.

But Kitty is just so dang likeable!

I mean, she's late 30's, laid back, doesn't seem particularly ambitious or goal driven. She has a bachelor's degree unrelated to the job, and I get the sense that she went to college for an experience/ adventure to enjoy, without a real end goal in mind. Now she's continuing to go wherever the flow takes her, in this case, with a toddler in tow.

Side note: we're pretty sure the daughter was a "surprise", the discovery of which prompted a shotgun wedding. In true Kitty fashion, all is seemingly going quite well. 

Today at work, I don't remember how the subject came up, but I mentioned that I'm familiarizing myself with tarot. I bought a deck a few weeks ago and have started to learn the cards. It's not the Woo Woo I'd thought it was, but a rather fun and interesting diversion.

"Oh yeah", acknowledged Kitty, "I took up reading tarot during the pandemic while living with my grandma. We got tired of doing jigsaw puzzles".

She went on to tell me she often does readings for her sisters and some friends. Apparently, they attribute high credibility to Kitty's readings, almost giving her "life coach" status, which feels a bit ironic to me.

But I have to admit, Kitty does always seem to land on her feet. 

work it

I've made it through this first week of winter break. There's more free time on my hands and I'm trying to use it wisely. A little recap

• I had "The" talk with Boss. I've mentioned contemplating staying or going from the testing center. Pros and cons are pretty balanced, and every end-of-semester, I contemplate some more. Boss makes our work schedules a semester at a time, so it was time for another fresh calendar.

This semester, he's facing a few scheduling challenges from all us part-timers. As per usual, he asked for our availability for spring, and also to let him know our maximum and minimum number of preferred hours. 

I listed my minimum preferred hours as "zero", which prompted a one-on-one. I explained that he should feel free to "take me off the schedule" if it's too much of a hassle for him to work around my tutoring schedule. The word "quit" was never uttered by either of us.

He said he didn't want me to q-word, but he's hiring a new person to fill some gaps, and wants to be able to offer a decent number of hours to the newb. He was actually quite relieved that I was happy to reduce my already meager hours.

So, bottom line, I'm scheduled for a whopping ONE shift per week plus the Saturday rotation in testing for spring semester. The best of both worlds, I feel. I'd originally thought I would need to work at least two shifts or nothing. More available hours for tutoring while still keeping my foot in the testing door, and I'm happy with that outcome. 

• We got together with Wolfgang and Meego yesterday for our monthly breakfast outing. There was a short wait list, so I gave the host my name and party of five. Duh, we're a party of four. I was either Freudian slipping missing Chaco, or my brain is mushy from the downtime. 

• Speaking of menopause brain *ahem*, coworker Party Girl was complaining about trying to find pants that fit.

"If they fit my waist, they're too big in the butt. If they fit my butt, they're too tight in the waist. It's this &%#!  menopause body!"

We were working with Blossom and Kitty. I told her to stop scaring the young ones.

Merry Christmas.

 

don't take this personally?

I just had a look at my Spotify Wrapped. I'm not a daily listener, but I have the free version of Spotify for listening to music and podcasts. At the end of the year, it provides a fun little slideshow of the past year's activity - hours listened, favorite artists, favorite genres, etc.

From those stats, it comes up with a "listening age", and this is what it calculated for me: 

I'm an old soul?? Okay, what about the fact that I'M ACTUALLY 61 YEARS OLD. 

Okay, fine, whatever. I'm not bothered by the fact that my listening age matches my physical age. And hey, there was good music in the 80's!

But the previous slide before revealing my listening age? 

"don't take this personally" - HA! Uhm, what're they tryna say?

In other news, I've been basking in slothfulness this week. No tutoring after the frenzy of finals week. At least I have testing center duty tomorrow and Friday to perk things up.

When a semester ends, we typically get inundated with EMTs and Paremedics who have just finished their programs and need to get their official certifications. If there was ever a good time to have a medical emergency at work, it's during the couple of weeks after a semester ends.

Our college has a program for paramedics/ first responders. They have an ambulance simulator that I've only ever seen from afar. But it looks like fun.

The students get in there and practice securing the patient and gurney, taking vitals, jotting notes, all while the "ambulance" simulates rushing through traffic. I'd love to go for a "ride".

But considering my advanced age, it's probably too much of a liability.

terminology, time countdown, token of appreciation

"Who decided to call it THAT, anyway?", she asked, snickering as she jotted down some notes.

I was with a tutor student earlier this week, reviewing for her final exam. She asked the question in reference to a math term she is expected to know and use.

-----*warning, some may find this anecdote a bit risque, but we found it funny*-----

The term to which she referred - latus rectum - is a useful thing in math, but is understandably met with scoffs and quiet snickers by the often immature and largely English-as-an-only-language student body.

"I guess it must be latin or something", she continued.

"Yes", I informed. "It translates to 'straight side'".

"PFFFT", she scoffed, "it's my general understanding that the straights don't typically go for that stuff, but okay!"

Bahahahahaha!

And with that, another semester comes to a close. I'm off the tutoring until the spring semester. I'll still  have a few hours in the testing center each week since that place doesn't take breaks between semesters, and I'm looking forward to some time off for other things for a while.

I know I'm not the only one. In fact, I noticed the adjunct faculty whiteboard has a new prompt:

I hope that whoever wrote "All most there!" isn't an English/ writing instructor.

There weren't many comments, likely because of the smaller whiteboard next to the big one.

I guess snacks are more appealing after a semester of writing on whiteboards.

So I've said goodbye to this latest batch of tutees. One showed up to her session with what I originally thought was her laptop wrapped in cloth rather than in her backpack. I thought, "hmm, that's different".

But she unwrapped it to reveal this painting she created. She said it was for me as thanks for the tuting.

I thanked her and told her, "I know just where I'm gonna put it!"

When I got home, it went on the wall of my home office/ studio/ room I share with the cat...

I'm not sure if she gave the painting a title. If she did, she didn't tell me what it is. 

Suggestions?

eats and hunger

December has arriveth. Looking out my window, I see actual snow on the rooftops. Not much, but I say it still counts.

I had all of last week off from work and tried to make the most of it. During that time, I...

... shopped, enjoyed family time, climbed a mountain, had a tarot reading, shot a gun, napped, ate lots of good food, walked dogs, (reluctantly) learned a little about plumbing...

along with the other day-to-day stuff. All in all, a good week with a minor annoyance of a slow leak in one of our bathroom sinks. The silver lining is, we should have a nice new faucet when all is said and done. We (translation: Magnum) think we can DIY the fix before having to call in the professionals. Fingers crossed.

This week is the last week of the college semester, so it's prep for finals before it all comes to a crashing halt. Along the way, I lost a few tutees who dropped their courses after falling too far behind. 

Of those who remain in the fight, I think they're all going to make it. It feels like The Hunger Games around here sometimes.

what would Joe Exotic do?

 I took pooch Merlin to the vet's yesterday. He needed a bordatella booster as required by the place we board the dogs. We don't actually have any boarding plans currently, but I keep the dogs on schedule to keep our options open. 

So we're at the vet's, and Merlin was great as usual. "He's a really good dog", was the vet's comment at their first meeting over 5 years ago. And he really is, except...

...don't come to our house.

He's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Sweet, easy-going, compliant. But at home, he's like an over protective junkyard dog if anyone outside the family comes over. 

Friends, friends of our kids, family he's not met, service technicians, etc.

No matter how much we try to get him to chill, he's stuck in full guard mode like something takes over in his brain. We just have to sequester him away somewhere.

He's a shelter dog, and we don't know anything about his life before us. When he was found and transferred to Colorado, he was emaciated.  When we met him, he weighed 35 pounds, and now he's 70 pounds at the same height and length.

We just know he was a stray from Oklahoma, to which Magnum noted, "Oklahoma? Weird things in Oklahoma", referring to 'Tiger King'.

But, it's clear to us that someone loved him, and trained him in his easy-going ways. The way he obediently sits, was house trained, is happy to get into a vehicle. What is it that makes him so protective of our home?

We wonder what traumatic thing happened that led to him being alone and emaciated. What happened to his previous owner(s)? 

On weekends, when we sleep in a little, Merlin comes into the bedroom and sniffs us, seemingly to check that we're still alive. 

My mother-in-law was visiting a few months ago with Magnum's brother and sister-in-law. SIL has had many dogs, and could tell Merlin was not going to warm up to her. MIL tried, and I was certain Merlin would've bitten her if they weren't separated by a fence. It's a conundrum.

I'd asked the vet about this at our meeting last summer. She seemed surprised, as if to say, 

"Him? You're referring to Merlin??"

She told me a little about the muzzle up project,

I didn't do much with the information at the time other than look at the site, but now I'm thinking we should get on with some proper training and teach this old dog some new tricks. 

It came up again yesterday during our visit. As we talked, the tech in the room with us had that similar confused look, 

"Are y'all talking about THIS dog??" 

Sadly, yes. Maybe I'll get him a friendly muzzle for Christmas. Then we'll arrange for some victims helpers to come to our house and commence the training. 

Any volunteers?

compress, de-

This past week was an exhausted drag into fall break. Yeesh, Thanksgiving is a late one again this year, and it's been felt at the college by both students and staff. No classes all next week, but campus is open through Wednesday.

I worked in testing today with Sarge. It was a, thankfully, smooth and uneventful day. I have no tutees next week because of the break, so I'm in loaf mode since clocking out this afternoon. 

This week also featured another birthday for me. I've had a few now. Coworkers bestowed this card upon me.

For my birthday last year, I was given a piñata (empty). He still lives at the testing center, and we named him Felipe'

Here is Felipe', last year during December finals (he doesn't normally have reindeer antlers) guarding a few beverages - his designated job.

So it'll be a small paycheck next round, but I'm looking forward to the time off. No major plans, but I'll think of something. 

I also noticed the adjunct faculty whiteboard has been further adorned with decompressive thoughts, now that mid-semester is semester's end.

I'm hoping to get in some loaf time with good books - currentlly reading [The Wedding People] and am see-sawing on its goodness or badness - some nature time, and other chill pursuits. Tidying, that's always fun.

What's on your whiteboard?

food, fundraising, ferris wheel

I was originally scheduled to work today, but at the last minute, just before I left work yesterday, Blosssom asked Kitty (my scheduled coworker for today) and me if one of us would switch with her - today for next Saturday. 

Kitty had another obligation next Saturday, I had nothing, so the switcheroo was made. So I found myself with an open Saturday. I managed to arrange for a breakfast meetup this morning with Meego and Wolfgang, something we do about once a month. 

After catching up with the guys and loading up on the eats, Magnum and I - well, I dragged Magnum along with me - headed a few miles east to Windsor, CO. A locally owned gift shop is doing a fundraiser for my PEO chapter on Monday, but would honor purchases made today and Tuesday for those of us who can't do the Monday shindig.

As chapter prez, it's customary for me to present gifts to the other offficers at the end of the PEO year (March), so I figured I'd kill both those birds - contributing to the fundraiser and getting officer gifts.

It's a cute shop right downtown, and I found lots of good gift ideas. But fundraiser or no, it's too pricey considering I'm buying for seven. So I did the next best thing, I shopped for ME. I mean, I didn't want to walk outta there empty handed. It's a fundraisher!

This travel journal/ sketchbook spoke to me. 

I think it's genuine leather. Either way, it's very supple. Certian to boost my daily productivity, right? Right??

After the quaint little gift shop, we did a 180 and headed to SCHEELS sporting goods. Magnum "needed" some things, and we were in the neighborhood.

This was our third visit to SCHEELS. It's huge, and crowded. Seemingly no one goes to indoor malls anymore, but SCHEELS is always well populated.

So, consumptive day, all for good cause. Now to be productive.

Laundry, anyone?

less words Wednesday

 Out walking the pooches last night, we beheld a rare sight

Aurora Borealis, right here in our neck of the woods. 

Upon returning home, I checked the city's subreddit, and as expected, it was CHOCK full of awe inspiring photos. This meme was no lie:

Upload after upload from various parts of town and beyond. 

I swear it's like the Northern Lights were showing off.

I've learned the scientific explanation of what causes them, but I'd rather anthropomorphize them into big ol' show offs.

The reddit pics were all mostly captioned with the wheres and whens they were taken, maybe some emotional responses.

But I think this is my favorite caption for "less words Wednesday"

make like a tree

 Wham! This week went by fast, although I can't put my finger on anything in particular that made it so. Oh well, here we are, Saturday. Not complaining.

The semester is winding down at the college. Less than one month to go, and one of those weeks is fall break. I've had a few tutees jump ship from their math classes already, realizing they can't pass even if they pull wizardry on their finals. I'm a little mad at the advisors who allowed them to sign up for classes they clearly weren't ready for, but sink-or-swim seems to be the strategy.

We survived the first week back to standard time. It is now dark on my bicycle commute home, and I'm decked out with lights and reflectors again. There are three busy roads I must cross to get to and from the college, and I found a route that uses the lesser of the evils for all three crossings without being too much of a detour. 

A little photo dump from the week:

• One of my fellow paint-n-sippers shared some pics she took of our get together a couple of weeks ago. Here's a group photo:

Our artistic leader is 4th from the left, next to me, in case it's not obvious from her Best-In-Show painting.

• I came across a few deer during one of my early morning jog arounds this week

There were about five of them hanging around together, but the others went and hid in the trees as I got my phone out. These two seemingly couldn't care less. 

It's gotten chillier, and we've definitely had our first freeze, but still no snow for the season. Any day now. I avoid politics on the blog, but I gotta say, this government shut down is getting old. 

Rant over. 

 

antlered things

We took a day trip to Estes Park yesterday. Nothing particular in mind, but I was in need of a getaway. Estes is about an hour's drive away, so easy to leave our pets to fend for themselves until our return.

One thing Estes Park is known for is its hefty elk population, and yesterday provided the full experience. We went for a nice walk on the waterfront path, stopped for lunch, and on our way back to downtown, we noticed more people along the path than had been there earlier. 

"It's almost like there's some event going on", I pondered.

As we got closer, we saw that there was a sort of event. At some point during our walking and eating, a huge freaking herd of elk had taken over the golf course.

Where had they all come from?

So we hung out for a bit and gawked at the wildlife along with the other humans. None of the elk seemed to give a crap about any of us, and, thankfully, no stupid people tried to go into the herd for a social media op.

These two big guys put on a nice play fight show for a good while

Their womenfolk paid no attention, having seen it all before, I'm sure.

And so begins November.

Our Halloween "bash" was pretty mellow. I counted 5 groups of Trick-or-Treaters, but may have missed a couple. 

The next day, our Ring®  notifications featured several user complaints and video evidence of stolen bowls of candy that had been left out. That's the world we live in - put a bowl out under the honor system, and it really just serves as miscreant bait. 

We get off our butts and answer the door. I'd say most of our visitors were "older" kids - middle and high school aged, by the looks and sounds of them. I used to think that kids that age were too old for it, but I've grown to appreciate them. All had put thoughtfulness and work into their costumes, and all were polite. I think this whatever-it-is skull guy was my favorite (captured from our aforemention Ring®)

I'm thinking there's some character - video game, most likely - depicted here, but am clueless as to what. I doubt it's an homage to Georgia O'Keefe. And I'm not sure what the companion is dressed as. 

I checked the front camera footage to see if I could figure anything out, but no. Maybe some other video game reference? 

She does appear to be toting both candy bags while skull guy is unburdened. 

So maybe that's the costume: groupie

less words Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday. 

As if. 

I can't seem to do it.

We'll go with "less words"

On this morning's traipse around the neighborhood, I came across this lovely mailbox adornment

She was too cute, I just had to stop and snap a pic. Did she borrow the dress from her friend, Barbie? They're both about the same percentage of body fat.

I've got tutee appointments this afternoon. One texted and asked if we could meet online,
"I woke up and everything hurts and it's hard to swallow"

Sounds yucky, maybe that latest iteration of covid with the throat thing. You betcha we can meet remotely. 

paint, pumpkins, pedals

 I did a thing yesterday. I'd played around with painting in the past, but hadn't touched the stuff in a good long time. Yesterday, I did a Paint 'n' Sip with a few other ladies, something that had looked like fun, but I'd never done.

Seven of us plus our able instructor got together to create "a fall scene" in acryllic paint. The event was deemed a fundraiser for my PEO chapter, but was mainly an excuse to get together and goof around. Both purposes were served.

I brought my result home, and there it sits in the corner of my "office", between the dry erase markers and kleenex, for lack of any place else.

Maybe I'll touch it up and name it "Children of the Corn"

Speaking of evils, how did everyone fare with the amazon web service outage of Monday?

It's a bit concerning how dependent many of us are on our apps and cloud services, eh?

For me, it was a full-on first world problem as I had a haircut appointment on Monday, and found that my Pinterest wouldn't load. Pinterest held my hair reference photos! What to do?

Sigh of relief when the issue was corrected in time, but it was touch and go there, I tellya!

Also this week, I took in another bicycle. These things are wrecking my minimalist image. I have the lovely Violet, which I mainly take for relatively long joyrides, like this morning's beautiful fall ride. Then there's Daisy, my trusty single speed commuter. I also have Lily, the buxom mountain bike. 

Well, now I have the yet-to-be-named newbie-to-me. We bought her 10 plus years ago for Meego. He rode it through high school and then college, but hasn't ridden it much in recent years. 

With the temperatures getting cooler and days getting shorter, I was thinking it would be nice to have a little softer ride on the cooler, darker commutes. Violet and Daisy both have skinny tires and zero suspension. I rattle with every bump and crack. For grins, I asked Meego if he used that old bike much, and if not, could I buy it from him. 

Well, he brought it over, free of charge he says. I gave it a little spa treatment and have been enjoying her cushiness this past week.

That's her in her yet-to-be-named orangeness, parked alongside the zippy Daisy who takes a well deserved respite. And no, I won't name it Donald or Trump. 

Or will I?

midterm swamp and corn

Magnum and I took a typical Sunday morning bicycle ride this morning. Had to bundle up, temperatures were struggling to get out of the 30's. But it was a sunny, calm breeze ride that included a coffee stop. Win.

This week, I noticed another whiteboard question at the part-time faculty break room: 

Not many responses as yet, so maybe the ink was still wet. I noticed the "Super Pretzels with Cheeseツ" is no longer, but I think it would apply to mid-semester decompress.

So yes, it seems we're halfway through this fall semester. I've got a couple of concerning students who stand a good chance of failing their math courses. No fault of their own, really. They work hard, but just didn't learn enough in high school and were shuffled off to college anyway. A global pandemic didn't do them any favors.

In other horrors, we watched "Children of the Corn" this weekend. I'd never watched it but recall it was considered extremely scary back in its day. We found it not scary at all, but entertaining enough in a nostalgic kind of way. 

A lot has changed in the "extremely scary" genre in the last 40 years. Zombies took over?

We took a family road trip throug Nebraska several years ago. There definitely is a LOT of corn in Nebraska. Where there's no pavement or concrete... there's corn. Watch out for them children.

hunting and pecking

I was on a darkish walkabout this morning - a lazy fog making things seem somewhat middle earthy. 

I didn't come across any hobbits or elves that I know of, but did encounter this gaggle of turkeys. I've seen them around before, as have others who chime in on Next Door, Reddit, etc. Is it the same wild group moseying all over town or is there more than one gang?

They look healthy and happy enough, to my untrained eyes.

I recall a boy I knew many years ago, a country boy, who told me how difficult it was to track and nab a wild turkey at hunting time. He told me this while showing me, with pride, one of his turkey feather trophies.

So my first experience of spotting these wild turkeys had me thinking back to that, making the event all, "Wow, a rare sighting!". But now I'm starting to wonder... is it really that difficult?

Recall a while back I admitted to having the odd thought that I would enjoy birdwatching. Now I'm thinking about that again after coming upon this group in the business park. The real appeal to me is to be out in the boonies with a purpose. Hunting has always sounded fun to me - all except the killing part. THAT doesn't appeal to me at all, despite my being a failed vegetarian.

I feel in need of a nature fix, anyway, in the midst of another semester of dealing with students barely keeping their heads above water (how did they even meet the prerequisites?!). I mean, it's only the strugglers who sign up for tutoring, so it's the nature of the beast.

So no nature getaway today. But at least I had wild turkeys by the dumpster.

whazzup?

The weeks continue to seemingly fly by. We are already nearing the end of October. I'm looking out my window thinking that I need to get on with the leaf raking. I haven't gotten beyond the thinking.

• Got together with Meego and Wolfgang for breakfast yesterday morning. We do this about once a month. There are plenty of good breakfast places in Fort Collins, and we've yet to go to one I wouldn't recommend.

Today's destination was recommended by coworker, Blossom. She's lived here her whole life (whopping 25 years) and is always ready with a food recommend.

• At the start of the year, I'd made a resolution to read more. Fiction and non-fiction both. I think I've done all right by that, but recently hit a slump. I was slogging through two books I'd checked out based solely on the fact that a couple of friends on Goodreads liked them. 

I was halfway through both of them when I realized I wasn't enjoying either and should just take the losses. One of the books was Luster which seemed pretty pointless and just, *ICK*.

The other was The Bee Sting, which was just stressing me out, and I don't need stress from a novel. There's enough of that in the real world.

Anybody read either of those? They weren't for me, but plenty of others like them. 

Now, I'm rereading James Herriot  books. I enjoyed them over 25 years ago, so decided to revisit. Nice thing about that is that I'd forgotten a lot of the stories, so it's like reading them for the first time. Reading is, once again, enjoyable.

• This week in "tales from testing", we had someone leave their cell phone on when they stashed it in the locker. We always ask people to turn their phones all the way off, but there's always those who think, "bah, mine won't make any noise" and ignore us. 

The guy's cell phone started to emit an unending alarm. After tracking down whose it was, we interrupted his test and had him come out and turn it off. 

At that point, he was very apologetic and opened the locker to turn off the phone. While turning off the alarm, he said, "sheesh, that's annoying", to which Siri immediately replied, 

"I don't mean to be"

She sounded so remorseful, I *almost* felt bad for her.

 

getting out

It's a gloomy, grey day today. My spoiled, used-to-lots-of-sunshine self will struggle, but it's doable.

Mondays are typically my reset days - days to schedule floats and makeup tutoring appointments - of which I have neither today. I do have PEO later this evening to prepare for, so I'll need some alertness.

One of my current tutees is a precocious high schooler racking up college credits so to be well on her way to a bachelor's degree before she even graduates high school.

She asked the typical, "What is this for?" regarding her math homework last week. I think I explained its usefulness, but acknowledged that it was a good question regarding today's technology.

"I always like to know why I'm doing something", her reply.

On that note, and with the gloomy outside, I figured I would do a closet purge. Stashing summer things since it's October, and I don't think we'll return to temps in the 90's anytime soon. I plan to toss a few items to the "donate" or "rag" or "trash" pile while asking myself why I'm keeping some things around.

I was inspired by seeing a 9-item capsule wardrobe on Pinterest: 3 tops, 3 bottoms, 2 layers (coats, sweaters), 1 pair of shoes. And I'm thinking, sounds more like a packing list for a 4- or 5-day trip, not an entire wardrobe. I'm not at that level of minimalism.

In addition to Halloween scaries showing up around the neighborhood, I've noticed a few watchers while I'm out wandering about. 

This little guy thought he was being stealth, which he kind of was.

This cat, however, does not have the best camouflage. 

I think he wanted to make sure I saw the sign.

dodging runners, obligatory kisses

Fall is in the air, ya feel it?

Magnum and I enjoyed a noticeably crisp bicycle ride this morning. A welcome transition from the hot hot of summer.

It was a peaceful meander as he's just coming off a crud virus he caught from me a couple of weeks ago, and I just got my annual flu shot yesterday. It worked out since it so happened that this morning, there was a half-marathon happening on the path we took.

I'd hooked up the bike cam to catch some of the fall colors that have just begun, but we mainly had to keep our eyes out for the half-marathoners.

Coupla screen grabs from my grainy video:

I didn't get a covid-19 shot, partly because I highly suspect the crud virus I had was just that. It featured a tell-tale "razor blade sore throat" from the latest version, followed by what felt like a garden variety cold. So hopefully, I'm thoroughly inoculated.

In other news, I'd heard that this last week was homecoming week at my hometown high school. Their social media page listed the royalty, and I found it odd that for each female royalty, two male escorts were named. But, in thinking back, I remembered that yes, there were two boy escorts for each girl.

The escorts for the dance were all members of the football team, but the escorts for the parade and football game half-time were of the non football variety because the players were otherwise occupied. I'd forgotten about that, I mean, it's bean 43 years...

This had me flashing back 43 years to that whirlwind week where I found myself part of the homecoming royalty - this would've been back in my big-fish-in-a-very-small-pond days - and I remembered my full gamut of escorts.

Escort for the dance was the hunky football captain, Ken. Escort for the parade and half-time was the effeminate, good natured, Joe. Joe was clearly gay, but this was the 80's where such things were not really spoken of, but were just understood. I'm sure Joe had his bullies, but he had plenty of good friends, myself included, and he was a pretty popular kid. And again, clearly gay.

So this walk down memory lane took me back to the fun Joe and I had during the parade, and then it was on to the halftime show of the football game. This is a pic from my yearbook of halftime just before we paired off with our respective escorts.

Our names were announced, our escorts handed us a flower of some sort, then gave us a traditional smooch. Joe fulfilled this obligation, probably bregudgingly.

My boyfriend at the time - he'd graduated a year ahead of me and watched from the stands - said that Joe had a big ol' grin on his face after the smooch. I can imagine Joe thinking, "Geez, the sh*t I gotta do for school!", and just having fun with it.

As I was recalling that memory yesterday, I realized, I was likely the first and last girl Joe ever kissed.

fragmentary recall

This was a shortened weekend for me as I worked yesterday - Saturday rotation time again. Another seemingly productive week down. Let's bullet.

• I finished a novel this week - The Silent Patient. When I went to add it to my Goodreads, I strangeley saw that I'd already read it? Really? Apparently, in 2019. Well, it wasn't memorable the first go. And it even has a twisty, big reveal ending. Oh well, 4 stars.
  
  
• Speaking of memory, we watched Total Recall - the 2012 version with Colin Farrell.

It was pretty much what I expected. A lot of shoot-em-up, running around, heavy CGI, etc. But I won't say no to 2012 Colin Farrell. 

• Speaking of pastimes, it occurred to me, out of the blue this week, that I would probably enjoy bird watching. That made me feel old, where did that come from?
  *I know bird watching isn't just for old people, it just made me feel old to suddenly find it appealing*
  
  

• Speaking of hobbies, our tutor bosses at work asked each of us math tutors to put together a "tutor bio". It should be 100 - 150 words and include our educational background, which campuses we support, etc.
  
  

I typed one up, and the word count was 50. *SIGH*. I mean, I said all the things. What more is there? They encouraged us to add "fun facts" about ourselves. Ugh. 

The only maybe fun fact, if you would call it that, is that I've been a regular blogger for over 20 years, but I don't tell real life people about that. 

I'm not saying anything about bird watching either.

fall favorites, big hair

Happy fall, we made it through another summer!

With that, I saw there is another question posted on the adjunct instructor room whiteboard at the college: "What is your favorite thing about autumn?"

The first thing my eyes noticed is that the "super pretzels with cheese シ" is still there from the earlier question... or a carry-over?

I'm enjoying the cooler temperatures and am still getting used to the dark mornings and earlier sunsets. Time to break out [the vest].

In other news, coworker Sarge's ducks? One of them has become a woman. Sarge's family isn't sure which one, but they've been getting one egg per day, started last Sunday. I imagine the other two ducks will get in sync and start earning their keep very soon. Exciting times.

This reminded me of many years ago, when I worked as a 2nd shift quality inspector. I had three female coworkers and one male. The man's name was Rod, poor guy. 

We all worked very closely together, and when we weren't slaving away, we just shot the breeze, etc. as coworkers in a small lab will do. The result - all us "ladies" got in sync, yaknow whatIm sayin'? Yeah, we were all "laying eggs" together. 

I found this old grainy photo from that era. It was taken with a Polaroid. Back in the day, before digital cameras, if we needed to take a photo of something "top secret", we'd get out the Polaroid.

So we had someone take this photo on my 21st birthday :P. Yeah, not a whole lot of supervision on 2nd shift...

Anyway, there's three of us egg layers. The fourth was probably out sick as I remember her having a fair share of sick days.

The long suffering Rod is the moustache in the right rear. Our supervisor is on the far left, and the other guy is my boyfriend of that era - a lab technician. We'd met at work, neither of us having stalked the other to the workplace.

Boyfriend's a nice guy, just not big on smiling for pics, apparently. Rod was also a very nice guy. Sheesh, he had to be.

Besides the Polaroid and our big hair, I notice other blasts from the past. Mainly the cigarettes and ashtray right there on the table. I've never been a smoker, but all three other ladies were, so along with their cycles, I got plenty of secondhand smoke. 

Ah, the good old days.

toys and field trips

I'm sitting here in a state of languor, nursing a head cold. I was hoping I'd dodged the start-of-the-school-year virus as others around me at work were dropping like flies, but alas, no. 

I'd had a satisfyingly productive week prior to my affliction. Tuesday evening, I went to PEO and returned home after dark. Across-the-street neighbor had his vehicle parked in his driveway, facing our house. The headlights were on - or I should say - the long continuous horizontal beam of light was on. 

And I thought, "Is that a Cybertruck?", the light beam being too bright for me to really make out what was behind it. 

The next morning, I was out wandering the neighborhood and saw that yes, there was a brand  new Cybertruck in ATS neighbor's driveway. I've seen a handful of Cybertrucks around town, but never up close. Since ATS was out there with his new toy, I decided to go over and nose around. He seemed all too happy for a little show-and-tell.

One of my first observations was that they're not as big as they seemed when I'd seen them from a distance. I show it here only to display the juxtaposition against the adventure vehicle parked alongside - our trash day bins included for artful composition.

He opened all the doors and rolled back the cover to show the surprisingly large bed. The interior looked... similar to any other new truck.

Not for me, certainly, but he seems very happy with it. Said he'd been waiting six years, having ordered it when they first came out in 2019. 

Meanwhile, Magnum has taken our little gas-only truck up the road to Cheyenne, WY for it's first oil change. Recall, we bought the truck about a year ago - as a second vehicle, worthy of winter driving. Welp, last winter was such a mild one, the truck did a lot of sitting in the garage. 

I decided to hang back so to not expose the Cheyeneites to my Colorado germs, and Magnum keeps sending me pics of the surrounding sights.

Yep, that's a big cowboy boot, alright.

Wyominging.

polishing

Way back in the days of my illustrious but short career as a middle school lunch lady, I was the Grill Queen. Nothing gustatorily creative, of course, but I whipped up many grilled cheeses and grilled ham and cheeses. Too many to count.

These days, we have our own little griddle. Neglected thing. I bought it shortly after we moved here, got it all seasoned, used it a couple of times then realized, "it is way to freaking hot on that back patio, let alone slaving over a hot griddle!", and there it sat, covered for seemingly all eternity.

We have since built a patio enclosure, including an overhanging roof where the little Blackstone has been living its lonely existence. After much procrastination, I finally got around to cleaning and re-seasoning over the weekend. Now, what to do? Grilled cheeses?

Meanwhile, I am currently doctorless. Not that that's related in any way to grilling. 

I had a nearby doctor - a PA really. That practice got bought out by a bigger fish, and after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, most of the staff jumped ship, including my PA.

I got shifted to another doctor that I'd never met before she, too, left. Just before my most recent checkup, I was shuffled to yet another, who miraculously, is still there. Since then, the company that caused all the drama in the first place sold the practice off to another. Now my doctor is no longer in our insurance network, wouldn't ya know. 

Magnum found another practice and got signed up. I lazily piggy backed off of him since he did all the legwork of review-reading, etc. So the dilemma = they can't sign me up with a doc until I make an appointment for a general checkup. I'm not eligible for a general checkup until next spring. 

Bottom line, no doctor for me.

Doctor YouTube, it is. So basically, nothing's changed.