peopling

It's noticeably denser here. Living in a college town brings fluctuations in population, and things become thicker in August. 

Anyway, this week is Freshman move-in, and classes start at the university next week. The community college where I work started classes yesterday, so here we go. My tutor schedule is wide-open, we'll see where we are at week's end. Tutor Boss says she has lots of intake meetings scheduled - where she assesses student needs/ requests and matches students and tutors. I'm hoping to get busy soon before we're replaced by AI.

In the meantime, I'm in laid back mode still. Yesterday, I went for a haircut. Remember a few months ago, I blogged [that weird haircut experience]? At the salon I'd been going to for a few years? Welp, I'd decided not to go back there. Thanks to reddit, I found a different salon that is not only as good in both quality and price as the old place, but it's all around better - better location, friendlier, a little cheaper even. No more getting my haircut in the middle of a freakin' coffee klatch!

Later I went for a bicycle joyride cleverly disguised as errand running. I think I'm going to start using the GoPro again for these joy errand rides. My work commute is typically uneventful - knock on wood - so I stopped bothering with the bike cam, but yesterday included:

• I was coming up on three other bicyclists, about to pass them. The three entered an underpass/ tunnel and I heard a *clank-cah-clank*

Once in the tunnel, I see one of the cyclists has gone down, like she crashed into the sidewall of the tunnel. The man behind her stops and I stop as well, while the third guy just goes around and keeps on a-going. 

Amid the typical, "y'aright?", I'm assessing. The woman who crashed and the man who stopped appear to be riding together. They're both on "Rent Me!" bicycles and middle-aged. I'm guess they're from out of town - possibly dropping off a college kid and enjoying some kid-free recreation.

The woman says she's fine, landed on her foot, lost a shoe. I have a small first-aid "kit" with me, but more for cuts and scrapes than for a twisted foot. But she says she's fine, didn't hit her head or anything. The man thanks me for stopping, and then I continued onward.

• I was going around a right bend when these three hooligans - how's that for an eligible-for-the-senior-discount word? - these three hooligans come flying towards me on motorcycles. Motorcycles?!

This was on one of the friendly multi-use paths running through our county. Hooligans were on full-blown gas-powered motorcycles, which are most definitely not allowed. The only motorized vehicles allowed on the pathways are ebikes and scooters that max out at 20 mph. And these kids were going, I'd guess, at least 40 mph. 

Thankfully, they were single file in their rightful lane, but sheesh. In the flash that I watched them go by me, it seemed they were rounding that turn, pushing the envelope on how much control they had at that speed. They looked to be middle schoolers or high school freshmen at most. 

And so I'm wondering what went on after they're behind me? I went by a few law-abiding others in both directions. What of them? What of the "Rent Me!" crash couple?

Eventually, I dropped off a book at the library - one of my joyride enabling errands - and there are three librarians with walkie-talkies in the foyer, debriefing after some sort of incident at the library park. But that's just another day at the office for them. Those downtown librarians are tough.