end of a waiting, talking to the trees, bones

Yesterday, I sat through a 5-hour Zoom recording in half the time. Doncha just love 2x speed playback?

It was a semester kick-off tutor meeting, and thankfully, the bosses recorded it so we could watch it on our own time if unable to attend live via Zoom. Honestly, I could've managed to make the meeting live, but when we were told the recording would be available, I opted for that.

• The semester begins on Monday, and I've had a nice 2-week break since summer finished. This week, I managed to sort through a few items to donate or trash and also $$old a couple things we no longer need but have good resale value. That felt productive.

• Got the mammogram off the to-do for another year.

• Met another of our neighbors at Helms Deep. He told us they bought their property after the 2012 fire, then built their house and now live there full-time. Betcha he got a good deal on the land. They still had a house in town at the time, and also lived in a shed - like the kit kind from Home Depot - while building the house. 

We're still in early brainstorming stages of some sort of shelter for us. We just have a windowless tool shed, and we would need to evict the mice if we want to move into it. Maybe we just dig a hole in the ground, like the hobbits or Teletubbies.

• On that note of living primal, I will give a product shout out. For the first time in my life, I bought one of those devices for women to stand up when nature calls.

Once I got past the cultural paradigm shift, because it was weird at first, I realized I wished I'd have gotten one years ago for camping and hiking. Not gonna post a pic, it's basically a flexible [funnel].

When I was a kid, growing up in a neighborhood full of boys, my playmates would often head into the woods to "talk to the trees". Well, now I'm making up for lost time, having some good conversations. 

• Lastly, this week, we met another marriage milestone. 36 years?? I googled to see the gift material of choice for year 36. The answer: bone china.

"Bone china is a type of soft-paste porcelain made from clay, feldspathic rock, and a minimum of 30% bone ash derived from cattle

Well, seems fitting. Since we've got them cow neighbors.

drumming, reading, watching

As I sit here, there is much drumming. 

School starts next week for the local kids. I've noticed activity has begun at the nearby high school. This morning, on my morning jog, a large pack of teenagers -  x-country practice, no doubt - made their way along the path. 

And now, the drumming. Marching band percussion sectional happening. Yep, summer break's as good as done.

My two-week break is coming to a close as well. I've enjoyed the lack of commitments. As mentioned, my reading challenge continues. I've completed 31 of 26 (goal) books so far this year. Here are the latest titles since the last report.

Bad Tourists was a mystery thriller that I audiobooked while doing boring things around the house. The rest were book books. I've started writing down quotes that I like from books I'm reading. I'm not much into the mystery thrillers, but will get an audiobook, figuring there won't be anything I particularly care to write down.

Note that there were a pile of DNF's in the meantime, and none of these 6 that made the cut disappointed me.

Hotshot and Wildfire Days were both memoirs written by women firefighters. I learned some stuff about fire suppression and mitigation while also getting some good drama. I am currently reading [Lab Girl] by Hope Jahren - another memoir with stuff to teach me about plants and dirt.

So speaking of which, Magnum and took another play day and went up to Helms Deep yesterday to commune with the plants and dirt. 

I love the quiet up there - no sounds but our struggles and wheezing as we smooth out a few areas for us humans - along with the animal noises. No cows this time, but some deer came along to be nosey. Adolescents loosing their fluffy fawn fur in patches. A couple of hawks circled overhead looking for lunch/sizing us up.

We have a trail cam in place, and had several captures - mostly deer.

See the twins trailing Mom?

Daddy?

Trail cam also picked up a few individual members of this strange pack.

a little squish

I just finished reading [Chemistry] by Weike Wang. It's a novel about a Chinese woman working toward her PhD in chemistry and dealing with the stereotypical strictness and high expectations of her Asian parents, among other things.

It's quirky, it's relatively short, I liked it. It marks 30 books read so far this year in my quest to read 26 books this year. I've overachieved even though I'm not a child of Tiger Parents.

But this isn't a reading challenge update. When I read the above quote, I immediately thought of a conversation I recently had at work with Party Girl and Daffodil. Party Girl was feeling self conscious about having a realtor come to her house.

Party Girl has a little house she bought and lived in after divorce from husband #2. She then married husband #3 (current), moved into his house, and turned the other house into a rental. Now, she's looking to sell the rental.

So the realtor was coming over to the house she currently lives in, not the one she's looking to sell. But due to the realtor being a realtor, Party Girl was self conscious of the scrutiny of her carpets, the colors of her walls, etc.

Daffodil jumped in with some soothing advice:

"When I'm dealing with something like that, I tell myself, 'I'm sure they've seen worse."

...which I feel is a corollary to the above quote from Chemistry. Much less anxiety inducing.

All this to say that I had my routine mammogram today.

Despite my having the nickname ["Cow"] for most of my formative years, it was not for my "udders". I've never been "busty", but rather quite an un-busty, small boned, 50% Filipina.

So while I'm certain my mammographer has seen more voluptuousness, I know I'm at the low end, and I was reminded of Daffodil's counsel. I was further put at ease when I noticed a couple of Asian women in the waiting area, if y'know what I'm sayin'. It's possible that I "outranked" them?

Now, I don't mean to make light of breast cancer. I'm personally at low risk, so I guess I find something else to worry about on mammogram day.

casualty

I worked yesterday at the testing center. It was my one day of gainful employment for the week since tutoring ended the week prior.

Working  just one day a week there, I often miss out on worthwhile shenanigans, so I had to get caught up. Turns out they had both a cheater and a secret shopper.

• The cheater had snuck a cheat note in, had it tucked in his sock - verified from video recording after the fact. Boss noticed the little note, sticking out from under the keyboard, mid-test. It was strange because it was for a professional certification test. We catch cheaters every once in a while, but they are typically for student exams, not the professional ones that people pay good chunks of money to take. I was kind of sorry to have missed the momentous once-in-a-lifetime event. 

• The other was a secret shopper. As the name implies, secret shoppers are sent by various test companies, come in pretending to be test takers, but are actually checking to see if we will catch them breaking any rules. This particular SS broke all kinds of rules and never even made it into the test they were supposedly there to take.

After being told they would not be allowed to take their test, they even offered a bribe to be allowed, which I find quite funny. Another missed performance I wish I'd seen.

In high school, I had a friend who would sometimes wear flowy skirts when it was a test day in our History class. She would affix a cheat note in the folds of her skirt and nonchalantly "flip" to the note as needed.

I recall that she was actually a pretty good student with a strong work ethic, and I'm pretty sure she never got caught cheating. I guess she just wanted the extra insurance. 

Kind of ironic, now I think about it. That was the exam that Cheater Guy was taking: 

licensure for casualty insurance. 

seize the moooment

I'm sitting here in long pants, long sleeves. We had us a cold front! 

Monday got to 100^o F and yesterday topped out in the high 60s. Magnum and I took advantage and went up to Helms Deep to do some trail bustin' in the great outdoors. We hadn't gone up there in about a month mainly because of the heat, wimps that we are.

The hill in the background took on a
fire in 2012,
so those are our burnt trees

It was a nice day and felt very productive and good to be out in the hills. I feel I'm getting better at the business of trail-building looking back on my sorry initial efforts.

We also checked our footage from the trail cam. Plenty of captures in the past month - mostly all dear deer.

Others in the area have reported bears, rattlesnakes, skunks, and a lone moose. We can personally vouch for the mouse population.

We didn't see any deer during yesterday's visit, but as we were leaving, we came upon this garden party going on at the neighbor's.

We'd heard the moos, but didn't spot any of the moocher cows while we slaved away on the trails, but there was a big old bunch of them just up the road. Too many to count.

This particular princess looked at us as if we were the intruders, inconveniencing her. She did reluctantly step aside just enough to let us through and leave her alone.

While there, I took a few pics of what is essentially our driveway. 

We're interested in getting some quotes on having it cleared out and smoothed out somewhat, as it's pretty weedy and rutty.

If only we could train the cows.

throwing hands

Official day 1 of "staycation". Fall semester begins in two weeks, so I'm currently coasting. I do still have a couple of shifts in the testing center and one day of scheduled tutor training, but that's it. 

Right now, I'm at the downtown library, which is one of my "artist date" places. The phrase was coined by Julia Cameron in her book [The Artist's Way] which I read several years ago. 

I'd checked her book out of the library where we lived at the time. I remember chatting with the librarian about it. She'd told me that the library held a series of workshop sessions built around the book, and a man tried to sue them because his wife asked for a divorce after completing the workshop - HA!

Personally, I got a few good takeaways from it, but overall, the book was nothing earth shattering. 

Anyway, I'd ridden my bicycle here, and as I was locking up, a mom and her two kids were unlocking, getting ready to leave. She has one of those "minivan" e-bikes that can hold cargo and kids. There was a girl of about 5 and a little boy about 3. 

The little boy, rather brusquely, asked his mom for something. 

Her: Can you ask it with manners?

Him: Pweeaase?

How to say no?

But speaking of instruction of children and saying "no", I've noticed an annoying (to me) trend.

Okay, first, how is a pen/pencil held? I hold mine as in this example....

Lately, I've been seeing this particular form:

And I'm struggling with that thumb placement.  I even tried to mimic that grasp and it's not working at all for me. My hand practically refuses to contort in such a way. 

These images were taken off of the tube-of-you thumbnails, and I have no idea who the perpetrators are. But I have seen a few such grips in real life, mostly young people - gen Zs and gen alphas.

What is our world coming to?

ring of power

Our power went out last night. I do what most people I imagine do when that happens. I immediately check to see if neighbor homes are without power as well, and usually that's the case. This time, however, the evidence confirmed it was just us. 

It was eerie because we had JUST finished watching [Bugonia]. Honestly, I'd just exited Netflix as the credits had been rolling. For those not familiar, Bugonia is a Sci-Fi, alien conspiracy story starring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. It kept me guessing until the end, and I found it brought up several thought-provoking themes. 

So I was deep in the throes of pondering, "what the heck did we just watch?" when *ZHUUUP* Power outage and total darkness and quiet.

We managed to locate our main breaker, which had been tripped, and get the juice flowing again. Logic says it tripped from larger than typical energy usage - likely our AC units - but maybe the aliens were just messing with us. 

We did discover bees or wasps starting to make a hive/nest in our breaker box, and it so happens that bees/beekeeping is a theme in Bugonia. Call me crazy... (or don't. That's okay)

We also watched [Apex] starring Charlize Theron. It was predictable, rather implausible, but entertaining enough. Met expectations, invoked no power outages.

We did a "heated" bicycle ride this morning. Apparently, exerting oneself in the heat has certain health benefits as long as it doesn't kill. We both survived, so I'll consider it a beneficial morning. Shady stretches were much welcomed, sun drenched stretches felt like riding over hot coals. Good balance.

Last weekend, I got a pneumonia vaccine. I noticed that the friendly pharmacist jabbed me nearly right on top of my smallpox vaccine scar. Those of us who own one of those are becoming fewer and farther between. 

Enhanced mine for clarity in the photo. Got one?

It's like having a special license plate that says "vintage" or "classic".

Right??

not grey gardens

This week, the summer semester comes to a screeching halt. All that densely packed material thrown into final exams, and then nothing for a couple of weeks until Fall semester begins. I'm thinking up a few small projects I can do with the downtime from tutoring.

One project I take no credit for is "our" bountiful garden. That was Magnum's thing - building the raised bed and framework to keep the greedy bunnies out, filling the soil, planting and nurturing... 

No lettuce parasites in our burritos!

It's been too much to eat to keep up with, really. Plants will likely keep thriving long after the humans are gone unless we nuke the whole planet.

Speaking of nukes, like many households, we have a microwave oven. I rarely use it, and really only for heating oatmeal or coffee that's gone cold. Magnum often uses it to cook, which kinda grosses me out. He doesn't use it to cook meat, at least (although there was that one chicken tenders incident), but anything else is fair game. 

When the kids were at home, it was useful, but now, I can most definitely live without it. But we keep it around for his sake. At least it sits in a corner under a cabinet, in a space that would be pretty useless as a surface anyway. And once the zucchini and summer squash is ready for harvest, I will confiscate them and bar them from said microwave! 

Speaking of kids at home, I find I get nostalgic this time of year with the back-to-school fervor. The school supply lists, the clothes and shoes shopping. Weird, the things we miss.

But I don't miss being responsible for dinner. Every. Single. Day.

a Friday five

 Another week gone, summer is winding down. I worked in the testing center this morning. The campus is still pretty quiet, but people are trickling in - getting advising, registering for fall, taking placement tests...

• Like many colleges, our enrollment is down because of 1) the "enrollment cliff" - predicted to kick in this year since not many babies were born in the U.S. in 2008. Those few who were born and made it through high school are the age to go to college. But 2) who can afford it/ go into all that student debt? Plus, 3)what to major in since AI is taking away many job opportunities?

And college isn't for everyone. But, our lights are still on.

• In other news, I'm happy to report that the missing kitty from next door seems to have returned. I spotted her yesterday running toward her house when a rainstorm moved in. I notice the neighbors took down the "MISSING" flyers, but don't know where she was during her 2-week adventure or how she reappeared. I honestly didn't expect her to return.

• One of the people I checked in at work today was testing to get her teaching license in "Family and Consumer Sciences".

"Is that what used to be 'home ec'? I asked

"Yes!", she enthusiastically replied. 

She went on to say that there's been recent increased interest among students - kids wanting to learn about nutrition, budgeting, etc. and turning away from getting everything off the internet and social media.

She felt optimistic about her job prospects. I remember taking home ec in jr. high. It was all girls. I wonder if that's changed. She told me she already has a teaching credential for art, but wants to expand her skill set in lieu of budget cuts. 

• Speaking of which, these doodles have nothing to do with anything. I dusted off the sketchbook and pens for doodling during evening TV time like when I was a kid. Just cartoony hooligan stuff.

• Lastly, this morning, I noticed some tidying up had been done at work this week. While preparing for the morning's appointments, I noticed an updated labeling scheme in one of the file drawers.

We do a lot of testing of water professionals. We provide them with reference materials based on whether they are testing for "water treatment" or "water distribution". The materials look very similar, but contain slight differences. 

We used to leaf through a pile and select the appropriate materials. So this morning, I noticed they've been separated into individual folders - "Poo", "Not Poo"

We're nothing if not up on the latest technical jargon.

gifted

I'd not thought of myself as one of those people who carries an umbrella to block the sun. But yesterday, there I was, undercover. The temperature was hovering around 100^o .

I was thankful to have that umbrella as the full onslaught of sun was bearing down as I waited for the bus to go to work. My pick up stop has a bench, and nothing more. 

The all-black backpack is no help to beat the heat. 

But, we're surviving, and I don't mean to complain. In fact, this is meant to be an appreciation post, starting with my appreciation for that umbrella and the ease of taking the bus on my short work commute on inclement weather days.

We got some welcome rain overnight, which didn't cool things down much, but we always need the moisture. I had a lovely jog around the neighborhood this morning, appreciative of the overcast skies.

I came across these two friends, living the good life.

The summer semester is wrapping up. POOF, ten weeks of frenzied activity. Tensions are a bit high among the tutees, working hard to keep their heads above water for about one more week. 

One such tutee end-of-semester-gift-ed me a [lovely Japanese mechanical pencil]. What a nice and unexpected surprise.

Now, I realize some may think a mechanical pencil is a strange gift, but I can attest to the fact that it is a wonderfully fitting item for a math tutor.

Well done, Tutee!

I've learned that this particular pencil is a fave among mechanical pencil aficionados. 

I've happily added it to my pencil case as part of my everyday carry in the aforementioned backpack.

The fuzzy thing in the background of the pencil pic is our cat - Napolion The Skinny. Can you see his butt bones?

I have begun giving him a daily can of kitten food, which he loves. It also makes him the envy of all other pets in the house. 

the missing, the heat, the free

Welp, we've got a missing cat. Not us personally, but neighbor cat as gone AWOL. Bummer since she's just the sweetest little thing. She's lived next door to us for a couple of years, hangs out in the neighborhood, but she's been missing since last weekend.

The neighbors posted flyers, have her on Nxtdoor and Fycbuck, etc. Judging by all the bunnies we have romping willy nilly around the neighborhood, I doubt that a predator got her. 

She is quite friendly, which makes me wonder if someone just up and took her? She's an outdoor cat, but typically hangs around our street, so the disappearance is strange. 

Seen her?

As far as our cat, Napolion, he's a 15-year-old curmudgeon. He's gotten very skinny, but seems fine otherwise. He's never been a fatty anyway, but I can feel his pelvis, his shoulder blades, etc. through the fur. He seems to eat okay, can jump up on things, still gets the midnight zoomies. I started giving him a daily dollop of liverwurst several weeks ago, which he greatly looks forward to. I'm thinking I'll start feeding him wet kitten food, as I've heard the calorie dense stuff is good for underweight senior cats.

Okay, enough crazy cat lady stuff. This week has been HOT hot. I refuse to bicycle commute to work even though it's a short ride. A flat, 15 minute ride in the afternoon leaves me sweaty and disheveled. Not ideal for one-on-one tutoring. Instead, I hop on the blissfully air conditioned bus, which picks up right near our street and dumps me right at the college. 

Our buses are "free", or rather, prepaid by taxpayers, of which I am one. Might as well use the amenities.

Speaking of freebies. I was at the college library yesterday. It doubles as a public branch library. While I was in there soaking up the AC, I noticed there's a "plant library". Bring one home, take care of it, propagate it if desired, donate.

There are outdoor plants

And indoor plants

Nice idea. I'm sure other libraries do this, but this is the first I've seen here. I don't dare bring anything home lest I kill it.

ghost bike, pensive pets, alcohol fail

I was thinking I might go for a quick bicycle jaunt to the library, but it's sunny and 97 degrees, so i said "nah". I realize 97 doesn't sound so bad to many, but here, it's a whine worthy temperature. I opted to stay here in my dark house, measuring 77 degrees. No need to turn on the AC just yet.

We did get out for a coffee walk earlier, so I haven't been totally holed up like a cavewoman. 

SOURCE

• Speaking of bicycle jaunts, [a woman bicyclist was killed] last week in a local traffic mishap. I've been following the story as it happened at an intersection undergoing a construction project. I had biked through the area about an hour before the tragic accident.

So far, from everything I've heard about it, the woman did everything right. She dismounted her bicycle, she was led through the intersection by one of the construction workers. Still, she was hit by one of the trucks involved in the project. So strange.

There's an ongoing investigation. Bottom line, she's gone.

• I happened to be in that area because I was feeding Wolfgang's cat again last week. Wolfgang and Meego traveled to California to visit my in-laws. Chaco was there too as he had come out for a little over two weeks and had a preplanned trip to visit his CA friends.

Ella on a walk,
prior to the dreaded BOOMs

Meanwhile, we were the pet sitters. Chaco's dog, Ella, stayed with us. She does NOT like fireworks.

Fireworks are illegal here, especially in lieu of half the state currently being on fire. But that never stops the criminals.

So it was nice to spend some time with Chaco. A lot of his time was spent working at his local office and visiting friends, but we got quality time in as well.

• The five of us did make it up to Helms Deep - our property in the hills. Helms Deep is what we call it, so that's it's real name as well as it's blog name, so be it.

It was nice having the extra muscle to do some trail bustin'. We haven't been up since because... well... whining about the heat again.

• Lastly, Magnum and I have proven, once again, that we are failures at alcoholism. We had somehow amassed a collection of undrunk beers - bottles and cans. We just don't drink the stuff at home. Some of it was leftover from potlucks that ended up at our house. Others, we'd bought thinking we'd drink it. Pffft.

I pondered if there was a way to donate it, but food pantries don't accept alcoholic beverages. I mentioned it at work yesterday, wondering if maybe the college food pantry would take it. But we're pretty sure they wouldn't. Then Party Girl mentioned her drinking running group had an upcoming camping trip and would gladly take the cans. Problem solved!

We also had a few bottles of Modelo in stash. I checked the expiry date - November of freaking 2024?!

Down the hatch drain.

That's the end of the two years beers.

 

the bithentennial

My fellow Americans, hope you all had an enjoyable 4th of July however you celebrate. 250 years young.

I, for one, am old enough to have been around and remember the bicentennial in 1976. My main memory of that celebration was that, at school, we took a special class picture in the spring. We were told to dress in red, white, and blue.

JUST prior to that photo shoot, I had broken my two front teeth in a glorious skateboarding incident. I put on a fave red, white, and blue button-down shirt and took up my place in the far right of the front row. Several of my classmates - part jokingly, but not really - gave me pointers on how to "smile" for the photo. Basically, they said not to.

I recall my two front teeth being a jagged mess. I didn't know what to do with my face for photos. In fact, other than the x-rays at the dentist, I doubt any other photos of me were taken during my "toothless era" .

It wasn't until I was seated among my classmates, facing the photographer, that I realized I should've come up with a face strategy rather than put all my efforts into what to wear. 

Then *FLASH*, the deed was done. 

The result was not awful, I suppose. My fellow middle-schoolers and I, in our red, white, and blue, flanked by American flags, holding a "1776 ~ 1976"  banner. There I was on the end of the first row, my face slightly turned, giving a side-eye, mouth slightly opened in a confused not-really-a-smile. 

I no longer have that photo, but I can picture it in my brain. In hindsight, my look was much like this now-famous meme kid, except brunette with worse teeth.

Now, here we are, 50 years later. If any kid found themselves in a similar circumstance this year, how lucky are they?? The look is all the rage.

My timing was off by just 50 years.

Moo. Who knew?

This week, was [the story] of two young daredevil "influencers" who climbed to the tippy top of the Empire State building, unfurled a banner, got engaged, etc. They were arrested afterwards.

I found their instagram profiles. Apparently, this is just what they do. In this case, it brought felony charges. An engagement to remember. 

Now, had they been cows...

These 50 acres we recently purchased? It's in some foothills above town, surrounded by other similar parcels. Some neighbors live up there year 'round. Our spot has a decent shed, but really, no other structures. Purely recreational. 

On our initial visits, we had a curious discovery: cow pies. Not lots of them, but a few such adornments that left us scratching our heads. 

This week, the online chat helped clear up that little mystery.

So, we learned that livestock owners can just let their cattle roam and graze wherever they please except for state land. Private land is open for all-you-can-eat buffet. It's up to the property owners to keep them out. This herd comes up from the valley below. The discussion thread included different fencing strategies, where to get materials, etc.

We have no fences, and I like it that way. It's not like we have a garden or anything I'm worried about being eaten - now that I know we don't have a marijuana stash as far as I've discovered. Go for it, cows. Still, that's quite a lot of cows.

In similar boonie news, there are many reports of this ursine family, romping and playing. We have yet to see them. So far, we've just seen deer.

We did mount a trail cam, so we'll see if anything fun/cute/ scary/ paranormal... shows up on video.

Mom and two cubs. I wonder what they think of the cows.




Today begins a long weekend for the 4th of July, which always feels to me like the "start of the end" of summer. 

The summer session at the college is past its halfway point already. So much material crammed into 10 weeks. 

Three of my current tutees are enrolled in the course which has the esteemed rank of "Most Failed And Retaken" among all courses in the catalog. At this point, I'm thinking two of the tutees are going to help the course retain its title, but the third one might actually pull through. 

But speaking of sightings, one of the potential fail-and-retakers does have an observant eye and appreciation for aesthetics. As we were packing up yesterday, he told me he liked my chrome calculator keys. This was after I had already stashed my calculator away. 

I never really noticed, so afterward, I took out said calculator - just a handy go-to that fits easily in my backpack. They cost ~$25

No doubt, some industrial designer said those right side keys should be shiny. Difficult to see in this photo, but they are in fact, chrome plated plastic - a finishing touch that adds nothing to functionality. 

It was my first ever calculator key compliment. I'll take what I can get.

treehugger, not pot, EMS, one thing

"Dirty almond milk treehugger", the woman said to the other woman. 

No, they weren't arguing, and no, this wasn't said to possibly insult an environmentalist. Magnum and I went on a coffee bike ride this morning, and this was another customer's order to the barista. Neither of us had any idea what she'd ordered as we sat sipping our medium roast drips. Such boomers.

But speaking of tree hugging, we were up on our land yesterday. Huggable trees are pretty sparse, as I've mentioned the place is still recovering from a 2012 wildfire. Our kids were all with us to help dig out some trails. 

While I hiked around, continuing to get my bearings of the place, I came upon this bit of greenery

my foot for scale

I thought it looked almost like cannabis, but not quite. I'm no expert, though, so I googled. Nope, it's not weed, but a weed: common cinquefoil. I read that its leaves can be used in salads or as a common pot herb, so that's the only relation to "pot".

As we headed out, we had to pull over to let a fire truck and ambulance go by. Some medical emergency for one of our neighbors. As it's out in the boonies, it's good to know the EMS people can make it up there, but I hope the person is all right. No word of it from the online group. The only new discussions have to do with cute bears roaming around and tactics for getting rid of mice.

It was a good productive time, but we didn't stay too long as it was quite hot out, plus people had places to go. I'm coming off some lower back crap, so I purposely didn't do much of the heavy work. I played supervisor and did some lightweight stuff when I wasn't traipsing around looking at possible marijuana.

One day last week at the college, I was in the student center and stopped to read a few of the "insPAWrations" students tacked up at the end of spring semester.

Many seemed a bit trite, and I suspect they were possibly put up there by administrators to get the ball rolling. But in my brief perusal, I picked a favorite:

Hmm, what is my one thing? What's yours?

I'll leave it here and wish everyone a Whole Assing week ahead. 

dinner and a show

The fire engine pulled in slowly, parking next to my vehicle. I sat a few feet away with my new friend, Jerry. We watched as three young, burly men, oozing testosterone, stepped from the cab. 

"Is that your husband?", Jerry asked, indicating the driver and largest of the trio.

"PFFFT, I wish!", I replied, giving Jerry an elbow as he gave me a big toothless smile. But really, I probably couldn't handle that much husband.

"Husband" and another approached us while the third guy took up his position directing traffic. They began talking with Jerry while I hung back like Casper the friendly (and invisible) ghost. Feeling like the 5th wheel, I decided it was time to go.

This went down yesterday around 6:30pm. Chaco's in town, and the gang was all at our house for Thai takeout. I was returning home with the goods. As I approached a main intersection near our house, I saw a heap of something in the road. It soon became clear that it was a bicycle and a person. Someone was helping the person up, and another ran over to move the bicycle from the road.

Aha, another bicycle accident I'd just missed witnessing. I pulled over to put in my two cents if needed.

"Has anyone called paramedics?" I asked the other two assisters. The one helping Jerry to the curb wagged their head, no.

So there I was, making a 9-1-1 call as my Pad Thai, Curry, Se Ew, etc. sat simmering in the front seat of the car. 

The dispatcher asked me a series of questions other than "what's happening", "where are you"... Was he breathing, what's his age, was he conscious... He was conscious, breathing, talking. I guessed his age to be about 70, then I realized I could just ask him.

"I'm 80", he said with a mouth of few teeth.

The dispatcher asked me to stay with him until paramedics arrived, help flag them down if necessary. She had me describe my car, which I suppose is why they parked the fire engine next to it. 

As we waited, I gave Jerry a certified untrained bystander assessment. He didn't seem too beat up. He had some bruises and scratches, but they were not fresh. Plus, there was the teeth situation. No new injuries I could see. 

I asked him if anything hurt, and he said, "Naw, I'm fine. Really."

He struck me as a tough old guy. I noticed he wore a "Vietnam War Veteran" hat. He had been wearing a bike helmet, which lay on the road beside us. His bike was an e-bike with a few items bungeed to it. While I'd been talking with the 911 dispatcher, I overheard him make a call to "Mama", saying he was going to be "a little late for them steaks".

I'm still not sure what happened. I think someone may have cut him off, causing him to crash in reaction, but didn't crash into him. If so, whoever they were didn't stay on scene. One of the earlier helpers told me he'd hit his head pretty hard. Good thing for that helmet.

Later, I checked the dispatch log and saw that the incident was closed after 22 minutes. I'm pretty certain Jerry declined an ambulance. As we'd sat there waiting, I told him he looked really good for 80, which seemed to please him. To myself, I noted, not good in an aged-like-fine-wine kinda way, but more of a he-can-handle-a-smackdown kinda way.

Nice meeting you, Jerry. I hope you got to enjoy them steaks.

book burn

"Although having a girlfriend or wife didn't exempt some of the men from being assholes, they were usually more comfortable with me"

That's a quote from a book I'm currently reading. [Hotshot: A life on Fire]. It's a memoir written by a woman who'd worked several seasons as a wildland firefighter. (Note: they currently identify as nonbinary, but during the firefighting days, "they" was "she").

I'd originally picked up the book for tips on building trails and managing the surroundings at our boonie property, but it's interesting learning her experiences in such a physically grueling, male-dominated job. I purposely chose a book written by a female author for those latter reasons. 

It's also interesting to me since we live in a state that gets its share of wildfires. In fact, our new property is in recovery mode from a 2012 fire. The book isn't just memoir, it gets into ecology and pros and cons of wildfires. I'm learning stuff.

It also marks my 26th book of the year. Recall I'd set a goal to read 26 books in 2026, and I'm ahead of the pace. Here are the books I've completed since my last update in April. Recognize any?

 

Goodreads profile pic

I will note that none of these scream "Favorite book of the year!" for me. They were all fiction except for "Eager" and "Cheap Land Colorado.

For the most part, I liked all of them well enough or I wouldn't have finished them. But they're quite a mix. "Bunny" is super weird, for lack of a better term. The two books by Emily Austin deal with pretty flawed main characters and read like a series of random journal entries. Some readers don't like that, but heck, I read blogs, so that works okay for me.

Whacha readin'?

sticks and stones

I was supposed to have a remote tutoring sesh a little while ago, but my student no-showed me. I texted her at 5 minutes after and got the old "Oops, forgot to tell you I have a doctor's appointment..." 

Speaking of lies, that excuse is about as worn out as the homework eating dogs. Welp, two strikes and she's out as per the general rules. I've got another student scheduled for this afternoon, so the day's not a total bust... so far.

Yesterday, Magnum and I found ourselves with some extra free time, so we headed up to our place in the clouds to do a little trail bustin'. 

It was a beautiful day for it, and we broke out our shiny new trail building tools, one of which is called a Mcleod. We'd bought it a few weeks ago, and it was brought out to us all shrouded up. We undressed it, and I was a bit surprised to see that it's yellow. The catalog showed it as "dark metal" colored.

I'm not disappointed, I saw it and immediately thought of Big Bird, mainly Big Bird's feet. 

That's it parked next to my rough draft of trail. "Trail" seems too impressive for what I've created so far. "Path" is maybe more fitting.

I tried spotting places where the deer have already formed trails and following their lead. Hopefully they'll continue to travel that path, thus helping to maintain it.

So it was just nice to be out there in the quiet and fresh air. A turkey vulture circled overhead, likely waiting for one or both of us to keel over.

Meanwhile, we're getting used to the idea of owning this land. There are actually several other landowners surrounding the area. We met our closest neighbors on our last trip, and we've since gotten access to the discord group, which seems friendly and welcoming. I'm sure we can use their advice on all relatable things.

As I was toiling along, I thought, "wouldn't it be fun if I dug up something of value?

Nevermind, that sort of thing doesn't happen to me.

But who knows, as we get to know more of these "mountain people", maybe they've got some cool cult we can join.

Okay, never mind. I may have gotten too much sun.

no filter

"Is that why you like True Crime? Because you're happy you're not the victim?"

"Yeah", I say, "but it's also because I'm happy I'm not the perpetrator".

In the latest novel I'm reading, the main character likes to listen to true crime podcasts in her spare time. I also like me a good dive into certain true crime stories, and I know I'm not alone (otherwise, I'd be a little paranoid about the interest). It's my understanding that many, women in particular, are into the genre. 

The character in my book is mainly into serial killers, which don't hold much fascination for me. What I sometimes get caught up in are the people who appear to be "normal" - or exceedingly above normal - who turn out to have a whole 'nother thing going on beneath the surface.

Ruby Franke, Chris Watts, Kouri Richins, and Elizabeth Holmes are of the criminals whose stories I dove into a bit further than the surface. 

I think what I find so interesting is their ability to lie and keep on lying, creating huge snowballs of lies that eventually crash into them. Do they think the stories will just "go away"? I get stressed out just hearing about their actions. Heck, I get stressed out when I see a friend on social media who has used an obvious filter for their profile pic. I mean, aren't they worried about people running into them in real life and wondering what happened?? 

This morning, we met with Wolfgang and Meego for breakfast. We do this about once a month. As was typical, there was a waiting list for seating. I didn't want to get on the list until we were all there, and Wolfgang was running late. He let us know he was on the way, and the restaurant host told me there was about a 20-min wait. 

So I went ahead and gave my name, table for 4, and painfully stated, "yes", when asked if all 4 of us were there since I was 90% sure Wolfgang would arrive within 20 minutes.

Damn if that host didn't text me TWO minutes later that our table was ready! So the three of us checked in. I had to confirm 4 people. 

"Yes, he's in the parking lot...", omg, what is happening to me?

Wolfgang did arrive a few minutes later, before I was completely overcome with guilt. But still, the ordeal was enough to swear me off the lying. Enough criminal activity for me.