going primal

Greetings on this Memorial Day.

We went out to our newly acquired property yesterday afternoon. Magnum has been referring to it as "the property", which I find Bo-Ring. 

Here, I will refer to it as Middle Earth, for now.

This was our first visit since closing. We'd only been out the one time to look at it. I'd say I like it even more now than that first visit. No buyer's remorse as of yet. 

Meego and Wolfgang were along to help decide prospective trail routes, etc.

We located a small babbling brook, thanks to some recent rains. 

This dear deer hung out with us pretty much the whole time. It was there when we arrived, and seemed to be watching us as if to say, 

"Hello. Welcome. So... when're you leaving?"

As we were leaving, we also met our "next door" neighbors - a nice young couple. They have a house and some outbuildings and lots of equipment. I believe they live up there year round. 

They told us a little about the area and other residents - including the wildlife. 

They mentioned bobcats and the mountain lions that like to hunt the deer. I believe I'd found evidence of such while traipsing about.

As for us, we plan to keep it relatively wild. There's no electricity nor water source and just a small shed. 

Wilma Flintstone was more civilized.

peopling

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

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. 

 

things change

I was feeling the need for a change and rearranged my little sanctum that I share with the cat.

This room was a cold, dank, unfinished portion of our garden level basement when we first looked at this house. Between that time and the time we moved in - as it was then a rental - the previous owners DIYed a quick little space.

It became my and Napolion's space, although he'd probably say it's his space that he lets me use sometimes. It is the one area of the house off limits to the dogs because of the variety of "snacks" (it is both the cat's dining room and bathroom).

It's cozy and comfy and mine. I rearranged, hoping to make it feel more spacious. It feels like it worked. 

This table, though. It's old, and like a human, it's got a few sags, dimples, and  unexplained blotches.

I've started looking for a replacement - something between kid's desk and professional's work surface. I'm finding a lot of both ends of the spectrum, not so much in the middle. 

The cat was keen to inspect, and seems satisfied enough with the change of digs.

He seems to have little concern about the crappy table.

Today was beautiful weather-wise. A gift after a cold, cloudy, damp several days that I was not quite yet acclimated for. I thought, "what a nice day for cleaning up the yard", and then thought I must be getting old to have that come to mind so quickly. 

Well, if the shoe fits...

for reals

I came across this little (literally) guy this morning while out on another morning meandering.  

He seems appropriate for the Friday mood.

He is one detail in this larger... erm... yard ornament decoration thing?

It sits on a corner house, and I'd seen it before while bicycling by, but never looked at it closely before this morning.

There is a whole mess of little characters and crevices to discover.  The painted mailbox says, "Fairy and Leprechaun mail only". The main structure is part of a tree that is bolted down to a tree stump. Looks to me like the bolted down portion is part of the original tree. 

Either way, I enjoyed the morning look-like-a-runner outing as it's raining now. We're predicted to have lots of rain all day today - a rarity here. Remnants of hurricane Hilary, perhaps?

My work schedule changed slightly this week, and I'm liking the new schedule well enough. We're in the process of hiring a new boss since Boss boss was promoted to yet another layer of admin. Current Assistant Boss is in the running, but not necessarily a shoe-in, and hopefully we'll have an answer within a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I played around some more with my little WacomⓇ tablet. I am a legit preschooler when it comes to creating digital art. Clearly in the only-can-do-cartoony-things phase.

I call this depiction "me walking the dogs while imagining me walking the dogs"

Based on a true story.

inertia

I gained a newfound respect for Boss this week.

I may have mentioned here that the college is undergoing an organizational restructuring. I KNOW I've mentioned here that my boss can be annoying at times.

The college is comprised of three separate campuses plus online programs. The re-org has to do with making departments consistent across all campuses. Each campus has a testing center, and Boss was promoted to Director of Testing for all campuses - a new position created as part of of the re-org. He is currently the director of our local campus center, a.k.a. my boss.

As far as I'm concerned, he's the right choice for the position. And, as I've mentioned here already, those of us who work for him have been anxiously awaiting his departure from our workspace. The dude just talks so much about his special interests, and we have no idea the source of his show-and-tell personality. 

It's exhausting.

Bottom line, however, he does know his *stuff* when it comes to efficiently and effectively running a testing center. Our center hums along nicely, the other two... not so much.

So he interviewed for and was awarded the new position back in December. At that time, he was told he'd be in place likely around the beginning of March... then maybe more like mid-May? Or maybe after the start of summer semester??

This week, he reached a breaking point. Leadership - a.k.a "The Council" - is still being non-committal on Boss's official start date, but had the cluelessness to ask that he start on some Director-Of-Testing action items. 

On a side note, whenever I hear our leadership addressed as "The Council", I think of this sculpture of that name I remember from the Rochester, NY airport

Seems similar, different people staring off in different directions, no arms, no work being done...

And with that, Boss had the appropriate response. 

"Those programs are in good shape at the fort collins center. I'm manager of the fort collins center, not responsible for the other centers, so I'm caught up". Then, he left the meeting.

Wednesday, he came into work, went to talk with HR, then left for two "personal days". A little dark cloud hovering just above his head.

We underlings are cheering him on from sidelines. "You tell 'em, Boss!"

And this time, it's not because we're anxious to be rid of him. It's because, doofus that he sometimes can be, he deserves more respect than he's getting.

From my personal point of view, I'm not stressed out about the changes. They mainly effect the levels above me both in testing and in tutoring, but I don't see my day-to-day changing a whole lot. Meanwhile, there is much grumblings from both faculty and non-faculty about The Council.

This is somewhat new to me, not having worked much in public education. In my experience in private industry, someone gets a promotion, the org chart is already in place, and the promotion happens immediately. 

It's the annoyance of not-knowing. 

So I'm looking forward to someday knowing? But I won't hold my breath.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

5. Write about something you are looking forward to.

what's the point?

Last Monday, I was happily pedaling to work, thinking about nothing in particular, when the thought came to me: "stop the beers".  

I'm not a big drinker by any means. Remember when my kids were afraid I'd get trashed after one shot? That was a bit extreme, but they weren't totally wrong. I haven't been truly drunk in a long long time.

However, somewhere along the last couple years, Magnum and I started drinking a beer each night at dinnertime. I say "a" beer as in one beer between the two of us - so around 6 oz. apiece. I don't remember why or when the habit started, it just did. 

It really has no noticeable effect on me, so I decided just not to do it anymore. That voice in my head.

Later, I consulted this little productivity image I saved in Pinterest a while back (then never looked at again, like a lot of things I save in Pinterest...). 

I noticed the 20th thing, corresponding with Monday's date, was to eliminate a habit. 

Aha, further prompting!

So I stopped the beers. Magnum did too, his choice. 

Now I'm looking to other things from the list I can easily do.

I kind of did a #22 with a new tutor student who talked the coordinator at the college into tutoring even though the semester is two thirds finished.

I agreed to squeeze her into my calendar. I won't go into detail, but she semi showed up for our first scheduled zoom, not at all prepared for a tutoring session. 

She asked if we could reschedule, and it was such a surprising request after she'd seemed so needy, I said "uh... okay?" and agreed to meet at an even more inconvenient-to-me time.

But then I slept on it, and decided "wait a minute, no!", after I'd set aside a time that she'd agreed to, then she decided to nope out and try a last minute change. So...

22. "stop doing" - going out of my way to over-accommodate grown ass adults.

a revelation from the trash

I went into work for my afternoon shift a couple days ago. As I was getting myself up to snuff on expectations for the rest of the workday, Assistant Boss asks the others, "Shall we tell Abby about our eventful morning?"

So of course they had to tell me at that point because I wasn't about to let it go, let it go...

Phi began telling the story: a young tester came in for a long test - allotted time of 7.5 hours. I'll mention that they have the option to do this test in chunks (ominous word choice), spread out over several visits. But for whatever reason, they scheduled the whole kit 'n' kaboodle for one crazy long session.

It's not clear if it was nerves, something the tester ingested beforehand, a bug, or some combination thereof, but bottom line was that they emerged from the testing room about an hour into it, stating they weren't feeling very well. See where this is going?

They took some calming breaths, felt better, went back to the beast...

...only to emerge a bit later and barf in one of our trash cans. Thankfully, it all went in the trash can.

And I was all, "Eeewww!", thankful to have missed it.

There've been times where the potential was certainly there while I was present. Test anxiety is a real thing, and people react differently, some on the verge of losing it. 

I also recall a woman who forewarned me she was pregnant and might need an abrupt break at some point, but she made it through okay. Another was an early Saturday morning guy who came in reeking of alcohol. I could swear he partied all night and came in to test without much of an interlude. He also, somewhat surprisingly, managed to complete his test without incident.

So they told me this story, of one of the guys heroically taking care of the mess, the incident report that was filed on the tester's behalf, etc. And I'm again thinking how I was glad to have missed it.

And then I realized...

Prior to this job, started only about a year and a half ago, I'd been working at the nursing home. Such a thing and related messes were an every day occurrence. It was just part of the job. 

I was not a nurse or a CNA. Those people deal constantly with body fluids of all kinds and sources. But short staffing is a real thing in skilled nursing facilities, so it was typically all-hands-on-deck, regardless of job title.

And I didn't mind. Not a bit. In fact, I often miss the physicality of that job. It was satisfying to leave work at the end of the day, feeling quite tired and gross, but knowing I helped someone feel less gross. 

The reason I was looking elsewhere and took my current job was for slightly better pay and a better schedule, not to avoid the gross.

But still, it is not in the job description. Let's leave it that way.

big minions, teeny hulks, and a chicken in every pot

We had our best Halloween yet since moving here. Our first was Halloween 2020, which was a bust for reasons we shall not speak. Last year was cold and wet and brought two or three groups of diehard trick-or-treaters. 

This year was a pleasant evening. I lost count of the moochers, and we nearly ran out of candy. I mainly recall two very large Minions and a teeny tiny Hulk.

Speaking of junk and food, two or three weeks ago, I decided to put a concentrated effort into eating more protein. I'd read on another blog that people need more protein as they age, so I ran with that since all blogs are pure fact. I did eventually google a bit and learn:

"Protein tissue accounts for 30% of whole-body protein turnover but that rate declines to 20% or less by age 70. The result of this phenomenon is that older adults require more protein/kilogram body weight than do younger adults" - SOURCE

Okay, I'm not 70, but I'm quite sure I'm on the other side of the peak.

But no food logs/ journals here or counting the macros - nothing quite so scientific. I just decided to up the protein - mainly in the form of eggs and chicken, maybe an occasional helping of pig (since I stopped eating cows years ago). This to supplement my usual sporadic dairy sources.

Now I'm sort of wishing I did geek out a bit and have some numbers to compare - some before and afters - because I am feeling different/ better.

Mainly, I feel I have more energy in general. Maybe a little faster on the morning slog/jogs, a little stronger on my gym game. I'm not ready to throw all my thanks on the chicken gods just yet however, because 

1. I decreased my caffeine intake at around the same time I upped the protein, so maybe I'm sleeping better?
2. We've had some recent overnight freezes that have adeptly been killing off the pesky allergens.
3. Perhaps the last vestiges of COVID crud I had last summer are finally leaving.
4. Or it's all just placebo affect.

When I worked in the dietary department at the nursing home, I scratched the surface of nutrition science. One of my coworkers was a (female) body builder attending grad school to become a registered dietician. 

Strange "sport", bodybuilding. Vee, the bodybuilder, would drink gobs of water everyday - maybe supplemented with something. Going in to a competition, she took in hardly any liquid and would become so dehydrated so as to maintain the "cut" look. It's not how you feel, it's how you look.

I'm about the feels.

I should go

I enjoyed an easy going run along a quiet pathway this morning after another busy week. Or I should say that this particular path is normally quiet, which was why I chose to go there. Lo and behold, not long after I hopped on the path, I was met with participants of a charitable 5k.

So I ran with that pack - them going both directions - for a mile or so before reaching their turnaround point. They seemed to be a happy crowd including some little kids and people dressed in superhero costumes. I will note that I passed Wonder Woman. 💪

I've since learned it was the 4th annual Be a Hero 5k, raising proceeds for victims of child sexual abuse. My running club was one of the sponsors, and clearly I haven't been paying attention to local charity runs. I'm glad they had a nice morning for it. Once they all turned around and I kept going on my merry way, I did enjoy the rather placid run I'd intended.

In other peacefulness news, I decided to remove Instagram from my phone. I would habitually open it only to be hit with a bunch of ads, stupid reels, and ultra filtered "influencers" with fake faces and fake lives. I used to enjoy seeing occasional updates from my handful of non-influential friends, but now there's so much crap to get through. Plus, I rarely upload anything myself.  I had an epiphany and uninstalled. I still have an account, but its days are probably numbered.

Blogging remains my social media of choice, and I've missed catching up with blog friends this week. With the start of classes and tutor onboarding, I've been hanging out mostly in my left brain. It's good to get out for a breather.

But speaking of content creators, this week I managed to stumble upon my grandfather's IMDb page. I don't even remember what led me there, but there he was.  My dad's dad was a silent film director way back in the day, hence the IMDb page. The page doesn't have much content, but enough to know it's him, and I did watch snippets of his movies. I never knew him personally as he died a couple years before I was born.  Nice work, Gramps!

As far as updates go, I've got the cat on some new healthier food, and we're weening off the remaining Friskies. Friskies are back on the store shelves, but I'm thankful for that particular supply chain shortage. 

The cat will thank me later.

can't hurry love

 

The internet's telling me that it's raining off and on in my location. The internet's wrong. 

Looks hot and sunny to me. Ask my weather watchers

Actually, I don't think these two give a hoot about the weather, they're just being nosey regarding the neighbors.  Karen patrol.

Somebody's gotta do it.

And actually, these pics aren't very current because currently we're housing Chaco's dog along with our menagerie.

Chaco's dog and our cat are not a good mix, so are kept separated. The cat is not pleased, but Ella the pooch seems all too enthusiastic about the substitution.


So yeah, as shown, exciting times around here.


Pooch Penny is absent from window patrol as she doesn't give a hoot about any of it.

This was actually quite a busy week for me in addition to the pet duties. At the college, we're gearing up for the start of the fall semester. Our newest coworker, Sangria, is pleasant to work with but a bit slow on getting up to line speed. My usual schedule has been shifted while training her, but starting this coming week, I'm happily going back to my previous, more preferred, schedule. Sangria's out of training camp whether she likes it or not.

I've got a couple of nice, personable high schoolers I've been tutoring over the summer. School starts for them next week, so that will create more schedule shifting for me.  In the meantime, word got out, teasingly, at the college that I'm a "weirdo who likes math". 

This lead to recruitment of me into the college supported tutoring department, so now I have two part-time college jobs, each in separate departments, for HR to deal with.  It's state funded, so pay remains skimpy, but I do enjoy it well enough.  It is nice to have two income streams from one location - trickling streams though they be.

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Linking up with Mama Kat for the prompt:

3. Write a blog post inspired by the word: slow

like you used to

My first swig of booze was from my parents' liquor cabinet. I was maybe... what... ten years old or so? Ten years old and curious about the booze thing.

Gawd, it was awful. People drank that stuff voluntarily? I don't remember what it was. Something dark. Bourbon maybe. Curiosity satisfied, I put that sh*t back in the cabinet and never touched it again.

Eventually, I made it to high school where drinking was a means to an end. Taste? What did that have to do with anything? We're only doing this to get blasted/ hammered/ smashed/ trashed/ etc., right?

I recall drinking horrible rum and cokes mixed by stupid teenagers (me and my friends) while in a gas station parking lot . One guy noted, "This tastes like Flintstone's Chewables". By George, he was right. Then there was Jungle Juice. Remember Jungle Juice?

Now, I was not a super partier by any means as a teen, but did my fair share of giving into the peer pressure for something to do. Ours was a small town, booze was easy to come by and made for lasting memories I suppose.  Bonding by hair-holding.  

Having drunk enough paint-thinner tasting concoctions by the time I was of legal age, I'd already pretty much lost interest.  Also, going in to work the morning after a night of drinking is surely made more difficult with age.

Playing some drinking game
with fellow poor friends during
the college years

I went to a university known for partying, but those were rich kid affairs - Sororities and Fraternities. I went to a Frat party or two, but never drank much at them. I mainly observed and wondered who was going to clean everything up. So much sticky.

Between classes and my part-time job, I really didn't have money or time for such things anyway.

I did very little to add to the party statistics of my school. 

Next thing I knew, I was an adult. Had a husband, mortgage, kids... 
I enjoy a nice glass of wine or beer or mixed drink on occasion in social situations. But I can't recall  the last time I would've fallen into the "drunk" category, let alone "blasted/ hammered/ smashed/ trashed".

To my kids, apparently, I am super clean and a major lightweight - or maybe "light flyweight" to use a boxing analogy.  I guess they have it in their minds that I never drink other than "maybe a halfa beer on a weekend".

I found this out at Meego's recent college graduation. He and his fellow grads/roommates hosted the potluck bash at their rental house. I sipped some champagne and a bit of beer.

Eventually, the shot ski came out, and Meego and I bellied up to join one of his roommates and roommates mom. 

L to R: Meego, Abby, Roommate, Roommate's mom

Omigosh, the cautionary advice that ensued from Chaco and Wolfgang! Which booze to allow in my shot glass, expectations, something I can handle, etc. It's like they imagined me stumbling about and peeing myself after one go at the shot ski. 

Anyways, the ONE shot I did was Deep Eddy Lemonade Vodka. I rather enjoyed it, and imagine it wouldn't have taken much more for me to become "blasted/ hammered/ smashed/ trashed". In truth, I am a lightweight, but not so squeaky clean.

I'd say it's probably a good thing I started my alcohol journey with that moonshine tasting crap we concocted in high school. 

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:
4. Write a blog post inspired by the word: clean

ditch day!

Back in August, 2018, I blogged about dropping Meego off  at college - 

thus, the start of the empty nest years.  It doesn't seem THAT long ago, does it?

I wrote about:

• how we were able to fit ourselves and all of Meego's worldly belongings (that he wanted to take with him, anyway) into our vehicle 
• the approximately 2-hour trek to the university.  
• meeting Meego's roommate and feeling they were a good match
  
  

I also posted this list that coincidentally showed up in my instagram feed and decided - oh goody - it would give me some things to do in my empty nest life.

Apparently, I promptly forgot about the list because it didn't ring a bell when I came across it after I looked up that old blog post.  Hmmm...

WELL, here we are, nearly 4 years later.  What has changed?  

• The university is about 3 miles away (we moved, they didn't)
• Meego lives in a rental house with 3 roomies and has acquired, I'm sure, lots more crap.
• That nice freshman roommate?  Turns out he was Lord of The Drug Den, but that's another story.
• Then there was this global pandemic...

We went to the university today as it was Engineering Days - to showcase undergraduate senior design projects.  It's also a nice way for prospective engineering students to visit and get a taste of college life for engineers.

The place was quite packed, and there were a lot of groups eagerly showcasing their hard work.  We managed to find Meego in the crowd with his Civil and Environmental Engineering group.  In short, their project had to do with modeling flow and controlling floods along "The Grand Ditch"

The team happily answered questions and provided details of what they did/designed.  A well-done project with a worthy  purpose, I say!

But really, they all seemed happily proud of their work.  And ready for graduation and beyond!

Really doesn't seem that long ago that I was one of those sleep-deprived undergrads, presenting our senior design project.

Just kidding.  THAT was a looooong time ago!

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Linking up with Mama Kat for the prompt:

4. Share a blog post you wrote years ago, what has changed?