chirping, freecycling, personhood

It's nearly mid-October. The fall semester is halfway gone. Time really does go by faster as we get older. A little wrap up of last week feels in order: 

• That tutee who crashed his bicycle on the way to tutoring a couple of weeks ago? He's fine. He did go to the ER and was diagnosed with a mild concussion. It's not his first, and he knows he needs to be careful.

Bet five bucks he still rides to school without a helmet.

• On the learn-something-new-every-day front, I learned that [mountain lions chirp] - sounding much like random bird calls. Who knew? 

Now, when we're up at Helms Deep, I might feel less Snow Whitey about the friendly "birds" chirping

• I offloaded all of those spare bicycle tubes we no longer have bicycle tires for. I advertised them on a local No-Buy group on face's book, and a woman pounced on them. I left them out for a porch pickup, and the woman pulled up in a vehicle with a 4-bike bike rack. 

Looks like they went to a good home. Saved me a trip to the bike co-op.

• Our 30-days of AI Ring descriptions expired. I'm no longer described as a child. Back to being a person.

• On Saturday, we got together with Meego and Wolfgang for our monthly-or-so breakfast catch up. Always a good time. Went for a bike ride, and I got a flu shot. The day was complete.

 

seasonal

• A few weeks ago, I was at the college and came across Boss and a colleague talking in the hallway. It was from them that I learned that Dolly Parton had died.

Not gonna lie, when they saw me and said, "we were just talking about Dolly. Yeah, she died", my first thought was Dolly the cloned sheep. And I thought to myself *she was still alive??*. Coincidentally, I've learned that she, the sheep, was actually named after Dolly Parton because her DNA came from a mammary gland. There you go.

Anyway, the conversation then turned to an opening the colleague had in her department. K is an assistant director in recruiting and advising. She had an opening, which I actually already knew about because Sarge told me he was applying for it.

From this short conversation, I got the vibe that K was wanting me to apply. I do like K, and it would be nice to have her as a boss, but I'm just not interested in a full-time position at this "season of my life". Plus, I know Sarge is really hoping he gets the role.

The job description is nearly exactly that of one I applied for about 10 years ago at the university when we lived in Colorado Springs. At that time, it was very appealing. Needless to say, I didn't get that job. And now we're here, and I appreciate the part-time "season"

• I've been doing some decluttering in little bits the past few weeks. Despite my ongoing efforts, I seem to always manage to come across something that has me saying, "why do we have this??" 

Going through the stash of bicycle tubes, I found eight... count 'em, 8... that don't fit any bicycles in our possession. These things happen when you sell/offload 4 bicycles in the span of a couple of months. 

This, to say I have a new bicycle. I'd been researching for a few months and had been riding the hand-me-up from Meego for nearly a year. The hand-me-up's been good, but it's starting to feel its age.

So I indulged, purchased from a nice local bike shop. 

She is a joy. I've named her Honey.

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.