pelican briefly

It's a beautiful morning here. Birds chirping, trees budding, sun shining... Can winter hibernation be over?

It felt like a productive enough week, and I think spirits, in generally, are lifted by our nice weather. Soon, it will be hot, and people will be at each others' throats again, so we'll enjoy this bit while we can.

I came across some visiting pelicans on a recent weekday morning

Up until about 25 years ago, I thought pelicans were strictly sea birds, hanging about the coasts. But one day when we lived in Utah, we were entertaining the in-laws - who at the time were avid birders - at a local bird refuge where we saw all kinds of bird friends, including *gasp* pelicans?

And I remember thinking, "What the frick are pelicans doing in Utah?". Well, migrating. Hello.

Since we've moved to Fort Collins, I can remember seeing pods of pelicans every spring - like an annual pelican convention. Lovely things.

Speaking of wildlife, Boss acquired a new-to-him cat. Recall that a few weeks ago, his beloved cat, Biscuit, went belly up from a stroke. Since then, Boss had been on the prowl for a suitable replacement. The yet-to-be-named newcomer is slowly getting used to his new life, which started out by biting Boss in the hand and henceforth being quarantined.

New Cat is recently released from cat jail, and Boss says he doesn't meow, doesn't purr, but eats like a champ. 

The rescue shelter didn't have a whole lot of information on "Little Dude Bob" (temporary emergent name), and it seems like he wasn't very well socialized to humans. 

Boss'll break him in, one hand at a time.

into the sticks

I'm having a coffee craving right now. Soon, we will walk somewhere to get some (hafta earn it). In the meantime, I wait for my hair to dry because I'm not one to put in such effort as blow drying my hair. Luckily, we live in a dry climate.

Speaking of dry climate, yesterday, Magnum and I went for a little hike in the morning - someplace we hadn't been. We did about a 4-mile loop at Bobcat Ridge. Nice to get out in the sticks. 

Much of the area was burned in a big wildfire of 2020 (as if there wasn't enough dumpster fire going on that year), and most of the "trees" were blackened husks.

Along the way was an old cabin - built in1917, so not THAT old - that we were welcome to go into and snoop.

This awful piece of furniture was labled "Birthing Chair". 

Omg, can you imagine?  I did, but wish I didn't.

Outside the cabin was an information plaque about the cabin's history. It featured a grainy black-and-white photo of a smiling woman and a baby girl who'd lived there at some point.

And all I could think of was that smiling woman plopping that wet cute baby out onto the dirt floor from the Birthing Chair.

Later this evening, I think we'll go to coworker Kitty's shotgun wedding reception. They were to have gone to the JOP yesterday for the actual nuptials, and today's plan is a pretty informal bash. 

Kitty is about 7-months along now. No birthing chairs in her registry.

to have something to do

Welp, it happened again. I've [mentioned before] about how I strangely come across pocket sharp things while out walking around. This was the collection, with household object for scale:

On Sunday, Magnum and I were walking down our street, minding our own business when, yet again, another sharp thing jumped out at me.

I guess they don't really jump, but my eyes are somehow drawn right to them.

People speak of finding pennies, golf balls, toys, etc. while out walking around. For whatever reason, I mainly find these pocket knives. 

Here's the latest to join the collection.

I certainly don't need any more. In fact, I think I've donated most of them since, surprisingly, they've all been in good condition.

This one is sort of an outlier because of it's red plastic housing. I figured out that the notch in the blade is a bottle opener. It doesn't seem quite as robust as the others in my "collection" - like maybe it was a freebie promotional thing.

I feel I should pick them up and remove them from the wild so some child doesn't come across one and end up slashing themselves or others. But now what? Anyone have a bottle needs opening?

On Sunday, we got together with Wolfgang and Meego to celebrate Meego's birthday. I don't want a fuss on Mother's Day, but Meego was actually born on Mother's Day - speaking of fuss. So we often celebrate his birthday on the weekend nearest, which is often Mother's Day.

Considering that, plus it being CSU graduation weekend, we avoided the potentially busy places and times. We went out for oh so good Mexican food late lunch. Seriously, I'm still thinking fondly of those chicken enchiladas. Always nice to hang out and catch up with those guys, and I also talked with Chaco on the phone. So a good Not-Mother's Day.

My work has slowed since I'm tutee-less until summer semester begins in a couple of weeks. I will indulge in some errand running today since it's a full day off. 

Who knows, maybe I'll find another knife.

lead a snot into temptation

Did a bit more decluttering this weekend - I swear it never ends. Who knew I was such a packrat?!

This time I went through my art toys a second time and got rid of things I haven't used in *forever*. My art hobby is quite inexpensive. Pencils, pens, sketchbooks, etc. are so darn cheap.  It's easy to bring stuff home and let it sit. I swear they all get together at night and multiply.

Last weekend, Magnum and I were out for a walk and I wanted to walk passed a cute little art supply store I'd heard of but had never been to. So we walked on by and I caught a glimpse. Magnum noted that the store was open, did I want to go in?

NOPE! I'd end up bringing home something I don't need - like going to the animal shelter!

I drew this anime character on Friday during Snowday 2. I've never really drawn anime before, but I'd read that the creator of Dragonball books, show, and whatever else, died last week. 

I don't know the plot or characters of Dragonball, but I've seen them in the periphery - the weird hair, the baggy pants...

Anyways, good snowday fun.

We got a decent amount of heavy, wet snow, but not nearly as much as areas south of us. Ours was just a "normal" spring snow - about 7 inches - while I see friends to the south buried under 2+ feet. No thanks.

That bit of anime fun got me to declutter the stuff packed into my little art supply case after I discovered the cute graphic pencil I used to draw the weird-haired dude.

Now I'm just down to my faves, including the pencil. In celebration, I drew another anime weird-haired character

In the meantime, Magnum completed our 2023 tax return. I swear he has all the fun.

crashing

I was out running in the wee mornig hours on Friday and decided to snap a pic of this sculpture at sunrise. 

It's a bronze sculpture that sits along a popular trail near the bike racks for a a botanical garden attraction. 

It "shades" a bench and one of those public bicycle repair stations.

It's titled "Cycologist" and actually makes me think of a multiple bicycle crash... in a tree?

Looking at the photo afterwards, it looks rather sinister and thorny in the darkness. 

So when I was in the area again this morning at a later hour, I snapped it again in the daylight. Still crashy/ thorny, but a little less sinister? Maybe?

So yes, I am able to run again and have been reminding my body of that for the last month or so. The physical therapy, including the dry needling, seems to have helped. I don't exactly feel 17 again, but I'll take what I can get.

Speaking of bicycles and crashes, Magnum and I were out walking around yesterday when we came across a fresh accident between a bicyclist and a (I think) pickup truck.

It happened on the other side of a busy road we were walking along. I looked over and saw a laid down road bike with its front wheel looking rather bent and possibly detatched? That's when I noticed the guy on the ground, the car with its hazard likes blinking and a pickup truck with its hood opened.

From my astute observations, I surmise that the pickup truck was going south and turned left to enter an apartment complex and hit the bicyclist going north in the bike lane. Probably a bystander then pulled their car into the apartment entance to block other traffic from the injured bicyclist.

Shortly afterward, all the first responders showed up - fire, ambulamps, po po. Traffic was blocked and rerouted at he intersection a little further south. I was actually impressed at the quick efficiency of it all.

The injured cyclist - wearing a helmet - was on his back and appeared to be conscious and speaking with his helpers. This was along a busy stretch that I personally wouldn't ride a bicycle on. There is a bike lane, yes, but PFFFT.  Now, I'm not victim blaming here, I'm sure he had the right of way. But a little common sense goes a long way.

Just about every close call I've ever had while bicycling in traffic involved someone turning left. In fact, [that one time I was hit], several years ago when I was bouncier, was by a woman who turned left into me. It seems that left-turning drivers are looking for oncoming cars and bicycles turn invisible. 

what's her face

She interviewed me, hired me, promoted me, then promoted me again - my boss from my job prior to me leaving to work at my current job. 

She'd been a good boss, I liked working for her, and I think it's safe to say she liked having me as an employee. I was a dietary supervisor at a full nursing facility where she was the dietary manager. Shortly before I left, she'd left for an administrative position at a largish senior living facility.

When I applied for my current job at the college, she served as a key reference. We kept in touch for a while after going our separate ways, but that died off as such things tend to do.

I've been working at the college for a little over two and a half years now. Yesterday, I got into work, looked over the list of people scheduled to come in for testing, and a certain name caught my eye. It was the same name as that former boss.

"Is it her?", I wondered. Her name is not particularly unique, but she spells her first name slightly different than is typical. 

Sure enough, PB (previous boss) came a-walkin' in at the appointed time. I recognized her by her hair and voice - which may sound funny, but when we worked together, we were deep in the throes of the covid pandemic, at a nursing facility no less.

Meaning, we were always fully masked and often moreso. I sometimes saw the faces from afar of coworkers as we took our socially distanced lunch breaks together. But the boss didn't eat lunch with us. I'd never actually seen her whole face and vice versa.

So, she came in yesterday, and I was all,

"Hey, I wondered if that was you on our roster!"

And she was all *as I imagine from the look on her unfamiliar whole face* "who the hell are you and why are you talking to me like that?", not to be fully attributed to test anxiety.

Pandemic Abby

I stated my name and the place we used to work, THEN she remembered me. We acknowledged the whole mask thing.

I recall one time I went in to speak with her about something on a day off, and she marveled at how different I looked. Although I was still masked, I wasn't wearing my hair band.

So, I see why I was so unrecognizable yesterday - no mask, no hair band - just out there, free range, spreading and absorbing whatever's in the air with my whole face.

And honestly, if I hadn't seen her name, I doubt I would've have recognized her either.

saddle, sorting, and needles

A saddle, in geography, is defined as the lowest area between two peaks. I think of the week between Christmas and New Year as a saddle week. This one's been pretty productive... mostly.

• I've been doing some tidying, which I have since learned is a tradition in some cultures so as to start the new year with a "clean slate". I went through some boxes of stored goods while grumbling under my breath, thinking it was "junk" we've been storing for our kids. I was all ready to unload it upon them, only to find that it was mostly our stuff we never unpacked when we moved here four years ago. Ooops.

So I'm sorting through that, determined to rid us of "stored stuff". If we're gonna use it, it should be out among the living. I did find a few kid things, so my grumbling skills weren't totally a waste.

• Christmas here was a pleasant low-key affair. Meego and Wolfgang came over for food, gaming, dog walking, puzzle building, etc. And we speaker phoned a bit with Chaco, who relocated to the DC area for work not long ago.

Speaking of food and storage, while I was doing some actual cooking for Christmas, I came upon this little cast iron skillet I "won" back in 2020. As I remember it, the nursing home where I was working at the time had daily random drawings for staff to select a gift from a pile o' stuff during the days leading up to Christmas.

My name miraculously came up, and I selected the cute skillet, I think mainly because it was nicely portable for bringing home on my bicycle. It came with a small packet of brownie mix for making one round brownie in the pan. I remember making the brownie on Christmas, and the 5 of us split it into teeny tiny brownies. 

If it'd been a marijuana brownie, I doubt it would've had much affect after divying it up 5 ways. 

The skillet then got stashed with its larger siblings, hardly thought of again. But this week, I saw someone on reddit, who had received such a skillet for Christmas, asking what to use it for. The overwhelming response was "an egg!!"

Omigosh, it's the perfect vessel for making a one-off poached egg. I've been doing that in the days since the discovery while needing to chip away at all this damn leftover Christmas ham.

• Also this week, I visited that physical therapy place about my fritzed foot. They'd offered a special promo, so I partook. But the foot's been feeling better, and I figured I'd listen to the assessment, then likely continue to treat it myself. 

Welp, that didn't happen. The good Dr. uncovered weakness in my right hip - not a total secret to me - as likely the root of my problem and mapped out a good sense plan of attack.  After the initial treatment hurt so good, I'd plunked down the HSA card and paid for six sessions. 

He wants to do some "dry needling" - a term of which I've heard for treating sports injuries, but know nothing. I'm about to access doctor google, but it sounds kind of like acupuncture, which I've never had. I'm going for it.

pump-kings and inkings

It definitely feels like fall now. I had to break out long pants and long sleeves this week - fleece even!

This morning, I was out enjoying a run around town with temperatures in the 40s.  I turned a corner and came upon this rival of Charlie Brown's legendary Great Pumpkin. 

 It was just sitting there next to someone's driveway in a residential neighborhood, and I thought maybe it was factory made? But no, upon further inspection, I saw it was an actual pumpkin. It had to be at least 3 feet in diameter. What sort of hoisting equipment got it up onto that wall?

I looked to the right and saw, lingering in a mess of foliage, the pumpking's possibly bigger brother laying about.

Such a massive mound of pumpkin, it seemed freakishly huge to me. What is in that soil?  Clearly, someone there knows how to  grow a squash. 

In other news of October, I've managed to keep my head above water with Inktober prompts so far this year, managing 6 ink drawings in the first 6 days. 

Birds, bugs, and rodents seem to be emerging themes. 

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

2. Share something you made progress on.

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.

people

It's crowded here again. Nothing obnoxious, but the elbow room of summer has noticeably diminished. I understand that enrollment at the university is approximately 30,000 students. Their fall semester starts tomorrow, and freshman move-in happened in waves last week, so that was particularly noticeable with all the freshman parents in tow as well.

On a more subdued change, our semester at the college also starts tomorrow, but we're just a community college - no dorms, no sports. I doubt that anyone comes from "far and wide" to attend. My schedule will change slightly - same days of the week, same number of hours. Coworker Triple Dee teaches a class, so I'm swapping a couple of shifts with her to accommodate her class times, and I'm looking forward to the change if, for none other than it being a change. Ho hum. We had our tutoring ducks-in-a-row meeting as well, so let the games begin.

Earlier this week, I was at the downtown library. It was mainly an excuse for a joyride on my bicycle, and I did have a book to return. I stopped in the ladies room before heading home, and while I was washing my hands, a bearded guy emerged from one of the stalls. 

Another woman was washing her hands beside me and gave me a little sideward glance like, "what the hell?", but we didn't say anything. He didn't bother me - was using the facilities and not doing anything creepy. 

SOURCE

Outside, as I was unlocking my trusty bicycle, the-bearded-from-the-bathroom passed by me, heading toward the parking lot. I glanced over and realized, "he" was not a guy, but a woman with a full-on neck beard, possibly a case of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) or similar.

Not long ago, Party Girl shared with me that she used to be quite hairy. She spoke of arm hair she could comb, chest and belly fuzz, chin and neck fur, and her lap - a veritable forest of pubes. 

You'd never know it today. She explained that she had it all lasered off at some point, all except her face. 

But she did have the neck beard going on. For that, she said, she'd had routine, painful electrolysis. It was at one of those sessions that the electolysiser mentioned PCOS.

Party Girl said she asked her doctor about it, and her doctor said, "No, you don't have that", reasoning  that, "you're not hairy other than your face".

Hello? Laser removal? But he just shut her down.

She (smartly) got a new doctor... and meds to control her facial hair.

I've heard of bearded women who are comfortable letting it grow. I'm glad we didn't confront the "guy" in the bathroom before noticing she was a woman. 

pretty and babies

She and I are the same age. I remember idolizing her when we were teenagers.  I had my subscription to Seventeen magazine, and Brooke Shields was wearing Calvin Klein jeans, so every girl wanted some CK jeans.

She was just too pretty. And I could relate somewhat and aspire because, in addition to being the same age as me, she was brunette, unlike Farrah Fawcett - the iconic blonde babe of that time. 

But I was no fool and knew I didn't hold a candle to Brooke Shields and that she lived in a whole different world from mine.  A world I would NOT trade for! Yeesh.

There's a Brooke Shields documentary streaming on Hulu now. I doubt I will watch it, but have read some of the highlights, that are sadly not surprising. Sexual exploitation starting before she'd even reached puberty.

Speaking of pretty things, we had another spring snowstorm this week, not quite as messy as last week's that had me stranded on a transit bus. I was out walking an errand in it and came upon a couple of geese honey badgers not giving a *hoot*

The two of them hanging out on the side of the path paying no mind to walkers, joggers, bicyclists, plows... "go around, losers".

It occurs to me that it's about that time for the annual goose nesting, when the geese become downright nasty if anyone dares come close to their nesting babies.  I wonder if these two were scoping out a site.

That's my excitement so far this week. That and learning that dry erase markers are the BOMB for erasing "permanent" marker. Just write over the permanent marker with a dry erase, and wipe. 

I'm as old as Brooke Shields and never learned this 'til now?!

sharpest tool in the shed?

Walking along, minding my own business, and there it was. Yet another one.

On a typical sidewalk along a regularly traveled street, right in my path, I came upon a cleaver pocket knife. I didn't even know of such a thing as a cleaver pocket knife, but I picked it up, opened it, and thought, "Hmm, looks like a small cleaver in the form of a pocket knife". And I learned that's what it is. 

Why does this happen to me?

This cleaver pocket knife is now the 5th similar pocket knife thing I've found while walking along, minding my own business - over the course of a couple years. I rarely discover anything else while out walking around, other than trash, dog poop, etc. It's knives or nothing. Here's the collection:

Standard household item for scale

All of them are similar in size, function, and materials. Not a red Swiss Army or other among them. The cleaver is the latest addition to the involuntary collection. I'll note that all of these implements are in pretty good shape with sharp blades - effective for cutting down corrugated cardboard boxes for recycling - among other things, I imagine.

What is the universe trying to tell me? Why is it sending me these handy sharp things? Do I seem vulnerable, weak, in need of assistance and weaponry? Is it prepping me for some approaching apocalypse? An apocalypse where I will need to cut various boxes and such?

I don't know what to do with them all, and I realize they're starting to cramp my minimalist lifestyle. 

Anyone need a sharp thing?

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

5. Share something that made you think this week.

Tour de Fat

Yesterday was Tour de Fat here in Fort Collins. Party for a cause.

I'd only ever heard of Tour de Fat since it was cancelled in 2020 ad 2021 because of, well, y'know. This year, it was back, and what a hoot. 

Fort Collins is home to over 20 craft breweries, including New Belgium Brewing Co, which is the fourth largest craft brewer in the U.S. It's also a very bike-friendly city, as I've mentioned before with the huge turnouts for bike-to-work, etc.

Any event having to do with bicycles or craft beer will be well attended here, and Tour de Fat is all about bicycles AND beer.

It starts with a parade...

   SOURCE

Magnum and I had to check it out despite not having funky costumes or funky bicycles. I guess our usual riding gear would be sufficient. 

The venue was PACKED, to put it mildly. Everyone there to have a good time, it is a philanthropic event after all. There were food trucks and plenty of beer, but fun activities for kids too. And the costumes - so many costumes! Better than comic con.

There was a fun bike pit with various "weird" bicycles - challenging geometry, off-center hubs, assorted two-seaters - to try to ride

Parking was a bit of a challenge 😁, as it should be.

We somehow managed to stumble upon Wolfgang. We figured he'd be there, but the odds of finding him among the  masses were slim.

Alas, just as we were heading back to the bike racks for the humble task of finding ours, there he was with a friend, the odds in our favor.

Before we left, we made a pit stop at one of the ample port-a-potty stations. While there we witnessed the arrival of this guy.

As seen in the parade video above, Darth rode in on this large black tricycle adorned with quite the sound system.  

He had some party music playing at first - Tone Loc's Wild Thing - but quickly switched over to The Imperial March, A.K.A. Darth Vadar's theme.

What an entrance! And it was still just the parking lot. Stud! (speaking of John Williams, I know nothing about Darth Vadar guy...)

Then he switched back to party tunes and had random people - maybe a little drunk already - bustin' a move or two.

With that, Magnum and I headed out and took the long way home. The entire ride home and beyond, I had The Imperial March playing in my head. 

That's an earworm for ya.

be stupid, win prizes

Wednesday, I met wit a tutor student at the downtown library, and when I came out after our session, lo and behold...my car was MISSING! Seriously? Who would steal a little 2000 Toyota in the middle of the day from in front of a public building?!

The library is a decent sized building. Rather than having a designated parking lot, it has parking spaces all around the perimeter. I've only been there a few times, and usually I was on my bicycle. But yesterday, I drove there, parked, went inside, came back out, and gone. I was aghast.

When I'd arrived, it was pouring down rain. I realized that, Yay, I had an umbrella in the car, and I secured my bag o' tutor stuff before heading into the deluge and making my way into the library. 

All that to explain... I hadn't really paid attention to where I'd parked. *ahem*

The spot I coulda swore I parked in was actually around the corner from where I'd actually parked and where my little Toyota was sitting the whole time. But what a FREAK OUT! I was so happy to hunt down a thing I already owned!

Earlier in the day, I'd met with a different student at a different location: the student center at the college where I work. When I got home from that appointment, I realized I'd left my water bottle behind. Doofus. The campus lost and found happens to be right across the hall from where I work, and I know they get a ton of water bottles each semester, so surely someone would turn mine in. I'd hopefully find it across the hall when at work the next day.

But  nothing. There was one lone plastic lowly water bottle on the lost and found cart. Not mine. 

During a break in the work action, I made my way to the student center to see if there was any sign of my beloved water bottle. PFFFT, it was sitting on the table right where I'd left it the day before. 

Okay, there's not a lot of traffic in the student center since we're in summer semester. The few people going in probably saw a water bottle on a table and figured someone else was using that space. So BINGO, score another acquisition of something I already own!

Nothing special, but it had been a bicycle commuting prize from the grad school days. A Prize!

And speaking of tuting, I keep in my tutor bag a spare scientific calculator for when irresponsible careless reckless  students forget theirs. I don't want them borrowing my graphing calculator and do want them to feel the pain of not having their graphing calculators. So they can use the scab.

Well, when we moved just before COVID, my scab calculator went missing, never to be seen again. Then COVID hit and I wasn't meeting with students in person anyway. Now we're back, full face, so I asked the boss today if I could buy one of the several scientific calculators we have for people to use in the testing center. Employee deep discount used price, whatever that would be.

They're not all that expensive, but the principle of forking over for irresponsible careless reckless  students who forget to bring their own was off putting.

He thought for a second, and then said, "Y'know, back when COVID hit, the bookstore cleaned out a buncha calculators, so I got 'em. I've got a few of these that most tests don't allow, so we can't use them. You can have it."

Score! It's almost too shiny for a scab calculator. I'll have to scuff it up a bit.

Pretty good haul, I'd say. 

It's made me realize... 

a good way to solve a problem, apparently, is to first create the problem.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

4. Write a blog post inspired by the word: hunt

my big bust

And so ends another week of summer.  Today's agenda includes finding ways to beat the heat.

Yesterday, we helped Meego move a few big items from his college rental to his next address. The college "Lake House" was a good setup for the last 3 years, now it's ready for another round of students, most likely.

Meego's moving in with a friend who recently bought and is renovating a house. How a 20-something guy was able to procure a house in the current market is a bit of a mystery. But he's a nice, hardworking "kid", so more power to 'im. 

I say "we" helped move some stuff, but really, Magnum got the truck and helped load.  I was at work while that was going on and met up with them later to unload a couple of little things and check out the new place.

Speaking of work, we have two new coworkers. One, I will call Sangria. She is replacing Martha - recently left to sell everything and head for the greener grass of Mexico. Next, we acquired a work study student whom I will call Donatello. 

Both seem to fit in well and round out our little group of seven: Boss, Assistant Boss, four part-timers, and a work study.

Speaking of working yesterday, I bagged my first bust. 

We're open Mondays thru Fridays, typical business hours. And we're also open for four hours on Saturdays. Weekdays typically have 3 to 4 staffers, sometimes a work study. We all rotate the Saturday shifts, which staff two people.

So I was on yesterday with Assistant Boss. It looked to be a typical mellow Saturday, and for the most part, it was. People who came in for testing were friendly and well prepared. One woman "warned" us that she was pregnant and may have a sudden need for the restroom...

We give tests for professional certifications/ licenses, and we also administer makeup or accommodated tests for students at the college.  A college student came in for a makeup math exam, and we got him set up. His was an online exam, so we locked down his workstation so he couldn't access any websites other than his exam.

There are surveillance cameras set up at various angles to observe people while they're testing. We also have remote access to what testers have on their computer screens.  

Do we constantly watch these cameras and monitors?

Oh, heck no. Invigilation is not that invigorating.

Assistant Boss and I were hanging out, talking about our cats or something, when we noticed College Kid acting kinda suspicious - looking around at computers near him rather than his own screen. Being a Saturday, the room he was in was nearly empty. It looked suspicious, but he wasn't breaking any rules. 

Then there was this bit of activity flurry - Pregnant Lady needed the restroom, Insurance Guy left his ID behind, and Water Treatment Guy needed a score printout. 

Assistant boss signed out Pregnant Lady and got Water Treatment Guy's report while I ran down Insurance Guy in the parking lot. The dust settled, and I was sanitizing when I  happened to glance at College Kid's monitor. He had reached over to the adjacent computer, googled some math references, and was pondering his search results.

Still footage of the crime. His test is on the monitor to his right.

Alarms blared, lights flashed! We stormed the testing room, guns a-blazing!

Well... actually, Assistant Boss went in and told College Kid he can't do that while I shut down his search remotely. Redundant, because College Kid most certainly knew he can't do that. 

Meantime, we got screenshots of his googling and time stamps of how long he engaged in the covert activity. Plus, we got the video footage of the brazen scheme.

We filed the appropriate documentation and spoke with his instructor.

"Welp, he gets a zero", her wrath rang down.

Exciting times in test proctoring. Assistant Boss told me this was the first cheater caught since COVID began. Is it a sign that we've turned the corner on the pandemic?

Or as Tigger would say, "The start of a new error!"

cave coffee and a new addition

On Sunday, we took a drive down to lovely Longmont, CO to visit a tree farm, aptly named "The Tree Farm".  Longmont isn't particularly known as a destination to visit - mostly, I assume, because of its proximity to Boulder, which is beautiful and very expen$$$$ive. 

Personally, I haven't spent much time in Longmont, but Magnum found out about the tree farm, so we took the field trip. On our way, we stopped at a cute coffee shop: Cavegirl Coffeehouse.  It was a trendy little place with a new agey vibe to it.  I thought the surroundings were interesting, so we investigated a bit.

It was located in "Prospect New Town" of Longmont, described as "the coolest neighborhood in America".  It's cool because it's an "urbanist community" (this post is giving my quote marks key a workout).

The goal was "to build a distinctive project which would minimize negative impacts on the land" and is "an antidote to suburban sprawl".  I can get behind that.  Not a fan of sprawl, myself - one of the reasons we left Colorado Springs.  

Anyway, we got all coffeed up - I give Cavegirl 5 stars, although we only had coffee.  They had other things, mostly beverages. They claim to be 100% gluten free, and I could've gone for a bit of gluten with my coffee, but it was all good.

Then, off to the tree farm of no elaborate name. It was moist and muddy as we were there in between rainstorms. The trees and ornamentals seemed quite happy and healthy.  

We brought home this youngling Autumn Blaze Maple, and hopefully the happy healthy will remain. 

Here he is after his first night in our garage.  Violet the bicycle for scale. I use the male pronoun, but I actually have no idea the tree's gender. He could be both male and female because trees sometimes do that.

But I figured, "we will hug him and squeeze him and name him George".

George now stands, looking quite tiny, in his station in our front yard.  

Grow, George, grow.

who moved my cheese?

We've made it to April.  As such, I got into some spring cleaning this week.  Well, really, it's not because of April, it's just that it was so needed, and I couldn't come up with anything better.

I found some cheese.  I was spring cleaning away and decided to include a good scrub down of our fridge that came with the house when we bought it two years ago.  Prior to us buying it, the house had been a rental for several years.

There I was, removing shelves and drawers of the fridge and soaping everything down when I found a couple sticks of string cheese behind a drawer.  

I couldn't recall having bought string cheese in recent years, so I determined that this was not, in fact, our cheese.  I was able to make out the expiration date of May 2013.  

Anyone want antique string cheese?  Egads, it's 10 years and probably several renters old.

Speaking of cheese, I'm trying to cut down on my dairy intake.  It's pretty mean to the cows, y'know?  I gave up eating beef several years ago, and that was fairly easy.  But it turns out that, gawd, I love cheese and have yet to find a decent substitute.  Advice?

Meanwhile, maybe I can use the reminder of this rental fridge discovery to help curb the cravings.

And speaking of chucking things out, this week, I got around to getting a much needed haircut.  Honestly, it's been a bit of a crapshoot finding a good stylist since moving here, plus a global pandemic, blah blah.  I had one I liked in the last town, but I've bounced around here with mediocre results.  

I went to a new-to-me salon this week and came away happy.  I brought a reference photo, and the stylist nailed it without charging an exorbitant amount or trying to upsell me on everything.  

The anxiety around finding a decent stylist along with whole slap down at last weekend's Oscars reminds me to put less importance on hair in light of other things going on.  I confess to getting nervous whenever I plop into the stylist's chair, having had a handful of bad haircuts.  But it's just hair.

For those who've watched the Fleabag series on Prime Video, you probably remember the iconic "Hair. Is. Everything!" scene.  I found it hilarious, and, sadly, a bit true.

Yeah, it's not gonna happen in here.

Sorry, see ya next week.

to feel all right okay

Back to work this week.  Nice to see my little team of coworkers (four of us plus a boss). Naturally, they were sympathetic about Hagrid's home.  Boss has a step-niece who was evacuated with her family, but their home was undamaged.  They weren't able to move back in yet since utilities were all turned off, but they've been back to look around.

They've got young kids who will have to be "prepared" before they return to what's left of  the neighborhood.  "Like another planet".

But we're back at the college for the new year.  Student's return for Spring semester on the 18th, so campus is pretty quiet.  

We've begun checking people's COVID status - fully vaccinated or recently testing negative - for access to the testing center.

I'm basically a bouncer.  Who'da thought?

We got a lot of snow, which has pulled us out of our drought for now.  We've entered the crusty yucky freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw-freeze phase from which Napolion likes to meditate.

He used to go outside each day and find things to kill or get in fights with.  Now he's strictly a housecat (not by his choice).  I wonder what he thinks as he sits on his window perch.  

Similarly meditative, y'know my young coworker friend, Malcolm, who died unexpectedly last year - he'd mentioned he liked to rap.  But whenever we asked him to lay some lyrics on us, he never would.  This week, I was led to a site where he'd uploaded some tracks.  Several tracks, actually.  More than 50 tracks over the span of about a year.  I had no idea he was so creatively prolific.

Now, I actually like some rap/ hip hop, which might surprise some.  There are also rap songs/ artists I can't stand.  I really like Malcolm's material.  And how nice to hear his voice again.

So 2022 has begun.  I don't have any resolutions, just the usual "get better".  Kaizen, yo?

the old bag

The first thing I noticed were his legs.  Yes, (1) they were quite large and muscular, but (2) the temperature was upper 30's - a bit chilly for shorts in my book.  Maybe big muscles are warming. 

After acknowledging the big bare legs on the crisp morning, the next thing I noted was his bag. It was attractive and resting comfortably-looking on his back, made specifically for bicycling.  He continued south at the point where I turn east, but not before I'd acquired a good case of bag envy.

This happened one morning last week as I was riding my bicycle in to work.  Mornings are busy with bicycle traffic as I live in between a high school and an elementary school.  Packs of high schoolers pass in my opposite direction as I ride along with the elementals and, sometimes, a parent or two.

But Bag Guy was no high schooler, nor a parent of an elementary kid.  He looked to be another commuter like myself - but younger, faster, with stronger legs and nicer bag.

Until then, I'd been content enough with the backpack I wear to work.  It's about 3 years old and still in decent shape.  It holds what I need and then some.  I emptied it out for a round of what's-in-my-bag:

And I thought, "well, just for fun, let's see if I can find that guy's bag online", which of course I did.

I found it all over:  the bag company website, Amazon, REI.com... All at the same price

The bag company detected me lurking around and offered me 10% off my purchase.  But I can get it from amazon with free shipping, which about balances with the 10% off, BUT I can get it from REI, pick it up myself and avoid shipping altogether PLUS get my 10% dividend.

And then I thought, "Wait, do I need a new bag?".  Well, no 

"Does that bag have some nice features my current one doesn't?".  Well, yes.

"But do I need it?". Well, no

...and so on.  

My inner don't-settle-for-less struggles with my inner minimalist. 

Then this morning, this popped up in my Instagram feed.  This black cat in the bag I want/don't need.

source

I've always liked black cats.

"Is this cat telling me to get the damn bag already?".  Well... ?

trying to give up smoking

I met with a tutee this morning.  I opened up the online classroom and remembered I was wearing a bandana all, "YEEE-HAAAAW!!"

It's been SO smokey from surrounding wild fires. As if wearing a mask for Covid weren't enough, now I actually want to cover my nose and mouth.  Before I logged on, I'd been wearing the bandana all Bandito-style, then pulled it down and forgot it was there like a bib until the video kicked in.

New summer fash-on. Anyone know a good rain recipe?

Anyway, it's been a minute since I was last bloggin'!  I've been somewhat busy and thought I would summarize my list of productivity:

Firstly, I returned to the hospital job yesterday after three weeks of furlough. Furlough activities include...

• climbing a mountain
• contentedly dispersing my parents' ashes (more on that later, maybe)
• riding a downhill mountain bike park 
• Marie-Kondoing a ton of first aid crap acquired over the years

Seriously, WTH

• applying for new side gig jobs
• getting a golden crown
• watching my tutees, Meego, and related memes as school starts in the year of Covid

• getting a side gig job offer and accepting
• saying "good-bye" to allergy injections
• quitting resigning from my other side gig job

All right, that's enough summarizing.  But does anyone else buy band-aids or itch cream, etc., throw it in a drawer or box and end up with things scattered around the house?  I found some first aid ointment with a 2009 expiration date for chrissake.

Medically speaking, I'm happy with my new golden (tooth) crown and am going to see what happens if I don't mix up another batch of allergy juice.  

On the job front, I've mentioned how my hospital culinary job was stumbling along with hours reduced since Covid restrictions.  All of us took voluntary furloughs, and we're still at reduced hours.  I'm down to one shift a week - that was my yesterday fun.  

I managed to find a very similar job at a nearby rehabilitation facility.  It seems that providing comfort food to the infirm is my retirement calling, and I'm not complaining.  I haven't actually begun working there yet as they are background checking me as I type.  I'm so boring, if they find anything, it's a mistake.  

So I told my hospital boss yesterday, and he was naturally understanding.  Really, I think I'm doing him a favor - one less person to try to keep on the payroll.  As we were chatting toward the end of my shift, my coworker Em entered from the kitchen holding a towel and her hand with her other hand.

"Uhm... I've cut my hand and am going to take care of it.  I'll be right back", she reported

She hadn't returned by the time I left about a half hour later.  I'm thinking her cut was more serious than Boss and I were thinking, and maybe she actually went to the ER down the hall.  I guess I'll find out when I go in for next week's last lone shift.

Either way, I've got plenty of gauze if she needs it.