cancels, gatherings, and dirt

Random thought / moment from the week:

• At work, we had an unfortunate man take his teacher license exam. I think it was for middle school math. He worked away for a couple of hours, felt confident about his answers, then accidentally hit "CANCEL" instead of "SUBMIT". 
  
  Just like that, his test was gone. No pop-up asking "are you sure?", no way to restore the exam, no nothing. He'll need to wait 35 days before he can take it again - after paying for it again. Ouch!  Poor guy was quite shaken up. Probably didn't get any sleep that night.

News that caught my attention:

• Juggalo gathering 2023 happened last weekend. I learned about Juggalos from a weird news story a few years ago when a strange guy was busted for stealing neighbors' Christmas decorations. He'd steal them and then put them up in his yard, i.e. it wasn't difficult to figure out who the thief was. 

SOURCE

The story was quite bizarre, and one of the details that came out was that Christmas thief chiefly identified as a juggalo, which sent me googling. Interesting crowd.

Anyway, I came across a reference this week to Insane Clown Posse, which jogged my memory and had me wondering if the gatherings still happen. I learned that, yep, they're still a thing and this year's coincidentally just happened. It seems juggalos have the reputation of being both highly depraved and lovingly spiritual - with much help from various drugs. I can't attest to know either way.

Triumphs:

• We broke down and purchased an air conditioner for the bedroom. We don't have central air, which is not all that uncommon in Colorado. But it can get unspeakably hot sometimes, and we've used a portable evaporative cooler that has served us well in the past. Fort Collins, however, is just humid enough to make the swamp cooler less than useful, so we bought a 1-room unit with an exhaust hose for the window.

As such, I rearranged the bedroom furniture to accommodate the pristine spot for the new air conditioner. So far, the new bedroom feng shui is agreeable, although that first night, I woke up in the middle of the night and it took a while for my spatial recognition to figure out where I was.

Challenges:

• I got a quote from a landscaping company a couple of weeks ago for making the desired changes to our front yard. 

Bottom line: we DIY

Something learned from triumph or challenge:

• I enjoy farting around in the yard grass, weeds, dirt, etc. when time allows. However, removing poorly maintained landscaping gravel is a pain in the ass.

thinking thoughts

Tuesday, time to reflect I guess.

Random thoughts/ moments:

• We got together for a nice time with all the guys for Father's Day. It included another good restaurant discovery (featuring no adjacent table drama). My blackened chicken sammich was so good, but I didn't finish it. I actually woke up later in the middle of the night thinking, "Damn, shoulda got the to-go box!"
• My 19-year-old friend/former coworker CC had her baby. Everyone seems happy, lovey, and healthy in the filter that is facebook.
• Had a P.E.O. meeting last weekend. Our convention delegate came back with various prizes for us. I got the "Crunch" award, for coming through in a crunch, a.k.a. agreeing to be the next chapter Prez. I figured my award would have to do with that

News that caught my attention:

• Our local indoor mall is staging for a total redo that will essentially get rid of the indoor mall. It all makes good sense to me, but where are the old folks going to walk?
• I have no desire to go on any sort of "submersible tour" of the Titanic or otherwise be in a submarine. Certainly not to a depth of 13,000 feet. Especially not after such stories of the ongoing search operations.
• I read an article written by a local MD who is also a registered dietician. The article addresses why/ what to eat before running. I usually run in the morning and don't eat beforehand, but the article says, 

"Men and women's bodies function differently when it comes to burning fuel and things that have worked well for some men (i.e. fasted running) are dangerous and counterproductive to women."

So that caught my attention, which is mainly why I read the article. But I never found what was "dangerous and counterproductive to women". Anyone?

Triumphs:

• Is it a triumph that I thought about eating a graham cracker, like the good doctor's article suggests, before heading out for a run this morning? But then I said, "Nah", went for an enjoyable jaunt and survived?

Challenges:

• We've got landscaping ideas for the front yard. I actually like working in the yard, but it's time consuming. Do we just throw money at it and let some pros do the main bits, then happily maintain it afterward? Or keep chipping away and have a never-ending-WIP?

One thing learned from triumph or challenge:

• As mentioned, sprucing up the yard on our formerly-a-rental-enjoying-a-mere-modicum-of-lawncare house, I'm learning, is a good sized project.

rocky mountain not too high

In addition to attending Tour de Fat over the long weekend, I also managed to get stoned.

Ugh, the previous owners of our house went hog wild with gravel landscaping, of which I am not a fan. I'm okay with the borders along the back yard, but the front has this area next to the driveway all graveled out, presumably a place to park a vehicle?

I got this image from google maps streetview from 2012

Now it's 2022. We've long since gotten rid of the junipers along the right side of the driveway and replaced the grey poupon exterior paint. That graveled area next to the driveway? Picture that, but overrun by weeds and whatever would decide to grow. Recall that our house was a rental for several years before we bought it. What renter is going to maintain a gravel driveway?

standing atop my plunder

It's a pain to keep gravel weed-free without using weed killers - can't hoe or rake efficiently. It's been an exercise in ultra-inefficiency.

Magnum made a couple of gravel sieves of half-inch screen, and I had it out with those obnoxious stones. Extracted, shoveled, sieved, and made an ugly mountain of gravel up near the fence, exposing the soil and whatever tatters remained of the ancient landscaping fabric underneath.

Of course now, the area is but a rectangle of dirt. Plan is to put mulch and pavers. We'll park the boat... except we have no boat nor plans to get one. Small detail.

I don't have tuberculosis, but I do have an ample chest

Yes, there's a pandemic and all that brings with it.  It seems like half the country's on fire while the other half is hit by a hurricane.  The list goes on.

But what's good about it?  Let's find stuff.  In my little corner of the world anyway...

We had this Douglas Fir in our front yard.  Ever have a Douglas Fir?  They're pretty enough, but GEEEZ, they generate a lot of garbage in the form of needles and pesky little pine cones.  Plus, this tree was much too close to the house.  Whose idea to plant it there?  

Nevermind, it's gone now.  We'd scheduled it's removal for last week, but strangely, it snowed on the scheduled removal day.  The crew was able to squeeze us in this week, and I came home one afternoon to the tune of much mulch making.  Good-bye Doug.

Speaking of wood...

Long story short, we inherited a piece of furniture from Magnum's sister who'd inherited it from their mother.  To clarify, my MIL is alive and well, but she and her husband moved from a largish home to a smaller home a couple of years ago, and furniture spilled over into SIL's.  

Once the dust settled, SIL was dealing with a good sized chest they didn't really have room for.  So she sent out an email looking for a good home.  We took her up on it, and Magnum had a work trip this week back to Colo. Spgs and brought the item back.

It's larger than it looked in SIL's photo, but we found a spot for it and will put it to good use.

Speaking of useful things...

I completed the first of two orientations at the new job.  It was four hours of one person reading Power Point slides to us.  *YAWN*.  Good information, but they could use some variety in their media approach.  

Round two is next week and I'm REalLy LoOKinG FOrwArD tO iT.  And I once again confirmed that I do not have tuberculosis.

Speaking of orientating...

I got together with a local P.E.O. sister as the ladies here have gotten word of my arrival.  There are no in-person meetings happening now because of COVID-19, but it was nice to get together with someone and learn a bit about the local P.E.O. scene.  

I've blogged a few times about P.E.O. since I've been a member for many years.  My mom was a P.E.O., so that was my in.  What is it?  I'll be lazy and cut and paste from the website. In a nutshell, 

P.E.O. is a philanthropic organization where women CELEBRATE the advancement of women; EDUCATE women through scholarships, grants, awards, loans, and stewardship of Cottey College and MOTIVATE women to achieve their highest aspirations.

But seriously, hit me up if you or a woman you know could use some money for school... or if you're interested in membership.
Even though you've probably never heard of it, there are chapters ALL over the US and Canada. Each chapter has around 40 members or so.  There are ten chapters in Fort Collins, so I'm getting some phone calls and emails.  

Another P.E.O. invited me to a Zoom social next week.  Her email included, 

"You are more than welcome to have an adult beverage on hand when you join the meeting."

I like that chapter already.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:
6. Write about something good that happened this week