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

the dogs ate my shoe, and the cat stole my ring

The title pretty much sums up the last couple of days.  

Our dogs don't typically eat shoes, but never say never.  I came home from work and kicked off my shoes a couple of days ago.  No doubt, the shoes had some enticing-to-dogs smells on them from the kitchen.  A while later, I discovered what looked like the remnants of a shoelace.  Alas, one of the shoes had been violated, but not too seriously.  

Luckily for the dogs, those shoes were about to be thrown out anyways, having served a good life.  Rather than try to revive them, I chucked them.  My wedding band, however...

I'd taken my wedding band off and stuck it in the pocket of my jeans on Tuesday night before bed to slather on some nourishing hand lotion.  The next morning, I couldn't find the band, so went about my day like an unwed woman.  That evening, we looked all around where it HAD to be- near where I'd hung up my jeans - but came up empty.  The cat stole it, it's the only logical explanation. 

Another day went by with no trace of it, but this morning, I slipped on my house shoes, and there it was: inside one of them.  I've put those shoes on the past two days, but only this morning noticed the band inside.  Aha, clearly, the cat felt guilty and put it there.  Or rather, he got bored with the game.

It's been a good week, though.  While at the dentist, the dental assistant and I talked of how we enjoyed "going to" work as opposed to working from home.  Of course there are several factors that weigh in including job description, coworkers, work environment, commute, etc.  

I feel I have the best of both worlds, having a part-time away-from-home gig (with a super short commute) and a part-time from-home gig.  I enjoy them both and don't get burned out on either. 

This week, I was asked to help train a new-hire at the rehab facility.  I take that as a cue that I have moved out of "noob" status myself.  

And finally, the world said good-bye to Eddie Van Halen this week.  I know I wasn't alone in crushing on him (BIGtime) back in the 80s.  He was just so dang talented!

Back then, people often told me I resembled Valerie Bertinelli, so when the two of them got hitched, I found solace in thinking that EVH would favorably spot me in a crowd.  Maybe?

Today should be a full day off for me.  I'll do some housewifery, maybe listen to some fave Van Halen tunes, maybe get some shoes...

gun running

So that gun?  That competition air rifle we rediscovered collecting dust in our crawl space for the past 2 and a half years?  It's back home!

As I mentioned, for lack of any other ideas, I sent an email to usashooting.org into what I thought might be a big old void.  But lo and behold, I got a response!  "Shooting Girl" called me, quite interested in following up, understandable because it is a rather expensive piece of gear.  Pretty, no?

We were able to track down the gun's origin, and sho'nuff, it had been checked out by "AirRifle Guy" in April of 2017 and never signed back in.  I texted Wolfgang: 

"The name "AirRifle Guy" sound familiar?"

He texted back:  "Yeah, that's Air Rifle Guy" (maybe I need less confusing code names?)

ANYhoo, I made arrangements to trek it down to the Olympic Training Center here in Colorado Springs.  Shooting Girl instructed me to enter through the "Athlete and Employee" entrance, thus making the trip the closest I will ever be to being an Olympic athlete.

I pulled up in my Toyota Echo and was stopped by a guard:

Him:  Can I help you?

Me:  I'm here to see Shooting Girl.  (I figured that'd be better than saying, "I've got a gun")

Him:  What about? (Oh, sheesh)

Me:  I'm returning an air rifle (still better than saying, "I've got a gun")

Him:  Whatsurname?

Me:  AbbyNormal

Him:  Oh yeah, I remember the memo...

So, after giving the guard something to do for a minute, I was directed to a parking lot.  I've never been the Olympic Training Center, even as a visitor.  Naturally, it is open to visitors and tours are provided, but I just never went.  I think each of our kids has been there for school field trips, and I recall a former tutee, who was a competitive swimmer, telling me about going there and seeing his idol, Michael Phelps.

There wasn't a whole lot of activity while I waited outside for Shooting Girl, so I snapped a couple of non-exciting shots of buildings.  *YAWN*

We exchanged some pleasantries as well as the gun.  She asked a little bit about Wolfgang's project, and I explained very little - the extent of my knowledge. 

I'm glad the gun's back home.  Maybe it will podium.

informed

Do you have informed delivery from the US Postal Service?  I do!  It's a helpful thing!

Each day we have mail on the truck, I get an email letting me know what's coming.  It even includes a scanned image of each piece of mail. That way I know to freak out if something doesn't show up, and it also allows me to fret over how often stuff goes missing. 

I can click a link to let the USPS know if something didn't arrive.  I've done that a couple of times.  Nothing further happened, but I had the satisfaction of clicking the link. 

There was one instance, however, when a package went missing.  Magnum ordered something online, and we got an alert saying that it was delivered to the mailbox.  Turns out it wasn't.  The product itself was a minor thing, but it bothered me that we didn't get it when the post office said we did. 

Magnum, a.k.a. worst-case-scenario man, immediately surmised that low life hoodlums had stolen it from the mailbox while leaving all the other mail intact.  I held out on the hopes that the package had just been misdelivered - as has been known to  happen all too often. 

I went to our online USPS account and reported the missing package.  The next day, I surprisingly got a call from a real person!  She was quite friendly, and not in a fake kind of way.  Apparently, it's her job to train mail carriers and punish them soundly when they deliver things to wrong addresses. 

She assured me they were working to track down the package and sincerely apologized while adding, "Oh well, job security I suppose!"

The postal service never found it, but that's because our non-hoodlum neighbor who'd accidentally received it just did the job for them by bringing it to our house. 

So where was I?  Oh yes, informed delivery.  It's a good thing. 

This morning, I opened my email to see this lovely image:

Well... crapola.  If it gets lost, can I pretend I never knew?

under a buck

Okay, show of hands.  Who carries a hankie?  Anyone?

*raises hand*

I do, so there's a piece of worthless information for you.  Now I'm kind of wondering how common it is. The reason I bring it up is that it's really annoying when I can't find it.  Like a little while ago and up until now.

The hankie is typically on my person at all times.  It's like my phone.  In fact, I usually carry the phone and hankie around together.  They're kind of joined at the hip, like phoneandhankie, much like hamandcheese.  "I'd like a grilled hamandcheese, please.", "Where is my phoneandhankie?"

Do many people carry hankies?  I guess it's not something that comes up in conversation.  I've seen the old movies where the weak woman starts to cry and the strong man hands her a hankie.  When renting tuxedos for prom, the hankie is color-coordinated with the bow tie and/or vest, but strictly strictly as decoration.

As for my phoneandhankie, I have a special pocket in my purse for them.   I have a special pocket in my bicycling backpack for them.  I have a special pocket in my tutor bag for them.  Sometimes I misplace them, but when I locate one, I locate the other.  Feel a need to blow my nose?  Reach for the phone...

Anyways, I got home a while ago, and eventually, I had a hankering for the hankie.  I just don't like kleenex... or rather... facial tissues.

So there I was, retracing my steps, wondering where the darn hankie was.  To make the situation worse, I found my phone easily enough, but no hankie.  Now this was definitely a strange prospect.  I was beginning to think, poltergeist activity!  It must be!

So I thought about where I could have misplaced it, especially since it wasn't with the phone or any of the usual pockets.  Then I remembered, on my ride home, I came across this hungry mob:

I couldn't resist stopping to take a photo.  Without taking my eyes off of the mob, I reached behind me to my phoneandhankie pocket of my bicycling backpack, took the photo, put the phone back, then continued on my merry way.  Is my hankie on the side of that road?

Oh deer.
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Wednesday

Okay, I've gotta do it.  I'm going to pull a Wednesday Wobbly.  Two wobblies, really, but one is clearly larger than the other.

So first, the big one.

Kat the cat's gone missing.

She went missing on Black Forest Fire Friday - during the time that an ark full of animals were lost, and shelter's and the like were on overdrive.  That was two and a half weeks ago.  She went out like usual and just never came back.  I'd hoped she would show up in a day or so, but it's just not like her to be gone for extended periods of time.  Typically she'd just go play outside for a couple of hours at most.


I've been checking the "found cats" page at the local humane society.  Meego and I went there on Monday to check out a couple of possibilities, but none were our Kat.

My fear is that a coyote got her.  She was an outdoor savvy cat, but the coyotes are pretty stealth and have been quite active lately.  *SIGH*

Naturally, we all miss her soft, chubby sweetness.



The second is more of an inconvenience than anything.  The key to the Civic has gone missing.

Wolfgang carpools to his job with a couple of friends.  He drove on Monday, and on Tuesday, we couldn't find the key anywhere.  Magnum has one he keeps on his keychain, and we had a second "community" key that is on a hook in the kitchen.  But now it's not.

We literally tore their bedroom apart looking for it.  Don't get me started on the state of the bedroom, or we'll be in for a loooooong Wobbly.  At least the room is more organized now, but still no key.  Wolfgang is about to dig in the trash dumpster as a last resort, just waiting for neighbors to go in so as to not be seen digging through the trash dumpster.

Our policy of  you-break-it-you-bought-it applies for lost things too, so he's willing to dig through the trash if it means he doesn't have to fork out cash for a new key.

But we'd all sleep in the dumpster if it brought the cat back.
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