bugged

For the last couple of weeks, I've felt like a bug in a pupal stage.  Somewhat dormantly waiting for the next thing.  As I've mentioned, I decided to accept the assistant boss position at work, so I had to finish up the last of my grunt work and will start wearing the new hat this coming week.  

I drew Hopper from A Bug's Life while learning a bit about pupae.  For instance:

• The chrysalis protects the caterpillar as it begins to turn itself into a liquid, soupy substance...
• The fluid breaks down the old caterpillar body into cells...
• Pupae are usually immobile and are largely defenseless...
• In a few... pupal mating is an extreme form of reproductive strategy in which the adult male mates with a female pupa about to emerge, or with the newly moulted female; this is accompanied by other actions such as capping of the reproductive system of the female with the sphragis, denying access to other males, or by exuding an anti-aphrodisiac pheromone

That last thing, what the HELL?

Anyway, I am looking forward to the new role, the new schedule, the new paycheck.  

I'm also ready for warm sunny days. We had that two feet of snow storm a month or so ago.  Since then, there's been nice spring weather as well as more cold and snow.  Sunny and warm gets my vote!

On my afternoon commute earlier this week, I came across this pelican convention:

And now I know  you're wondering, "what is a group of pelicans called?"  Well, I learned there are many collective nouns including "brief", "pod", "pouch", "scoop" and "squadron".  So, dealer's choice?  

Maybe I'll go with "brief" since they are white and all hang out together like in the above pic, ala "tighty whities"? *SORRY*

Also this week, my new fake tooth arrived, and I'm ready to put it to use.  Turns out Penny the pooch did me a favor by trying to eat the previous fake tooth as this new one is much more comfortable.  The old one included a full mouthpiece that covered the roof of my mouth whereas this one just pops into the gap where it's needed, nothing else.  Thank you, Penny!

And I'm ready to  move away from masks and social distancing.  Our county lifted more restrictions recently for bars, restaurants, gyms and such.  Each of my family members has gotten their vaccines.  Magnum and Meego are scheduled for their second hits, and the rest of us have had both.  

Admittedly, it will feel a bit weird to gather and de-mask.  We're all still wearing masks at work. I started working there in September, it's how we recognize each other's faces.  But it's nice to see residents having family visits.  I'm ready.

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

en vogue

Winter's coming.  We're all hoping for a ton o' snow to dump on the fires that are burning up Colorado right now, but we'll take whatever we can get.  But I don't want to whine-blog again about the damn fires.  Nope, gonna go sweep those ashes off my patio and under the rug.

I did happen to come across a "cheat sheet" of sorts - a prepared list of what to gather in case of an evacuation for *some reason or other*  for different advanced warning times:

I've known people who've had to be evacuated, and they speak of grabbing their photo albums.  I thought, well, I'd just grab my computer and my external hard drive because that's where my important documents and photos are.  

But no, we have several photo albums from pre-digital-camera times.  I briefly thought about starting a photo scanning-and-organizing project before thinking, "ugh".  God, that sounds tedious and time consuming. Well, the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step and all that.

So I dug out some old photos wondering how much was really worth salvaging.  Some go way back and are from my parents' collections.  

This morning, I headed out for a run, and it was 25F degrees out.  I had to remember what one wears to run in 25F degrees.  Gotta keep warm, but don't want to be too bulky.  

A good head covering is a cold weather friend, and we certainly want to be fashionable at the same time.  Kate Middleton, for instance, knows what's what→→

My search for a suitable hat reminded me that I was once similarly fashionable.  I do have an interest in fashion, although these days, I dress  more for function.  But back in my heyday, Kate and I could've been two peas in a pod as evidence in an unearthed photo from my recent investigations

The fur hat.  Is it ever out of style?

Answer:  Yes.  Absolutely Yes.

(and we won't speak of the pants)

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Linking  up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:
1. Throwback Thursday! Find an old photo and share the backstory!

what I did at summer camp

It's probably been around 30 years since I was last in Winter Park, Colorado.   Well, before this week anyways.  We just got back from a few days in the mountains, and I didn't turn on a computer the whole time.  Miss me?  Even notice I was gone?

We planned a family trip several weeks ago, and the stars actually aligned so that all five of us could hang out.  So I've been in and out of a mountain cabin for the last few days.  I'd like to say we enjoyed fresh air and sunshine, but various big wildfires out-performed the fresh air part.  Plenty of sunshine, though!

Obligatory sitting-around-on-vacation pic:

Don't mind the small blemish on my left shin.  I did a much better job on the right shin when we spent the day at Trestle Bike Park.  Trestle is a mountain bike resort with miles and miles of mountain bike trails.  The nice part is, you can ride a gondola to the top, so you're mostly riding your bike DOWNhill.  Weeeeeeeeeee!

Wolfgang is the most experienced mountain biker of the bunch and has been to Trestle before.  The rest of us noobs got to experience it for the first time.  

Meego and whatsherface.  Who wore it better?

It's one thing to snap a pic at the base of the gondola, another thing to get back down the mountain.  Just call me "hashtag slow and awkward"!  Nonetheless, I've got to say, it was fun!  Magnum and I stuck with repeatedly riding on one green trail in particular, aptly named "Green World".  It was great because it went for miles and miles without getting too technical.   

One of Wolfgang's friends joined us on Trestle day, so those two did their thing on the more advanced trails.  Meego and Chaco hung out with Magnum and me for a bit, but pretty much left us in the dust and did their own thing.  

And it wouldn't be a noteworthy day at the bike park without some body damage, right?  Meego was the first of us to do an over-the-handlebars move resulting in a bit of road hash and some bike blemishes.  But he was back to it in true 20-year-old fashion.  

Later on, Magnum hit a highly technical berm and ended up flying off the bike (translation:  he tripped exiting the gondola)

Finally, I attempted a particularly gnarly feature, and ended up sending it off the trail and into the foliage (translation:  I pulled my slow @ss over to let an adolescent pass me, and ended up dumping my bike).

Successful first trip to the bike park!

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

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

one for the road

We were greeted by a white labradoodle with a tuft of bright pink hair on its head.  The pooch aptly set the tone for our visit.

The shop was filled with an assortment of Curiosities, hence the name of the place.  Politician bobble heads, shot glasses with sayings on them, socks for every occasion...

There were several other patrons of all ages milling about, everyone scootching by each other in the tight corners of the shop. But I honestly didn't see much activity at the cash register. I also ended up not making a purchase.

We'd decided to go downtown to visit a local gift shop.  Our realtor had given me a gift card for the place, so it was an excuse to walk around Old Town on a decent weather day.

After we'd left the shop and had a mediocre lunch served by unmasked, ungloved food handlers in a restaurant with other people eating similarly mediocre food, we continued walking around other unmasked people walking around on the nice prelude-to-spring day.

At one intersection, the railroad arms came down as yet another freight train approached.  I'd recently blogged about the strange presence of trains blasting through town at all hours.  Even though we'd sort of gotten used to the trains, it was strange to have one blast through the middle of downtown. Magnum snapped a pic.

I think this was the last pic before the current lockdown became a thing.  Coronavirus and quarantines were in the news, but we were still going about the "normal" day-to-day.  Wondering about our toilet paper inventory wasn't a thing. I was working a predictable schedule at the cafe' along with tutoring a few students preparing for their April tests that didn't happen.

While I worry about the virus lingering and the effects on the economy and other ripples, I feel optimistic.  But maybe that's just my nature and has no root in reality.

I hope to someday soon be able to walk into a shop of nothing I want to buy and eat a meal at a restaurant I would not recommend.

Trains are welcome too.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:
3. Show us the last picture you took BEFORE quarantine. Write about that moment/day.

And maybe this prompt also applies in regard to lunch that day:
1. Write about a time you wasted your money.

Wordless Wednesday?

Wordless?   As if!!

As mentioned, I've been taking advantage of the time off this week to tidy up a bit.  It's Life Changing, I swear it is.  So for Wordless Wednesday, here are a few pics of things that are gone / going away.

• Meego's consumed Secret Santa gift bag from percussion camp = The Gift of Diabetes:

• Wolfgang's wrapped contribution for his workplace Yankee Swap.  Any guesses? 
  Hint:  it's one of the wonders that is the Chia Pet, but which one??

• No, it wasn't ugly sweater day at Magnum's work.  They had a tie-dye day to honor a deceased coworker.  Faces have been blurred to protect the innocent.  

• In our local news, we have the story of The Big Blue Frame.  Creatures were stirring.  Even the mice.  It's gone, but destined to return... somewhere?

• In other news, I sold Bicycle Alice this week to a good home.  I'm 😊/😢 about it.  Will speak of it later.  Maybe.

• And as I was organizing my computer files, I noticed something missing from the photo below. 
  
  Whatizzit?  Anyone?

shoes to skin

I've decided to play along again for this week's Mama Kat Thursday, and I've chosen the prompt:

2.) Take a picture every hour and show us what a day in your life is like.

Even to this day, I've always liked books with pictures, so why not a blog post with pictures?

My day typically starts with some sort of exercise to get things moving and work out the kinks that take up residence overnight - either running or attempting to beef up my noodle arms.  This morning I went for a run.  And yes, this is a totally recycled photo from a post wondering why my running shoes  have reflectors on the tops of them.  

After a shower, breakfast, and send-off to Magnum to work and, now, the lone Meego to school, I go through the e-mail, check a few blogs, then I'm off to class.

Clear blue skies and dry, mud-free bike lanes to get me there.  Wheeeee!!

It's nice on campus in the morning hours with a few sleepy students shuffling around.  Especially on mornings when it's not pouring down rain.

I'm taking three classes, and the schedule is such that I'm (supposed to be) there each weekday.  My favorite class is my math class, which I guess is a good thing since I'm doing this to be a math teacher.  My teacher classes are pretty ho-hum.  It feels like I should've been able to "test out" of them since I've already had a decent pile of teaching experience, but I expect things to improve and am trying to be patient.

After class, I return home and have enough time to grab some lunch, get a bit of housewifery done, and get cleaned up for my next stop.  I usually indulge in a bit of recreational reading for reward after my morning in academia.  Here's my current book:

I just grabbed it from the "New Fiction" shelf at the library.  I'm still deciding if I like it or not.

After being nourished, cleaned up, and fictionally indulged, most afternoons, I head out to the funner part of my teaching classes.  Go play teacher, for about an hour, at either the elementary or middle school.

Elementary school

Middle school

Fifth grade math in Mr. H's class and 8th grade algebra in Mrs. D's class.

These days, except for dumb Fridays, I go tutor in the late afternoons or evenings.  I meet with my students in local study rooms. Here is the view as I waited for my tutee at the community college library.

That guy out there looks like he's working hard, but I think he was watching video of Miley Cyrus.

Finally, after class and tutin', it's home with the fam, which nowadays has more pets than people.  

Last night, we discovered that King Reese had grown out of his skin again.  As I rummaged around for the sheddings, Napolion figured it was all toys for him.  I think he's more monkey than cat.

There!  Eight pictures for eight hours.  

Okay, it was more than eight hours, so I didn't play by the exact rules, so dock my pay.  I was thinking that nobody wanted to see the dirty clothes I laundered and folded or the cat box I cleaned, among other things.

You're welcome.

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up, up, and away

I just finished clicking through thirty slow-loading pages of  *sigh*  red carpet photos from the Oscars.  I say I don't care who/what they were wearing, but there it is, I confess.  Maybe I do care, a little.  No, I'd say I have a passing interest.  Thirty slow-loading pages later, it's done.

In other news, the pictures from the balloon launch are up since the teachers made it back to civilization where we have things like internet.  Really, if you've not experienced eastern Colorado, it's kind of like outer Mongolia out there.

Here's a pic taken shortly after liftoff.  Look, my house!

This one got a good shot of the burn scar from last summer's fire.

This one's a pretty cool shot with the moon.

And here's one from the descent into outer Mongolia eastern Colorado.

There were over 700 photos.  The balloon was in the air for about 2 hours total and reached an altitude of about 100,000 ft. before bursting.  

I was trying to think of any similar projects from when I was in high school and could think of nothing.  In college, my group did a senior project testing beer can strength by blowing a bunch up.  Good times.

But rather cheesy in comparison.

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dirty pictures

I read a story this morning about a woman who was sickened when she found out that photos she'd posted on her blog had ended up on some suspected pedophile site.  The photos were of her bottomless toddler boys engrossed in potty training.  Emphasis on gross.

I honestly don't have a whole lot of sympathy for her because (1) it's the internet, (2) I don't care to watch kids (or anyone else) taking care of their personal bodily functions and don't find such photos "cute", (3) it's the internet, (4) there are sickos out there who will be all over pics of bottomless toddlers, and (5) it's the internet!  If someone wants photos to be seen by only a select few, they don't post them where the entire developed world has access to them.

As I read, I learned a few things.  I learned that I could search my own photos by simply dragging them to the search box in google images.  Did you know that??  I didn't know until reading about the potty trainer.

Out of curiosity, I did a spot check of a few photos.  Thankfully, my blog was the only place they showed up.  Interestingly, the search also calls up "visually similar images".  Allow me to share some of my results:

My image 1

visually similar image 1

How so very flattering.

My image 2

Visutally similar image 2

It's Brittany, Bitch!

My image 3

Visually similar image 3

Okay, this match is shockingly accurate.

Have you googled yourself lately?  It's not a sin, it's only natural and healthy.
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traffic report

Okay, I thought I would piggyback off of Rock Chef who piggybacked off of ShadowRun300 and take the blog on a visual tour of my work commute.   Today is the first day of school (except Wolfgang and Meego get an extra day of summer; they go back tomorrow), so grab your supplies and let's go.

Ready?

I exit the back gate of the house to the walking / running / jogging / strollering / coyote prowling / bear sighting path.  Looking to the left, I can see the school about 135 yards away (really, we checked on the GPS)

To my right is the way to The Office.

Depending on traffic and weather conditions, it usually takes me about 1.37 to 2.18 minutes to arrive.  The Office usually has a nice view of the mountains, but smoke from various wildfires in the western U.S. has decided to hang out here for a few days.  

I pull in,

park my transportation,

and settle in to my workstation.  Minivan alert!

Bus all shiny for the first day back in the trenches.

After a full nearly 40 minutes of dealing with various clients, I'm ready for the lengthy return.

Whew!  Miller time.

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celebración de frío

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you are all safe and warm and not having (too many) regrets over anything that transpired last night.

Our New Year's eve was pretty low-key. Just the family, and it was pretty cold out, so we stayed in for most of the evening...

Except for, of course, Midnight Mile 2011! Yes the first mile of the year has been logged

It was a cold one - temperatures were around 2 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit - I'm just gonna say 5 and call it good. There was fresh snow and a bit of drifting here and there, but an invigorating New Year's welcome all around with no frostbite that I know of or twisted ankles, chipped teeth, etc.

There were noticably less revelers out at midnight this year compared to years past, but still a few fireworks going off all around.

I only got one photo from "the midst" of it. I think the camera wasn't liking the cold. We did manage to get some shots after the completion. Note that Chaco did NOT run in a mere t-shirt, but he'd already stripped down by the time all the stragglers were in.

On a bit of a regretful note, our local AdAmAn climbers did not make it to the top of Pikes Peak for the midnight fireworks show. This has been a tradition since 1922, and no one could remember it ever being called off. Apparently, though, while we low-landers were tolerating the cold and snow, the conditions above tree line were dangerous enough to halt the climb and the show within a mile of the top.

There's always next year! Now back to my resolution making....

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hot pics!

"Is it hot in here, or is it just me??"

"It's soooooooooo hot!"

"Hot Hot Hot!"

"Ssssssss......."

All right, geesh. So, we got the new furnace today. Whimsical Ranter asked for a photo, so here it is. Ain't she a beaut? I'm referring to the furnace, although, Whimmy Ranty could also be considered as such.

One thing I noticed as the installers were here - I'm not much of a homebody. I was forced into exile so as to not leave them here without a homeowner present, so I had to busy myself. What's worse, I couldn't use the computer! Yes, the computer desk is right around the corner from the furnace. Isn't everyone's?

So I was forced into doing teacher OOC work (out of classroom, or "ookwerk") and housewifery. ALL day. I did make a brief escape to walk the dog.

I realized that I typically do my housewifery in bits and pieces. Load of laundry here, scrubbed toilet there, sweep the crud here, dust the bunnies there. It all gets done between other, more fun, more get-out-of-the-house stuff. Just in time to start the bits and pieces all over again. Same with the ookwerk.

But here I was.

My checkbook is balanced, my credit card receipts are categorized, my floors are vacuumed, math lessons are ready, the drawer beneath the oven is crumbless, the pet *ahem* facilities are pristine, practice tests are scored, the human facilities are pristine, and the mysterious pile of dirt has been dispersed. (Remind me to tell you about the mysterious pile of dirt).

And we have a new furnace. It's a gas.
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goodbye summer!

Years ago, as a high school kid, the one event that clearly marked the end of summer was the state fair. Slightly bigger and roudier than the county fair, the state fair was our last hurrah before the carefree days of summer turned into the irresponsible days of high school.

Our marching band would compete in the annual state fair parade, so summers were spent practicing for this anticipated event. Then, we would load up the school busses and travel to the hottest place in the state at the hottest time of year to march in the parade in full-body synthetic band uniform glory. As a flag girl, I don't think I had it as bad as those instrument players, but eventually a point is reached where there's not a whole lot of contrast.

But we were young and tough, those of us that didn't pass out from heat exhaustion anyway, and it was all fun. Besides, once the parade was finished and we'd all rehydrated, there was a mass coed clothing change in the school buses (not as juicy as it sounds - band geeks, remember?), and we were let loose on the state fair!

The rides! The booths! The food! The cowboys! We'd meet back at the busses hours later with our sourvenirs and grime, ready to settle into the school year.

I hadn't been to the Colorado state fair in a while, but yesterday with everyone having the day off, we decided to head on down. We had a great time. Yeah, it was hot. Keeps out the riff-raff.... or not. (Note to Terri: There was not a deep fried cheese curd to be found, believe me, I looked!)

The Grand Champion Dove (?). Yeah, he's a STUD!

I call this one: "Pondering Chickens by the Men's Room"

Meego pans for gold.... don't quit your day job.

Six year old mutton bustin' champion. C'mon guys, you know you want to try this!

All Betty Crocker by the prize winning breads and jellies and stuff.

I call this guy "Hellboy". Nice Hellboy... uh man... bull.... sir. Please stop? Uh... whoa? WHOA!!

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