weekend mash up

From the time we start going to school, I think we become conditioned to school days vs. summer days. Once we've gone past July 4th, I feel like we've passed the halfway point of summer, and I start looking ahead to the next thing. But I'm trying to just enjoy the summer "daze".

Our California vacation helped. It really is good to get away from the same old same old and get a change of place. Now that we've been back, I'm feeling a bit restless, like summer's running out.

• Work at the testing center has been slow, as it tends to be in summer. During spring and fall semesters, we have a pretty steady stream of roughly 50% student tests, 50% professional tests. Summertime brings hardly any student tests - averaging about 1 per day. Unlike last summer, we are now fully staffed, and it feels like we comically step all over each other when something needs to be done. Someone often goes home early.
  
  
• On that note, the college DEI department introduced a "summer reading program" at the end of the spring semester. They provided a list of about 5 books for interested people to rank in order of interest. The survey was to determine 1 or 2 books to be read and discussed. 

I completed the survey, then heard a whole lot of nothing afterward. THIS week, we finally get the word that two books have been chosen, and looks like it will be a fall reading discussion. Oh great, just when things get busy :P .

But oh well, a free book's a free book, so I picked up my copy of [Different not Less]. Seems useful so far. 

The book should be useful for tutoring too. I'd say my most challenging tutees are the ones with unchecked ADHD *give me patience*

• And on that note, I've ended up with 3 college tutees and 1 high school tutee this summer, all very pleasant. A couple of them are REALLY lacking and should probably retake the prerequisite course, but God love 'em, they try.
  
  
• I've almost got my running back to where I was before being befallen with a bum foot followed by a foray into physical therapy. Back to where I was was still trying to get my stamina back after covid two years ago, but it's not awful. I'm glad to be chugging along. 

I also acknowledge that I've aged two more years since then, so I'll take what I can get.

I'm typing this at the downtown library. Just had to get outta the house - that restlessness. Strange mix of cute kids and unhoused adults at the downtown library... 

hermits and bathrooms

Well, this week seems to have gone by quickly. A few bullets of reflection:

• I finished a book this week. The Stranger in the Woods is a story of Christopher Knight, a man who parked his car and headed into the woods of Maine and allegedly lived alone for 27 years.
  
  

I found the book highly annoying. The author seemed to try to make Christopher Knight out as some sort of enlightened woodland sage. But the fact is that he lived in his so-called camp on someone else's land, all the while frequently stealing everything he used from surrounding recreational cabins and a nearby camp for the disabled. 

Anything and everything he ever possessed was stolen: food, clothing, booze, propane, camping gear, car batteries, device batteries, tools, books, magazines, TVs, radios, video games, and so on. He buried his discards at his "camp" a.k.a. dump. He drank so much stolen booze, he became an alcoholic. He was not at all self sufficient - a premise I assumed when I first picked up the book. 

Turns out, he just can't stand being around people, but he sure likes helping himself to their stuff. It became a story mainly because he was eventually caught and sent to jail because of his ongoing thefts. 

I'm reading something better for me now, to get that bad taste out.  We've thought about purchasing some land - a few acres for recreation. I would be open to letting certain others use it... just please ask first?

• Yesterday, we gave a fond farewell to our old gas-powered lawnmower at the recycling place. From there, we stopped at Lowes and picked up a new battery-powered mower. We don't have a lot of lawn, and have plans to decrease it even further, but I'm ready for the grass to grow now.

• An email went out at work last week from one of the Deans or VPs, - I forget which with all the restructuring and changing of titles going on - one of the "higher ups", anyway. She was alerting us to some vandalism that's been happening on our campus.

A couple months ago, the student government association stocked the bathrooms on campus with baskets of menstrual supplies.  All of the bathrooms. The building where I work, for instance, has two sets of "men's/ women's" bathrooms and one "all gender" single use bathroom. 

I didn't realize it at the time, but the baskets were put in designated "men's" bathrooms as well. We do have a decent population of transgendered students, so the SGA was being inclusive of that. And I'm not sure about staff population, but from my small sampling, I work with one transgendered fellow tutor as well as a transgendered fellow test proctor. 

Apparently somebody or bodies has been trashing and creating nasty graffiti concerning the baskets - no doubt regarding their inclusion in men's bathrooms. We're to be on the lookout.

• This coming week is the last week of this semester. It's going to be chaotic with finals - both from my test proctoring job and my tutoring job. 

It's a good chaos, though. I think?

loving ewe

Since succumbing to the crud that is covid, I've used my downtime to better myself. 

HA, LIKELY STORY.

I think I've increased my daily reading time a bit, but I've also spent some time watching what has turned out to be rather educational programming.

Clarkson's Farm, heard of the show? It's on Amazon Prime Video and hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, who is apparently well known for shows like "Top Gear" (I know not of it). Anyway, he becomes the owner of a 1,000-acre farm and decides to give it a go even though he knows nothing about farming. 

The show is both educational and entertaining. I particularly enjoy the bits about sheeping where the show follows Jeremy as he chooses and purchases nearly 80 sheep at auction, attempts to herd them with a drone (doesn't work), hires two rams to impregnate the herd, and then takes part in the lambing season.

WATCH SOME LAMBING HERE

I've learned some things like how sheep rams are basically sperm factories, ewes "need" to be part of a flock, sheep are surprisingly nimble, and ewes can be tricked into thinking another ewe's lamb is their own.  

I do now feel guilty about having eaten lamb and will likely never knowingly eat it again, but the show is well done and passes the time for the quarantined infirm like myself.

As far as my reading, I've been working my way through "Under the Banner of Heaven", Jon Krakaur's book about Mormon Fundamentalists and the murder of a woman and her child in the name of God. 

We lived for nearly 4 years in Utah among the Mormons. Polygamy was joked about, but it was also understood that it wasn't all joking.  

And now reading about the Fundamentalist's teachings while also learning about sheep farming, I notice many parallels between Fundamentalist Mormon women/ girls and sheep. 😳

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:

4. Share something you learned in June.

artificial friends and blood

Last week, we were on a red flag day for high fire danger... and we now know how that ended up.  Today, this is the current scene out  my home office window

Thank you for the thoughtful comments regarding my brother's loss of his home.  The burn area is similarly covered in snow, so it will be a while before any sifting/ cleanup will happen.  The fire  investigation has led to a "religious sect" that owns the property where the fire started.  Geez.

Hagrid and his wife are intelligent and resourceful people.  They'll get through this.  It won't happen overnight, but, baby steps.  

So now it feels like winter, and while the snow hampers things, nobody is complaining.  

I hear people refer to books as "great for a winter day" or "a fun summer read".  Do the seasons determine reading tastes?  I don't think they do mine.  What's a "beach read"?

I just finished Klara and the Sun.  It's set in some unidentified future where "AFs" (Artificial Friends) exist - mainly purchased as companions for adolescents. 


The story is told from the point of view of Klara - an AF to a teen girl named Josie who has some sort of illness.  

I thought the premise sounded interesting as Klara's artificial intelligence makes her very observant as she absorbs the world of Josie's relationships and culture.  

“At the same time, what was becoming clear to me was the extent to which humans, in their 

wish to escape loneliness, made maneuvers that were very complex and hard to fathom”

The author is Kazuo Ishiguro who is Japanese but grew up in England.  I've read other books by Japanese authors and this book feels much like those despite him being "English".  

It got a bit tedious and mundane at times, but the overall story was good and kind of creepy.  The ending felt dark and haunting, but appropriate for this story.  

Another book I'm currently revisiting is Bad Blood by John Carryrou which details the story of Elizabeth Holmes - found guilty this week of 4 counts of fraud - the founder and CEO of Theranos.

I read the book in early 2019 when I was rather riveted by this story.  Omigosh, the money, the LIES, the manipulation, the whistleblowers, the threats...  I just couldn't fathom what the hell she was thinking.  

Was/is she delusional?  A pathological liar?  A sociopath?  A scammer?  Really really clueless?  All of the above?

With her trial just wrapping up after many months, I've been listening to the "The Dropout" podcast.  

“The way Theranos is operating is like trying to build a bus while you’re 

driving the bus. Someone is going to get killed.”

In my past professional life, I was involved in new product development and product launches.  None of that work was for Silicon Valley startups, but still!  The way Elizabeth Holmes kept going on about what a life-changing product her blood analyzers were and where they were operating, thus getting billions of dollars in funding while the machines were repeatedly FAILING AT EVERYTHING just baffles me.  Did she think no one would notice??  

For those not following the story/ case, I won't bore with details.  And for those who are following, you already know.  Suffice to say, the story isn't over just because the jury reached the verdicts.

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Linking up this week with Mama Kat for the prompt:
5. Book review time! What winter read has you snuggled in and turning pages?

SilverLiningness Sunday

Yesterday was a workday for me, and it was thankfully nice and mellow.  My boss and assistant boss both have Saturdays off, so it's the day of the week that I'm "in charge".  Last Saturday was when we had that latest COVID situation frenzy, so while that was exciting, I was happy for a mellow day yesterday.

After work, Magnum and I went for a walk.  We're back to earning points for cash at his work's health incentive program.  I shoot for 10,000+ steps a day for maximum points.  

So we hoofed it about 4.5 miles, and my linked app credited me with about a measly 3,000 steps for the trip.  I don't think so!  Not only that, but we were nearly hit by a irresponsible bitch woman in an SUV failing to yield to pedestrians (us) in a crosswalk.  

So I figured I'm due a Silver Liningness blog post.  Onward.

Winter bicycle update:  I thankfully decided not to buy a third bicycle, deciding that three's a crowd.  My new winter tires have arrived, and I'm going to put them on Ariel and see how they are on dry pavement.  Others have told me they just leave them on from November-ish to March-ish, and they're fine even on no-ice days, so we shall see.  Here they studly sit beside me, patiently awaiting employment under the watchful eye of Catbug...

Why do I have a Catbug plush?  That's another story.  Anyway, I figure if I don't like the feel of them on dry roads, I'll just change out the tires.  It'll be good practice for flats I don't intend to get.

Whachu reading?  I've just finished reading a couple of books by Japanese authors.  They were recommended to me from my Kindle for some reason.  Both books were strange, but I liked their strangeness.  I think.  

Certainly not for everyone, but I went from going, "okay, what is the point??" to "Hmmm, lemme think about that for a bit" with each.

Working in the time of COVID.  This week, the CEO of the healthcare system I work for mandated that COVID vaccines will be required for employment as of April 1.  We've already had some fallout from staff who don't want the vaccine.  I'd decided to get it at the end of this month before the mandate was announced.  I'm thankful to have it available to me and at the thought of protecting our senior residents.  Fingers crossed it does the job.

In closing, I'm thankful for nice long walks, even if I don't get credited the full step count.  And I'm thankful for not being run over by a motor vehicle.

Tooth Fairy gets Hitched!

I enjoy reading, and I haven't quite made the jump to reading only in digital format.  So when I'm not reading blogs, I prefer a book I can hold, with physical pages I can turn.  

So I appreciate libraries.   I appreciate that they purchase books, and store the books in an organized way, and provide repairs/replacements when the books get beat up. I can't remember the last time I actually bought a book that wasn't for work or required for a class. We  have a smallish house.  We need all the space.  I gladly let the libraries store "my" books.

I know some people who don't like the idea of library books and not knowing "where that book's been!", especially in thinking about where a lot of people do the majority of their reading...
But I don't get too bothered by that if the book is in generally good condition.  A bit of fraying around the edges or water damage, I can live with.  Food stains or other stains of unknown origin leave me a bit more wary, but those are few and far between.

Plus, sometimes there are added bonuses - little clues to the others who have read the book I'm reading.  I've come across library slips, Starbucks receipts and the like, even interesting photos.

I came across this little prize about midway through the latest novel I'm reading:

Let me first state that the book is, in fact, a book meant for grown ups!  As much as I enjoy reading, "I love you to the moon and back" out loud, this is not one of those.  I suspect that I'm reading a book that was previously enjoyed by Mrs. Tooth Fairy herself.  

Such a sweet, endearing little missive.  I particularly like the "Dear" and the "Mrs."  And the name Griffin.  

I've mentioned here before that we never did Santa or the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny with our kids.  Just didn't like the thought of when the big reveal that we were liars eventually occurred.  When they would lose a tooth, we'd make big congratulatory exclamations, then just hand them the cash prize, thus eliminating the middle man - or middle fairy in this case.  

However, I do have fond memories of my own adventures in dentition.  Placing the dead tooth, carefully wrapped in Kleenex, under my pillow.  Vowing to stay awake to meet "Mrs. Tooth Fairy", only to zonk out.  

I never included a note with my gift tooth.  Now I'm thinking I should have.  Griffin, my latest role model.  Only about 45 years too late.

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Explore, part II

Since it's difficult for me to let an Illustration Friday go by without me, I got my fix in today for this week's prompt:  Explore.

School year 2004 - 2005 was notable for me because Meego went off to preschool that year.  He only attended twice a week, a couple of hours each time, but for me, who'd had at least one child always hanging off me like a koala bear for 10 years, it was a bit strange to have those 4 hours a week with just myself.  

One "me" activity I did while Meego was getting socialized was read.  I came across a biography of African explorer Henry Stanley, and became wholly engrossed.  After finishing it, I poured through Through the Dark Continent, volumes 1 and 2:  Stanley's own "classic account of explorations of lakes of Central Africa, perilous journey down unexplored Congo River. Incredible hardships, perseverance." 

When I saw the prompt, I was reminded of those afternoons hanging out at the YMCA where Meego's preschool was.  I'd often go for a swim and then read until his "class" was over.  Reading about Stanley's adventures made me feel that my own life was so safe and easy.

I could say that I purposely chose those hours of free time to broaden my mind and knowledge of historical events.  But the truth is...

 I'm just a sucker for a man in a pith helmet.
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teacher becomes student

There was a little boy pulling an empty red wagon.  He walked around, picking things up, and placing them in the wagon until the wagon was overflowing.  I remember a dump truck, a ball, a pail and shovel.  Then he pulled the wagon all over the neighborhood, returning each item to its rightful owner.  Finally, there was a little boy pulling an empty red wagon.  The End.

That was the first book I remember reading all by myself.  The words were sparse, but I remember sitting on the floor of my dad's office / den  and reading while he worked at his desk.  He asked me about the book, so I told him the story and read a few of the words.

He told me how lucky I was to be learning to read, and what a fun process it was.  Until then, I hadn't thought about it much.  It was just part of school and everybody learns it.

And like most other kids, I worked my way up from picture books and monosyllable words to larger, more complex reading.  Never much thinking about it.

I currently have a student who has dyslexia.  I'm certainly not a dyslexia expert, I was hired for other purposes, but dyslexia is part of who he is.  He is a bright, articulate, critically thinking, high school senior.  In fact, he's so bright that sometimes I forget he has dyslexia.  Until he reads out loud.

I was thinking I should learn a little more about dyslexia to help me to better tutor him.  Coincidentally, I have a friend who works for the school district where I am a crossing guard.  Coincidentally, she is an expert in dyslexia.  Coincidentally, she's just put together a Professional Development class through online learning for the district.  There was a message about it in my staff e-mail this week as I did my weekly purge.

All of those coincidentallies were just too coincidental.  This would be perfect!  Self-paced, pre-recorded, could do it right from home, blah, blah, blah.  I did wonder if I, just a crossing guard, could enroll.  But all of the above seemed the district wouldn't care one way or the other, right?

WRONG!  I logged into the professional development site, punched in the course number, and was handily rejected.  I can, however, take CPR and First Aid.  Again.

I'm not upset, maybe just a little bummed because I know the course would be useful to me.  I did feel that it might be taking wrongful advantage of my district employee status.  And there is a book to accompany the course, which my friend says she can get me on the cheap, so it's all good.

Meanwhile, I'm learning from my dyslexic student.  We were reading a passage about the history of certain music genres.  It mentioned polkas, and he said he thought that was inappropriate.

"Okay, why do you think it's inappropriate for the author to mention polkas?", I asked

"OH!  I thought it said 'Polacks'!", he revealed, laughing.

Once again, I'm reminded.  Dad was right.
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gave in

I rarely buy books.  Unless for work or one of the kids' required reading for school, I get books at the library.  I'm a minimalist, remember?  It's not just that library books are free already paid for, the library stores them for me too!

When I first heard about that naughty book that went all viral, I didn't plan to read it.  It's not really my usual fare.  But I gave in to the hype.  Several women I know have read it as well as several I don't know.  From the reviews I've read,  readers either love it or hate it.  But it's curious to me what makes a book get so popular when others go essentially unnoticed.

So, under the guise of in the name of social research, I put a library hold on the book a little over a week ago.  Yesterday, I got the message that it was ready for pick up, so I headed to the library today.

As I searched for my name on the hold shelf, I noticed that Magnum also had a book available for pick up.  Since I'm the resident library gopher, I grabbed his too.  Really, as far as the rest of the family is concerned, when one of them puts a book on hold, it magically appears at the house.  Likewise, when they've finished it, they drop it into a bag, and it's magically returned.  Yah, they'll miss me when I'm gone.

In truth, though, it's a very enjoyable bike ride to the library and back.  It's part of how I justify having two bicycles.

Anyway, back to checking out my naughty book.  I'd planned to just check the thing out at the self-checkout kiosk - the library version of plain brown wrapper.  But Magnum's book was an interlibrary loan, meaning I would have to get it from an actual library person.  *sigh*  Fine.

The actual library person was this older grandmotherly woman and I was suddenly a bit self conscious about checking out the naughty book.  I sheepishly handed her the book along with the claim slip for Magnum's.  I fumbled around with the keyring I keep all of the library cards on.

"Yep, I've got the WHOLE FAMILY'S  cards here, heh", I mentioned as she requested mine then Magnum's cards.  Just going to show what a boring, nothing-out-of-the-ordinary-certainly-no-sexual-deviancies wife and mom I was.

She completed the transaction and handed me the books with a sly, little, not-so-grandmotherly grin.

I was so busy trying to look ordinary, that I didn't bother to see what book Magnum had reserved until I got home and emptied my bag.

It's a book on the many uses of human powered cranking, treadling, and pumping.

Of course it is.
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Day 29, but not really

November is coming to a close and I'm still blogging every day.  Okay, so I didn't find out about the blog everyday bandwagon until half the month was gone, but better late than never!  Last week was a bit of a challenge to post something each day with the holiday and all, but I managed and now we're into the home stretch.

And I'm going to try to keep going. I understand that the mayhem continues, here's the new badge for December. 



Go ahead, click it!  It starts December 1st and runs until December 31st. Just make the commitment to (1) blog daily for the month (nothing more to it than that!) and (2) to support your fellow NaBloPoMo'ers by reading a handful of the other blogs on the blogroll. 

Or not.  I'm not a pusher.

They'll have daily prompts again for those days when you feel your own life is just too boring to share. 

These kinds of things are good for me.  I've learned that, like many, I need some external challenge to keep my interests up.  That's why I could never keep a journal going before the blog age, no matter how "healthy" I'd heard it was.  I'm curious about other bloggers.  Did / Do you keep a written journal?  For any appreciable length of time?  For your eyes only?

Oh yeah, there was also portrait-a-day month which I managed for about a week.  But I did add a few portraits to my "gallery" and so to herald the end of that November promo, I made a video

I didn't embed it here because THIS is not an art blog, but it's a video of portraits, just portraits.  Feel free to click and see.

Now, time to go do the paid employment thing...
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blood thirsty

I just got back from grocery shopping. Monday mornings it's the typical mom crowd at the grocery store. A couple of stay-at-home-dad types too. So cute with their little coupon wallets.

Anyway, I want to see that movie Twilight. I don't know why. I haven't read the book, although I'm like a gazillionth in the queue at the library. I'm not usually a soft-sell when it comes to these hyped movies, and I know the target audience is the teen crowd, but I just want to go see it. Must be that whole obsessed love thing. With a bad boy - a really bad boy - no less.

But there I was at the grocery store and happened to see that they had two copies of the book. Did I buy one? NO, I just don't buy novels, unless it's like at a book fair where some proceeds go to a good cause or something, or if it's a book I know others in the family would want to read. But, alas, it seems that no one else here is at all intrigued by an obsessive love story between a teenaged girl and a vampire. I guess that means that no one here will particularly care to go to the movie with me either. That could actually be a good thing.

It's just as well I didn't buy that book. Work is pretty busy right now, so I need to get back to the FANBOYS and the PEMDAS and the SOHCAHTOA's and stay away from silly vampire novels.

Bonus points - and maybe a prize! - for anyone who knows what FANBOYS, PEMDAS, and SOHCAHTOA's are. The more explanatory the better.
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boys, books, bangs, and Bernoulli

I sit here with the serene sounds of a spanking new high-efficiency furnace wafting through the vents. It's cold today, but not inside my house!

Okay, enough about the new furnace already. Even I'm sick of hearing about the stupid thing. It is a lot more smooth and serene sounding than that old clanger banger we had though.

It was a nice weekend here. Nice in that the weather was crappy. Sometimes we need crappy weather to make us slow down and contemplate. Saturday, Magnum was out of town serving as a board member of some... well... board he's on, so it was just me and the kids. One against three. The weather was crappy, so they weren't big on going outside and playing in the streets. If anything, they brought the street urchins over to our house to play inside.

And I just hung out too. Just that day I received a book in the mail from the generous Terri who took pity on me when I mentioned I was like 300th in the queue for this book at the library - me being too cheap to just go out and buy the thing. So I read several pages of the book while the kids and the various street urchins did who-knows-what to the rest of the house. What else were they gonna do?

And I also trimmed my own hair. I've been known to do this on occassion, but don't very often because (a) cutting the back is a pain (b) it's nice to just go sit and let someone else do it (c) I never seem to be able to sweep up all the little hair ends left behind (d) I've been known to sometimes screw it up and end up at the stylist anyway. But I just needed a little clean up here and there, and I guess I was in the correct mood. I remember a hairstylist once telling me that any given stylist's haircuts can be erratic depending on their mood of the moment. You want to get them on a good day. Kind of like not buying a car that was assembled on a Monday or Friday maybe? Made sense. I guess I was in an okay mood for hair trimming, because it came out okay. And what else was I gonna do?

And we watched Speed Racer on DVD. Not exactly a chick flick, but what else was I gonna do?
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tell me all your thoughts on God

I just finished reading a novel and it's bugging me. That said, I'll give it credit for the fact that I finished it in about a week. Many books go unfinished due to lack of interest, or take me the full 3-week library checkout period to complete.

But, like a green potato chip, it's left an icky taste in my mouth. The plot was intriguing, the writing was.... well, the plot was intriguing.

The book is "Uncharted" by Angela Hunt. It's touted as a blend of Castaway and The Big Chill, with a touch of the television series Lost. But that's not really what made me pick it up. I have seen Castaway and really liked it, never seen The Big Chill, and I am one of the few people on the planet that has never watched a single solitary episode of Lost.

I'm not going to pick apart the plot and all that, but I was about halfway through it when I realized that there would be a message, and I suppose that's what kept me reading. Where was she going with this? I read some of the unfavorable reviews about it, and most of the reviewers were miffed about the fact that they felt duped into reading Christian literature without knowing it. Although I didn't know it at first either, that didn't bother me.

What bothers me is that, in the end, I didn't like the picture she painted of God. Now, I typically avoid getting religious or political here on the old blog, but I'm writing this now, I suppose, because of that green potato chip feeling.

So I'm not going to get all deep into my thoughts on God, but bottom line, I've been taught and have come to believe that God is a loving Father of all his children (us). He doesn't spoil us rotten, but allows us to experience this life including all the interwoveness of good/evil, happy/sad, rich/poor, etc., and to choose our own paths while always leaving the door open to us.

The God in "Unchartered" should have CPS called on him. Screw up once, even just a little, you're out. Don't show your face again. No prodigal sons and no fatted calves for you!

At the same time, though, it does prompt the readers to take a look at themselves and the congruency of their thoughts and actions, so for that it is useful. I'll give it 2 'tater chips out of 5.

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fire and ice

I was at the library last night proctoring a test for one of my students. Yes, that's how I spent the evening of our wedding anniversary. Mag was home being both Mom and Dad and burning my favorite cast iron skillet. Yes, that's how he spent the evening of our wedding anniversary.

So anyway, yeah, I was proctoring this 4-hour test. That's just a fancy way of saying that I hung out at the library like a vagrant while my cell phone alarm went off every 25 minutes or so, so I could crack the whip on the aforementioned student, "Five minutes left, Bucko! Shake a leg!"

It could've been a productive time if I was in a productive mood, but apparently I was not. I spent most of the time reading a book (library, remember?) about a family that moved to the Alaskan bush and went all primal.

I learned that styrofoam makes for a relatively toasty outhouse seat in the middle of arctic winter.

I learned that bunnies are easy to skin while foxes are not.

I learned that one should never ever ever never ever get between a mama bear and her cubs. Or a mama moose and her... moose kids.

I learned that large bull mooses are easiest to shoot when they are distracted by hot girl mooses (meese?).

I learned that a gut pile the size of a recliner can be removed from a good sized bull moose.

I learned that people can happily survive without TV or the internet.

Would I do it? Hmmmm..... I think I'd rather just read about it. Either way, I learned some stuff that, who knows, might be useful someday. And it cooled me off just reading about it. So as I think about it now, my reading indulgence wasn't a total waste.

Hopefully, the same will be true of my skillet.