dress real neat from our hats to our feet

I took a day off from work at the testing center yesterday. I'd looked at the schedule, and it was going to be a light day. We were fully staffed, so I took one for the team and waived my shift. I figured I could get caught up on some responsibilities have a play day. I ended up taking a nice long bike ride, despite the heat, stopped by the library and picked up an indulgent, light-read paperback.

I did have a tutor sesh in the afternoon, so it wasn't a day of total sloth. My high schooler (rising senior) was freshly back from a 2-week summer architecture program hosted by a rather posh out-of-state univeristy.  

We were meeting online, so she showed me the models she'd made and talked about how (surprisingly!) grueling the program was. Seems they really put those kids to work! To me, she seemed to have noticeably matured in those two weeks away, like it's hitting her that she has just one more year left of high school before she goes out into the big world. 

When I was her age, I'd thought about architecture school. It seemed it would be a fun combination of artsy and mathy, but I ended up not going that route and became an engineer instead. As an engineer, I had dealings with industrial designers, which to me, are similar to architects. Instead of designing buildings to be aesthetically pleasing, industrial designers design consumer products to be aesthetically and ergonomically pleasing. 

On one hand, we had design engineers who designed a thing to perform certain functions. On the other hand were the industrial designers who designed the thing to look and feel good. My job was to tweak their combined efforts into a thing that functioned, looked and felt nice, and could also be mass produced at an affordable cost. Oh boo!

The industrial designers had their own building. It was stylish and artsy like the industrial designers themselves. They didn't care to talk about manufacturing costs - too constraining! Who were these nerds (my cohorts, me) anyway!?

Honestly, I enjoyed that job. I don't know if I'm minimal and practical now because I enjoyed the job, or if I enjoyed the job because I was already minimal and practical. Chickens. Eggs.

After our tutor session ended, I was remembering those cool, stylish, industrial designers. Their fashionable clothes, their edgy haircuts, their fancy furniture... jealous much? Maybe. Would I have fit in had I gone that route?

I sketched a Tesla Cybertruck I've seen around town lately. Or it's possibly multiple Tesla Cybertrucks around town - they all look alike, don't they?

Did Elon himself design it? And no one told him , "no"?

day one, digout, and dishes

 

Looks like we've made it to the first of January. Congratulations, everyone.

The revelry at our house was pretty non-existent. We were up at midnight, having watched a weird movie. So I was up and not awakened by fireworks, brushing my teeth at the magic hour.

The movie we were watching was Sorry to Bother You, and it was strange. Had its moments, but then went totally off the rails for about the last third. Can't recommend it. Seems to me it was someone's drug trip/ dream turned into a movie.

We took Chaco back to his house on Friday, our dogs moping around because they miss him and Ella. He lives at what is typically a little over an hour's drive away in Westminster. Dang, they got about a foot of snow there last week from the storm that dropped around 4 inches here. 

Chaco's still in the sling and doing very light PT for another couple of weeks before the bigger PT kicks in. This to say that Magnum and I had some snow shoveling to do at Chaco's.

Otherwise, it's been a nice week of being off of work. I readied some items for donation and scheduled a pickup. Good to start off the new year with a little purge of the old.

We're scheduled to receive our 2nd new dishwasher this week. The first crapped out after a couple of weeks - got stuck in an error mode and couldn't be brought back to life, even after all the troubleshooting. We've been washing dishes by hand for a while now, and it's not all bad.

But in honor of Josephine Cochran, I will accept the new dishwasher - different brand than the first dud - with fingers crossed.

You go, Jo!

storm before the calm

I worked the Saturday shift with Party Girl yesterday. She confirmed, as I expected, that she is also hoping big for Boss's promotion. In fact, she didn't mince her words when the subject came up, stating, "Oh, he needs to get the F*CK outta here", then told me how he held her captive talking about stock car racing while she was trying to "actually get some work done" on Friday.

Boss has been a life long bachelor for all of his 62 years until just a few months ago when he moved in with his "girlfriend" of about 2 and a half years. We consider his living alone for so long to be the main reason behind his long-winded, self-centered monologues. Or is it vice versa?

Wouldn't it be funny if he got the promotion, but kept his current office? Ha! NO!

Either way, girlfriend must be a glutton for punishment or otherwise made differently than the rest of us. 

Anyway, another good week down. I finished up with all my college tutoring for fall semester as students are in the throes of final exams now. Tomorrow is sure to be a zoo in the testing center as it's the last day of finals. The storm before the calm.

I'm not at all on the ball with Christmas prep, but no biggie since we don't make a big deal about it in our household. Still, I like having something for each of the kids to open. And I might finally get some lights hung later today. Neighbors keep putting us to shame.

This reminds me that it's once again time for the box of diabetes to arrive from Magnum's dad's wife. I've mentioned here before how most of it ends up at work breakrooms and/or the trash since I don't know of a good way to get her to stop sending the mountain of store-bought sugar shock each year. It just seems so wasteful.

Maybe she'll forget this year? 

porridge

I have a vague memory from when I was around 3 years old. I was at home with my mom, and she bundled me up and let me go out in the backyard by myself. By myself! I don't think I'd ever really been by myself outside ever before. 

The backyard seemed YUGE, a vast expanse! It was covered in freshly fallen snow. 

And maybe my mom was out there with me, but in my memory, I was alone in that "wilderness", quite mesmerized by the sensation of waddling through the snow. I remember how it felt to move through it in my boots, and the swishy sounds it made, and how comfy I felt in all my bundlage.

This was snow. How enchanting.

Honestly, I'm not a great fan of snow. I don't even ski. I KNOW, I live in COLORADO! So I've skied, but it's not something I'm passionate about, and it's gotten so expensive anyway. And the crowds. I guess I equate my snow bliss with being away from crowds and bustle. 

So this morning, when I stepped outside and was met with surprise snow ("this was NOT in the forecast"), I took it as a gift? Maybe?

Yes. 

What a beautiful morning - not given justice with my cell phone pics and lacking photography skills.

I came across a few others out there - walking dogs or out alone, a few bicycle commuters slowly doing their thing - no one complaining. 

Eventually, I had to turn around and head back home, but I kind of didn't want to. Hypothermia, though... not good.

Sometimes we get just a little bit of snow that only functions to create mud to be tracked into the house.  Other times, we get dumped on, and it makes a mess, creates crap conditions for getting anywhere, and long overstays its welcome.

But once in a while, we get these Goldilocks snows. So my day started out just right.