the here and now

It hardly counts, but is that... is that... snow??

I headed out to the gym this morning, and bits of snow were sort of just spitting at me. It's been doing that for about 3 hours now, and this is the current grand total of  accumulation around the uninviting dog run.

"JANUARY 8TH!", another gym goer exclaimed to me as I prepared for the bike ride back home.

I looked up from my preparations to see a young guy standing there, "FINALLY!"

Our mild winter so far has been on many people's minds, so this parking lot exultation was actually not weird.

So far, it's been a good week to get back into the swing of things after the holiday break. I opened with Boss on Monday after the testing center had been closed for a week and a half. Sheesh, it was like Y2K happened, but 26 years late. Seemed like every computer platform needed CPR to get going, but we were eventually back in business.

It was nice to be back and to catch up with the coworkers. Assistant Boss Blossom was out again for the first three days. Looks like she made it in today. I've mentioned her abysmal attendance, which has been a problem since she started. We feel she's taking advantage of Boss's friendly demeanor with all the time off she takes, but that's between the two of them.

Meanwhile, Sarge wants a full-time position after Mrs. Sarge was replaced by AI and laid off from her full-time job. Sarge would be great as Assistant Boss, and I know he'd snatch it up if it was open. But there's no opening because that's Blossom's job - that she is so often absent from. 

I honestly feel that, if this were a private sector workplace, that switch would've been made a while ago. In fact, I think all of us at work know that... except for maybe Blossom. 

ANYWAY, just venting. I'm off today and trying to be productive. I have already completed two books for the year, shooting to read 26 as I mentioned. My goodreads incentive graphic...

Ahead of the pace! I will say that the two books I read were not great, but at least I finished them. The book I'm reading now, I find pretty engaging: [The Listeners]. It's my fave book of 2026. So far - so not saying a whole lot at this point.

lights, camera...

 Dear neglected blog... you are not alone.

Woo, it's been a hot minute since I visited this space. Well, the start of the spring semester at the college  ramped right up, including the fun meetings, scheduling new tutor students, blah blah. I'm supporting an additional class this semester for tutoring, so getting up to speed and doing plenty of meth math. Also, February is end of year/ start of year for PEO, and I've committed to a second year (but no more!) as chapter prez.

When not doing meetings, math, and other things, I haven't felt like sitting on the computer - hence the blog neglect. BUT things have somewhat settled down to a gentle routine, now, hopefully.

In the midst, I replaced my old cranky phone. It hadn't died yet, but was giving the signs, so I did a pre-emptive strike and upgraded. Nothing fancy, of course. The weather at the time of phone procurement was crap, so I took a couple of mundane photos around the house of other neglected things.

My bicycles, looking at me in harsh judgement, because I have not ridden them since winter decided to get wintry. 

I will say that the city does a nice job of clearing the bike paths in a timely manner. However, there is no clearing of a good portion of streets - just main roads - so getting TO the bike paths is a real challenge.

Then there was pooch Penny, giving this critical evaluation of my dog companion skills during the latest snow storm. I tried telling her that she would hate being out there on a walk, but she wasn't buying it.

The weather's warmer now, so we're in the cycle of melt, refreeze, melt, refreeze, creating much crusty crappy. I'm ready for spring.

A couple of evenings ago, I was home minding my own business, when I suddenly heard what sounded like someone driving by with their car stereo blasting. Except, it seemed to be an unmoving source. Also, the music wasn't the typical thug music coming from a bass blasting car stereo. It almost sounded like... an ice cream truck? With a tricked out sound system??

Laziness Curiosity got to me, and I hit the live feed on the ring camera. Recall our friendly across-the-street neighbors? Now with his 'n' hers Teslas? They were having a Tesla Light Show, which we've since learned is a thing.  Other Tesla friends in attendance. I only managed to capture the tail end.

I'll see if our little skillets can hold a candle.

bricks and mud

[Brickies (don't call it Lego™ even though it's all actual Legos™) Creation Fest] happened once again in downtown Fort Collins this weekend. Once again, my PEO chapter volunteered to run various activity booths and will receive a nice donation from the organizers. 

Sure beats a bake sale, I say!

I rather enjoy this particular volunteer duty. Fun activities, cute families, downtown Fort Collins... What's not to like? Well, the heat, for one thing. But, what doesn't kill ya makes ya stronger.

My duty featured a *Lego* horse race, but I won't bore with the rules. Suffice to say it was enjoyed by many a fest goer, and I somehow managed to make about a 0.4 second appearance in the [instagram promo video] enticing people to come on down.

As with the previous two years I've volunteered, it featured much wholesomeness - attentive parents, cute kids, friendly teens. I particularly liked seeing older kids actually trying to lose the horse race with their younger siblings/ cousins/ friends. One older brother actually confessed, "I'm sorry, I wanted you to win", to his little sis. But it all hinged on the roll of the dice, no real skill involved. He won, fair and square. 

Good times.

Later, last evening, we were absolutely DELUGED  by an aggressive unpredicted thunderstorm. Oh sure, after the thing already moved through, we got alerts for severe weather warnings. 

This morning I went for an absolutely lovely bike ride, and there was a lot of post-storm trash - limbs, mud, guck - around town. Many an underpass was still under a good amount of water along with heaps of "flood mud". 

I confess to actually getting off the bicycle and gingerly making my way through one particularly muddy underpass because it was too spooky to attempt with my skinny tires. That stuff is slippery!

But it's been so hot and dry lately, and this was a nice break from the heat bringing much needed moisture. Everyone I encountered while on my ride seemed to be in a good mood - cheerful greetings all around! Let's not think about politics for a minute!

And all this creation happening reminded me that I've not felt/been very creative lately. 

Feeling heroic from my nearly three whole hours of volunteering, I pulled out the sketchbook.

barometers and babies

Going in to work in a couple of hours. I think this is the last Friday afternoon that I'm covering for coworker Star as she vacations around the globe. Or maybe I've got one more cover, I don't remember at the moment, but I'll be there today. 

A little weekly recap:

• I was zoom tutoring yesterday with a student who attends one of our other campuses. Student lives near my brother, Hagrid, and we were talking about the incoming weather warnings. This weekend is set to be windy and low humidity - a bad combination because it raises the fire danger.

So I asked Student how he fared a couple of years ago in that very scary Marshall Fire - the one that [burned Hagrid's house down].

Well, Student didn't lose his house, but his wife went into labor at just 8 months pregnant. AND, the hospital they were sent to actually was the one that had to be evacuated because of the approaching fire, AND the second hospital they went to was nearly out of beds because of all the birthing women. He said it was because of the pressure drop.

The windstorm that whipped up the fire was the precurser to a significant snowstorm, so the barometric pressure dropped suddenly. After a quick google search, I learned this may affect pregnancies (makes me wonder about other mammals) and send women into labor. Studies are "inconclusive", however. Like full moons making people crazy(er) - mostly anecdotal "evidence"  from nurses saying it's so. Who knew?

• Anyone watching the NCAA tournaments? I've never really paid attention to March Madness, but who can escape the hype around Caitlin Clark and Iowa?

I've not watched any of the games or even highlights, just sort of following along. She has certainly put womens college basketball on the map. But what to do with that basketball talent as a woman? I'm sure she'll be a force in the WNBA and get lots of endorsements, but how big of a following has the WNBA?

I have no clue, or interest, as to what's happening in the men's bracket.

There it is - work, weather, and sports. How's that for standard avoidance chit chat? 

I will mention that my 91-year-old stepfather-in-law is likely in his last few hours unless he's already passed away and I just haven't received word yet. He's become quite frail in recent months and took a significant turn for the worse earlier this week. 

Magnum is in Colorado Springs - where his mom and stepdad live - for work today and sure to be checking in with his mom.

what a feeling

 Congratulations, we made it to March, even with an extra February day.

It seemed like a good day for cheesy puns?

I had today off of work and got a few things checked off the to-do list. I typically have Fridays off, but this was the last one for a while. Coworker Star is leaving on a longish vacation, visiting family around the world, and I'll be covering her Fridays for the next few weeks. 

Around here, our March came in like a lamb, so should we be bracing for how it will end? We had sunny skies and temperatures in the 60's. I ran some errands and took my puttster car for a wash.

Ain't she pretty? Now for sure, we'll have a blizzard

She's 24 years old. Not too shabby for an old lady, I guess. 

She does spend most of her time sitting around in the garage, however.

And just between you and me, she is pretty  crap for driving in snow...

Speaking of old ladies, this week, I decided I should "not skip leg day" at the gym. I don't usually do much lower body strengthening, figuring bicycling and running had me covered. WELL, through my recent physical therapy Journey, the weaknesses have been revealed. 

And now I'm SO sore, youse guys. 

places to go, people to see

Work was closed yesterday because of the weather. There were no classes scheduled because of the holiday, but "other stuff", including us, had to shut down.  I snagged this pic of my neighbor clearing snow with his leaf blower as seen through our frosty front window.

The sub-zero temperatures make for very fine, very powdery snow, so a leaf blower works quite well as a snow blower. I went out a little while later and cleared our snow the old fashioned way - shovel.

Today, the college is on a delayed start, so I have an extra hour this morning before heading in. The university and school district are both fully closed for the day. So much for peer pressure. 

I got the automated call last evening about the delayed start, the robotic voice stating,

All campuses will be on a delayed start for Tuesday 1/16/1924...

and I'm thinking what the heck kinda automated messaging service are we using that, 24 years into it, doesn't realize we're in the 2000's now?!

I think I was pretty productive despite all the cabin fever. After my big winter break declutter, I got going on a digital declutter - cleaning up and organizing files and getting rid of old crap. It was, strangely, nearly as cleansing as clearing the physical stuff.

My laptop's telling me that it's -14F and partly sunny. I'll leave the house in about an hour and the outlook then is for -3F. But by the time I get off work, we will hopefully be in the mid-20s. Above zero!

That sounds downright balmy!

so... what're you wearing?

Greetings from the freezer. I know we're not the only ones stuck in an arctic blast. 

Today we enjoyed some psychologically warming sunshine, and I noticed a reading of 12F on our thermometer earlier this afternoon. Strange how 12F seems so warm.

Yesterday, after I got home from work, we decided to test our outerwear on a 2-mile walk in 3F. We only got a couple inches of snow, so drifts weren't a factor.

So we bundled up, and I'm happy to report the gear did its job.

For reference, I wore:

• leggings under jeans under windpants
• turtleneck under hoodie under gore-tex parka
• balaclava under ski hat under goggles under hood
• wool glove liners under insulated trigger mitts
• two pairs of socks under water resistant hikers.

All performed wonderfully, and I remained quite cozy toasty, although I wouldn't want to make a habit of this. 

freezing and delinquency

I'm psyching myself to go in to work in a little while. My laptop says it's -10F outside right now. But clear. I'll latch onto "clear". Today's high is expected to be 3. Three whole degrees.

Forecast is for us being in the deep freeze for the next few days. I'm looking forward to Wednesday. It's just as well I'm scheduled to work this Saturday, because the weather outside is frightful. 

Earlier this week, a guy came in from Wyoming with a couple of teenage boys. He's been in before with one of the kids who is working toward his GED. I had assumed they were father and son. So, this week they were back along with another teen, and I thought maybe the guys are friends and arranged to take their tests on the same day so as to carpool.

Turns out that's sort of the case.

So we got them going on their tests, they were sitting a couple of seats apart while doing different GED modules. A little while later, a woman who was in the room taking another exam came out for a bathroom break and told us the two young guys were whispering and giggling.

"I've been a school teacher before, and I'm over it", her words.

Party Girl went in and gave the GED boys the what for, saying if they continued, we'd have to cancel their tests. In the meantime, Boss went out to the waiting area to let "Dad" know they'd been warned once, and if there's a next time, they're outta there.

So Dad says, "Tell 'em they get a RED DAY for today" and, "If they get kicked out, they'll have to discuss that with their probation officer".

Ooh, I finally put 2 and 2 together. We occasionally get these kids from a juvenile center in Wyoming to take their GEDs. They always come in with a nice adult person - some sort of escort/guardian. The kids are typically very polite - "please, thank you, yes ma'am/sir..."

They don't normally come in more than one at a time. Maybe they were going for efficiency this time.

It was then that I realized the boys were dressed the same: matching khakis, matching grey pullovers, even their black under armour shoes matched. 

Yeah, so up until that point, I guess my Situational Awareness was not quite up to speed.

Anyway, they completed their tests without further incident. Afterward, I was cleaning up their scratch paper and such. One kid had completed the math module, and his scratchwork showed much adeptness. Being a math nerd myself, I'd say his scratchwork indicated that he rather enjoyed himself. 

The next Elon Musk?

midweek check-in *YAWN*

The new assistant boss FINALLY started working this week. It was a good 2-month process from the time we stopped taking applications to getting through the hiring process to actually getting a person in house. She's fitting in nicely while we've been training her up. Classes start up again next week for the spring semester, so we'll be running on all cylinders shortly.

I've been feeling a bit restless with the downtime from tutoring and hoping my tutor schedule fills up nicely with the start of the new semester. I did get a lot of decluttering accomplished during the break. And I'm sure I can find more to purge. Seems like there's always more.

In other projects, I really want to get started on painting most walls of the house. EVERY wall is "rental white", as our house was a rental when we first moved here. Seems like a good after-purge project.

I'm off work today and have a few errands to take care of. It's crappy windy today, but wind seems to be the main weather phenomenon without rain and snow and whatever else the east coast is getting. I was reading reports of high risk for downed power lines and power outages in some parts of the country and thinking how we don't typically have that problem. Our powerlines are underground, so power outages are usually caused by some freak thing like a squirrel getting into a transformer box.

Now I probably just jinxed it, and our power's going to go out... Well, we do have a lot of neighbor squirrels.

numbers

Sick of inktober updates? Grab the barf bag... 

I'm still alive with it, four more prompts to go. I think a couple of my pens are running on fumes, but they'll have to hold on a little longer.

Aside from that nonsense, October has seemed to have flown by. We've got real snow forecast for the weekend, so time for everyone to demonstrate how they forgot their winter driving skills.

Halloween isn't looking too rough, weather-wise. It's difficult to gauge how much trick-or-treat activity we'll have in our neighborhood. The college had a Halloween event this past Wednesday for students and staff with young kids. I'm guessing they chose Wednesday since that was the day closest to actual Halloween with the most in-person classes going on? Before the snow comes?

Anyway, the bits I saw were pretty cute. The school's mascot is the Wolves, so the event was titled "We're Wolves!" *snort*

I have no costume, the house is not decorated. There are a few houses in the neighborhood decked out for Halloween - houses where young kids live. Our neighbors have a young daughter, and their front yard features a glowing skeletal unicorn in the style of My Little Pony that is both cute and creepy.

Here we are being lazy empty nesters.

I have to leave in a bit to go scribe a test for "Ben", the calculus student with cerebal palsy. Someone asked what would happen if I wasn't there to scribe, and I'm pretty sure that someone from the math department would be called upon to do it. I rather enjoy doing it, though, and I'm thankful to have time in the schedule. Apparently, disability services is trying out some software that can do voice-to-text for math, and I'm curious as to how good it is.

For now, it's me. From the college's point of view, I imagine I'm a pretty cheap option.

water babies

I think I've become somewhat acclimated to the heat of summer. I looked up some tips for doing so, and bottom line, you just have to go outside and be uncomfortably hot for a while. At the same time, however, go too far outside your comfort zone and set yourself up for being heat sensitive forever. It's a fine line.

Apparently, there are scientific physiological processes at work other than just tricking our brains to "get used to it". As one article I perused puts it:

"Heat training has been shown to increase your standard rate of sweat, which in turn helps you regulate your body temperature. Further still, the body naturally will increase its volume of blood plasma (An adaptation similar to how altitude training increases your red blood cells)"

In short, your body learns to sweat more - bathing you in evaporative cooling. I took part in an impromptu study of such on Saturday.

Saturday was our town's annual Brickies™ (don't-call-it-LegoⓇ ) Creation Festival. The women of my P.E.O. chapter work the various booths, and, in turn, the downtown association gives us a pile of money. This was my second year volunteering. 

As with last year, this year's was a cute, wholesome, fun time. I mean, really. If you're feeling down about hearing of bad parents or thinking that kids are just a bunch of little hell-raisers, go spend some time at a Lego Fest. The contrast is rejuvenating!

I showed up at my assigned time of around 2pm. We had shade canopies, but it was still hot hot. The shade helped somewhat, but there was very little breeze. In fact, I looked down at the sweaty P.E.O. sister whom I was relieving of duty (she's very short), and she told me how her companion had to bug out early to barely avoid succumbing to heat exhaustion.

No sooner had I set down my bag that I could feel the sweat rolling down my face. This continued to be the case for the remainder of the afternoon a la...

this guy from Airplane.

And certainly not just my face. I periodically checked my shirt for noticeable signs of the great drenching. Thankfully, nothing seemed to break through the surface while I knew all too well what was happening underneath. 

As far as I can tell, I didn't frighten any children away from my station with my "increased standard rate of sweat and volume of blood plasma" as the line to take part was relentless until closing ceremonies were announced. 

More importantly, we all survived.

down by the crick

Hot enough for ya?  This morning I stepped outside for a run at what is usually a pleasant time for such activity. But alas, it was already 76 degrees. Gross.

I realize 76 degrees would be pleasant for some, but we're spoiled here, and it's typically a good 10+ degrees cooler at that time in the morning.

Strangely, conditions seemed to improve as time went on. I ran mostly following a creek, which proved to be my, literally, cool friend. I crossed many other runners, walkers, bicyclists, and such also wanting to beat the heat. 

Last week on reddit, runners were discussing amazon prime day deals. I skimmed and saw heart rate monitors, gps watches, etc. Nothing I was interested in. Then someone said, "Nuun tablets half price!", and I was all, "what are nuun tablets?"

Well, I guess I'll find out, because I ordered me a 4-pack prime deal.

In somewhat related news, read about this guy? Assassinated while running. Hmm, bet he thought he was doing something healthy. He regularly posted his running and bicycling routes on the Strava app for all to see. Not a good idea for a commander during a war against Ukraine, or any place else for that matter. 

I, like many others, use Strava for logging runs and bicycle rides. Once again, I'm grateful I'm a nobody. But this is another example of how surprised I am with what people will post online. Strava, naturally, includes privacy settings, but the former commander didn't use them, apparently. It's like some facebook friends who give updates about how they just landed at some airport destination far far away from home for a specific number of days, a la , "Hey, go rob my house!"

On the flip side, Strava can be a handy thing, like last week when a woman was cooling down after her run and was approached by perv who tried to "expose his genitals" before she left the area. She got some snapshots from afar and posted a be-on-the-lookout to a local Strava group. 

She didn't get a good picture of the perv himself, but that's a pretty distinctive vehicle. 

Seen him?

sometimes sunshine, go away

 Some Tuesday reflections

3 random thoughts/ moments:

• Are mullets making a comeback? I've been seeing mullets on more kids and young adults than I remember in recent years. I've gotta say, some people are able to rock a mullet. I don't hate them.
  
  
• Young guy came into the testing center for a certification test having to do with his job in horticulture. Party girl put him through the whole don't-cheat pocket check before seating him for the test.
  He responded with, "wow, this is worse than when I went to jail!", which had us giggling.
  
  
• Speaking of Party Girl and horticulture, she expressed her interest in trying psilocybin, or magic mushrooms - which are legal in our state - to improve her mood, with guidance from a knowledgeable doctor.
  She's totally given up pot and hard liquor and "only drinks beer".  She pretty much confessed to me that she knows she's an alcoholic, and she said it in such a way that assumed I knew it already, which I did. I just wasn't sure if she knew it.

News that caught my attention:

• 4 children found alive after 40 days in the jungle. The youngest was 11-months old!
• World record 2 miles in 7:54. I'd be hard pressed to run one mile in 7:54.
• Denver Nuggets are NBA champs. I don't follow the NBA, but "Denver Nuggets" and "Champions" aren't words that typically show up in the same sentence, so I suppose it's noteworthy.

Triumphs:

I have enough regularly scheduled tutees for summer to nicely round out my working schedule. I'm not going to take on any more students, so can settle into a modicum of predictability for the next few weeks (ha! as if).

Challenges:

We've been getting well above average amounts of rain for the last month or so, which isn't really a challenge. I appreciate the break from the hot 'n' dry. But the rain has flooded some areas, and it does put a literal damper on my bicycle commuting. 

Magnum got himself some trekking poles a couple of weeks ago. His knees don't like hiking downhill, so he mostly avoids it. He hasn't yet hiked "the tooth" (Horsetooth mountain) right here in our "back yard". It's such a local landmark, it seems illegal for him not to have hiked it in the three years we've lived here. 

I've been meaning to go up again now that it's summer, and Magnum says he'll test out the trekking poles and join me. They'd better work, I'm not carrying him down. In the meantime, we're waiting for the trail to be less muddy and mostly less hail-y and lightning-y. 

One thing learned from triumph or challenge:

Work Study shared with me a list she compiled with activities for getting out of her comfort zone/ routine. It's easy to get stuck in a rut. It's been too long since I've done much exploring outdoors. Rain or shine, just go.

come again another day

Everything is soggy. 

We've had a gentle falling rain for the past 24 hours or so. Kind of odd for these parts. I went for a short bicycle outing this morning, and on the way back home, decided to take the long way. I had an actual raincoat on, so why not?

There's an appealing calmness when rain is gently falling like that.  Here, we're more likely to get violent thunderstorms that blast through and wreak havoc, maybe throw down some car- or roof- totaling hail. But not this gentle make-a-youtube-to-lull-people-to-sleep rain.

So I took advantage of the rain and my raincoat and the fact that I have the day off. With the spring semester over, I have no tutees for the next few weeks.

I came across this mini swamp amid a cacophony of frog noises. I recall reading once that, if you hear wildlife noises, it's usually an indicator that mating is happening or trying to. 

Expect tadpoles soon.

I snapped the soggy pic below from near the area I captured that Goldilocks snow a few months ago.


Goldilocks rain this time. 

                

Recently, at work, we were talking about how people form close "relationships" with inanimate objects. This because we had a pink gel pen left behind by a student who swore she wouldn't forget it because it was her "favorite pen". 

A cart outside in the hallway was stocked full of "favorite" water bottles left behind. 

And we all fessed up to having placed similar sentimental value on items that are otherwise easy to replace.

Pretty silly, actually.

During a short hiatus on this morning's ride, my good friend, bicycle Violet and I got a snarky kick out of the notion.

life gets warmer

The high school near us serves as the school district stadium. There is a raucous track meet happening there currently. I can hear the announcer calling athletes to their events, bringing back memories of my track olden days in high school. Butterflies in the starting blocks. Better them than me.

It's a beautiful day for a track meet, actually. I'm liking this spring weather. Each day lately, when I emerge from the front door, this guy is hanging out.

He knows he's gorgeous and happily poses for photos, but has yet to let me pet him. He belongs to a family across the street, so I'm not feeding him. I think he just comes over here to taunt our cat, Napolion, whom we no longer let outside. 

Technically, it's against the law to let cats roam about willy nilly, but plenty of cat owners do it. We decided we'd abide the law, much to Napolion's disgust.

Yesterday was my last tutor session of the semester, so I've got downtime on the schedule that I'll try to use wisely. Monday will be busy busy with testing for the last day of finals. Then onto the quiet lull of summer semester.

I caught a bit of King Charles III coronation through news networks this morning. Not the long, drawn out pomp, but a 2-minute "cliff notes" version. So much royal regalia. Plenty of comments on Harry's absence on the balcony, since it's just for "working royals". Funny, no mention of Andrew *ahem*

The nice weather and royal pomp reminds me to reserve my spot for the annual Tour de Corgi.

It'll be here before we know it!

nerdz, forgotten and steamed

A couple of weeks ago, temps got to about 80 F. Hot. I stashed most of the winter clothes and brought out the summer collection. 

As expected, that jinxed the whole thing, and this week we got back to 30's and snow. Not bunches of snow, though. Just enough for muddy pawprints throughout the house.  It won't stop the impending heat.

Yesterday, Magnum and I bundled up for an old-folks-go-get-coffee walk. We decided to dust off our geocaching archives, we haven't gone geocaching probably since before covid. 

I was surprisingly able to remember the username and password and learned that we'd logged 97 caches. Three more and we'd hit triple digits. Excitement ensued.

We noticed a couple of caches along the way back home, so set out to find them. In our freshly caffeinated states, we managed to make quick, satisfying work of the little treasures. So here we sit at 99.

Geocache no. 99 for the nerdz

At work, I guess Boss's status has finally been upgraded to reflect his promotion. A new nametag - we refer to it as the "vanity plate" - arrived for him last week.  And now it appears as though there is no one to approve time sheets for us lowly part-timers - a.k.a. all of us except for Assistant Boss. 

There's been no talk about who or what will be in place of Boss's previous position, but I'm at least expecting to get paid next payday per someone's approval?  We have job titles, but maybe we should just start going by "The Forgotten".

The semester is winding down, stress levels are high among the tutees. Although some tutees don't seem as fired up as others, suggesting they're already planning for a do-over next semester. As a student, I don't recall ever considering taking a class more than once, but I see it happen with surprising frequency. 

In other breaking news, I made steamed rice instead of boiling it on the stovetop (no thanks, I don't want a rice cooker)

It came out perfect. Why had I not thought of this sooner?

spring is springing

 Aah, spring. Time for... wet, sloppy snow.

We got hit sometime in the overnight into the morning with a surprisingly large amount of snow. I looked out at around 5:30 this morning and saw a good 8 to 10 inches on our back deck, although the forecast said 3 to 6 inches by noon.

I was scheduled to work at 8am. No notification from the college, so figured travel must be fine. HA! Maybe the snow was just a fluffy 8 to 10 inches? But... March is not the time of year for fluffy.

And no, it was the sloppy heavy spring snow. Thank goodness for the transit bus, I thought. Staff shortages had cancelled the bus that goes to the college last fall, but the route was recently restarted. Although I'm a little less than two miles from campus, this was not a day to walk or bike or even drive my teeny-tired Toyota if I didn't have to.

I trudged to the bus stop. While there, a diehard runner when loping by, high-kneeing it through the thick mass. It wasn't particularly cold out - about 25 F - nice for morning run if you like loping.

Anyways, I made it to campus a few minutes early for my shift since I'd ridden the bus. Maintenance crews were busy plowing, shoveling, salting... Parking lot was still pretty empty.

I got into the testing center, shook off the snow, removed the outerwear, fridged the lunch, then headed to the ladies room. That's when the announcement came over the PA that the campus was closing for the day.

Whaaaaat? Announce the closure at 7:40am when classes and other facilities start at 8am? People were already out fighting the weather traffic wars trying to get in, or, like me, had already arrived. 

Okay fine. Another day of inefficiency to go along with Friday's inefficiency. I headed back to the testing center to redon the outwear, grab the lunch, etc. 

*Locked*

Yeah, once campus closes, all the doors - inner and outer - are automatically locked by security. Badge access means nothing. So I had to go to security and have them let me back in.

Then I realized, the bus to take me back home was due to arrive in about 10 minutes. I needed to hightail it off campus and cross a busy road to get to the stop. Throw the outerwear back on, grab the lunch, zip up and go!

Made it with about one minute to spare. I figured, if I missed the bus, I could Donner Party it back  home if I needed, but the sidewalks were a mess - covered in road vomit thrown up from the plows.

Despite the plows, the roads weren't a whole lot better. The bus arrived, and I was all glad I'd booked it to the stop. Then... the bus got stuck. Of course it did!

Bus driver spinning the wheels, back up, go forward, spin the wheels, back up, go forward, spin... We'd get it going just enough, but then the flow of traffic wouldn't give space, so we'd have to stop and be stuck again. 

I was almost ready to get out and push. A transit bus. Just for at least the illusion of productivity. Then I realized I was glad I'd stopped in the restroom before leaving campus.

This went on for maybe 10 minutes until a bus employee with a bright vest came out and blocked one of the lanes of traffic so the bus could reenter. Back home. I WILL do something productive.

tldr: snow day!

let that one go

We're enjoying spring-like weather around here this weekend. Whoop it up because it won't last, so I'll try to live in the moment.  

On that note, Winter Bike-to-Work Day was Friday morning. It was sunny, no real wind to speak of, icy in patches. 

It was 15 degrees. We noped out. That was too cold to be spending that long outdoors and bicycling around town. The coffee and sweet rolls are only so warm.

For the record, I did bike to work later in the day when the temps made it into the 30s. So, I biked to work,  I just didn't bike-to-work. 

Other weekly reflect-upons:

It's changing of the guard time in PEO. My new chapter asked me to be Vice Prez. This means they've unspokenly asked me to be Prez this time next year. I said, "yeah okay, why not..." We'll see what the year brings.

My coworker, Party Girl, confided to me that she's cut off her bff. Bff is a friend that Party Girl grew up with and has been texting with regularly since they reconnected a couple of years ago.  We'll call him "Mo". Party Girl would give us little anecdotes about what Mo's been up to as he's a bit of a character.

So I went into work on Thursday and Party Girl quietly told me she'd cut him off and told him to not contact her anymore, she was clearly upset. She realized there were some red flags with his personality. Then, in their last conversation, Mo mentioned to PG that he'd witnessed a "sexual assault" (I don't know the details) on a girl from a boy in a high school classroom in which he was working as a substitute teacher. Instead of reporting the incident, he just made the kid do a few pushups in the hall. No other reprimand, no reporting it to school officials.

Party girl was livid, disgusted - she wouldn't detail the assault when she told me - and decided to immediately cut Mo off. She said she'd been up late the night before ruminating on her and Mo's relationship by writing writing writing.

Now, I know this is something PG does. Last spring? When we had that issue with Nurse Ratchet and ended up reporting her to HR? Party Girl went to a back room and ranted with pen and much paper while working things out in her mind. It's an effective coping strategy for her.

Anyway, I told her I was proud of her for realizing the relationship was toxic and cutting Mo off, regardless of their long friendship history. 

I give Party Girl a hard time sometimes (in my head) because of her drinking problem that she seems to take a sort of college girl pride in. But on the other hand, she is strangely observant, thoughtful, and  responsible. 

Who knows what she'd be like without the booze?

ice, ice, and baby

During an outing earlier this week, maybe I was flashed?

A patch of ice in the street seemed rather happy to see me?

I remembered being greeted by a similarly frisky ice formation in our dogs' water dish a few years ago.

So no, it wasn't happy to see me. It was cold in just the right way. 

At the time of the dog dish incident, I was flummoxed.  I remember looking up to see if something was dripping down to form the phallic ice monument.

But no, I learned it can happen if conditions are right while making the transition from water to ice. In small bodies of water, ice begins to form on the outer rim and works its way in. Since water expands when it freezes, if conditions are right, a small hole forms in the center of the ice, and the expanding water pushes up while freezing, and... success!

Here he is, another angle.

They are given the so fancy name: ice spikes.  

I googled and found - among those things to stretch over shoes - plenty of photos of nearly pornographic birdbaths and such. 

So that was my exciting week. You?

Things got a bit busier at work with the spring semester now in full swing. Math students are already panicked, and there are not enough math tutors to go around to accommodate all one-on-one requests, so I've been asked to do some group sessions. Okay?

Speaking of groups, we got together yesterday with all the "kids" for a belated celebration of Chaco's birthday. It was a cold grey day that included a couple more inches of fluff snow, but a nice gathering. We placated our chilliness with heaps of good food at a nice local restaurant we'd been wanting to check out.

As always, it was good to catch up on everyone's doings. Chaco's shoulder is progressing as expected since the surgery last month. We played a couple rounds of "Wits & Wagers", and a question about Elizabeth Taylor came up. None of the young guys knew who she was. Sheesh, I'm old. 

And speaking of catching up, Magnum and I finished season 1 of  Yellowjackets. At the start of the season, I was under the impression that it would be a one-and-done season with beginning, middle, end. But NO! The final episode left more questions than answers, so... season 2. 

Everyone's hungry, winter's coming, they've tripped out on 'shrooms, and one of the girls is pregnant. Hmmm, what's to eat?  Helps to pass the time during these cold winter months. 

It's currently 3 degrees F outside, but I'm feeling a bit cabin feverish. Time to get my moneys worth from the outerwear, I suppose. 

iced, joyous, brokenhearted

It's a thankfully clear sunshiney morning as I sit for this weekly wrap-up post. There is a lot of snow and ice hanging around from this week's storm. We rely a lot on the sun for taking care of these things, and the sun's been slacking.

My less than 2-mile walk to work on Thursday was like crossing Donner Pass in parts, but I will give a shoutout to the parks department for promptly and thoroughly clearing the bike paths. Getting to and from the bike paths is another story. Good thing for spikey shoes. 

Speaking of clearing, I've started reading Marie Kondo's second book, Spark Joy. The "master class" follow up to her first book on tidying. 

The first book helps readers get rid of clutter, this book aims to help organize the remains. I think I have more clutter to get rid of first. It's not as joyous around here as it could be.

And speaking of clutter, things are still being sorted at work regarding much restructuring. Duties will likely shift a bit in my department once Boss fully moves into his new position, but no one knows when that will be and what precise shifting is to happen.

In the meantime, I've been training a new coworker whom I will call Gomer (he's an ex-Marine). Nice guy, catches on fast. He's confided in me on a couple of things regarding Boss, wondering if it's only happening to him, Gomer. 

"No", I assured him. "He does those things to all of us, and we are all annoyed by them" - mainly Boss's penchant for talking too much about himself and butting into business where he doesn't know the full story. It's embarrassing really. He's fine if he stays in the office doing Boss things, but whenever he comes out to deal with a customer or student, we all brace for the uncomfortable impact. Can't wait for him to move to his new location.

And speaking of annoyances, I was out enjoying a lovely run this morning. I'm thankful to still enjoy running at my age. No complaints from the various joints. But honestly, I've been sucking wind a bit ever since I had covid last June/July. 

Nothing terrible, and maybe "sucking wind" is a bit harsh, but I'm a little off and just don't have the same pace and stamina of pre-covid me. 

I've visited some discussion threads on the topic, and it seems recovery time for sucking wind is all over the place. So... patience.

As long as I can still beat the mayor.