I, robot

Two weeks of summer break, and I'm having trouble keeping track of what day it is. 

I've been working a few extra shifts in the testing center - which never sleeps - so that's helped somewhat. The college summer session began yesterday, and I've already got one tutor signup whom I'll meet tomorrow. Thursday. Yes. Tomorrow is Thursday.

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying the extra free time. Today, I went to Discount Tire and had a set of new tires installed. Ever been to a Discount Tire? The entire staff is so dang nice and courteous, it's almost weird. Like Stepford Wives, but Stepford Tire Shop Staff. I'm not complaining, since human interactions become less and less these days.

Speaking of human interaction, of the jobs that have been replaced by AI, I fully expected tutors to fall away years ago. But here we still are. In fact, both my jobs at the college are being performed by AI, but there are still those who want real-life tutors and real-life test administrator/ proctors, and I guess I can understand that. 

AI tutors won't genuinely sympathize when hearing, "as if I'm ever gonna have to [insert annoying math concept here] when I get a job!"

AI test proctors won't compliment your cute shoes or empathize at how worthless women's pockets are when checking for cheat notes.

And speaking of unplugging, I'm enjoying these late springtime days. I caught some goose babies and a curious horse on my morning wanderings yesterday.

That was Tuesday. Which makes today Wednesday.

I think?

something old, something new

ME: So... y'know we close at 4:00, right?

HIM:  I thought you close at 5:00

ME: Nah, Fridays it's 4:00

HIM: FUUUUUUUCK

Just one of the conversations I had last Friday in the testing center. Aah, finals week. This particular student walked in at around 3pm for his 2-hour final, due that day. I know him from tutoring. He's a concurrent enrolled high schooler, racking up college credits. He'll be halfway to his engineering degree already by his high school graduation.

He's intelligent for his age, but not the most punctual... or time aware.

Once resigned to his fate, "Welp, I only need a 38% on this final to pass the class".

"I'd hope that's doable", I replied. And apparently it was.

And just like that, the semester's done. After the frenzy of activity in the days leading up to finals, things are now very quiet on campus until summer session begins in a couple of weeks.

I've got a few things on my to-do list between now and then. For one thing, I have a doctor again. Recall that I was doctorless for several months as my old practice underwent upheaval and is no longer in our network. The new place wouldn't take me until it'd been a year since my last checkup. I finally reached that milestone.

Saw the new doctor, who then got the ball rolling on all the things: blood screen, mammogram, colonoscopy...

In the chaos of the old office upheaval, some of my stuff was missing from the records. For one, I knew I'd had a mammogram since the last they'd reported.

This to say how handy this blog is, because I figured I probably mentioned the last mammogram here because how weird is that? Bingo. Found it. Who needs medical records?

And speaking of archives, I did manage to find our Sam signed napkin from the wedding as well as Sam and Katherine's page from the guest book:

         

My brother made the annotation of where they were from, lest anyone wonder.

In other activity, we're this close to completing the purchase of that big pile of dirt we looked at a few weekends ago. About 50 acres of dirt, actually.

There goes the neighborhood.

not a minimalist, aliens among us

Thursday was technically my last day of spring break.  Friday, I worked in testing, which 'never' takes a break. Since I filled in for Test Boss on Monday, I had but 3 fun-filled days of spring break. No girls-gone-wild here, but I enjoyed not having to be anywhere at anytime.

Tuesday, I hauled a donation to the thrift store - always a fun time. I browsed the bargains for a while. A few months ago, I was in there on another Tuesday and learned that Tuesdays are Senior Discount day. Then I was smacked in the face with the realization that I'm eligible for the Senior Discount. Egads, when did that happen?!

While I love a good declutter, I've slowly come to the realization that I actually no longer identify as a "minimalist". A while ago, I perused some discussion boards around "minimalism" and "simple living". I sensed a common theme among many participants. 

It wasn't just that they didn't have much "stuff", but they also steered clear of obligations, responsibilities, employment, relationships...

And I thought, well, that's not me.

Recently, I was at the joyful Happy Whisk blog, where she was enjoying a good declutter. I asked her how her hobbies, of which she has many, meshed with her minimalism. She affirmed that she was not a minimalist, but rather

 "I make room for what I love to do".

Marvelous! So THAT'S what I'm doing when I declutter! Hadn't really put it in those words, though.

In work updates, we have a new coworker. "Daffodil" started in late January. She's fitting in nicely, and I enjoy working with her. Other than Boss and Blossom, we are all part-timers. Since I just work one shift a week now, I've not had much time to get to know Daffodil, but I worked with her both Monday and Friday this past week, plus we were a little less busy than usual since the students weren't around.

She is in her late 20's, moved here recently with her boyfriend, and no kids. I'm not sure why she wanted a part-time job, but maybe just took what was available from jobs that interested her. Yesterday, she wore a skirt, and I noticed a tattoo peaking out between the top of her sock and the hem of her skirt, so I asked her about her tattoos. 

She showed us the one I'd seen peeking out - a roses-and-dagger design - and one higher up on her thigh. The one on her thigh is a triangle, similar to [The Eye of Providence], but not exactly. She explained that she and her best friend got that tattoo together based on their interests in "alien conspiracy theories". 

Well all righty then. I'm honestly curious to hear more from her thoughts on that 👽

HR logjam, diversions, over here gagging

I've got extra shifts in the testing center again this week. Our new coworker was scheduled to start last week, but they have to make it through all the HR onboarding tasks. Since everything came to a standstill over the winter break, nothing happened with the onboarding, so the start date was pushed out two weeks. So... more shifts for me, which works out nicely since tutoring has yet to begin. 

I'm about to finish another book. This will be number 4 for the year. It's all part of my staving off doom scrolling and social media. Who knew it could be so easy?

I often think I should just chuck the f4cebook account, but it is useful for some things. We don't have a good source of local news around here, so I follow the local law enforcement pages for news I shouldn't ignore. Then there's marketplace, which has come in handy, damnit.

In other diversions and despicables, we'd been watching Peaky Blinders, which is really well done IMHO, but with much violence and darkness and repulsive characters. I finally threw in the towel in the last season. I just googled the ending and decided, okay, no need to watch anymore.

I'm like our cat, Napolion, trying to hide in my mug. Okay, he was actually going after the dregs of my tea. 

I can't imagine he actually wants it, and he does have plenty of water bowls for pets to choose from. I think he's just asserting his alpha-ness and displaying his lack of respect for boundaries...

...and clearly I let him, snapping a pic instead of shooing him away. 

He kills mice with that mouth. Such a jerk.

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.

wintering

Back to work tomorrow after a 2-week hiatus. Part of me is chomping to get back to being a somewhat productive member of society, another part of me is thinking, "y'know? I could get used to this".

At least it will be an easy transition since tutoring won't get going for about another month, I just have my teeny schedule in testing. The new person can't start this week as originally planned, so I got two extra shifts until she starts next week.

The weather has been so mild here. Magnum and I went for a longish bicycle ride today. We were just going to ride for coffee, which we did. It was so nice out, we decided to take the long way home, which we did. It was SO nice out, I talked him into taking a longer long way home. Surely, this won't last.

So we have warmth, no snow. It did get cold enough last week for the ponds to freeze over. I got this pic of my goose neighbors waiting for the morning thaw out.

Speaking of enjoying the outdoors, a woman was hiking nearby on New Years day and ended up getting [killed by a mountain lion]. So tragic, and it's terrifying to think what her last moments were like.

Stay safe, please!

ex encounters, nice hands, pain

Magnum and I were out at a coffee shop this morning. I noticed a couple of women walking in, and did a brief glance up. There was a nanosecond of eye contact recognition before I quickly looked away. One of them was none other than my ex. 

Yeah, my ex hair stylist. 

Several months ago, I mentioned here about [a weird haircut experience]. It was weird enough that I'd  decided not to go back and to find a different salon, even though I'd been going only to this same stylist for over two years. I've since found another stylist - great location, easy going atmosphere, very reasonably priced - and all is well in my hair world. 

I figured the ex wouldn't really notice my absence. She has a fairly large clientele, and all I ever got were cuts. No dye jobs, no other treatments. Get in, get out, every coupla months. But in that nanosecond of eye contact at the coffee shop, I feel quite sure she recognized me and probably thought, "Hey, that's what's-her-face", and then realized "She hasn't been in for quite a while". 

Had I still been going to her for cuts, I would surely have stopped and chatted a bit this morning, asked about her holidays, the family, etc. As it was, I continued whatever I was talking about with Magnum. The ex was wearing eyeglasses, which she didn't wear at the salon. I still recognized her, but could easily feign a Clark Kent phenomenon going on. Silly, I know. But it felt good to skedaddle outta there before things got awkward, ha!

In other news, I continue to celebrate Boxing Day by cleaning out a few unwanted items. Soon, I'll have enough for a thrift store drop-off. And I took down our sparse Christmas decorations yesterday.

We watched a couple of movies this weekend. [Watching the Detectives] is just goofy and quirky, starring Cillian Murphy and Lucy Liu.

Is it a romcom? I guess it's a romcom. 

We've been watching [Peaky Blinders] and are on the final (6th) season. So it was fun and interesting to see Cillian Murphy as someone SO So so different from Tommy Shelby!

Same great hands, though. Ever noticed what nice hands Cillian Murphy has? Well... I digress.

The other movie was [A Real Pain], both in title and in watching it. Okay, it's gotten favorable reviews, but it didn't do much for either of us. 

Only about an hour and a half lost, though.

Now, we're in the lull week between Christmas and New Years. The college is closed. I will stay out of trouble. Maybe I'll schedule a hair appointment.

work it

I've made it through this first week of winter break. There's more free time on my hands and I'm trying to use it wisely. A little recap

• I had "The" talk with Boss. I've mentioned contemplating staying or going from the testing center. Pros and cons are pretty balanced, and every end-of-semester, I contemplate some more. Boss makes our work schedules a semester at a time, so it was time for another fresh calendar.

This semester, he's facing a few scheduling challenges from all us part-timers. As per usual, he asked for our availability for spring, and also to let him know our maximum and minimum number of preferred hours. 

I listed my minimum preferred hours as "zero", which prompted a one-on-one. I explained that he should feel free to "take me off the schedule" if it's too much of a hassle for him to work around my tutoring schedule. The word "quit" was never uttered by either of us.

He said he didn't want me to q-word, but he's hiring a new person to fill some gaps, and wants to be able to offer a decent number of hours to the newb. He was actually quite relieved that I was happy to reduce my already meager hours.

So, bottom line, I'm scheduled for a whopping ONE shift per week plus the Saturday rotation in testing for spring semester. The best of both worlds, I feel. I'd originally thought I would need to work at least two shifts or nothing. More available hours for tutoring while still keeping my foot in the testing door, and I'm happy with that outcome. 

• We got together with Wolfgang and Meego yesterday for our monthly breakfast outing. There was a short wait list, so I gave the host my name and party of five. Duh, we're a party of four. I was either Freudian slipping missing Chaco, or my brain is mushy from the downtime. 

• Speaking of menopause brain *ahem*, coworker Party Girl was complaining about trying to find pants that fit.

"If they fit my waist, they're too big in the butt. If they fit my butt, they're too tight in the waist. It's this &%#!  menopause body!"

We were working with Blossom and Kitty. I told her to stop scaring the young ones.

Merry Christmas.

 

don't take this personally?

I just had a look at my Spotify Wrapped. I'm not a daily listener, but I have the free version of Spotify for listening to music and podcasts. At the end of the year, it provides a fun little slideshow of the past year's activity - hours listened, favorite artists, favorite genres, etc.

From those stats, it comes up with a "listening age", and this is what it calculated for me: 

I'm an old soul?? Okay, what about the fact that I'M ACTUALLY 61 YEARS OLD. 

Okay, fine, whatever. I'm not bothered by the fact that my listening age matches my physical age. And hey, there was good music in the 80's!

But the previous slide before revealing my listening age? 

"don't take this personally" - HA! Uhm, what're they tryna say?

In other news, I've been basking in slothfulness this week. No tutoring after the frenzy of finals week. At least I have testing center duty tomorrow and Friday to perk things up.

When a semester ends, we typically get inundated with EMTs and Paremedics who have just finished their programs and need to get their official certifications. If there was ever a good time to have a medical emergency at work, it's during the couple of weeks after a semester ends.

Our college has a program for paramedics/ first responders. They have an ambulance simulator that I've only ever seen from afar. But it looks like fun.

The students get in there and practice securing the patient and gurney, taking vitals, jotting notes, all while the "ambulance" simulates rushing through traffic. I'd love to go for a "ride".

But considering my advanced age, it's probably too much of a liability.

compress, de-

This past week was an exhausted drag into fall break. Yeesh, Thanksgiving is a late one again this year, and it's been felt at the college by both students and staff. No classes all next week, but campus is open through Wednesday.

I worked in testing today with Sarge. It was a, thankfully, smooth and uneventful day. I have no tutees next week because of the break, so I'm in loaf mode since clocking out this afternoon. 

This week also featured another birthday for me. I've had a few now. Coworkers bestowed this card upon me.

For my birthday last year, I was given a piñata (empty). He still lives at the testing center, and we named him Felipe'

Here is Felipe', last year during December finals (he doesn't normally have reindeer antlers) guarding a few beverages - his designated job.

So it'll be a small paycheck next round, but I'm looking forward to the time off. No major plans, but I'll think of something. 

I also noticed the adjunct faculty whiteboard has been further adorned with decompressive thoughts, now that mid-semester is semester's end.

I'm hoping to get in some loaf time with good books - currentlly reading [The Wedding People] and am see-sawing on its goodness or badness - some nature time, and other chill pursuits. Tidying, that's always fun.

What's on your whiteboard?

whazzup?

The weeks continue to seemingly fly by. We are already nearing the end of October. I'm looking out my window thinking that I need to get on with the leaf raking. I haven't gotten beyond the thinking.

• Got together with Meego and Wolfgang for breakfast yesterday morning. We do this about once a month. There are plenty of good breakfast places in Fort Collins, and we've yet to go to one I wouldn't recommend.

Today's destination was recommended by coworker, Blossom. She's lived here her whole life (whopping 25 years) and is always ready with a food recommend.

• At the start of the year, I'd made a resolution to read more. Fiction and non-fiction both. I think I've done all right by that, but recently hit a slump. I was slogging through two books I'd checked out based solely on the fact that a couple of friends on Goodreads liked them. 

I was halfway through both of them when I realized I wasn't enjoying either and should just take the losses. One of the books was Luster which seemed pretty pointless and just, *ICK*.

The other was The Bee Sting, which was just stressing me out, and I don't need stress from a novel. There's enough of that in the real world.

Anybody read either of those? They weren't for me, but plenty of others like them. 

Now, I'm rereading James Herriot  books. I enjoyed them over 25 years ago, so decided to revisit. Nice thing about that is that I'd forgotten a lot of the stories, so it's like reading them for the first time. Reading is, once again, enjoyable.

• This week in "tales from testing", we had someone leave their cell phone on when they stashed it in the locker. We always ask people to turn their phones all the way off, but there's always those who think, "bah, mine won't make any noise" and ignore us. 

The guy's cell phone started to emit an unending alarm. After tracking down whose it was, we interrupted his test and had him come out and turn it off. 

At that point, he was very apologetic and opened the locker to turn off the phone. While turning off the alarm, he said, "sheesh, that's annoying", to which Siri immediately replied, 

"I don't mean to be"

She sounded so remorseful, I *almost* felt bad for her.

 

fragmentary recall

This was a shortened weekend for me as I worked yesterday - Saturday rotation time again. Another seemingly productive week down. Let's bullet.

• I finished a novel this week - The Silent Patient. When I went to add it to my Goodreads, I strangeley saw that I'd already read it? Really? Apparently, in 2019. Well, it wasn't memorable the first go. And it even has a twisty, big reveal ending. Oh well, 4 stars.
  
  
• Speaking of memory, we watched Total Recall - the 2012 version with Colin Farrell.

It was pretty much what I expected. A lot of shoot-em-up, running around, heavy CGI, etc. But I won't say no to 2012 Colin Farrell. 

• Speaking of pastimes, it occurred to me, out of the blue this week, that I would probably enjoy bird watching. That made me feel old, where did that come from?
  *I know bird watching isn't just for old people, it just made me feel old to suddenly find it appealing*
  
  

• Speaking of hobbies, our tutor bosses at work asked each of us math tutors to put together a "tutor bio". It should be 100 - 150 words and include our educational background, which campuses we support, etc.
  
  

I typed one up, and the word count was 50. *SIGH*. I mean, I said all the things. What more is there? They encouraged us to add "fun facts" about ourselves. Ugh. 

The only maybe fun fact, if you would call it that, is that I've been a regular blogger for over 20 years, but I don't tell real life people about that. 

I'm not saying anything about bird watching either.

fall favorites, big hair

Happy fall, we made it through another summer!

With that, I saw there is another question posted on the adjunct instructor room whiteboard at the college: "What is your favorite thing about autumn?"

The first thing my eyes noticed is that the "super pretzels with cheese シ" is still there from the earlier question... or a carry-over?

I'm enjoying the cooler temperatures and am still getting used to the dark mornings and earlier sunsets. Time to break out [the vest].

In other news, coworker Sarge's ducks? One of them has become a woman. Sarge's family isn't sure which one, but they've been getting one egg per day, started last Sunday. I imagine the other two ducks will get in sync and start earning their keep very soon. Exciting times.

This reminded me of many years ago, when I worked as a 2nd shift quality inspector. I had three female coworkers and one male. The man's name was Rod, poor guy. 

We all worked very closely together, and when we weren't slaving away, we just shot the breeze, etc. as coworkers in a small lab will do. The result - all us "ladies" got in sync, yaknow whatIm sayin'? Yeah, we were all "laying eggs" together. 

I found this old grainy photo from that era. It was taken with a Polaroid. Back in the day, before digital cameras, if we needed to take a photo of something "top secret", we'd get out the Polaroid.

So we had someone take this photo on my 21st birthday :P. Yeah, not a whole lot of supervision on 2nd shift...

Anyway, there's three of us egg layers. The fourth was probably out sick as I remember her having a fair share of sick days.

The long suffering Rod is the moustache in the right rear. Our supervisor is on the far left, and the other guy is my boyfriend of that era - a lab technician. We'd met at work, neither of us having stalked the other to the workplace.

Boyfriend's a nice guy, just not big on smiling for pics, apparently. Rod was also a very nice guy. Sheesh, he had to be.

Besides the Polaroid and our big hair, I notice other blasts from the past. Mainly the cigarettes and ashtray right there on the table. I've never been a smoker, but all three other ladies were, so along with their cycles, I got plenty of secondhand smoke. 

Ah, the good old days.

captured

This week seems to have *WHOOSHED* on by. Maybe because it was a short one, starting with a holiday?

Things are back to business. My tutor schedule has filled - almost to the brim - with another batch of fun students. The mathing commences.

I mentioned that I would start sometimes bringing my bike cam along on bike rides, to possibly catch a hooligan or two. I'm glad to say that I've taken a few lovely rides  with no captures of crashes or criminal activity.

On Sunday, I did see the cutest thing I've seen all week. Yes, it remains in the top spot.

This little boy was on this teeny recumbent, hitched to (I assume) Dad's bike. I'd never seen such a small hitched tow-behind. Usually kids that small are in those little trailers.

But there he was, pedaling away, I'm sure providing no power whatsoever.  But as we passed each other, his eyes trained with mine the whole encounter, he had the cutest smile. Very proud of himself, being part of the fray, as if saying

"Hello, fellow bicycle rider!"

 Now it's off to work for another morning of testing... testing... testing.

pastry partiality?

On Thursday, I walked into work and was greeted by this diabetes abbondanza in our breakroom.

We were a relatively small staff of five people total scheduled for the day, so who was supposed to eat all those donuts?

Okay, so Sarge had brought in the bag from Lamar's, which was really nice of him because he happens to have celiac disease, so is gluten free - which donuts are not. He bought them for the rest of us cohorts.

But Boss had brought in the box. He explained that it was a nursing test day, so he brought them for the nursing students. 

Quick background: the ADA requires colleges and universities to provide alternative testing for students with approved disabilities accommodations. Those are the students we serve at the testing center in addition to the non-student testers completing professional licensing and certification exams.

So yes, some of those students are in the nursing program, but we serve all accommodated students from every program at the college. So when Boss said he brought donuts for the nursing students, I thought, "hmmmmm...", but didn't comment.

I think Boss's heart is in the right place, but I felt it was wrong of him to offer donuts only to nursing students as we had other students coming in and out for tests. We do see the nursing students quite often - they take a LOT of tests throughout a semester - but I feel it's wrong to single them out like that because;

• what message does that send to the non-nursing students? Blatant bias? And for what reason? They're program is not worthy?
• what about the non-accommodated nursing students who take their tests in their classroom? Only accommodated nursing students deserve favoritism? And again, for what reason?

I'll note that most accommodations are for disabilities that are not obvious. The majority of accommodations are for dyslexia (extra time for tests) and/or ADHD (extra time, plus maybe a private room). Some are English as a second language (extra time).

So I let it go. But I think I might mention it to Boss... that his bias was showing... in case he's thinking of doing it again. And I don't even know the motivation for the bias. I know he meant well, but he has had times in the past where he didn't consider the "big picture"

After all these anti-bias trainings we're required to complete each year -  am I overreacting over accommodated-nursing-student-donuts??

Who even knew that'd be a thing?

testing

Before I worked in a testing center, I had no idea the number of professional certification and licensing exams were out there. 

When a tester enters, we all start to mentally make guesses as to what test they're doing. Some are more obvious than others. 

• Dirty fingernails and a shirt with their name on it, usually male = automotive tech
• Early 20's, female = elementary school teacher
• Teen = GED or HiSET
• Broad shouldered, big boots, equally male or female, actually = firefighter or law enforcement
• Lots of tattoos/ piercings, male or female = addiction counselor (probably with a "past")

But really, anything goes. And there are plenty of ambiguous testers. The most ambiguous is probably the insurance people. They are anywhere from dapper law office types to rather rudderless types that were preyed upon with "MAKE A CAREER SELLING INSURANCE! YOUR SKILL SET IS JUST WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR" - yes, I've received those emails...

At home this morning, I was finishing up my breakfast when I heard some chatter outside. Being the nosy neighbor that I am, I peeked out the front window to see what's what. Four young guys exiting a pickup truck.

Tree guys, must be.

There is a test to become a Certified Tree Climber. We get those too 

• Young, male, very tan, agile looking, facial hair, lots of pockets = tree climber

And now, based on my nosy observation

• Taking hits from the vape pen

I'm glad there's a test for such a job. Climbing a tree can be dangerous enough, let alone doing so with an operating chainsaw.

Sure enough. Another pickup with a mulcher attachment pulled up. I was momentarily encouraged, hopeful they were here to prune the neighbor's overly enthusiastic pear tree. It's gotten huge, has some damaged branches, and is flopping over the fence onto our property. 

We've pruned our side, but the rest should probably be done by a certified tree climber, which neither of us is. Magnum mentioned it to the nice neighbor, who rents. She said she'd put in the work order to the property manager, but none of us are holding our breaths.

And now, I can hear the chainsaws sawing, but not next door. 

Maybe by the first day of Christmas.

something's brewing

Magnum and I had a nice Sunday morning bike ride today. Once again, we cycled passed a [fave local brewery], and once again, there was some sort of outdoor exercise class going on. I recall coming across this for the first time last summer, and here it was again: [Cycle Sips and Lifts].

The mood seemed quite festive. I doubt that anyone who attends a workout event at a brewery is going to be too hardcore about the fitness aspects.

Speaking of local breweries, Chaco talked us into going to a different one earlier this week for dinner while he was here. He figured he "had to" go to a brewery while in Fort Collins, it's what you do. Apparently.

So we went to [Odell Brewery]. Chaco and Wolfgang could not believe! we'd never been there before. 

What can we say, we don't think to go to breweries. I'll admit that it was a nice experience on the patio on a pleasant summer evening. The food truck on site was an Italian flatbread truck. Nothing to write home about, but it was fine. 

As I perused the menu, the vegan option sounded interesting. I wondered how they would pull off the vegan mozzarella. I chickened out on ordering it, however because of the name: Vegana.

I wasn't sure how to pronounce it, and it looked so much like "vagina", so I ordered the Marinara lest I say vegana incorrectly. ( I have since learned how it's properly pronounced...)

Our 4th of July was lowkey. We were dogsitting Chaco's dog Ella, and she is NOT a fan of loud noises. Our dogs, Penny and Merlin, couldn't care less when it comes to fireworks, thunder, etc. Ella is more typical.

"What was that?!"

It was nice having the day off from work as I'm typically scheduled to work at the testing center on Fridays. I've decided to have a sit-down with Boss to discuss my future there. 

On one hand, I like my coworkers, and it's pretty decent pay as far as part-time jobs go. On the other, the work tasks are pretty mundane after four years. Because of tutoring, my availability for testing is really not flexible  - for when someone is out sick or on vacation. So I'm going to straight up ask Boss if it would be easier for him if I left and he hires a replacement (impossible!) with more flexibility.

I'm not sure what answer I'm hoping for. 

June parade, and Grinch no more

Last weekend, I volunteered at a happy/sad event. Happy/sad because it was well attended fun meant to raise awareness after tragedy.

[Ollie's Bike Parade] is a charity organization that grew out of the death of 10-year-old Oliver Stratton. Ollie was killed after he was hit, while riding his bicycle, by a woman who was texting while driving. She received the maximum penalty of...drum roll... one year of work release. Talk about salt on a wound.

This was the second annual Ollie's Bike Parade. It was a beautiful day featuring lots of vendors, food trucks, lots of cute kids and their families, and yes, a cute and colorful bike parade around the CSU campus. The organization is about raising awareness and advocating for stiffer penalties for those who choose to text while driving.

And of course, there were somber reminders

Fifty-five ghost bikes representing 55 traffic related deaths of bicyclists in Colorado in 2024. Those children's bikes are the hardest to fathom. Sheesh, there was a tricycle among them!

Another large tent featured stories and mementos of several victims. It included pedestrians and motorcyclists as well. Ollie's ghost bike was in that tent.

Now, I've driven in the area where Ollie was hit. It's a residential area with wide streets, high visibility, and homes of young families. It's almost like one would have to go out of their way to collide with anything, let alone a person.

Yeah, don't text and drive. Please.

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Speaking of advocates, Grandboss is on my A-list now.

In the past, I've whined here about Grandboss. He's the biggest sufferer of Main Character Syndrome I think I've ever known. Woe to anyone who gets caught in one of his super boring stories about himself.

Apparently, I started working for him in June of 2021. I don't work as much in testing as I used to as I've gone more over to the tutoring side of things, but I'm still a "valued employee" of the testing center according to Greatgrandboss - my boss's boss's boss - Grandboss's boss.

Each month Greatgrandboss sends out emails to our organization, recognizing anyone with work anniversaries, so I made the June announcement... kinda.

Yeah, he totally misspelled my name. Both first AND last. He closed with:

"This group of employees brings so much positive energy in our spaces! We appreciate you and we’re glad you are here!"

So all of us in the testing center are having a good laugh at Greatgrandboss's blunder (because really, who makes a big deal about these anniversary emails?) when Grandboss chimes in on our team chat

Fully making fun of Greatgrandboss, but more importantly... he noticed.

Admittedly, my last name is often misread. 

My last name is Barker

Okay, be honest. What did you read?  Did you read Baker? Look again.

I've had this problem my whole married life.

Greatgrandboss went above and beyond, however, by mispelling my first name too! Yet, not only did Grandboss catch the error right away, he quickly informed Greatgrandboss about the mistake, and Greatgrandboss sent me a follow-up email, dripping with apology. 

Afterwards, I felt toward Grandboss like the grinch. You know the scene...

We'll see how many boring stories it takes to shrink my heart back, but I'm not holding my breath.

picnic, puzzle, pudgy pet

 I'm heading into work at the testing center in a bit. Full timers Boss and Blossom will be attending a division picnic of sorts, and Boss has left Party Girl and me in charge for the day. Let the games begin.

The campus is relatively quiet these days since spring semester ended. Summer session starts next week. A few services are around like security, the library, and us in testing. Advising, maybe?

A couple of weeks ago, during finals, we ran out of space in testing and overflowed a few students to the advising area. Boss was manning the place, and I took some students over. A couple of advisors were in the area... working on a jigsaw puzzle?

Boss later said that they worked on that puzzle the whole time he was there. "I shoulda been an advisor!", he joked.

Okay, maybe not many students are meeting with advisors during finals week? But a couple stayed around just in case of drop-ins? It was a good sized puzzle. A 1000-piecer at least.

Meanwhile, Wolfgang returned from a fun getaway with a friend this week. I had been seeing to Wolfgang's cat during his adventures. Ideally, we would have the cat "board" with us, but that wouldn't work with our feisty cat Napolion.

So I'm now off the hook from cat duty. Wolfgang's cat is a big fluff. It's hard to tell if she's fat or just has SO much hair.

"Does this fur make me look fat?"

She lets me pet her, but in general, is not big on being touched. So I can't really "grope" her to see how much is chub and how much is hair. 

After she'd eat, she would lay on the floor like this, belly exposed. I've heard that's an animal's way of showing their trust in you.

Or maybe she was just baiting me.

fake blood and a weird haircut

Well this week, she was a busy one. Nothing specific, just into the homestretch of the semester at work and the beginning of a new PEO year. But my head's still above water. 

I worked last weekend and there was  law enforcement/ EMS training event going on on campus. One those things with "trauma victims" and various simulations. We were told a flight-for-life helicopter would be making an appearance, but by the end of our shift, we realized, no helicopter. We were promised a helicopter!

Also this week, I went in for a haircut. I've been going to the same stylist for a couple of years now. She does a good job and is reasonably priced. The salon is pretty laid back - professional but not snobby.

Each stylist has their own little cubby, partitioned off from the others. And it's not uncommon for the stylists to chat with each other across partitions. Sometimes, my stylist's college age daughter drops by and catches up for a while.

But this last time - tell me if this is weird. I'm there in the chair getting my haircut. Daughter comes by with a friend and shares greetings with my stylist while going to the breakroom. Then they come back out and some other dude comes in - not a college dude, but an older guy. Someone's husband? I dunno. He wasn't there to get a cut or anything, just stops in to shoot the shit.

So it's me in the chair, my stylist is working. Her daughter, daughter's friend, and weird older dude are just hanging around. Stylist is dropping hints now and then like, "Sorry, I can't visit much today, my schedule got backed up a bit..." And I'm there like I'm having my haircut at someone's backyard barbecue.

The trio isn't taking the hint, just keeps hanging around and visiting. I still have no idea why older dude is there. Honestly, I'm not sure why the 19-year-old daughter with a car hangs out at her mom's work either. Stylist says something like, "Sheesh, I feel like I'm being graded - everyone just watching me work, heh heh" *hint*hint*nudge*nudge*, and still they stick around.

In hindsight, I should've glommed onto that and said, "How do you think I feel?!" but I just remained there feeling awkward. They probably still wouldn't have gotten it anyway.

When she finished up, and I paid, she seemed to be giving me apologetic vibes with her eyes.

But it was weird. Was that weird?