And... we're back. Spring break is over, back for the final push at the college. Catching up with the tutees I've had sessions with so far has been interesting:

------------------------------------

Me: How was your spring break?

Tutee1: Great, except I got lazy and forgot EVERYTHING!

------------------------------------

Me: What happened? <said to a concurrently enrolled high school student, gimping in with a medical boot on one foot>

Tutee2: I hurt my foot skydiving

Me: REALLY?

Tutee2: Actually, I stepped weird off of a curb, but isn't that technically skydiving?

Later, he told me he had to usher a choir concert that evening. I asked if he could be excused because of the foot injury.

"Nah, I'll still do it. I get extra credit for volunteering, plus there'll be a girl there I want to ask to prom"

Priorities.

---------------------------------------

Me: How was your spring break?

Tutee3: (looking pensive) Well, I went home (out of state), and everything kinda blew up. It wasn't so good

She looked on the brink of tears, which I hoped would not come (they didn't) - that's not my realm of expertise. 

Before the break, she'd told me that she'd recently changed her major from a STEM subject to Creative Writing. I wonder if that was the cause of the spring break family tumult, but she didn't elaborate, and I didn't ask.

---------------------------------------

Then I overheard this spring break revelation from a side conversation:

 Student1: I've realized my liking for fish

Work Study: The animal or the band?

<pause>

Student1: The food.

---------------------------------------

Spring break, in the books.

We're back from our sunny getaway. It was nice to visit the in-laws, Father-in-law and step-Mother-in-law are 91- and 81-years-old respectively. FIL is pretty frail these days, but SMIL is a dynamo who will probably outlive us all.

We flew out of Denver last Friday. That happened to be the day of a messy snowstorm that canceled or delayed over 1300 flights out of Denver. Our flight was canceled, we got put on a different flight. All in all, not terrible. We landed 4 hours later than originally scheduled, so could've been worse. It marked the first time I've ever experienced de-icing.

It was Murphy's law at its finest (worst?). Denver hadn't had an appreciable amount of snow for all of February, then they got over 8 inches the day of our trip. I say the city of Denver should thank us for bringing the water. 

Once we got to California, it was warm and sunny. Hot, actually, and I'm not complaining. SMIL had arranged for a ride to and from the airport which was super convenient. Our driver was George, a friendly olderish Armenian man, for both trips.

Upon picking us up for our return flight, he announced with his Armenian accent, "There's a traffic accident on the freeway". Then added, "I'm going to choose a good route with my brain".

So I figured, welp, guess I gotta trust George's brain.

Turned out George's brain did good.

So a quick trip, but nice to see the in-laws and nice to just get a change of scenery - alien-to-us trees and birds. We visited Huntington Botanical Gardens, and Santa Monica beach. I'd been to that beach before, it's great for people watching, and I'd never been to The Huntington.

I took zero photos, social media rebel that I am. Magnum took one, though. We had gate checked our carryon bags to "help make boarding go faster". And this was the thanks I got.

See that bag lying in a puddle of slush? Yep. That's mine. Of course. It sat there for at least a half an hour while we looked on, expecting one of the wandering baggage handlers (they were right there!) to pick it up. So my PJs were wet, but no lasting damage. Magnum was sure to capture the indifferent airline name.

Wanna get away?

Last weekend, I had that PEO "come to Jesus" meeting to get people to fill the two officer vacancies we have for the upcoming year. The discussion went well, although no one stepped forward right away to take either office, including President. So that remains as still me.

But it was a good talk, and to my appreciation, a few other past Presidents who were at the meeting chimed in and helped throw down. I ended up contacting the state board for advice, asking what the deadline was for getting all the offices filled.

They responded back, not with a deadline, but rather a "those lazy members need to get off their asses" (I'm paraphrasing)

So I sent out an email to the chapter, quoting the state board, and reiterating that "you lazy members need to get off your asses" (again, paraphrasing). 

It seems like we're going to live for another year. The Non-Lazies are pitching in to get us through, although they already do a lot. Typical. Looks like I'll be stuck in the President's chair, but will have someone to share the load with. Another Non-Lazy has already committed to taking over in one more year, so that's a plus. Sheesh, things I gotta do.

Speaking of language, it seems I've crossed a threshold with a couple of tutees. I've mentioned how I consider it a sign that students are comfortable with me if they start comfortably swearing during our sessions, no longer overly cautious about their words. I mean, if they were elementary kids, that'd be concerning, but these are all adults.

They always start out very respectful (probably because I'm old), but the ice is soon broken. I see swearing as a breakthrough.

One guy came in grumpy, then began dropping f-bombs left and right, mad at himself for silly mistakes he'd made on a test. I agree, he knew better and should've scored higher. By the end of our session, he'd calmed down and was more optimistic. Language back to PG.

Another girl often responds with "What the heck?" when her laptop glitches or something. Yesterday, something happened, and there it was, "What the fu..?" Aha!

My words, however, are always pristine, of course

I was assigned another student this week, and I happened to notice that she'd worked with a different tutor the week before. I figured the change was due to a schedule conflict or something and mentioned that to her.

"So does this time slot work better with your schedule?", I asked

She looked a little confused and then replied, "Uh, yeah. Well, I just didn't like that other tutor". 

Then I was all paranoid. Certainly it can happen, a little personality conflict or just wrong way rubbing. I know the other tutor, not that well, but wondered what's not to like? I'll admit it threw me off my game a bit. 

But she hasn't dumped ME yet.

It's a sunny Saturday morning after a somewhat tumultuous week. Not too crazy tumult, but the sunny weekend is welcomed.

The week actually started off pretty good with my PEO meeting and wrapping up that President letter. I'm currently working on recruiting officers for the upcoming year because I and others are ready to ride off into the sunset. People aren't exactly getting in line to be next prez. There are two who had sort of agreed to share the job, but neither has answered my message to confirm. Hmmm. They'll come around 🤞

I have a nice batch of dedicated tutees so far and more available slots in my schedule. I'm enjoying not having a full schedule just yet, though. Classes are coming up on their first exams of the semester, and that typically gets the tutor appointments filling up.

I worked in testing yesterday, and it was just a weird day. Fridays are typically busy, and yesterday was certainly no exception. Add several annoying technical issues, and the day was rather "tits up" as they say in the UK. 

In the midst of all that, at one point, a young woman came out of the testing room to turn in her materials. She was absolutely BAWLING, no holding back. I honestly thought she was going to hyperventilate.

"Are you okay?", which seemed like a silly thing to ask, but I didn't know what else to say.

"I PASSED!..." She loudly sobbed

This was happening as we had several people queued up to check in for their respective tests. I don't think the scene helped to quell the overall test anxiety. 

Additionally, I could tell that Party Girl was a little off her game. It was so busy from the get go, that I hadn't really checked in with her. When things quieted down a little, she sat with Boss in his office for a few minutes with the door closed.

A little while after that, she looked over to Boss, and said, "Y'know, I think I'll just go now", although she had a couple hours left of her shift, and we were still fairly busy.

I did manage to catch her in the break room as she was packing up. She closed the door and gave me the Cliff Notes version of her current life situation. In summary

• The facility where her elderly dementia dad lives is not meeting his needs and is not able to increase his level of care
• Her husband is... well, I'll just say there are marital issues.

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...

Happy Boxing Day.

I went out this morning for a pleasant little jog-around. We have had a very mild December, really only one decent snowstorm among many warm, sunny days. I'm enjoying the nice weather, but at the same time fretting about the lack of moisture (and revenue for the ski resorts).

As I was out and about, I realize I've always appreciated the day AFTER Christmas, even as a kid.  Yes, I did also make a big deal about presents on Christmas morning as a kid, the big countdown to the day, having trouble sleeping the night before... but the day after feels a little like a calm after the storm, a day of appreciation. Now more pronounced in my old lady days.

There were others out this morning, walking together, walking pooches, running. I sensed maybe some new dog harnesses, new outwear, new fitness trackers. And I remembered that's the hopeful fun of Christmas gifts - appreciated things rather than unwanted, wasteful things - not the [deadweight loss of Christmas]. 

Ours was low-key, as per usual, and enjoyable. Meego and Wolfgang came over. We ate, we walked the dogs, we played some cards, we talked with Chaco on speaker phone, we passed the phone around with calls to my in-laws. No big exchange of things, but enjoyment of company.

One of my goals for this past year was to read more books as opposed to doom scrolling the internet. I'm happy with how I did with that and plan to continue. Now, a new goal is to get back into routine sketching. I fell off that habit a while back, and I've got sketchbooks, pens, pencils collecting dust. 

So I figured I'd start today with a warm-up to break up my inner rust and cobwebs. Some everyday mundane item to get the ball rolling.

[King Prawn Pepe] it is.

We took a day trip to Estes Park yesterday. Nothing particular in mind, but I was in need of a getaway. Estes is about an hour's drive away, so easy to leave our pets to fend for themselves until our return.

One thing Estes Park is known for is its hefty elk population, and yesterday provided the full experience. We went for a nice walk on the waterfront path, stopped for lunch, and on our way back to downtown, we noticed more people along the path than had been there earlier. 

"It's almost like there's some event going on", I pondered.

As we got closer, we saw that there was a sort of event. At some point during our walking and eating, a huge freaking herd of elk had taken over the golf course.

Where had they all come from?

So we hung out for a bit and gawked at the wildlife along with the other humans. None of the elk seemed to give a crap about any of us, and, thankfully, no stupid people tried to go into the herd for a social media op.

Their womenfolk paid no attention, having seen it all before, I'm sure.

And so begins November.

Our Halloween "bash" was pretty mellow. I counted 5 groups of Trick-or-Treaters, but may have missed a couple. 

The next day, our Ring®  notifications featured several user complaints and video evidence of stolen bowls of candy that had been left out. That's the world we live in - put a bowl out under the honor system, and it really just serves as miscreant bait. 

We get off our butts and answer the door. I'd say most of our visitors were "older" kids - middle and high school aged, by the looks and sounds of them. I used to think that kids that age were too old for it, but I've grown to appreciate them. All had put thoughtfulness and work into their costumes, and all were polite. I think this whatever-it-is skull guy was my favorite (captured from our aforemention Ring®)

I checked the front camera footage to see if I could figure anything out, but no. Maybe some other video game reference? 

She does appear to be toting both candy bags while skull guy is unburdened. 

So maybe that's the costume: groupie

Fall is in the air, ya feel it?

Magnum and I enjoyed a noticeably crisp bicycle ride this morning. A welcome transition from the hot hot of summer.

It was a peaceful meander as he's just coming off a crud virus he caught from me a couple of weeks ago, and I just got my annual flu shot yesterday. It worked out since it so happened that this morning, there was a half-marathon happening on the path we took.

I'd hooked up the bike cam to catch some of the fall colors that have just begun, but we mainly had to keep our eyes out for the half-marathoners.

Coupla screen grabs from my grainy video:

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?

We were downtown this morning, having a coffee. Yes, it is noticeably more peopley now. University classes start tomorrow, and everybody has assumed their positions, it seems.

Speaking of crowds, yesterday was [Tour de Fat] at New Belgium brewery. It's basically a HUGE bicycle parade followed by a big bash at the brewery. It's free, so everybody and their grandma goes. We missed the bike parade, but did go by in the afternoon just to look around. 

Everybody seemed to be having a good time, and I surmised that it's pretty hard to get very drunk at the event since the beer lines were so loooooooong. But there's live music and games and weird bicycles to ride at your own risk. 

This past week was also opening week of classes at the community college. 

The whiteboard of the adjunct instructor office space:

So far, what is most looked forward to this fall is free coffee at Ziggi's and super pretzels with cheese. 👍

It's noticeably denser here. Living in a college town brings fluctuations in population, and things become thicker in August. 

This week is Freshman move-in, and classes start at the university next week. The community college where I work started classes yesterday, so here we go. My tutor schedule is wide-open, we'll see where we are at week's end. Tutor Boss says she has lots of intake meetings scheduled - where she assesses student needs/ requests and matches students and tutors. I'm hoping to get busy soon before we're replaced by AI.

In the meantime, I'm in laid back mode still. Yesterday, I went for a haircut. Remember a few months ago, I blogged [that weird haircut experience]? At the salon I'd been going to for a few years? Welp, I'd decided not to go back there. Thanks to reddit, I found a different salon that is not only as good in both quality and price as the old place, but it's all around better - better location, friendlier, a little cheaper even. No more getting my haircut in the middle of a freakin' coffee klatch!

Later I went for a bicycle joyride cleverly disguised as errand running. I think I'm going to start using the GoPro again for these joy errand rides. My work commute is typically uneventful - knock on wood - so I stopped bothering with the bike cam, but yesterday included:

• I was coming up on three other bicyclists, about to pass them. The three entered an underpass/ tunnel and I heard a *clank-cah-clank*

Once in the tunnel, I see one of the cyclists has gone down, like she crashed into the sidewall of the tunnel. The man behind her stops and I stop as well, while the third guy just goes around and keeps on a-going. 

Amid the typical, "y'aright?", I'm assessing. The woman who crashed and the man who stopped appear to be riding together. They're both on "Rent Me!" bicycles and middle-aged. I'm guess they're from out of town - possibly dropping off a college kid and enjoying some kid-free recreation.

The woman says she's fine, landed on her foot, lost a shoe. I have a small first-aid "kit" with me, but more for cuts and scrapes than for a twisted foot. But she says she's fine, didn't hit her head or anything. The man thanks me for stopping, and then I continued onward.

• I was going around a right bend when these three hooligans - how's that for an eligible-for-the-senior-discount word? - these three hooligans come flying towards me on motorcycles. Motorcycles?!

This was on one of the friendly multi-use paths running through our county. Hooligans were on full-blown gas-powered motorcycles, which are most definitely not allowed. The only motorized vehicles allowed on the pathways are ebikes and scooters that max out at 20 mph. And these kids were going, I'd guess, at least 40 mph. 

Thankfully, they were single file in their rightful lane, but sheesh. In the flash that I watched them go by me, it seemed they were rounding that turn, pushing the envelope on how much control they had at that speed. They looked to be middle schoolers or high school freshmen at most. 

And so I'm wondering what went on after they're behind me? I went by a few law-abiding others in both directions. What of them? What of the "Rent Me!" crash couple?

Eventually, I dropped off a book at the library - one of my joyride enabling errands - and there are three librarians with walkie-talkies in the foyer, debriefing after some sort of incident at the library park. But that's just another day at the office for them. Those downtown librarians are tough. 

The college's fall semester begins next week, and we await another batch of new and returning students. So a little recap of this last week of summer daze.

• I took a look back at my summer reading. I'd intended to "read more and doom scroll less" with no more specific goal than that. I think it's going well, and I took a look back at what fiction I read over the summer along with my star ratings:

This list yields an average of 3.44 stars, so good times. The book I'm currently reading is ["You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine"] which was recommended to me because it's "weird, but in a good way". So far, I'm finding it weird, we'll see about the way.  

While I'm reading it, it kind of reminds me of hanging out with my friends in high school around a campfire, possibly smoking something a friend grew in her backyard.

• Speaking of teen behaviors, I worked with Party Girl last Saturday. She showed up seemingly off the ball - if there's to be a phrase meaning not on the ball. She's typically pretty responsble despite her partying ways, but she was slacking off last Saturday. She still did her fair share of the work, but I was unimpressed. Reminder, she's in her mid-fifties and sometimes acts like a teenaged party girl. Her age was really showing on Saturday.

Anyway, this week, she's seemingly cranked up her responsible side. I suspect she feels a little guilty about her Saturday performance, although I didn't say anything to Boss or anyone else.

• Speaking of high school, school started this week for the school district. We live near a large-ish high school, so the morning and afternoon traffic snarl has returned. Plus, there's a big construction job on the main road in front of the high school. I'm glad I'm not in that commute!

• Speaking of responsible coworkers, Star came in for a visit yesterday. Recall that young Star got a good full-time job a few months ago. We miss her, but I'm glad she moved on from part-time at the testing center and is building a career. She now lives with her sister about an hour's drive away, but came home for the weekend. She brought cookies for the win!

• Speaking of family matters and jobs, Sarge's wife - who is the main breadwinner of the family - is having her job replaced by AI after another company bought her employer. She'll get some severance and extension of benefits, but is contemplating her options.

When I first started working in testing, I thought robots would take over "in about 5 years". They're trying, but there are glitches. We'll see.

On that note, time to go do the paid people watching.

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

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.

Summer semester officially ends today. As such, I'm in a lull for about two to three weeks, and I'm not complaining. I'm doing some tidying and reorganizing - mostly digitally. I still have a couple of short shifts in the testing center each week, so it's not a total slugfest. 

With the tuting, I don't blog as much as I used to. This blog has served to help me recall the whats and whens of different happenings, so a few bullets from recent.

• A couple of weeks ago, we went out with Wolfgang and Meego to celebrate Wolfgang's recent birthday. He chose a Korean BBQ place, and we put away much food. The restaurant brings all the dishes out along with raw meats that we cooked at table top, built-in grills. Intereactive!

At one point I was enjoying tearing into a seafood pancake and noticed some soft little white ring things. I had no idea what they were, and later I happened to come across a video of a chef cooking up some squid and realized that's what I was eating. So I've eaten squid, cool.

• Our little brush with nature last week, in the form of a rattlesnake, sent me down a snake infested rabbit hole of learning about rattlesnakes. They are actually pretty cool critters, but I still don't want to ever ever get bitten by one. 
  
  
• We've been pondering the idea of getting some nearby recreational land, but haven't gotten very far beyond the pondering stage. We'd like to kick things up and get more active on that "project" before we're too old to enjoy it.
  
  
• 
  This morning, I was leaving the gym when a shiny new Mercedez-Benz G-wagon pulled into the parking lot. I'd only ever seen one from afar, and never really took much notice. Up close, it was obviously quite the adventure toy. 

I realized that, for the price of one G-wagon, we could get about 35 acres of rural land and all the rattlesnakes it would hold. 

First of all, I will elaborate a bit on Party Girl's dress that I mentioned in my last post.As she explained, the dress required neither bra nor underpants, so it was desirable to wear on a hot day when she had various errands to run.

The image in my mind was not a favorable one, but she explained that the dress had built-in underthings. Like a tennis dress, yes? 

I have some shorts and also a skirt with built-in liners. Hers was a complete dress.

So she wasn't just flapping in the wind, so to speak. *ahem*

Ella is good friends with our dogs. Not so much with the cat. So the dogs are happy while the cat is holed up and grumbling in my office/the cat room when the dogs are inside.

Wednesday was bike-to-work day around the country. I've mentioned in previous years that it's a well attended event here.

SOURCE

So happens, Magnum was out of town for work this past week, but Chaco attended with me and picked up some food and loot. It was a nice day for it, and as is typical, people were out in droves.

There are some very generous vendors at bike-to-work. One tent was offering up SO much stuff. I got to the end of the table, and the woman working the tent said,

"How did you get this far down the line and not take anything yet!?"

"I'm just agog at what all you're offering up, I'm partially paralyzed", I replied

Well, that, and I honestly don't "need" much of the giveaways - water bottles, little accessory bags, individual first aid kits, reflective bands - being a minimalist and all. I was also not hungry at that point as we'd loaded up on burritos, coffee, and trail mix at an earlier stop. 

I mainly enjoy watching the spectacle of it all.

As I was in observation mode, I realized that, ironically, bike-to-work day isn't all that environmentally friendly. A lot of the freebies are pre-packaged items in individual plastic containers and such. To be honest, a lot of trash is generated on bike-to-work day. 

But hey, at least we attended via bicycles!

Speaking of work, I'm still contemplating my future in the testing center - weighing the pluses and minuses of staying there vs. fully switching over to JUST tutoring. 

Work at the testing center is administrative/ customer service with a teeny bit of IT thrown in once in a while. It provides a needed service, but it's not very creative from an employee point of view. I'm down to just a handful of hours there each week, with no real wiggle room in my schedule, because I fill my other available hours with tutoring.

But I enjoy my coworkers for the most part. Heck, that's half the reason I keep working. Gets me out of the house. Ever time a semester ends and a new one begins, I contemplate staying or going. It's hard to decide, so I've ended up staying. 

Decisions.

I was working at the testing center earlier today. We had a tester call us from the parking lot, saying she didn't think she'd make it in for her test. Apparently her back had seized up, and she couldn't move. 

As she stood, inert, bracing against her car, the head of the nursing department happened by. The nursing school doesn't have a summer session, but luckily "Angie" was there for the rescue. Angie alerted security who contacted paramedics. Our tester was taken to the hospital. 

I've noticed similar on previous occassions. Once, while out running errands, an elderly woman tripped on a curb and couldn't get up. As I contemplated what to do, a woman approached, "I'm a nurse..."

Recall that I recently came upon a [collision between a car and a bicyclist] while on my way to work. Then again, "I'm a nurse..." appeared within seconds. Nurses. Seemingly everywhere when you need them. Thankfully.

I thought I'd share some testy artwork here. Most testers are allowed scratchpaper or whiteboards for scratchwork while testing. We collect it all before they leave us, and some of their "scratchwork" seems too fun to throw away, and lives on a while longer, tacked to a corkboard in the breakroom:

Hmm, what's that there above? Toaster Pastry Kitty?

I also enjoy the notes they often leave for themselves. Some recent ones I recall...

"She believes in you"

"Here we go, one team one fight"

"I can do hard things"

"Don't be dumb"

Then there was [that one guy] who'd written 

"F**k you b*tch  MotherF***ing b*tch..."

We're not sure if that was a calming affirmation or... something else.

 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.

Happy May, y'all! Spring continues to spring.

Last weekend, we got together with Meego and Wolfgang for a little hike-about in nearby Lyons, CO. Lyons is a small town - population of about 2,000. The main industries appear to be weed dispensing and catering to outdoor recreators, not necessarily mutally exclusive. Beautiful day for it.

We stopped at a favorite Mexican restaurant post-hike, where we FINALLY learned that Sundays are "men's day". I say we finally learned this because every other time we'd gone had also been on Sundays. The guys would each order a beer and get two instead of one for reasons unbeknownst to us. Turns out, it's a "men's day thing".  Who knew?

We didn't learn this until after ordering, however, so once again, we had double beers at the table.

Switching gears now... Okay, I have this friend, we'll call her Rosemary. She moved to another state about a year ago or so. We're friends on f4cebook, and she's starting to post things that clearly indicate she's joined a cult MLM.

I'm not sure which MLM she's involved with, as she's being vague - as is tradition, it seems. But signs are that she's selling (trying to sell) ridiculously expensive water filters.

Now, I've had other friends get roped in - usually other moms I know - and I just ignore their pitches, and eventually, they see the light. Confession: I myself got roped into an MLM in the early 2000's before I knew anything about them. But I soon experienced the creepy / cult-like atmosphere and got the heck out before losing money and becoming a weirdo... well, an MLM weirdo anyway.

And now, Rosemary. She's early- to mid-thirties, no kids, no college degree. A ripe target. I'm seeing these type things from her on the regular -->

...and I cringe inwardly.

So I contemplate. Should I DM her like she prompts in order to

(1) try to talk her out of it - to which she probably wouldn't listen?

(2) pretend to be interested, infiltrate the cult, and then try to talk her out of it?

or do what I'll probably do in the end,

(3) ignore it, and watch painfully from afar.

Hopefully, she'll learn sooner rather than later.

Well, so much for birds chirping and sun shining. It's currently snowing. Welp, that's April for us. It's okay, as always. We need the moisture.

It feels like this week flew by and zipped right to Friday. The end of the semester is nigh, and student panic mixed with exhaustion is palpable. Despite today's winterness, the spring fever is hitting hard as well. As such, I've noticed much more crowding at the bicycle racks at work now that the fair weather commuters have joined in.

As I was securing my trusty commuter, Daisy, I couldn't help but notice this stranger at the end of the rack

"Big Weird Red" - that's gotta be a custom job, right? 

Eye catching and artistic? Yes. 

Ridable? Doubtful. 

Like many others, we're in the deep freeze. I'm looking forward to Tuesday, where we're forecast to be in the balmy 30's again.

This past week was rather busy as the college is getting ready for students to return for spring semester. I was supposed to work on Saturday, but the snow shut that down. I wasn't disappointed. Campus is also closed tomorrow for the same reason. Classes were off for the holiday anyway, so, again, not disappointed.

• One night last week, there were these mystery booms that woke us up around 2:30am. They weren't particularly loud. To me, they sounded eerily like someone was gently tapping on our sliding glass door *tap-tap-tap (pause) tap-tap-tap...* 

Magnum jumped up after hearing them. He thought it was our water pipes about to burst, so went to put all the faucets on drip. Funny how two people can interpret the same weird noise.

Anyway, it was neither of those things. Later, our Ring® notifications were full of people talking about the strange noise - gunshots? fireworks? - heard for miles around. They remain a mystery.

• Recently, I bought a cute 6-inch cast iron skillet for whipping up quick, healthy snacks and meals after coming home from work (2nd lunch?)

I like cooking with cast iron anyway, and it works nicely with our induction stove we purchased last year. Plus, maybe I'm rather partial to cartoon weaponry? 

Anyway, Magnum noticed the merits of the mini skillet. But alas, one of its virtues is that it serves as both cooking vessel AND serving dish. As such, I was monopolizing the cookware whenever I used it, which is often.

So we went wild and bought a second one.

I mention this only because of our neighbors across the street. They're a friendly couple - late 30's, I'd guess. Both professionals. No kids. 

A couple of years ago, Wife bought a Tesla Model Y. This week, she bought another one, and Husband got the hand-me-down. Now they've got his 'n' hers Teslas.

The skillets are our way of keeping up with the Jones's.

Totally the same thing.