The Better Part in Everyday Ramblings

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I am both happy and sad to see the crape myrtles start to bloom. They are so beautiful at a time when the lilies and daisy families are fading and the wild sweat peas are getting dusty and curled inward from the heat.

There is a divorced dad around the other side of this block that has been working on his older house a little at a time over the last few years after the last batch of unruly student renters moved out. He planted a couple of these trees last year in a front area cleanup push and they are starting to bloom too. This is so much nicer than the weedy junky parking meridian that was there for years.

But to me they are also clear signs of fall. Like the flowers, a kind of turning inward seems to be occurring.

This week I spent the last of the very fragile political capital I had at work not going to the mandatory department picnic yesterday afternoon at a park across town that had just had the people living rough in it forcibly removed.

It was close to 100 degrees out (37 °C) and I had a class to teach after and work to do and the idea of hopping one legged in a sack with people that aren’t willing to have an ordinary conversation with me about oh say traffic or the weather…

I finally had to tell Nimrod that I didn’t feel safe going, which is also true.

But now of course the myth of special treatment will be perpetuated.

Saint Joe went early and helped with all the set-up so I covered for him and he represented us. But of course to the Evil Empire this was all heresy. They had to go so I had to go. They are unhappy so I need to be unhappy.

What I am unhappy about is what their unhappiness does to the workplace. Throw in a control freak in middle upper management and…

This means I am for sure going to have to go to the darn Christmas party. If I can get through a four-hour dental surgery awake I can get through the office Christmas party.

Speaking of dental surgery, my bone density test results came back and no surprise I have low bone density. Not Osteoporosis yet but it is concerning. I need to go in for a blood test for my vitamin D levels.

I am of course already doing the right things, the walking, the yoga and the healthy food but I need to be a little more focused on calcium and vitamin D and make sure I am getting enough.

All this I need to do to maintain the huge investment I am making in my implants, which will fail if the bone fails. So say instead of eating leafy greens once a day I need to eat them three times a day…

S (whom I am now going to call Mrs. Sherlock) took one look at me last night before class and said you look tired. It was an unguarded moment.

And I am. I let her drive me home in the heat. :) I need a proper vacation but I may just take some extra days off work. I am also going to take a week off teaching in the relatively near future. I haven’t missed a class in 20 months…

But now I need to hike up the hill and do a training. I enjoy doing these so that will be the better part of this late late summer day.

Last updated August 25, 2016