Note of the Living Deb

After four years, the first college that asked me to help them move their programs to the new degree audit system asked me to work for them again. Last time, they kept extending my contract, over and over. Until a whole year had gone by. It was a big job.

Victory Is Mine

This time, they were just coding the new catalog, but they were down two advisors, so they asked me to help. They were hoping to be done by May 23, but they couldn't get me officially approved until May 11, so I was contracted for May 11 - 31 (20 hours per week). I finished everything available to me (none of the new programs had codes assigned yet) 2.5 hours before quitting time on the 31st. I was so, so glad to have actually finished in the time budgeted this time. Okay, not "glad," exactly, more like victorious!

Useful Drudgery

I didn't have to cut corners, either. I made things more efficient, especially by making one college-wide restriction against pass-fail courses so that I could delete the hundreds of requirement-level restrictions that got ported over from the old system.

Puzzles

And I solved some puzzles. In one case, they switched from asking for a certain number of hours from one big list to also asking for a minimum number of hours from a subset of that list. I got to figure out how to structure the course lists so I could use the same ones in both catalogs. (This way, any time a new course is approved, you just add it to one course list and it works for all the catalogs.)

In another case, there was a requirement that could be modified for students in another program, but there was no way for the degree audit system to know who is in that other program. I figured out how to make it so that the audit would not ever wrongly say that the requirement was filled and so that to override the rule for the students in the program, all you had to do was change one single-digit number. (And I explained it in the comments so non-experts could easily figure out what was needed.)

Teamwork

There was another requirement where some additional options are always approved but not publicized. But it was a puzzle: my first idea meant you would have to do a lot of overrides and my second meant that before people had completed the requirement, part of the pre-approved unpublicized option would appear on their audit, which would be confusing at best. So I talked to the person who knew the most about this other option and we figured out that I was confused about the other option, and so it was actually possible to just make it work perfectly for everyone. Woo! I almost never get to participate in real teamwork--neither one of use could have come up with this solution on our own.

New Things

While I was gone, the new certified minors and certificates have been added to the degree audit system (in addition to majors), so I got to see how those work.

Co-workers

All the people I worked with in the college were great. My supervisor at the college was there for me to ask questions of daily to make sure that I was coding thing the way they actually wanted. For example, when a course is mentioned in the new catalog that was not mentioned in the last catalog, is that because the requirement has changed to allow the new course or, more likely, is this a course that didn't exist before but is acceptable in all catalogs?

I also met the two people who have my old role in the Registrar's Office. One has only been there a couple of months, but shows promise. The other is also pretty new and still learning but asks lots of questions and mostly got back to me (with perfect answers), so I'm feeling really good about him. (The questions he didn't answer regarded minutia about which I could easily just assume the worst.)

There were some other people in the Registrar's Office who I contacted because I needed to see another part of the catalog that had some university-wide degree requirements. Radio silence. Until the last day when I said, "today is my last day" and when I gave them three possible options (send me the text, give me a link to the text and permission to access it, or let me come over and read it). They set up a keyboard and monitor in their office so that I could come over and read it online. They had been waiting for their supervisor to tell them how to help me because they couldn't imagine how until they got my e-mail. They also didn't realize it was urgent. They still don't realize that it would have been urgent even if it weren't my last day because we were trying to get the degree audit programs live in time for summer orientation.

The people in charge of assigning the degree codes, omg. Actually, it was the people assigning the institutional codes that backed up the process for four months, but those folks weren't even mentioned in the long list of steps required for new programs until I dug into it. Fun times. (Actually, it is fun. I don't like bugging people to do their jobs, or worse, telling them how, but it feels good doing so as a favor to the whole group of people who are in my same position. And if people get annoyed with me or think I'm a bad apple or whatever, I don't have to care, and I save full-timers from getting stuck with those labels while still sometimes getting them results.)

Salary

They asked what my salary requirement was. I am so terrible at salary negotiations. Last time they could only afford $17.50/hour. This happened to be almost at the very top of the "Assistant Advisor" range. Inflation calculations showed that this was equivalent to $19/hour in today's dollars. So I answered that I wanted $20/hour negotiable. And they agreed to $20/hour. It turns out that the top of the "Assistant Advisor" salary range is still within pennies of $17.50 so this time I was an "Administrative Associate." So, even though I am a terrible negotiator and salary ranges have not kept up with inflation, I still got a better salary than had I been maximally doormattish. Another victory!

Except for the part about how I never got properly authorized to use the time reporting system, ha ha. I'm not too worried. I know I'll get paid eventually.

Summary

I really enjoyed helping out my old coworkers, meeting the new versions of me, getting to see the new features of the degree audit system, and coding the new catalog (and fixing up parts of the previous catalog(s)) as well as I could, with lots of help from competent and conscientious people. Even working half time, though, was a bit much. (That's partly because I also worked a couple of weekend jobs that Robin was doing where they needed more help.)

Commitments

Even when you're retired, it's hard to juggle all your commitments. This summer I have basically 2 commitments: 1) a one-week trip to Cancun and 2) a friend and I are going to go to a water park for exercise in the early afternoon of some weekdays.

Easy, right?

Except the college that hired me heard that another college could really use me and gave them my e-mail address. That second college hasn't yet contacted me, but I've heard things are so dire that their advisors don't even trust their audits, so they don't use them. Their degree audit expert retired recently, and the new guy is having really tough time figuring things out. So I would love to help them (and would ask for $25/hour, negotiable), but yikes, they would probably want me to work on weekday afternoons!

Actually, the new bus system starts next week, which means there will be a bus to the university every 15 minutes instead of every 35 and the route will be much more direct, and therefore (surely) shorter. So in the past, I would do 20-hour work weeks by working three days a week, but maybe working 8 - 12 would be just fine now. That could totally work.

Today was the "twelfth class day" of the semester, which is the day our state universities make their official counts of students in order to determine how much state money they get. This day is therefore the last day for students to add and drop classes. Thus this is the last day of the deluge of desperate requests. So it was like an uber-Friday.

Next week is a few meetings that were put off until after the twelfth class day, plus I have some catching up to do. After that, I should have enough time to work on my part of the annual report and should in general start having an easier time of it at work.

I;m so glad I have one of those jobs where I only work a certain number of hours and then go home and stop working. (I did stay 30 minutes late today, but it's not like teaching or being a CEO or anything.)

In other news it was raining when I got off of work. At first it was still hot (and steamy). But by the time I got home, the temperature was actually cool. So I'm going to call today a turning point in the weather as well.

Quote of the Day - "Oh, that guy has been known to make people cry." Not me, I just felt sorry for him.

Oops, this is like those annoying Facebook posts that don't mean anything unless you already know the story. Basically, a faculty member was so angry about some ways my college had treated him in the past that he refused to answer the question I asked, saying that we ignore faculty anyway, so why bother.

However, I did not need him to answer the question; it was just a way for him to double-check my work. So, I feel bad for him, but I can still do my job, so no crying. My co-workers say he is just always vitriolic, no matter what you do. Can you imagine living your life like that?

I began my work day with four hours at the new employee orientation. I did actually learn a couple of things: when you buy a ticket for a show, such as at the Performing Arts Theatre, you can also buy a discount parking ticket at the same time.

And now you can get $25 each year that you fill out a health survey and have some preventative appointment (like an annual physical, a mammogram, or a colonoscopy). The health survey people are a different group than the insurance people and promise to maintain your privacy.

I also got a free lunch: sandwich and chips. Odd, but nice.

Afterwards, I tried signing up for insurance, but I got an error message that people on COBRA can't make updates. (I've been using COBRA for dental insurance.) But the HR folks got back to me right away--it just means I have to turn in a paper form.

Which I will be able to see as soon as I get a PDF reader. Yes, I downloaded the recommended one and ran it, but then got the message that I needed a newer one. And that was today's theme--getting the computer guy to do a bunch of stuff. Starting with bringing me a computer. (I did already have a keyboard.) Eventually everything will work properly.

Good news: it seems not to be freezing cold in my new office. Woot! It's a little chilly, but that's fine in the winter. I don't feel like I have to keep my coat, hat, scarf, and gloves on like in some of my previous offices. Other good news: the bathrooms have manual flushing. Also: I have access to a fridge and a microwave. But there's no lunch room, so I'll probably spend a lot of time in the library and perhaps occasionally eating lunch with my old Business co-workers.

I've already got two meetings to attend this week. Plus I will get into some additional training. Fortunately, they don't want me to make any decisions by myself yet. I will make decisions, and then meet with the experts to learn any added details I need to know in order to fine-tune those decision until they are right.

I already got to look at some documentation written by my predecessor on how to do some of my job duties. It's wonderfully good and thorough. Yet both I and the gal who's been using it the past few weeks to do the duties (and who will be training me) already have suggestions for improvement. Teamwork! Improvement! I love that in a job.

My office is quite grey. I'm not yet sure about what to do about that. (Must not decorate with fake clouds and fake rain.)

I decided to try four-day work-weeks. We'll see how that goes.

One less day of commuting will be nice. Today I left at 4:45 and the bus did not come until 5:21. Meanwhile, I watched the same bus pass me in the other direction twice. Once there were enough people at my stop to fill an entire bus, it came, but of course there were already quite a few people on the bus. I suppose it would take me more than an hour to just walk home, especially since I get distracted and stop and look at things. But especially on cold and windy days, I am sorely tempted. (Walking keeps me warmer than standing--and you can't really pace once there are a lot of people at the stop.)

Overall, I'm still liking this job. Yea!

Maybe I'll try posting more for a while.

Keeping Warm

Since I'm a cold-weather wimp, a recent theme has been keeping warm without using up a lot of natural gas. Yesterday I walked to some local stores looking for button batteries which they did not have (I'll order online), but the stores did have excess heat. Today I walked/jogged to the library and hung out there until I got hungry and then came home. By the time I got home, my hands were warm from the effort, even without gloves on.

Meanwhile at home, I did turn the heat on yesterday (when it got to 55) and today (when it had been at 58 for a while). I'm still wearing plenty of clothes. And I heat up water (I don't really like tea, and having several cups of hot chocolate a day doesn't seem wise). The shivering muscles in my back ache.

Exercising

I got a cold at the end of the year and have been resting a lot to get rid of it. Now it's time to start exercising again. The day before yesterday I did my pilates video. My core muscles (not just the ones I use for shivering) are still aching. Yesterday I jogged a tiny bit--the last bit home from the stores. Today I switched between jogging and walking to and from the library.

Reading

I've been doing loads of reading over the past several months. I've decided to read every one of Georgette Heyer's Regency romances. Except for two historical ones that Robin says are too gruesome, plus when she concentrates on historical figures, we don't get enough of her fictional characters who are a lot more fun. (Beau Brummel is an exception.)

I'm taking a break from that goal just now. Llcoolvad enjoyed the books on which the "Longmire" TV series is based (by Craig Johnson), so when a friend talked us into going to the central library last weekend, I checked some out. I also had re-read all my Dragonriders of Pern novels and checked out some more of those. Since those have due dates and Robin's Heyer novels don't, I'm switching over for a while.

After reading Death Without Company, I think I'll be reading a lot more of these Longmire novels. I don't like one of the characters as much as on the TV show (Vic), and one of the other deputies is a whole different person. But you get to have Longmire as the "I" point of view, and he has quite the sense of humor--I did quite a bit of chuckling, especially in the first half of the book. But then you find out a lot more about the tragic histories of many characters, so there's more crying, too. As llcoolvad said, the personal stories are different in the books than in the TV show, too. It's kind of like a parallel universe. With really good writing. I hope I don't read anything too horribly scarring. It's a lot easier to look away from the TV than from a book.

Work

My job with the tax company has been not exactly Laurel-and-Hardy or Dilbert-like, but I still don't have my ID number which means I can't clock in or out or take any of the post-training quizzes or get onto the schedule. And I often don't get e-mails about required meetings. Most of my trainings have been within walking distance, which is part of what attracts me to the job. The one before last was in south Austin, though. The next one is in San Marcos--good thing I have a car.

Obviously job hunting sucks but the last couple of days have been over the top.

Tax Preparation

I signed up for a class on tax preparation for one of the major firms as described in an earlier post. However, when I contacted the lady with the discount, she had to guide me through the steps over the phone and her code did not work for the location I wanted. No problem, just pick another location where it does work and then she would switch me. The code finally worked at the 4th or 5th location.

Later I applied to the temp pool at UT, so the worst that could happened changed to my getting some very short-term temp job on the first day of class so that I have to cancel AND I don't have a real job. Not my favorite worst-case.

But then last Friday, I got a note from the instructor of the class I had signed up for showing that I still hadn't been switched. The class was about to start at the other location, so I e-mailed that instructor warning her that I wasn't actually coming. I got ahold of my contact and she said that the computer was having problems, but I could just show up to the class I wanted and we'd do the paperwork then. Today I got notification that I have been canceled out of the other class and gotten a refund. I'm still going to show up to the class I want next Monday (supposedly it still has two openings), but I suspect things are not going to work out after all.

Obnoxious Job Application

I picked out a job to apply to yesterday, did all the work, and then noticed that right before you turn in the application you have to answer a bunch of questions, like how many years of experience you have with specific job duties as is seen on your resume. Since some of those job duties had not been emphasized or even implied on the job description, I had to go and make major updates to my resume and cover letter, after which I felt I would need a fresh brain to proofread.

This morning I proofread and made my updates, but then when I went to submit it, I got the message that the job was closed. Again--I fell for this again! There was a melt-down, with yelling and jumping up and down and saying things like "I hate everyone." Poor Robin, he was home for lunch at the time.

Then I calmed down and checked--today was only the seventh day the job had been open. I know all jobs have to be open at least a week. So I refreshed the original page, and it said that the job had been deleted. They changed their mind. (Still, if I had applied yesterday, it would have counted toward my job-hunting activities I need for unemployment compensation.)

They may re-offer the job with some changes; if so it should be relatively easy to update my letter and resume again and resubmit it.

Obnoxious Job Offerings

Yesterday was even worse. After reading several job openings full of extremely boring job duties and lots of them and trying to talk myself into thinking that I actually want to do some of those jobs, my brain finally imploded. It stopped working, and I got what I called a mini-migraine. This means just a moderate headache plus the neckline of my shirt felt too tight plus I started shivering even though it was 79 degrees in the house by then. So I took ibuprofen (which worked) and got under lots of covers.

And then I thought about how much time I spend every day that I shouldn't do anything fun until I apply for a job, but then I never get around to applying for a job, so I'm wasting my time off. If I just give up on job hunting, then I could start having more fun--not just daily fun, but long-term fun. I could start taking Spanish next semester, for example.

It would be hard giving up these last two months of unemployment benefits, but it's sooo tempting.

One More Degree Audit Job

Meanwhile, I thought about my contact in one of the colleges who I saw at a retirement party. He was one who had acted interested in hiring me, but he never got back to me, and when my other contact told me he was not allowed to hire me, I assumed that was true for both colleges. So at the party I asked how he had gotten help (because I knew that he had, indeed, gotten another catalog ready). He told me he hadn't gotten any help. I told him I was still available. He said he was going to have to submit a proposal which required estimating how long he would need me. He didn't really have time for this. I told him no one knows how long it will take, just make a guess. Even a wrong guess would still lead to getting more help than putting off the task indefinitely. And I made a quick estimate and said to just tell them six months, half-time. He said his college is cheap and they might give me only four months. I said four months is better than zero--I would start with the stuff he was dreading the most. He said he would ask.

And then he didn't get back to me. So I thought more about our dealings in the past and decided to call him and offer to meet with him to help him put together a proposal. And so we are now meeting this Friday morning.

I looked more closely at what I done for the other colleges and how long it had taken me. And I made a less random estimate of 4.8 - 7.2 months, depending on how different the three degree plans are. Ha! It matches my first guess! Then I looked up the degree plans he has. It looks like I might be able to use the 4.8-month estimate. (If I work at least 4.5 months, I get another year of service toward my pension so I'm really hoping for that.)

He has all day Friday free, so even if something comes up at our meeting time, I have a long book to read and can blow off all other plans the rest of the work day if necessary. Plus he's great one-on-one. This might actually work.

Current Compromise

Right now I'm thinking that if I get this job and it's for at least 4.5 months, then I'll quit looking for work. Forever. Yes, I'll drain some of my Roth IRA. I don't care. That's what it's for: draining! And the market is up--now's a good time to sell. And it won't even be the whole 57K I contributed, more like 32K. And I have 110K, so that's still good. And my pension pays more than my current standard of living, so I won't even need any IRA money until inflation catches up and/or medical expenses expand.

Actually, I'll still keep checking UT jobs, but only apply to the ones that sound kind of fun, not the ones that just sound possible.

And if I don't get that job or it's too short, then I'll keep looking.

Meanwhile, I suppose I should go to that resume-evaluation thing that only happens once a month this Friday afternoon. (It counts as a job-hunting activity and may even help.) And I do have to keep applying to jobs to qualify for unemployment. Maybe they never check up on you like they claim they do, but it's still what they're paying me for.

Article of the Day - FEMA's Above the Flood: Elevating Your Floodprone House - describes three ways to elevate your house with eight examples from after Hurricane Andrew.

"...their owners had a choice of up to three techniques for elevating the lowest floor (as illustrated on the following pages):
1. Extend the walls of the house upward and raise the lowest floor (Figure 7).
2. Convert the existing lower area of the house to non-habitable space and build a new second story for living space (Figure 8).
3. Lift the entire house, with the floor slab attached, and build a new foundation to elevate the house (Figure 9)."

Has loads of pictures. I recommend it if you have any interest in architecture or construction or renovation of ordinary houses.

Sadly, all three ways look pretty expensive. Even if your roof has already been conveniently blown off.

Today I visited the weekly job club meeting because they had a guest speaker. One interesting thing she said was that hard skills get you hired, soft skills get you fired. (Of course she means lack of soft skills. I think it would be better to say they get you promoted, but that doesn't rhyme.)

Hard skills are the specific things people normally list on their resumes--skills with specific systems or issues. You should make sure to use terms that your intended audience would understand, of course. Soft skills are the more general ones like team skills, creativity, leadership, and enthusiasm. She recommends you use your soft skills as a lens to describe your hard skills so that both come through in your application and interview.

I'm not sure I'm going to get anything out of that. But I'm currently in a situation where I probably should. I'm applying for a job where my qualifications are obvious from my resume. So what do I put in my cover letter? Normally I'm trying to explain how my unrelated-seeming jobs are actually applicable. In this case, that feels patronizing (not to mention boring). So I should probably switch to some sort of strategy where I talk about how excited I would be to be using these exact same skills again in their very exciting new environment! Or something.

I walked to and from that job club meeting because it's only 1.5 miles away and it's a morning meeting. (And I can use exercise and should not be polluting the air and putting wear and tear on my car.) But I get quite sweaty in both directions (and chilled in the meeting, though I put on a jacket). I felt used up by later in the afternoon, so maybe I should cut it with walking there in the summer.

But maybe it was from the house being 83 degrees. I think perhaps I start to go a little comatose above 82 degrees. So instead of turning off the A/C when Robin leaves, maybe I should just turn it up to 82 degrees if I'm home. Then still turn it back down before he comes home.

I may switch to weekly updates when all I'm really doing is exercising, job hunting, reading, and hanging with Robin.

Now that another set of friends is moving away (job with Google! woo hoo!), I should get back in the habit of writing more.

Socializing

I got to hang out with a friend during a weekday afternoon, lunching, catching up, hanging out, watching a movie, and being productive.

And I got to socialize some more at the short-notice same-day Google job offer celebratory dinner. (There will be a longer-notice event later, too!) Yes, I had already eaten dinner. And dessert. But there is always room for Tex Mex.

And of course lots of socializing with R. We're now all caught up on "Murdoch Mysteries." And we saw the new movie "Pacific Rim." I'm not going to say I had high hopes for that movie, but one of the reviews was something like, "Just watch it." It's nice to see a movie where most of the characters are smart (all of them, perhaps), and most are likeable. I enjoy hanging out with them. And of course the special effects are awesome. Plot-hole city, though.

Errands

Shopping

And I got a huge list of errands done, which is always satisfying and relieving. I visited the intimidating Good Will outlet (Blue Hanger) for the first time. It was not as horrifying as I feared and it didn't seem super fun, but I did get four things:
* Scrabble game - $2.41 (and I have already added magnets to the back of all the letters to make another housewarming present)
* shirt - $0.60 (for fabric to fix up a pillowcase only the shirt looks so well-made and so close to my size that I might have to try it on and decide if I'd rather use it as a shirt)
* small spiral notebook - $0.60 (perfect condition)
* plaid cloth napkin - $0.15 (turns out we have too many napkins to fit into our napkin holder now, so it's time to stop buying these, no matter how cool)

Why yes, I did weigh these things after I got home to find out how much they cost because at that store they charge $1.39 per pound.

Getting rid of stuff

On the way there, I dropped off our old batteries and fluorescent bulbs at the Hazardous Waste facility. And before that I checked the Habitat Restore for a couple of things but left empty-handed.

On another day, I went to UT and dropped off the library books I had finished plus gave UPS a huge bag of packing materials to re-use or re-cycle. Then I went to a session on retiring from UT to figure out the answer to two questions.

On retiring

Question 1: What if I don't know what date I'm retiring until there's less than six months remaining? Answer: just start your paperwork ASAP--starting six months ahead is just the ideal.

Question 2: If I want to retire from UT, will it wreck things if I work certain other places first? Answer: Only if I qualify for insurance benefits there. UT must be the "last state (Texas) employer in which you qualify for insurance benefits." Since I'd have to work for the state for ten years before I'd qualify, I'm safe.

Although maybe I would qualify if I worked for another place that uses TRS for the pension (such as ACC or AISD), so maybe those aren't safe.

Plus then I came home and read the retirement handbook and it says that one of the requirements is that "the individual's last state employment before retirement was with UT." And it referenced the Texas insurance code, which I looked up and that says one of the requirements is that "the individual's last state employment before retirement was with that system" (i.e., the UT System). So those pretty clearly imply that any job that I can use to add years of service to my pension that is not UT will mean I can't retire from UT (and get their good health insurance benefit).

Also, I was pretty unclear on when another year of service clocks over. It used to be after 4/12 months (i.e., January 15th). Then it was 90 workdays, including holidays and vacation but not weekend days (also mid January, but perhaps slightly different each year). But then at the presentation, they said you get credit for the whole month even if you only work the first day (so January 1?) but that you only need one semester (so, December 1?). I would have to call TRS to find out the real answer.

Job Hunting

I found a job that sounded like it might be okay and might be working for one of my old colleagues, so I wrote to her. But she said no, I'd be working with someone else (who I also recognized). So I was a little less excited to be applying for this job which has a million job duties. I'm almost done applying for that job but still haven't finished it.

I tried reducing my resume to only one page, but because of the million job duties, which I want to make it clear that I could do, that didn't happen.

At the celebratory dinner, I was introduced to a guy works for IT at UT. I ended up sitting next to his wife, and she made it clear that a) he knows people all over campus, and b) it's still a mess everywhere. I said, "You mean the more-with-less thing?" Bingo.

So this week's data imply that the only jobs that will help me retire earlier and well are UT jobs, and all of those still suck even though the recession is supposedly over.

Also, it took me 1.5 hours to get home from the retirement session in the hot sun. I watched the bus I wanted go by (while I was still a block away), and I let two buses on another normally acceptable route go by because I had already overused my healing foot and didn't want to do the mile hike at the end (plus it was mid-afternoon and I was feeling wimpy). The commute to campus was also extremely frustrating. I came home utterly undesiring of another job there, even for only 1.5 years.

In other news, I went to the Workforce Solutions orientation session, which I heard was required for people on unemployment. It turns out that the orientation session is one-on-one and she really stuck her nose into my online job-hunting presence trying to make it so that their site would send me more matches. But she also told me about a job club for "professionals" like me, the Launch Pad Job Club. They have networking (bleh) but also guest speakers (hmm).

So, Launch Pad meets every Friday and you are supposed to show up early to your first meeting so you can get signed up. And they ask you to stand in front of everybody with a microphone and give your elevator speech (of what you do and what you're looking for). That went okay. The main thing I like, though, is that once a month you can bring five copies of your resume and get in a group with four other people and give each other advice on each other's resumes. I know you're supposed to have a million people look at your resume, but I hate resumes, so I don't want to make my friends look at mine. But strangers who are also getting help from me (though perhaps mostly about parallelism, spelling, and grammar) sounds good. They have a similar thing for practicing interviews which might be good.

And they recommend to get on LinkedIn plus one spider search engine like indeed.com or simplyhired.com plus one big job board, ideally in your field, such as highereducationjobs.com. I'll have to check those out.

Income

I did get approved for unemployment and I got my first check. Although they asked for and I gave them data for two weeks, I only got paid for one week, so that was a little disappointing. Still, from now on, so long as I make make myself apply to jobs, I can get paid to do so.

Also, Obamacare requires that health insurance companies may spend no more than 20% of premiums on administrative costs and my insurance company spent 22.3% on such costs so they sent me rebate of $38.69. Windfall!

May was unusual for me.

Teeth

I finally got my wisdom teeth out: just the ones that had come to the surface. My top teeth are still cowering in my upper jaw, which is just where I like them.

At the same time, I got my shark tooth removed (I had one tooth completely behind the row of all my other bottom teeth).

The surgery had to be rescheduled for two days later due to a family emergency. Then it had to be rescheduled again--I requested a date two weeks later, hoping the emergency would be resolved. But once again I got a call that it needed to be rescheduled.

As I said on Facebook: I have parties I want to be healed for. I have a job offer that keeps being put off. I have re-arranged my work days. I need this done while I have dental insurance. I have no solid food in the house. I have library books piled up that are going to be due. That I am not allowed to read yet because I am saving them.

Nevertheless, I tried one more time, thinking that if it worked, it would be a lot faster than starting over with a new guy. And the receptionist let on that the family emergency was a problem that required multiple appointments, and I had just been unlucky in the dates I had picked. Fortunately, the fourth time was the charm.

I had only local anesthesia, which apparently is somewhat rare and shocking these days. However, whether you go local, general, or something in between, it's not going to hurt during the surgery and it is going to hurt after surgery, so I went with the less invasive approach. After I told my oral surgeon my choice, he looked relieved and also told me that you tend to heal faster with local anesthesia. Sounded good to me.

He had already told me that my teeth did not look like they were wrapped around nerves or anything like that. Two came out easily. The right wisdom tooth took several tries but did not take terribly long to remove. I do not at all regret my decision.

There was a scary moment when my tongue was getting feeling back, but my lower jaw was still numb where I thought to myself, "this is the best I'm going to feel for a long time." As soon as I started feeling pain (a dull ache on the right side of my jaw), I took two ibuprofen, knowing that the sooner you take pain medication, the better it works and the less you need.

I knew it takes about 15 minutes for ibuprofen to take effect on me (for headaches anyway), so I decided that if the pain felt the same or worse after 15 minutes, I would take one of the scary pills (generic Vicodin laced with Tylenol). But 15 minutes later, it felt better.

So I was very lucky with my recovery, generally just taking two doses of ibuprofen a day (which I'm still doing, though I'm taking only one pill per dose now). My condolences for those of you who had it worse.

Jobs

I had been working for two colleges for a while, and one of the jobs ended, so I spent the rest of the month working only half-time for the remaining college. I like that. I really like that.

But my other half-time job ended last Thursday. There were a lot of things I hoped to get done, but at the beginning of the month it looked like many of those things were going to have to remain undone. So I worked like crazy and some things ended up taking much less time than expected (since when does that happen?), so I ended up being able to finish every one of those things plus a few other good ideas I came up with along the way. It was an excellent month at work.

I have enough money to last me until my pension kicks in, but only if I withdraw virtually all of my contributions to my Roth IRA. (You're allowed to do this with no penalty at any time, though you're not allowed to withdraw the extra part if your investments have grown.)

However, pretty much everyone but me agrees that this is a bad idea, including the people at the forums of a website for people who want to retire extremely early (in their 20s or 30s). I'd be cutting things too close and I should get my pension ASAP (the more I work, the quicker I qualify).

So I'm going to try for more half-time work, hopefully for jobs with the same pension. I've contacted two other colleges who had expressed some interest, but they have not yet gotten back to me. After my sister's visit (she and her family are coming into town from Indiana this evening for a week and a half) I will start doing normal job hunting if I haven't gotten any bites from my old colleagues.

(The job offer I referred to on Facebook was informal; the staff were going to get back to me once they had a salary to offer. But the Provost got involved, briefly, then decided not to work with me after all, but not until telling me that the college that had been about to make me an offer did not have enough funds. I have kept that college up-to-date via e-mail, but have not yet heard back from them.)

Aches

I've been having an aching heel (plantar fasciitis) and aching shoulder (strained rotator cuff) for almost a year. I tried doing physical therapy on my own, and it helped, but did not totally fix the problems. So I went to a physical therapist earlier this year for a while. I was to continue doing the exercises she left me with until I was healed.

While recovering from my wisdom tooth removal, I completely quit doing these exercises.

Now my heel doesn't hurt at all, and my shoulder hurts less. Surly it is just a coincidence that they happened to get better just at the time I quit doing the exercises. Right? So I'm going to start up the shoulder ones again soon.

Meanwhile, I walked around campus for hours on Monday with no walking stick (bringing packing materials to recycle at the local UPS, checking out library books from there while I still could, turning in all my keys, and asking about COBRA dental insurance extension), and there were no negative repercussions. I also danced Saturday night at a birthdave party (thanks, Dave! and Shari the DJ!), thinking I was probably overdoing it, but again with no negative repercussions. The heel is healed!

Still, I'm planning to go to one of those running stores to get my next pair of jogging shoes. As you age, you get less flexible, etc., and many of those lies I've heard (lift with your legs, not your back; always warm up slowly before aerobic exercise; don't wear cheap-o shoes to jog in) probably eventually become true even for lucky people like me.

I've resisted the fancy shoes before because running has not hurt my feet (or legs or knees or hips), because those shoes are pricy, and because I've read that it is recommended people with flat feet like mine wear concrete blocks shoes that offer support by not bending and not having any cushioning, which sounds uncomfortable to me. But now, in the interest of not being an idiot, I'm going to try out some good shoes.

[I'm sure you guessed at the beginning that "Fewer Aches" was a good thing, but did you guess that the other two were, too?]

Turns out that while I was in that class, I was getting an e-mail offer for another half-time job for this spring. Which I have now accepted. So I won't have to be siphoning off any IRA money this year. Yea!

Shortest post ever. So let me find another picture from that cake show.

Cake of the Day

There was a section on sugar sculptures at the cake show. Here's one entry:



Because one hand-made capitol rotunda isn't enough.

Yesterday morning there were police cordons across the pawn shop, the old location of the pawn shop next door, and Chris's Liquor on the other side. A body had been found. Might or might not have been a murder victim.

At work the office was closed to students and there was a stench in the air, related to a dripping, stinging sludge. Apparently a drain upstairs was clogged with coffee grinds (= brown sludge). So, someone poured Draino in and the pipe burst (= dripping and stinging). Acid + base = bad idea.

It was cleaned up and fans were on, but fortunately we had a morning meeting elsewhere.

During which no one could get the computer working including several experts dragged in from the outside.

So then we decided to go the the birthday lunch early. It was also off the premises.

Coming back, some people decided to work from home. So I decided to work from my other campus employer, though I had heard that I had been moved to another office. My boss was not there, so I couldn't get in. Fortunately, the stench was cleared out by then, so I finished working as usual.

Today I learned that moving me to another office meant authorizing me for a key to another office. It did not mean moving my computer over or otherwise providing me with a computer which could access everything I need. It did not involve telling the person in the other office that I would be moving over. It did not involve moving my other supplies over.

I am tired. Also on day 11 of a cold.

Cake of the Day