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various things make a post
Jul. 18th, 2014 06:30 pm1. Since the smoke shop closed, I have noticed that I feel very out of touch with what is going on in the world. Heck, I feel out of touch with what's going on in my town. This is because over the past eight-and-a-half years, I stopped checking the news online. There was no point. I could walk ten steps from the register and see shelves of newspapers five or six days a week, and I could look at the return shelves in the back room for any days I missed because I was off work. I didn't read all that many articles full length, but even a glance at the front page of two or three papers will give a general sense of what the major current issues are.
Now I have to remember to actively search for news, and I am completely out of the habit.
I do still have a subscription to the Economist, which is a very useful world overview, but that's a weekly and I don't usually get my copy until Monday or Tuesday (instead of Saturday), so it's not an adequate substitute for a daily newspaper smorgasbord.
I have such first world problems. *sigh*
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2. I have new neighbors! Upstairs Neighbor E and her partner/husband Upstairs Neighbor T (...well, I think his name starts with a T, but I'm bad with names so I could easily be misremembering) moved in last Friday and Saturday. They have a two-year-old daughter (Mini Upstairs Neighbor C) and thus far seem like friendly and sensible people. They specifically asked for permission to store their bikes on my half of the front porch, and to stash their canoe (they have a canoe, what even) under my back porch. Upstairs Neighbor E also mentioned that she likes gardening, so she may do something about our rather slapdash landscaping. (Landlord Dude only does the bare minimum of yardwork, since he has back and shoulder problems.)
There IS a little designated garden plot in our backyard, but the problem is that the soil in a lot of Fall Creek neighborhood is 19th century landfill. In other words, it's a bunch of coal dust and related gunk, with maybe a one-foot-deep veneer of topsoil. So the more you garden and the more you turn up the dirt, the more this grayish yuck gets mixed in. That is why my old neighbors gave up on gardening a couple years ago and the "garden" is now a nicely stone-lined weed patch.
Upstairs Neighbor E sounded like she thought that was an interesting challenge, however, so we shall see if anything changes. :-)
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3. I have an appointment with Tompkins Workforce New York on Tuesday, to review my resume and job search strategies. This is a required part of the unemployment benefits program -- they want both to help people find new jobs, and to make sure they aren't mooching around doing nothing instead of actively searching for employment. I will definitely wear my nice shoes instead of my sneakers, and maybe a necklace, but I don't think this is the kind of thing I need to dig out my old suit/blazer jackets for. (Although I should air those out anyway, in hopes of future interviews.)
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4. I still have not received the snail-mail letter I am supposed to get from ESC regarding my mentor and the academic advising program, but I emailed them yesterday and they put me in touch with him electronically. He has sent me some preliminary information, and I will email him back tomorrow once I've had a chance to look it over and formalize my plans.
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5. I don't recall if I mentioned this, but the tiny pepper sprout with oddly dark leaves that had been refusing to grow basically pulled up its roots, tipped over, and died maybe ten days ago. The other tiny pepper survived and I repotted it into its adult home today, but I'm not putting it outside just yet. It's too small to stake, you see, and I'm afraid that without a stake for a shield, animals will attack it. (It is a tiny pepper. Going by number and arrangement of leaves, it's only a week behind the others, but it's literally only a third of their size. It's like a bonsai pepper. Very cute! But also very strange.)
Tomorrow or Sunday I think I may repot the baby spider plants I cut loose and stuck in water two weeks ago. They have grown some rootlets by now, and I have set up the hanging pots into which I intend to plant them. I'm thinking two or three babies per pot, so they start out looking reasonably full but still have some room to grow.
Now I have to remember to actively search for news, and I am completely out of the habit.
I do still have a subscription to the Economist, which is a very useful world overview, but that's a weekly and I don't usually get my copy until Monday or Tuesday (instead of Saturday), so it's not an adequate substitute for a daily newspaper smorgasbord.
I have such first world problems. *sigh*
-----
2. I have new neighbors! Upstairs Neighbor E and her partner/husband Upstairs Neighbor T (...well, I think his name starts with a T, but I'm bad with names so I could easily be misremembering) moved in last Friday and Saturday. They have a two-year-old daughter (Mini Upstairs Neighbor C) and thus far seem like friendly and sensible people. They specifically asked for permission to store their bikes on my half of the front porch, and to stash their canoe (they have a canoe, what even) under my back porch. Upstairs Neighbor E also mentioned that she likes gardening, so she may do something about our rather slapdash landscaping. (Landlord Dude only does the bare minimum of yardwork, since he has back and shoulder problems.)
There IS a little designated garden plot in our backyard, but the problem is that the soil in a lot of Fall Creek neighborhood is 19th century landfill. In other words, it's a bunch of coal dust and related gunk, with maybe a one-foot-deep veneer of topsoil. So the more you garden and the more you turn up the dirt, the more this grayish yuck gets mixed in. That is why my old neighbors gave up on gardening a couple years ago and the "garden" is now a nicely stone-lined weed patch.
Upstairs Neighbor E sounded like she thought that was an interesting challenge, however, so we shall see if anything changes. :-)
-----
3. I have an appointment with Tompkins Workforce New York on Tuesday, to review my resume and job search strategies. This is a required part of the unemployment benefits program -- they want both to help people find new jobs, and to make sure they aren't mooching around doing nothing instead of actively searching for employment. I will definitely wear my nice shoes instead of my sneakers, and maybe a necklace, but I don't think this is the kind of thing I need to dig out my old suit/blazer jackets for. (Although I should air those out anyway, in hopes of future interviews.)
-----
4. I still have not received the snail-mail letter I am supposed to get from ESC regarding my mentor and the academic advising program, but I emailed them yesterday and they put me in touch with him electronically. He has sent me some preliminary information, and I will email him back tomorrow once I've had a chance to look it over and formalize my plans.
-----
5. I don't recall if I mentioned this, but the tiny pepper sprout with oddly dark leaves that had been refusing to grow basically pulled up its roots, tipped over, and died maybe ten days ago. The other tiny pepper survived and I repotted it into its adult home today, but I'm not putting it outside just yet. It's too small to stake, you see, and I'm afraid that without a stake for a shield, animals will attack it. (It is a tiny pepper. Going by number and arrangement of leaves, it's only a week behind the others, but it's literally only a third of their size. It's like a bonsai pepper. Very cute! But also very strange.)
Tomorrow or Sunday I think I may repot the baby spider plants I cut loose and stuck in water two weeks ago. They have grown some rootlets by now, and I have set up the hanging pots into which I intend to plant them. I'm thinking two or three babies per pot, so they start out looking reasonably full but still have some room to grow.
