OUT OF THE BLUE

Summer, friends, is over.

All right, not technically– the leaves are not changing colors, baseball is still in season, and football is not in season, at least not quite yet. My summer, however, is over because classes start on Monday morning. This semester will be different. I have left my full time job, and changed my occupation to full time student. I still plan to work at Badger home football, basketball and hockey games. I am starting a part time IT help desk position at UW. So while I will be busy, I will be able to focus most of my energy on school, where it belongs and will do the most good.

I ended up with two days this week without work, partly to give me time to get books and such ready for classes, and partly to give me some time to make the shift from a full time day job to student life. Don’t get me wrong– I do not intend, at all, to pretend that I am 20 again– but having one’s primary focus be academics is a different frame of mind than meeting data entry production goals every day. In between shopping for books, highlighters, graph paper, and those four-color Bic pens (that are damn near impossible to find), I have made it a point to relax a little. Page through the calculus book, and notes from the past two semesters. Bookmark textbook websites. Play some Quake II. And above all, make sure the batteries in my calculator are fresh. (Calc III and Calc based physics this semester = I’ll be attached to my TI-89.)

The path to get here has been a long one. I have had a lot to overcome, have had to learn different ways to do things, and always seem to have more adjustments to make. I’m good with that.

Monday morning is going to be interesting. I have never had the full daytime MATC Truax experience, since I have had all night and online classes thus far. I might feel a little old. I might feel a little stressed, anxious, or hurried. Probably all of the above.

I will also be the person sitting up in the front of the class, notebook open, reading glasses on (reference feeling old in last paragraph), pen and highlighter in hand, ready to rock and roll.

So yes, my summer is over.

Bring on the math. Bring on the phone calls. Bring on the football, basketball, and especially the hockey.

Yeah, just bring it.

Holy crap. It’s almost the end of July. That means that I have about a month until fall semester starts. 30ish days. Holy crap. I’m short. (Can you really be a short timer as a civilian? I’ll claim yes, and more on that in a future post.)

It’s not that bad. I’m actually looking forward to classes starting again. All of my classes will be new material, so it will likely be challenging and interesting. (To put it mildly.) I might put some time in with the Calc book just before the semester starts; last two semesters I think I could have gotten off to a better start. This time I want, and need, to have those math brain cells awake the first week.

But enough about school. It’s still July.

I’ve been out on the new Trek a lot this month, logging 120+ miles this month. This weekend, the Trek gets to be a mountain bike, and gets dirty. I’m going camping, and taking the bike along to do some mountain biking in the Nicolet National Forest. Last summer, I was on the old bike from Target, which shifted on its own and didn’t shift when I told it to shift. The Trek doesn’t suffer from those issues, so this time will likely be more fun. I’ve also been going on training rides with the Madison (WI) Area Outdoor Meetup Group on Monday nights, which accounts for a lot of the miles I’ve pedaled this month.

I also have two other camping trips on the schedule this summer, one to Minnesota and one to Michigan, and the bike’s going along on both trips. There will also be kayaking and hiking involved on those trips.

I’ve been learning Java, slowly. I don’t expect that I’ll do a lot with it this semester, but I’m taking an online course through ACM just to reactivate those portions of my brain that are there to write code. It’s been a while, but a loop still does and a variable still is. I’m going to take the A+ exam before school starts again, too. My I Love Me wall needs updating.

I’m working on my UW-Madison transfer application. I’m putting things down on paper now, so it should be submitted soon. That’s a major step. Actually getting in will be an even bigger step, but this is the second step– the first was getting far enough at MATC to make transferring possible.

Okay, so I wasn’t done talking about school. I am trying to make the most of summer, because once the semester starts, life is all about homework and tests. I do believe that thinking about classes now and then over the summer is a good thing, because I’m happy about college. I enjoy school, even the math. (Maybe, especially the math.)

But it is still summer, it’s 73 degrees and sunny, and I’m getting out on the bike to log some more pedaling miles.

Sometimes, you find parallels to military service in places you didn’t expect to see them. Those things you learned in faraway places have their counterparts at home. And, you have fun and get free food and other goodies.

This weekend, I was temporarily assigned to a mobile unit that was setting up shop here– they’d asked for a number of local volunteers to fill slots they needed to conduct operations, and I volunteered.

The weekend started on Friday, with checking in- getting my identity verified, being issued a uniform, discussing access procedures, and being briefed by various officers. Among the highlights of the briefings was what to check for regarding the firearms and weapons we’d see people carrying the next day.

After being assigned to triage and meeting our person in charge, my team took a tour of where we’d be working, reviewed the paperwork we’d need to deal with, and reviewed procedures for other mission essentials such as getting chow/coffee in the morning before operations began.

“Triage” on Saturday was just what it sounds like. After waiting in line for a while, someone would see a generalist who would assign them one or more categories of specialists that they’d see next. My team’s mission was to get those people from the triage area into the line for the first specialist they’d need to see. From there, another team would get them in to the specialist, and point them to the next specialist. This went on from 0615, when we reported for chow, to about 1830, when the last of the line had been processed through triage. (We did get a break for chow at lunchtime. Meatloaf, mac n’ cheese, veggies– yummy goodness.)

Disaster? Casualties? Drill weekend? Deployment?

Nope. I was volunteering at a taping of the PBS show Antiques Roadshow.

The line of people, of course, was people who had brought in items from home to be appraised. They’d gotten tickets through a lottery, months ago. Once they were in line, they saw a general appraiser who assigned their items categories such as “Collectibles” or “Folk Art”. Those of us working triage (actual name) took them along with their items to the areas they’d been assigned, and dropped them off at the appropriate place on the set. (Which was more complicated than it sounds.)

Along the way, we talked– about where people were from, what they’d brought, how cool it was to actually be on the set of a show they watched every week for years. I met people from Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and even someone who had flown in from New York.

I met a few veterans, some veterans of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. I met a few more sons, daughters, and grandsons and granddaughters of veterans who had brought stuff in that had made it home years ago. I saw rifles, shotguns, pistols, bayonets, swords, medals, decorations, and uniforms.

I saw a hockey stick autographed by members of the 1977 Wisconsin Badgers men’s hockey team.

I helped a Packer fan find her sister, a Minnesota Gopher fan, after they’d been separated among the lines for different categories.

I also saw paintings, prints, dolls, furniture, quilts, rugs, toys, tools, and more just plain stuff than I can ever hope to list. Every thing had a story and a reason for being there. Every thing that someone brought in to be appraised represented some part of life for someone.

The “unit” was the traveling crew of Antiques Roadshow, plus the local staff from WHA, plus all of us volunteers. Once you add in appraisers (who are beyond being just “specialists”, local law enforcement, catering, facilities and security people, you have what looks (and feels) a lot like a military unit. Okay, we didn’t have PT and haircuts to worry about, but we certainly did have a mission to accomplish.

I imagine that most people would not equate taping Antiques Roadshow with a military operation, but I saw parallels all day. Working with dedicated people, doing something for other people, helping preserve something important, getting the job done– those are things that, to me, felt a lot like the good things about military service.

Oh, and I got a really cool Antiques Roadshow polo shirt.

This is a bit late, but it’s become tradition that a) I run Crazylegs and b) I post something about it afterwards.

Last year, it was windy and a little chilly.
This year, it was rainy and way more than a little chilly.

I didn’t run the 8K, but I did walk the 2K. I considered running, even with the rain, but didn’t for two reasons. First, it doesn’t do me any good to catch a cold that kicks my ass for two weeks right before final exams. Second, I wasn’t as in shape this year– two jobs plus half time school takes its toll on a person’s workout schedule.

So my results for this year weren’t in the paper the next day. Oh well. I did get my tshirt, my beer, and got to see the crew from work. Definitely worth two clicks in the rain. Just wait ’till next year.

At the last post meeting, we discussed ways to do more fun stuff and communicate better- as a result, VFW Day Post 7591 now has a group on Facebook. If you’re a post member, interested in joining VFW, or just want to get in touch with a good group of fellow veterans in Madison, stop by and sign up for the group. (If you’re not already on Facebook, there’s no time like the present.)

Okay, so I’m a Madison transplant– but I’m a little closer to being a native. Not only have I made it around Lake Monona by bike (once, the easy way, but it still counts), I’ve started biking to work a couple of days a week.

It took a while to get started, even in bike friendly Madison. Getting in the car is easy– it’s still a pain to get up and go to work, but the trip there doesn’t require any effort. You get in the car, start it up, and off you go. Riding a bike involves leaving earlier, checking the weather, bringing clothes to change into when you get there, and making sure you take (enough) water along.

The route I take to work involves two different, and each fairly short, dedicated bike paths plus bike lanes and two legs of just plain old streets. There are a few hills, but nothing I can’t deal with. It’s an easy ride. The streets I do ride on aren’t busy in the morning on the way to work, and are still easy to navigate in the afternoon. They’re city streets, but not “main artery” streets. Without the two bike paths, and a short chunk of asphalt (thank you, PDQ @ Stoughton Rd. & Anderson St.!) that connects one street to another, my bike commute wouldn’t happen. If anyone wonders if those short bike paths and connector sidewalks are worth the money property owners and the city of Madison spend on them, the answer is yes. So are the bike lanes.

And since I’m handing out thank you’s, thanks to those nice folks who give me extra room on the street even when I have a bike lane to ride in. It’s appreciated.

(Now, if I could convince The Man at work that a place to shower at work would be a good thing, I’d be willing to call my employer bike friendly, too.)

Links:

• City of Madison, WI Traffic Engineering Bike Maps
• Where to get a Dane County (paper) bike map
• Reindahl Park info (one of the paths I use
• Wisconsin DOT Bicycle Projects

Okay, I promised I’d try to write more, so I’ll take a break between conjugating verbs in Spanish, and learning about inverses of circular functions in Trig.

I’m experimenting with ways to push, pull, or drag my VFW Post into the 21st century; VFW does have a presence on Myspace and Facebook, and I’ve started posting meeting notices as events on Facebook. It’s a scream in the wilderness– at nearly 40, I’m one of the younger active members of my post and probably one of the most socially networked. If you find a meeting notice posted online, come to a meeting and tell me where you saw the posting and I’ll buy you a beer/soda.

This past Saturday, the Black Knights Color Guard (of which I am a member) got together to practice marching. Yes, marching. I swore when I graduated Ground Rat school I’d never march in a parade again if I could help it, but here I am holding up a flag and trying to stay in step. I noticed two things on Saturday– one, you never forget how to march once you’ve learned. Two, it’s actually fun now. I’ll try to get some pictures from the first time I actually march for real, which will be in May.

Back to homework…