What the futbol?

So, I could give you and update on the move, or the snafu of a move-out, or the joys of being a 'hamster, or Coco's upcoming quarter as a literal Freeway Flyer, but instead, i want to share with you two sports highlights.

On our way out of Seattle after well and truly clearing out of the townhouse, Coco and I stopped by the Cascadia campus so she could make some copies for her impending First Day of Class. SAs we made our way back to the top of the parking structure, we could see the athletic field below and this scene was going on:

Is this a goof, or some weird training regimen, or what?

Then, as we were taking a walk around Fairhaven today, we encountered this game a little off-shore at Marine Park:

Now what the heck is this? It sure looks strenuous, whatever it is.

These two games sure serve to show how mainstream plain old soccer is, I guess.

Last night

So, as I am entering the decanal world once again, that means leaving the classroom and entering the office. Here's mine. That big batwing thing is a standing-desk retrofit apparatus with screens. Pretty slick, innit?

There will be differences working for a technical college instead of a community college, not the least of which seems to be the amount of motorcycle parking available. After a week, I am totally happy with the campus, the staff, my faculty, and the programs.

Once source of all that goodwill has to be the living arrangements as well as the job itself. This is the view from our deck, looking at the Alaska Ferry Terminal/Amtrak Train Station just down the street, on Bellingham Bay.

And that's the view from the cafe in Village Books, a short walk away - the Bay is always somewhere in the background, it seems. Bellingham is just a pleasant and laid-back place - quite a change from Seattle, especially the city Seattle is becoming.

But Seattle is where I am tonight. Coco and I spent the day finishing the packing and tomorrow morning the movers come. I had my last meal at our neighborhood pho place as a local, and tonight will be the last night we spend under this roof, where we've been for almost ten years.

I moved around a lot when I was a kid, so moving in and of itself doesn't signify for me; I know Coco is a little more affected, but in the end she's as excited to make a new home as she is sad to leave this one. We won't miss the daily garbage truck visits, the freeway noise from I-5 a few blocks away, the commute traffic, the neighborhood traffic, or the alley denizens, but this townhouse has been a good home to us. We've seen a lot of good times, hosted a lot of good friends, and served a lot of Thanksgiving waffles in these rooms, and our move to Bellingham has some bitter in with the sweet. Thank goodness that noisy freeway connects these two towns.

One  thing that it totally sweet: I can unpin my Alley Marshall badge and throw it into the dust: from here on in, let someone else worry about the garbage cans overflowing, lids being blown away in a storm, or recycling being strewn about by a critter or other scavenger.  I quit.

Time to ride off to the horizon.

Hamster tales

Hats off to Coco, who is keeping the home fires burning, battening down the hatches, toting that barge and lifting that bale, and generally doing the off with the old while I get the on with the new started.

After yeomen's work on the part of a party of loyalists, I am safely entrenched in Bellingham, living out of a suitcase for a week in an art- and plant-filled but otherwise mostly empty condo until the household move happens.

There was a little hitch in the giddyup with getting gas service to the new condo, but it's all shaking out okay and should be smooth sailing from on in.

At my first day of work, I found out that this Philosophy, Criminal Justice, and Rhetoric graduate will have deaconal responsibilites for Engineering, Instrumentation, Process Technology, Geomatics, and Welding. Here we go!

Going through a small boatload of HR Paper work earns some swag as a reward

 Spiritwear, of course.

 

 No wi-fi at home yet - luckily it's a short walk to the center of the neighborhood.

That's all for this dispatch... more soon.

Six, two, and even, over and out (burying the lede)

Well, the Summer Self-Improvement Scheme™ of 2015 is coming to a (slightly) premature close.

It was pegged to the 10 Weeks to a 10 K race training that was providing structure to my long, luxurious days of not-teaching. As I reported earlier, a piriformis strain put a hitch in that giddyup and both the execution and results of the regiment have been reduced considerably, to wit:

You can see (a) a bunch of missed runs and (b) a regression in both speed and distance. Who'd have thought I'd get a typical runner's injury? Maybe I should stick to a trike.

But piriformis syndrome is just a hiccup compared to the major life change that is disrupting the Scheme:

Yep, I'm heading back to Deantown! I have accepted a position as Dean at Bellingham Technical College, just up the road a piece from Seattle. This is wonderful opportunity to join a great school and do some good work, and Bellingham has always been a favorite place to visit for Coco and me (and Coco attended Fairhaven College there), so we're terribly excited by it all.

We're also going to be terribly busy, since my start date is less than two weeks away! As our cat's mechanical hamster used to say, here we go!

Just to tie up loose ends:

I'm back on Facebook. As problematic as the platform is, it is really the best way to keep in touch with local peeps during this transition.

I finished reading The Rhesus Chart and started and finished New Frontiers. I am in the middle of Traitor's Storm by M.J. Trow; I'll probably finish that but I'm not sure how much other pleasure reading I'll be able to fit in before winter.

Since the last SSIS report, I've done a lot of cat-sitting, spent a day working on campus, went to a magic/mentalism show, playtested games and bought one, had a guy-lunch and sweetie-sunset, but the featured highlight is this Taco Time Fiesta with my sissy:

That's what I'm talking about.