Random clumsiness or a plot?

I had a pretty busy week, with teaching, helping students with assignments that are due, and planning for our Design Sprint. I'll talk about the sprint in a bit, but first some randomness.

So, did you know that Avocado Hand is a thing? I didn't, but now I have it. Apparently due to the increasing popularity of avocados, people are injuring themselves by trying to get the pit out. And sure enough, I did it myself a few days ago.

I was trying to open an avocado, jammed a steak knife in the stone to flick it out. Of course it slipped on the gooey avocado-ness and impaled my hand. I stopped the bleeding (wasn't too bad), but it did hurt.

The next morning my finger was very swollen and somewhat painful. I'm hoping it will go down because of all the things that could make me go to the Dr., avocados aren't supposed to be one of them.

Evidence below:

Talk to the hand -- about avocados. :)

OK, next random bit. While I was a work a colleague that I was meeting for the first time said that she had a few minutes available to chat about a work task. She said that she'd meet me in front of the aquarium at work. I hopped in my car, and in an effort to get there quickly, I somehow straddled a curb. My car was hung up, unable to go forward or backwards. After a bit of burning rubber to no effect, I asked to people working nearby to help.

A very kind young woman offered to try and drive my car and get it off the curb, but no luck. So she suggested to me "You get in, gun it, and I'll push".  With some luck, and a bit more burnt rubber, I managed to get the car unstuck and took off across the paddock. Whew! Thank you random person!

A third sort of randomness that shows me that clumsy may indeed be my middle name happened when I went to a macrame class. The teacher was able to show everyone else how to do a particular knot, but even after multiple tries I couldn't get it. Eventually, I saw enough other people doing it that I was able to sort it out. I'm not sure if it was being left-handed or whatever, but learning new things sometimes takes a while, but once I've got it, it stays locked in.

I persevered, and made the wall hanging below. The stick is from an iron bark tree (native to Australia). The glass float I bought in Tasmania, but I think they look good together.

Don't mind the puzzle, that's coming along.

I just realized that with the addition of the glass ball this grouping looks slightly like a space alien.

Take me to your leader!

Where has the time gone?

I had a look at the last entry on here, and it was about 5 years ago. Wow! What a long time. To be fair, lots has happened since then...my marriage ended, got made a permanent employee at the uni, the kids have grown up.

I've been on trips, learned things, tried new hobbies, tried old hobbies. Gained weight. Lost weight. Gained it again, lol.

Blogs for the purpose of just sharing your life are not really the thing anymore. It's FaceBook, Pinterest, Instagram. But unlike a lot of people, I've been never wanted to be famous. Well to do maybe, or a least comfortably well off, but not famous.

So, I think what I'll be doing with this blog is to document some of my memorable experiences. I've never been a reliable letter writer (ask my Mom). But I have seen a few things worth noting I believe.

I do a lot of writing for work, emails, grant applications, academic papers, but writing about my experiences is not exactly that sort of thing.

Here's hoping that I can get this going again. I have tried in the last few years, but the trouble is, day to day life is not all that interesting. I think that's why FaceBook has gained so much traction (or Twitter, but I don't tweet). It's short form, here's what I did today. Just post a picture or a link to an article and bob's your uncle, you're done.

Blogs require a bit more thought and effort. But, I am happy with my earlier blog posts, and it does document my life and the kids in a way that I really like.

This blog will be a combination of time machine, and current snapshot of what's going on now. Hope you'll enjoy the ride. Because I'm making it up as I go along, just as we all are. :)

Love ya'll.