Jumbled Thoughts and Bits

It is Friday morning and I am procrastinating a difficult errand of going to the Financial Aid office at the community college.  While there are special ways of help for old broads who want to return to school, the paperwork, online passwords and navigation are daunting.  It can be a full time job, maintaining college.

My thoughts are scattered over many areas.
In my Blogworld, there’s a new baby girl over at Mrtl’s place; a nurse friend from our old days in college has begun her own blog Workin’ on the OTHER End; and Rosie O’Donnell bought a community theatre in honor of Helen Hayes.

In schoolwork, I missed 3 of 23 on the government test, which was the best of the class, so he graded on a curve and that’s my first A of the semester.

For Math, we are still on fractions.  Seven class sessions so far.  The last homework problem involved measuring paint with a ratio of 4 to 3 to obtain just the right mix for light blue.
Now I did not know that paint is colored at the store.  I vaguely remember some kind of shaking machine at the back of Ferry Hardware when I went there once with my dad.
The last time we did a paint project on this property, we walked in and paid for two gallons of Battleship Gray straight off the shelf and called it good enough to cover the back porch.
I had my problems all figured out with a common denominator of 12 because both 4 and 3 can go into that number.  Then it breaks down to an answer of 5/6.
My study group partners had done their work in a similar way.
In class explanations say: Oh no, 4 and 3 add up to 7, so the gallons of pre-mixed paint are divided into a multiple of 7 and the answer ends up being something like 17/21.
Good glory, a 4th grader is gonna know all that?
Which leads me to a mention for Pharyngula says we need knowledge.  Real world Algebra and 140 Comments.

I’m thinking the biggest headache with taking classes and living my life is that the two do not overlap very well. Rarely does what I do to please the professor or meet the department’s grading standard for graduation have much to do with what might at some time buy my groceries.

You can keep any lectures about the learning of skills and the delight for understanding concepts to yourself.  I’m not in a receptive mood right now.

There has been another cat coming into our yard (actually, it peed somewhere on the back porch and the smell is terrible).
I’m not sure if the newbie belongs to a neighbor or is a lost stray or what.  Understandably, our own cats are all on guard, yet cautious.  We haven’t been able to take care of the situation yet, and would like to very soon.

On the homefront, drinking Coffee, with its warmth and the caffeine it holds, has been a major part of the scene all week.  DoF worked at least two 12 hour days on computer hardware, Chris and I had tests in our classes, and the freakin’ weather doesn’t know which temperature or moisture it should have so we can say it is winter on the prairie.

I’m gonna go take a shower and get nice enough to be able to sit across the desk from somebody in an office who works with government forms all the time.
Thank goodness this is the last semester towards my AA degree.

~~love and Huggs, Diane