A Flat Car and More...

First, the "more":

I am about to gouge my eyes out with this online training portion of my interview to teach this online course. There are like 8 of us acting as students in this class and we have assignments to do...only one assignment worth getting excited about each week, but we have to respond to 2 discussion topic questions this week - one was on Wednesday and the other is due tomorrow...and then we all have to post at least 3 substantive posts a day for at least 5 of 7 days in a week. This is the part that is killing me. To be substantive, it has to further the discussion and people seem to have a favorite way of doing this...by asking a question. So we have 8 people asking questions to try to get their substantive post points and about 1/2 of them are getting answered - and then another question gets asked. It is the infernal questioning loop of hell. But, I've devised a plan:

I go to the gym at 5:30 for RPM on MWF and for Body Pump on TR. After class and shower/getting ready, I go someplace with free wi-fi and coffee. I spend 1/2 an hour working on assignments and 1/2 an hour writing my 3 substantive posts. I discovered that for years, I've been getting an e-mail newsletter about online classroom instruction (I have no idea why, but I think it might be connected to this teaching newsletter I get) - this thing is a gold mine...it has all kinds of researched stuff about online classrooms and how to make them great. It is indexed by topic, so I just read someones post, search my online newsletter for the topic and write a reply that is substantive because it brings outside research in or expands on the poster's topic. I get my 3 done and then, I've fulfilled requirements within 1 hour's time each day. Any other time I get on and any other posts I read for the training is "bonus". Before I came up with this routine...this training was taking me TONS of time. Reading every post is a beating.

I've also been working on this conference next week. AUGH. And, I'm exhausted from all the exercise. But, I'm feeling good that I'm organized.

And, it is good thing I am getting this job because RJ keeps finding "good deals". The latest acquisition. A car. He is like some kind of predator with cars that sit in people's driveways or at the side of their house. He can tell you where 10 such vehicles are at any given time. Well, there is one that he's had his eye on for like 2 years and it appeared that the people were packing up the house yesterday. So, he stopped by. 19 hours later, we own a 1995 Oldsmobile Aurora with leather interior and 39,000 miles on it. It was driven by the lady's mother. It really is in great shape and it looks rather modern for being 14 years old. It must have been the cat's meow in 1995 - leather, dual airbags, fully automatic, dual position memory seats, side mirror defrost, cd player, etc...The owner said it needs a new rack and pinion, which RJ is not convinced is true, but even if it is - the part costs $140 + labor and RJ's labor is free. So, we have a "flat car" as LJ says (not a truck or suv) for the price of $1200 - that's right...$1200. So, a great deal, but...we are 2 people - we don't need 3 vehicles. So, RJ and I decided we would only buy it if he will sell his truck and then we can sell this Oldsmobile and buy a truck that we can all fit in...his current truck has no back seat....but - I am happy to have an Oldsmobile in the family again. You know, they don't make them anymore and prior to the Tahoe, I'd only ever driven Oldsmobiles. This one has a V8 4L engine, so it'll be peppy...I want to drive it for a while :-)